Why ‘SUSTAIN’? How ‘SUSTAIN’?

Lately the word ‘sustain’ has been thrown around quite a lot, from lame school projects to countless overachieving students from tv series to news channels and newspapers. It’s almost as if the whole world is nagging us to at least know what it means to ‘sustain’.

What if it actually is? What if the earth is sending us signals to ‘sustain’ before all that is left is nothing but roads and remains? What if our ignorance of this term causes us to pay a price? What could be the price? The absence of resources due to our ignorance?

The word sustain means to give support or relief, to maintain or keep in existence while preserving to protect. And to sustain our resources means to sustain—support and preserve to protect—our resources. Pens, pencils, papers, water, food, energy, light, these are all resources that we have taken for granted for centuries. And while this blue planet was begging us to preserve, we were burning plastics and destroying it even more. It’s almost as if we were mocking our own home by squandering everything it gave us. We looted it. We did leave some part of everything, but that part was slowly rotting with grief and resentment. Almost as if the Earth was now planning on how it’d avenge us, the problems we face today are all caused due to our utilisation of it yesterday, now we have to be wary of tomorrow and take action.

Sustainability enhances the quality of our lives by conserving our ecosystem and safeguarding ecological integrity for future generations. In the corporate world, sustainability is linked with an institution's holistic framework, which analyzes anything from manufacturing to logistics to customer service. Sustaining our resources ensures us of a positive present and future where we don’t have to worry about preserving for tomorrow. Our current decisions and activities have far-reaching consequences for future generations. Sustainability assures that people make moral decisions that provide a secure and comfortable tomorrow for all. If mankind exhausts the Earth's resources, coming generations will struggle.

Understanding the significance of sustainability and becoming conscious of its implications is just as important to understanding its consequences.

Which is why I decided to ask a few individuals what they believed the future might be like if we continued with our ignorant approach, and quite a few of them believed that aliens would invade us and NASA would cry, the rest with an actual functioning brain talked about how our ecosystem would collapse and situations would become more critical and difficult to handle. The last badge shared their thoughts on how soon the majority would drown in poverty and phenomena including global warming, destruction of the ozone shield, acidification of land and water, desertification and soil loss, deforestation and forest decline, diminishing productivity of land and waters, and extinction of species and populations. Too many problems to address would become the norm and even though I share the same thoughts as the last few, I believe that aliens who at least aren’t so destructive towards the planets they reside in, wouldn’t mind taking advantage of us and take over the world, I’m sure they would take better care of our resources… so why not let them. That was a joke, before the government comes for me, no I am not an alien spy(or am I).

What do we get from sustaining / Why should we sustain?

Except for the millions of things we don’t lose from sustainability, there are quite a few benefits for practicing it.

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Social Implications: Encouraging the preservation of natural resources penetrates not only you and those who read this, but also your families, friends and fellow schoolchildren who learn about it. If you induce sustainability as an essential in your life, you’re bridging an incredibly crucial conversation to the forefront of the society you live in —you are shaping your future along with others— by a few words and actions. The influence of society can reach far and wide.

• Guarantees a Hopeful Tomorrow for Everyone: Whoever we are, wherever we live and do, we each have a fundamental responsibility to assist the globe amongst ourselves, our coming generations and others forms of life. Practicing sustainability ensures that we make ethical choices that bring a safe and liveable future to everyone.

• Energy reduction: The long-term cost of energy is significantly reduced by a sustainable strategy. Certain swift operations, like converting to energy efficient lighting, will lower long-term power expenses as per the manufacturing schedule. The use of solar and wind energy, together with energy efficient equipment, decreases monthly charges for utilities.

How do we sustain our resources?

‘Sustaining our Resources’ may be lengthy to our ears, but trust me when I say it’s not as much of a sporty practice as it seems. It’s quite simple and can be a part of our daily routine. Sure there are quite a lot of ways to sustain in the business and political sectors, but there are also many in our daily lifestyle. Such as:

• Transportation Adjustments: For short distances it’s best to walk or use a bicycle, for long distances it is good to use public transport. It helps minimize emissions of carbon, therefore preserving the environment. If you reside in a walkable city, you can choose an electric car, bike or run or walk. It's a wonderful method to acquire a job and minimize the amount of fuel that you require. If you can’t walk or use public transportation, opt to carpool. You can offer to drive co-workers and friends rather than ride together. Small consistent actions really add up over the long run!

• Opt for Reusable Products: A minor modification might have a great sustained impact in your routines. Choose reusable bottles on the go. Pick reusable dishrags over paper towels, reusable bags over paper or plastic bags. Use reusable food storage containers to properly pack your food while reducing waste.

• Don’t waste water: Don’t waste water, practice water harvesting —which is quite easy and affordable. It also helps save money and bills. Water is precious and we need to preserve it. Even if your family does not practice water harvesting, you can still save water and bathe with the help of buckets which helps save water. You can preserve it and not waste it but make sure all your taps are not leaking and are properly closed.

• Plant some Plants: You don’t need a garden, terrace or balcony for the cause. All you need is a pot, some soil, water, a window and some care. Buy the seeds based on your living conditions, or don’t buy seeds at all, just don’t throw the seeds of the fruits you eat, and grow them, keep them near the window and care for them like you would yourself, instead of brushing their hairs and teeth, how about giving them water. Instead of bathing them with water let them sunbathe by keeping them near a window or on a windowsill. Feed them nutrients by giving them a nourished soil and that’s all!

• Spread the word: Spreading the word is simple and easy, you don’t have to go out of your way to talk to people who you don’t know about this. Just share this information or article with your families and friends, who knows they might start to sustain?

• Be effortlessly productive: By doing all of the above or even one of them, you have truly made an impact, you have changed the world by a bit while also being a productive and positive person! You have been effortlessly productive!

It’s our duty to pay back what we are given, the universal rule of give and take is applied here too, we cannot only take from the Earth like we have been these past centuries. When will we realise we have made mistakes and we are given a chance to redeem ourselves, so we should not lose it. We need to realise that taking resources for granted and wasting them is causing many parts of the world to suffer, like the amazon. The ever-growing human consumption and population is the biggest cause of forest destruction due to the vast amounts of resources, products, and services we take from it. Direct human causes of deforestation include logging, agriculture, cattle ranching, mining, oil extraction and dam-building.

Let’s not promote destruction and start sustaining, together!