The Role Of Sustainability In The Environment

What is sustainability? It is defined as “the ability to maintain a specific behavior indefinitely.” Personally, I find this topic rather intriguing because of the specific role it plays in our environment. Every day, sustainability is taken into consideration. Will I have enough gas to get to the store? Is there enough food at home? Does the dog have enough water? All of the above contribute to the same factor of having enough of a particular thing to continue. Sustainability is important and should be something we strive for because everything that we do now affects our future. If we are not conscious with the decisions we are making now, striving for sustainability with food and environmental factors will become nearly impossible …show more content…
Many people underestimate the impact they have on the environment based off of their diets. Meat, for example, plays a significant role. Most people have some type of meat in their meals at least once a day. Raising animals to provide this meat requires mass amounts of water, forage, and land. These necessities alone impact the environment and “does more to change the climate than driving our cars.” This is a prime example of how raising beef is not sustainable. If beef was no longer an option for our diets, the carbon footprint will be greatly reduced. Since cutting beef out completely would be a very rare outcome, other tactics need to be explored in order to make raising livestock for food more sustainable. This compelling fact quickly changed my views on grass-fed beef as I was unaware of the consequences that arise from raising livestock. Changes in this practice should be made now in order to preserve and protect the environment from further …show more content…
As stated in the article, “growing crops and livestock occupations occupies 60% of US land.” This is a significant percentage to be used solely for livestock and crops. The sub-article goes into detail pertaining to pollination by bees. As the years have gone by, the environment has slowly evolved. New crops that did not originate in the area were brought in and produced. At first, the transition was smooth. It was not until recently that a study showed the dangers honey bees and wild bees have been put in as a result of these particular crops. As these new crops such as corn and soybeans were introduced, the bees natural habitat with the plants it was designed to pollinate were destroyed. This affects the bees in a way that their preferred flowers are not available. Not only are the bees struggling to maintain themselves, but the environment is experiencing these gradual changes which are now demonstrating to be