Designer: Lady-Nadya

Mining History to Uncover Factors that Build a Sustainable Society.

hypotheses:
The dictionary defines sustainable as the same idea worded many different times, to suit what it refers to. The suited to the idea of a “sustainable society” is “to supply with food, drink and other necessities to life.” A sustainable society is one that persists at problems, strives to make their world a better place for its people, and provides a high quality of life for them without harming its resources and ecosystem. They must have a quality government that can perform and can adapt, aswell as positive relationships with countries surrounding them, for trade and war purposes. Therefore it must socially, economically and ecologically stable. This will create a sustainable society.


INTRODUCTION
Throughout history there have been mountains of societies, whether sustainable or unsustainable. So what creates a sustainable society, and how do we define one? I have created a model that represents my idea of a sustainable society, using my hypotheses, which in turn has been created using and gathering ideas from other hypotheses and ideas from other people’s research. The model is made up of many factors that all in turn contribute to a sustainable society.

Factor #1 – GOVERNMENTS ABILITY TO PERFORM
This heading is subdivided into three sections.

Transparency
If a government is transparent it means that the society that has chosen it is able to see the government’s decisions, and that the government is open about everything it does, not hidden away and the community knows what is going on. This means that they are responsible for their actions, and the people can see what is really going on, and have a say in it.

Corruption
A sustainable society cannot run if there is corruption in its government. Corruption may be a member of their parliament that is not abiding by their laws, is not part of the government because he has the people’s best interests at heart, or is using his power to change things he wants for himself or to abuse their law system.

Decision Making
The government’s ability to make decisions is a crucial element in a sustainable society. The government must be able to decide what it will do based of the circumstances, and the people’s best interests. Making rash decisions, decisions without the people’s best interests, or decisions to suit just the government will not help the society to remain sustainable.

An example of a good government would have to be England, during the Elizabethan period. During this time, the protestant/catholic divide was settled, for a time, by Elizabethan religious settlement and the parliament was a centralized, well-organized and effective government, headed by Queen Elizabeth I and the country began to benefit. This era is widely known as the ‘golden age’ because of the happy and quiet period in history it was, without major conflicts.



Factor #2 – GOVERNMENTS ABILITY TO ADAPT
A government that cannot adapt to changes going on around them, in their environment, or in their society, whether it is social or economical, will not help its country to be sustainable for long. The government must be able to change its views, and its actions to suit the changes that occur within or around them. An example of this would be global warming, for the society to remain sustainable; they must change their actions to save their environment. This problem is currently happening to our earth and our societies, and without serious action soon, we will destroy our societies. And example of adaptation by the government to help their country is President Roosevelt and his government during the great depression in the USA. Without his actions during this time, America my have plummeted and destroyed its society. He created the ‘new deal’ to provide relief for the unemployed, recovery of the economy, and to reform the banking and economic systems. The great depression was associated with the stock market crash on October 29th 1929 and caused unemployment and bankruptcy in a lot of families and companies across America. Fortunately, Roosevelt and his government quickly adapted to these changes, helping sustain their society.



FACTOR #3 – CARE OF FOOD AND WATER SOURCES
There are four sub-divisions in this section.

Care of Food
The society must take care of their food sources, because without them, they are unable to survive. The food cultivated must be able to feed the entire community and must be good enough to give them the energy that they would use for other necessities, such as labor. An example of this would be the Incas of South America. The were highly religious, and never took more than they needed with food and water, therefore never no species were ever wiped out or numbers dwindled, ensuring they did not disturb their environment, or help destroy it. A good example of a community that was careful about its survival of its food was the Ancient Egyptians. They had incredibly civilized water distribution systems to get water to their crops from the river Nile to their dusty paddocks. Later, they also devised ways too save water for the dry season, in the form of reservoirs. During this period, they were very careful in what they distributed the water too, growing hardier crops that would survive better in that climate, in order to preserve the water, and see that it lasted the whole of the dry season, enabling them too keep their crops alive the entire time, thus feeding their community.


Care of Water
This is similair too care of food; a society must look after its water sources as water is an essential part of survival. Without sufficient water to provide for their community, they will die of thirst. A good example of water management is Canada. Although Canada’s surface water and underground water are in abundance, it is susceptible to contamination. Their Government has been working hard to ensure the quality of this water, with the building of treatment plants to ensure their water is drinkable and useable. An example of un-cared for water is in Africa, especially the poorer parts, such as Sudan. They may not have much water, but what they do have is contaminated, and unfit for drinking. A lot of the water is full of disease, and many people die each year from drinking this water, as it is the only water that they have.


Waste Management
Waste management is an important factor in keeping the society’s ecosystem healthy. If the waste is not disposed of correctly, it can harm the environment they live in, and contaminate it. If it is disposed off correctly, it usually has no side effects. Since the 1970’s, Iceland has made considerable progress in its waste management. Previously, their methods was to have open pit burning, which created a lot of smoke, and in the whole entire country, only had one landfill, whilst having 55 open pit burning sites. By the 1990’s they had realized the side effects of open pit burning, such as haze and thick smog, and that they could prevent this. The Government has now replaced open pit burning with more landfills, co-operative treatment facilities and 6 incinerators in the more built up areas. New laws were also introduced, which will not let you open burn waste whatsoever, helping to keep their environment clean.


