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Sustaining the Environment

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Submitted By Justin1992
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With our world becoming more and more dependent on the decisions we make that effect our environment around us, it’s our job to maintain and innovate new ideas to sustain environmental health. The principal impediment to a sustainable society is our internal wiring. Put simply, humans evolved in an environment of scarcity and our brains are poorly adapted to restrain our appetites in a climate of abundance even when our ‘executive’ brain warns us that our civilization has overextended the limits of the biosphere. The human mind is not used to dealing with novel global environmental threats such as pollution, plastic, chemicals, nuclear waste and greenhouse gases, because for millions of years these problems were not around. As citizens of the world, each of us is responsible for the health of our planet. Our choices and our actions contribute to the well-being or deterioration of the environment. ? While some countries have chosen to develop national-level strategies, Canada’s federal system of governance required an approach that acknowledged that many of the levers for promoting sustainable development are controlled by different levels of governments (e.g. municipalities, provinces, and territories). The FSDA (Federal Sustainable Development Act) articulates the Government of Canada’s long-term vision, goals, and targets, including its plans for reducing the federal government’s environmental footprint. Environmental sustainability and economic development can be considered contending imperatives. We are now seeing more and more concern for ‘sustainable development’ that “meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” While a consumerist lifestyle is inevitable in a highly globalised society, careless consumption is something that can and should be curbed. Achieving sustainable economic growth

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