What is the difference between sustainable and sustainable - know it here
Surely more than once you have heard of "sustainable development" and also of "sustainable development". Both words are similar, but will they be the same? Sometimes it is not so simple to detect if two terms are synonymous or really are not. Therefore, in, we explain what is the difference between sustainable and sustainable and how to apply it to the concept of development, closely related to ecology. Keep reading and leave doubts, knowing the definitions of each concept, some examples and the differences between them.
What is sustainable development - definition and examples
In order to understand the meaning of a concept like this one must start by consulting the dictionary to see, in this case, what the word "sustainable" means. For example, consulting the RAE (Royal Spanish Academy), we can see that it is an adjective that means that " can be sustained ", such as a sustainable situation or an opinion.
Specifically, in the fields of economics and ecology, this adjective refers to "what can be maintained for a long period of time without exhausting the resources necessary for it or causing serious or serious damage to the environment or environment." That is why, in the framework of ecology, economics and even in the legal, we speak of sustainable economy and sustainable development . It can be considered that it is about finding the form of development in which the objectives to cover the human needs go hand in hand with the natural maintenance of the resources, allowing them to recover by themselves, without exhausting their reserves.
Therefore, practices such as using renewable rather than non-renewable energy are part of sustainable development, since the latter are those that are used at a rate higher than that which could be restored and, therefore, their reserves are exhausted in a short time. .
What is sustainable development - definition and examples
Now that we know what is sustainable, sustainable development or sustainability, we have to find out what sustainable development is . Surely this term you have also heard many times but it is not so clear, and you may even think they are synonymous. Let's find out.
Consulting again the RAE (Real Spanish Academy), we can see that the term "sustainable" is not synonymous with "sustainable", therefore we can not consider these two concepts, or within the framework of development, as equals since we will see that They are different.
Thus, consulting the dictionary, we can see that it is another adjective, but that means " that you can sustain or defend with reasons ", therefore it can be applied to be defended, supported or maintained so that it does not bend, distort, fall or decline, whether it is providing physical, emotional or opinion support, or we can even talk about the necessary food and care to keep going, in the case of any type of living being.
Why we confuse the concepts of sustainable and sustainable
As we have seen, these are very different concepts but Spanish speakers have the bad habit of using them interchangeably, but why do we do it? The origin of this error comes from the wrong translations of the concepts " sustainable development ", in English, and " desenvolvimento sustentável ", in Portuguese.
The concept of sustainable development was born in 1987 when the Brundtland report or Brundtland Report was published, which contrasts the positions of economic development with environmental sustainability. Later, at the Earth Summit, or United Nations Conference on Environment and Development UNCED that was held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, sustainable development was discussed and this topic began to be treated as a principle that should be an issue legal. From this summit, the Rio Declaration, Agenda 21, was created and signed, and the UNFCCC or United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was started, and all mention sustainable development, but in English or Portuguese.
From here, both the population and the Spanish-speaking media mistranslated this concept of English and Portuguese, since they are words that may sound similar, and both sustainable and sustainable development began to be talked about. indistinct form. Therefore, in the Hispanic languages the correct thing is "sustainable development".
In fact, a development that would be sustainable would mean that it would always need someone to maintain or sustain it in order to move forward or to function. On the other hand, sustainable development, both in ecology and economics, means that there is an economic development of society that can be maintained on its own over time, respecting the planet and its resources and also human rights.
What are the differences between sustainable and sustainable development
Having detailed each concept separately, we can already deduce what are the differences between sustainability and sustainability . To summarize these are the main differences:
- Sustainable and sustainable are totally different concepts: remember that according to the RAE the first indicates that something "can be sustained or maintained", while the second concept indicates "that you can sustain or defend with reasons".
- The concept of sustainability can be applied to provide sustenance, such as feeding someone or something to move forward or support or sustain something or someone, either physically or emotionally.
- The concept of sustainable, however, applies to what is possible to maintain over time without damaging the environment or ecosystems or the resources used to achieve maintenance are exhausted. Mostly it is applied in ecology and economics.
- Remember that "sustainable development" is a misconception, as we mentioned in the previous section, and that the correct thing is "sustainable development" .
Whenever you have doubts about whether a system or proposal can be considered part of sustainable development, you think that in order for it to be, it must meet certain conditions, especially related to the field of ecology. These conditions are:
- Renewable resources should not be used at a faster rate than their generation. Example: you can not cut all the forests of the world because they can not be regenerated at the speed of massive logging.
- Pollutants can not be produced at a faster rate than the process required to recycle, neutralize or biodegrade them.
- Non-renewable resources should not be used at a faster rate and then replaced by renewable resources. This means that we must learn to take advantage of non-renewable resources sparingly and also take care of renewables.
