Analysis Of Sustainability Since The 1970's: The Stockholm Conference

Since the 1970’s there has been an emergence of sustainability into the mainstream of global society (Adams, 2009). In this essay, I want to examine what each event brought to the table and how it has affected today’s ideas on sustainability.

Stockholm Conference This is known as the event that took sustainability and made it an issue worth discussing with global leaders. This meeting also goes by the name of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment and took place in 1972 (Adams, 2009). About 113 countries attended and a list of principles and recommendations were created in dealing with sustainability issues (Adams, 2009). These ranged from topics of nuclear disarmament to environmental education (Adams, 2009). The reason

The argument for conservation was especially convincing because it used both moral and utilitarian aspects to create one whole argument. The largest negative about the WCS was that it didn’t provide a thorough enough examination of all the large social and political changes that would be necessary for conservation goals to be met (Adams, 2009). It wasn’t quite radical enough. It’s as if after all the research was done and then the people presenting the WCS decided they needed to make the information more user-friendly and moved the outcomes closer to what would be considered

It is the best thing to come out of the Rio Conference. It earned the name Agenda “21” because it lists goals for the 21st century (Adams, 2009). While this document lists many actions for goals, nothing is mandatory. There is nothing holding countries to the actions listed in the document (Adams, 2009). This means the document doesn’t have much bite. It has the teeth to bite, but wont. It won’t be what causes countries to get their act together as far as sustainability goes.

Convention on Biodiversity This is one of the conventions brought to life via the Rio Conference. This convention furthered the tensions between rich and poor countries through the topic of biotechnology (Adams, 2009). Rich countries have the funds and infrastructure to further research in this field and it is a very lucrative business (Adams, 2009). The rich are worried that by putting restrictions on this, they may lose profit (Adams, 2009). The poor are worried they will be taken advantage of as consumers and won’t have a place in this market for themselves (Adams, 2009).

Convention on Climate