Sustainability and Our Future

Overview

In today’s post we will be discussing global sustainability and the actions in which we should be taking to affect this sustainability. Now, we will talk about what these actions look like and who all is working towards them but will still be asking the question, Is this all enough?

 

Sustainability Action, World Leaders Involvement, and a Consensus? 

People are saying that our planet is in peril and that we need to start taking more action regarding sustainability. Now, with this being one of our moral obligations how do we show others that there is action being made? I say, for starters, they just simply need to appear to be in motion. Not just any motion either they need to be made in an effective and positive direction. A direction that shows progress, a process that has results. Some of these actions can be made on an individual level as in reducing waste, educating yourself, conserving goods/water, and simply choosing to live a more sustainable lifestyle. We as individuals CAN have an impact, even if it’s a small one, it’s still better than nothing.

 

The big impacts that can be made will be up to world leaders and corporation owners. They all, also, agree that the world needs to be living more sustainably. This is making some countries, like Germany, and some even some states, like Seattle, to create laws around being more sustainable. These places are banning or taxing items or businesses that are hurting our environment. There is no consensus that I could find among our world leaders other than the Sustainable Development Goal 13.

 

Environmental Issues

Today’s topic has a very large impact on both our countries. Fiji and New Caledonia are both affected by our environmental choices on many different levels. Both countries have suffered from a number of things, but currently they are finding different/new ways to sustain, fix what’s been broken, and to improve what they currently have.

New Caledonia: I couldn’t find New Caledonias involvement with either Water.org or even 350. The country however is suffering from many different threats.

*The following information about New Caledonia was found here.

The main issue that New Caledonia is facing are the threats attacking its biodiversity.

1. Damage or loss of Dry Forests
   1. The dry forests of New Caledonia are very unique to the world and even more so to the country, but only 2% of the ecoregions dry forest remain. This is due to the larger number of cattle in the area, invasions of non-endemic species, and internationally ignited fires.
2. Damage to coral reefs
   1. This country is home to the world’s second-largest barrier reef. To protect this reef, they nominated it as a world heritage site, but that’s not exactly helping fight the tourism that’s hurting the reef.
3. Mining
   1. Mining is not only the most apparent issue to New Caledonia’s biodiversity, but it’s also having the largest affect. We’ve learned that New Caledonia is the world’s fifth largest producer of Nickel with an annual production of 107,000 tons. The gasses that this creates along with the pollutants that it dumps back into the environment have been blamed for acidic water which is leading to unhealthy vegetation and soil. The local government is putting laws in place to reduce this waste and to “curb the negative effects on the environment”.

 

Fiji: Is involved in 350, but I could not find their involvement with Water.org. Like New Caledonia being an island has led Fiji to suffer from many different environmental issues. These are listed below.

*The following information in regard to Fiji was found here.

Fijis environmental issues don’t seem to be nearly as poor as New Caledonia’s. This is likely due to the fact that New Caledonia is mining for coal, but Fiji is not. Despite this Fiji does have a lot of tourism and does experience a large number of unsustainable fishing methods.

 

1. Fijis main issue is with deforestation
   1. We know that “Fijian dry forest is one of the largest dry forests in the South Pacific” but now “only 1% of tropical dry forest remain in Fiji”
   2. Despite this issue Fiji is taking action and is improving with education, local participation, and has focused a lot on local/international protections which were attracted the fact that Fiji contains 3% of the world’s coral reefs.

 

Environmental Groups

I wanted to focus more on the above topics which left me way over our word limit. So, I will mention organizations that are involved in each country and will leave links to their websites.

Fiji:

• Mamanuca Environment Society (Formed 2001)
• Conservation International

New Caledonia:

• According to The Guardian, New Caledonia has recently had a breakthrough and has had a large number of votes going to support and protect the coral reef.
• Conservation International: Green Program (In New Caledonia since 1996)