Sustainability
Sustainability takes into account how we might live in harmony with the natural environment, protecting it from damage and destruction. Achieving sustainability will enable the Earth to reserve the natural resources for future generations.
Biocapacity
Biocapacity is the capacity of a country, a region, or the world,
to produce useful biological materials for its human population and to absorb waste materials.
Ecological footprint
The ecological footprint is a measure of human demand on the Earth's ecosystems.
The current ecological footprint of industrialized societies surpasses the recharge capacity of the Biosphere and makes the world unsustainable.
Biodiversity
Biodiversity is the variety of life found on Earth in all its forms and in all its interactions.
It includes plants, animals, fungi, and other living things, even single-cell algae that are impossible to see without a microscope.
A healthy biodiversity offers many and varied benefits for humans from the natural environment and from properly-functioning ecosystems:
- Ecosystem
- Maintenance of ecosystems
- Protection of water resources
- Soils formation and protection
- Nutrient storage and recycling
- Pollution breakdown and absorption
- Contribution to climate stability
- Recovery from unpredictable events
- Biological resources
- Food, water
- Medicinal resources and pharmaceutical drugs
- Wood products
- Breeding stocks, population reservoirs
- Ornamental plants
- Diversity in genes, species and ecosystems
- Future resources
- Social benefits
- Research, monitoring and education
- Recreation and tourism
- Cultural values
But according to some scientists the extinction rate of species is now thought to be about 1,000 times higher than before humans dominated the planet.
Therefore it’s urgent to move towards sustainability.