What do you think are the main threats to securing sustainability in the future in this country?
What defines sustainability in this country? Most would assume sustainability is about making things last; recycling, walking instead of driving, turning the heating down and so on. But can a country’s economy be sustained this way? Can a society be sustained this way?
From the UK Governments Sustainability Strategy the overall impression is that the environment is most important aspect of sustainability (although there are various targets for employment).
From this point of view, the increase in migrant workers in recent years has decreased the availability of housing putting pressures on the need to build more- often on green field sites.
North Northamptonshire has the highest housing growth rate in the country after London. This is due to the Governments plans to have 3 million new homes by 2020. Is this social target threatening the sustainability of our green field sites?
The current recession can be seen as a positive boost to help encourage people to be more sustainable. Such things include walking or cycling to work or school due to the increase in living costs fuel prices. More noticeably, people are buying less in the case of food, mainly things that were wasted any way. Also, more people will be staying in the UK for their summer holiday due to financial restraints.
However the current recession may hinder the Governments plans to reduce such things as carbon emissions due to lack of jobs, such industries will remain open.
The recession will also obviously impact our country’s economy, reducing our market and therefore make it unsustainable.
Peoples enthusiasm to change their lifestyles for the sake of going green is a huge barrier to overcome. Many world leaders have previously chosen to ignore the fact that climate change is happening- and has had an impact on our country's population as a result. People are reluctant to change and therefore preventing sustainable development.
