{"id":1277,"date":"2020-08-10T16:58:51","date_gmt":"2020-08-10T16:58:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everythingsustainable.com\/?p=1277"},"modified":"2020-09-09T19:25:47","modified_gmt":"2020-09-09T19:25:47","slug":"sustainability-preserves-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everythingsustainable.com\/sustainability-preserves-the-future\/","title":{"rendered":"What Does It Mean To Be Sustainable?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sustainability is a word that is thrown around in a number of different contexts. We are told that it\u2019s important and that it\u2019s something we should all be doing, but what does it mean<\/em>, exactly, to be sustainable?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earth\u2019s Resources<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

From the perspective of any one individual organism, including humans, our planet might seem like it has an endless supply of whatever is needed to thrive. It is easy to see why this assumption is the case when you look at it from an individual standpoint. The number of people on this planet isn\u2019t just one, or even one billion, however. To understand sustainability, we have to examine our impact on Earth’s resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Shared Planet<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The current population<\/a> is estimated at 7.8 billion and growing. It took approximately 300,000 years for the human population to reach 1 billion, and only another 130 years to reach the second billion. Fortunately, the growth rate is declining, but the number of births still outpaces the number of deaths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While we tend to think of the world’s resources in terms of what\u2019s good for people, we are not alone on Earth. It is virtually impossible to conduct a count of all organisms that share this planet, but were we to do so, the number would be mind-boggling. Even estimates of the number of species that exist go as high as 1 trillion. No matter how you look at it, a lot of life depends on the resources Earth provides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n