What Are The Five Main Mechanisms Of Sustainability

All too often human society tends to view itself as outside of, disconnected from, nature. This way it’s easier to justify our endless feast upon nature’s bounties, that are, in fact, not a buffet. This notion is utterly wrong as we literally are just as much of a piece of the environment as the wind and soil themselves. On a grand timeline, only recently did we begin to understand and practice the principle of sustainability. Today, untenable production methods, over consumption and an ever increasing population test our use of finite materials like never before. That’s all sustainability is really, reaching a reasonable balance between what makes us prosper as a society and our depletion of earths limited assets. One can fall on either†¦show more content†¦In this endeavor the relationship between the economy and the environment is not a healthy one. Most recently, in Oklahoma a 5.6 magnitude earthquake demonstrates to us how sour this relationship rea lly is. In our economically driven society oil and natural gas are pivotally important, so we go through all sorts of trouble to get the stuff. We’ve drilled, dug, scavenged and now we frack. Say what you will about fracking but I take a very strong opinion on the subject, it’s daft. As a result of our economical need for fuel we created an earthquake and that’s a fact. Although surface damage was minimal (assessments are still being done), fracking in itself is awful for the environment. It loads thousands of harmful chemicals into our waters and natural habitats, some near-site residents can even set their tap water a blaze. Now, after a â€Å"nudging† from the economy our relationship with the environment is one of damage control, from a sustainability standpoint. However, there is always hope, because sustainability is much more than economics. The environmental aspect of sustainability is all about preservation and reconstruction. It’s being c areful how much we take and when we take it. After the effects of the Industrial Revolution were fully realized humans seemed to grasp that we are, in fact, not the masters of the natural world. We noticed things like global warming, habitat