The main threats to securing sustainability in the future in this country

There are many problems at present that are threatening sustainability in the future in this country. Although we have lots of goals we have set out to achieve there are many obstacles in the way. These issues need to be addressed in order to make sure our country is sustainable, ‘meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.’ (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1988)

At present the global economic crisis in our economy is becoming a serious threat to sustainable development initiatives. Research has shown that the slowdown could be damaging vital projects. For examples projects on bio-fuels and other environmentally friendly issues will be put to one side as there is no longer sufficient funding for them. Andy Wales, the director of sustainable development for the brewing giant SAB Miller, has stated that the economic slowdown will expose those businesses not taking the issue seriously enough.

For many the lack of government leadership remains a serious threat to achieving sustainable development goals. A recent survey of around 1,000 influential people, which included more than 400 business leaders, found that 25 per cent felt that national governments failure to take the lead on sustainable development ‘was the biggest obstacle facing such initiatives.’ (Prosser, 2008) Many people also felt that British politicians are too afraid of losing votes to offer effective leadership on sustainable development and the survey by YOUGOV also found that many people believe that the government will need to intervene in order to enforce more sustainable policies.

Our food chain also poses some key threats to sustainability. Greenhouse gas emissions result from consumer travel to supermarkets by car and it has been estimated that one in ten car journeys in the UK are for food shopping. The food and packing waste is another significant threat with an estimated 5.2 million tonnes of food related packaging waste and 6.7 million tonnes of food being sent to landfill from UK homes every year. At present the UK is reliant on landfill as a means of waste disposal and methane emissions from landfill heavily influence UK GHG emissions.

Agriculture may also be a growing threat to sustainability. The increase in agriculture has been accompanied by damage to the natural resource base, either to other agricultural or non-agricultural systems, or to the future agricultural potential of the area itself, so that the increased production is not sustainable.

Population growth is another underlying threat to sustainability. This is due to the increased consumption of energy and materials which are needed to provide for many more people. There is also more competition for resources and environmental degradation.
All these threats to sustainability need to be addressed in order for our country to not only meet our needs, but the needs of our future generations. It is all very well coming up with sustainable development goals, but these goals need to be followed through. We cannot just be sustainable in a few aspects of life and forget about the others. Just recycling our waste every now and then and switching of a few lights is not enough.


Prosser, D. (2008) Global Economic Crisis Imperials Sustainability, The Independent, London.

http://www.wdm.org.uk/news/archive/2002/wssd_threat.htm

http://www.sustainabilityatwork.org.uk/deliverables/food/7

Blog 9 – Sustainable Communities

A sustainable community is defined as a place where people want to live and work now and in the future. On the 5th February 2003 the Deputy Prime Minister launched the Communities Plan (Sustainable Communities: Building for the future). The Plan set out a long-term program of action for delivering sustainable communities in both urban and rural areas. The aim is to tackle housing supply issues in the South East, low demand in other parts of the country, and the quality of our public spaces. The Plan they have set out includes not just a significant increase in resources and major reforms of housing and planning, but a new approach to how we build and what we build.

At present my home is a small rural village in Norfolk, called Bircham. The village is in the super output area – 002C (King’s Lynn and West Norfolk). In 2006 my neighbourhood, King's Lynn and West Norfolk 002C, had an estimated 1,972 residents and 1,042 dwellings. The population density is 0.28 people per hectare. 77.35% identify themselves as Christian, 0.15% as Buddhist, 0.30% as other religions and 14.52% as no religion.

Figure 1




Figure 2

Figure 2 shows the percentage of people in various age groups that live in the King’s Lynn and West Norfolk 002C neighbourhood. It is clear to see that the area has a predominately ageing population with nearly 30% of the people being aged 60 plus.

In my neighbourhood 97.5% of the land use is green spaces, 0.1% water, 0.9% gardens, 0.8% roads, 0.1% non domestic buildings and 0.2% domestic buildings. My village is quite small and has very few amenities. We have one pub, one farm shop, a windmill, three churches, and very few buses making public transport almost impossible. However one thing we do still have is our post office! There is also a small school with around 30 students.

The area does have a relatively low crime rate compared to over parts of the country with low burglary numbers and wounding or endangering lives. People are also seemingly happy with the health care available, with 65% of people saying it is good and 25.3% saying it is fairly good. The average value of a detached property is around £220,655 and a semi detached is about £149.691, which are both slightly lower than the national average. However it does depend on the area in which you chose to buy, as house prices vary dramatically across the West Norfolk region. Education appears to be on par with much of the country with at least 58.3% of people gaining at least 5 plus A* - C grades in KS4.

Nearly 50% of the households in the area have at least one car or van and 32.38% have two cars or vans. This is most likely due to the poor public transport in many of the villages often meaning that a car is the only option.

Although I do feel I live in a sustainable community where people can live and work now and in the future it is also clear to see that there are some limitations from living in such a rural area. Many young people move away from the area as there are few opportunities for work or social lives, leaving the villages with ageing populations. The houses are often too expensive for first time buyers so they are bought by older people wishing to retire or people wanting to use the house as an escape from the city at weekends. If people want to live and work in these rural environments transport is often paramount as this is the only way to get to towns or cities were work is more readily available. To make many of the villages around me and in my supper output area more sustainable it is important that public transport is improved. Investment is also needed in many of the small schools as lots of them have very few students and are threatened with closure. This would lead to job losses and students having to travel out of their villages for their education. There is lots of available land for development, but this development needs to be controlled and with in keeping of the rural environment. By building new homes that are more affordable it may bring younger people back to the area which in turn will improve the sustainability of the community.

http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/NeighbourhoodProfile.do?a=3&c=PE31+6QR&g=470485&i=1001x1012&j=311024&m=1&p=1&q=1&r=0&s=1236078929803&enc=1&tab=2&inWales=false

http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/communities/sustainablecommunitiesbuilding