Environmental Care
If your environment is dirty, uncared for or even destroyed, you will not be able to grow crops, and your drinking water may be contaminated. If you deforest your land, salinity may also occur. It is important to care for your surroundings, as they help you survive. Germany is a good example of care for their environment. During the late 1970’s Germany had major problems with acid rain, which is caused by human emissions of sulfur and nitrogen compounds into the atmosphere. Acid rain basically kills the forests, and high altitude ones are especially at risk because the cloud and smog that are closer too them, and are more acidic than most. Germany is trying to combat these problems by introducing laws to reduce these emissions into its atmosphere, as acid rain is also damaging to human health. An example of a country that did not look after its forests is Haiti. They started to deforest their land to sell as timber, and deforested the entire half of their island. They are now incredibly poor, and still deforesting their land for agriculture. This has damaged their ecosystem, encouraged salinity, and destroyed any natural shelter.


FACTOR #4 – POSITIVE TRADE RELATIONS
A society cannot possibly manufacture absolutely everything it needs, eg, cotton, which only grows in certain climates. Having positive trade relations with other countries helps the communities gather other necessities they may need or want. A country with excellent trade relationships is China. China exports and imports too many countries, and is able to import things that they may not be able to grow or mine enough of themselves. An example of this would be gas and coal. These are in such demand in china, that they import over 70% of their gas and oil from other countries. If china did not have great trade relations with other countries, they wouldn’t be able to get enough of oil or gas to help run their communities. In return, it exports billions of tons of items every year, which creates a lot of money for their country.


FACTOR #5 – WEAKER ENEMIES AND STRONG ALLIES
A country that has weaker enemies than itself should be able to withstand invasion, helping its society to survive, or if invaded, have strong allies that would help them fight. If a society is invaded, they stand the possibility of being completely wiped out, either by disease or weaponry, or being held as slaves. Therefore it helps a society to be surrounded by weaker countries, have weaker enemies, or have great relationships with other, stronger countries. A good example of a country with weaker enemies and strong allies is Australia. Our allies include two countries with the two of the biggest armies, America and the UK. We do not have any predominant enemies, yet if anyone tried to invade us, we would two huge armies to help us out. We are also surrounded by weaker countries, such as Papa New Guinea, Indonesia, and New Zealand, which we have mutual friendships with, but if they did decide to turn against us, we would be able to over power them.


FACTOR #6 – CULTURAL BELIEFS
Cultural beliefs can make or break a sustainable society. A society’s cultural belief may be an asset to them, or it may be their death. To portray this we must look at both the ancient Incas and the Greenland Norse. The Incas were a highly religious group that lived in South America. They were incredibly environment aware, and one of their beliefs (as mentioned before in care of food and water sources: care of food) was to never take more food than they needed at that point in time. This helped to ensure they never fully wiped out a species of animal or plant, or over hunted an animal, helping to keep their ecosystem in balance. This cultural belief was an asset to them. The Greenland Norse weren’t so lucky. With the introduction of animals such as cows, sheep and horses, to Greenland, the land was stripped of natural vegetation, and the climate did not allow for quick regrowth of plants. These animals died, and the Norse had less supply of meat. There was plentiful meat in the oceans, but the Greenland Norse’s beliefs meant they could not eat marine animals. They had less and less food until they eventually starved to death, whilst an abundance of food splashed around them. If they had not had this belief they may have survived. If they had adapted to their beliefs to their environment, they would not have died out. Therefore a sustainable society must be able to adapt their cultural beliefs to their situation, or another event may occur in similarity to the Greenland Norse’s situation.


In conclusion, a sustainable society is made up of six main factors. These are the government’s ability to perform, their ability to adapt, the societies care of food and water sources, positive trade relations, weaker enemies and stronger allies, and their cultural beliefs. If a society can be successful in almost all of these aspects, then the society stands a good chance of become a "Sustainable Society". We as one big community on earth in 2008 are going the wrong way. If we apply this model to ourselves you can see that we are not taking care of our environment, we have global warming, we do not have strong governments that are making the right decisions, and we are fighting amongst ourselves, eg. Iraq, Tibet, Sudan, Indonesia. If we continue to go this way, who knows where we may end up? We may become like Germany, who have realized their problems and started to change for the better, or we may end up like the Greenland Norse, completely extinct. We must learn from past mistakes and adapt to the problems we have caused ourselves, or our time may just be running out.





BIBILOGRAPHY.

“Franklin D. Roosevelt”, [2008], Wikipedia,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_D._Roosevelt

“A Definition of a Sustainable society”, [No date], Kirvil Skinnarland,
http://www.sustainableseattle.org/SustCommunity

“Ancient Egyptians Water Systems”, [2002], Charles Lugor Leju,
http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/prehistory/egypt/dailylife/farming_tools.htm

“Canada’s Water Management”, [2007], Canada’s Department of Water Management,
http://www.ec.gc.ca/default.asp?lang=En&n=63FA8D0F-1

“Iceland’s waste management system”, [2002], Umhverfisstofnun™,
http://english.ust.is/of-interest/Undirflokkur/waste/

“Elizabethan period - The Golden Age”, [2008], Wikipedia,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabethan

“Emerging Markets: China’s Future Oil and Gas Strategy to 2020”, [2007], Emerging Markets Online,
http://www.emerging-markets.com/PDF/ChinaOilGasStrategy.PDF

“Why the Greenland Norse Collapsed”, [2008], Kate Duff
http://kated6.blogspot.com/

With thanks too Mr Hanna for explaining about some societies, such as the Incas.