Sustainable futures: global perspectives on research and development

Sustainability is meeting the requirements of present generations without hindering the ability of future generations to meet their own. Principles of sustainable development include that we should conserve the earth's resources for future generations and ensure our actions have minimal impact on the environment as possible (Adham Sayed Mohamed HYPERLINK "https: //www. researchgate. net/ scientific-contributions/ Adham-Sayed-Mohamed-Torky-2281277927"Torky, 2024), So what decisions does the population require in order to lead humanity towards a sustainable future? In terms of biodiversity and resources we need to leave an estimated 38% of the earth's surface undisturbed to maintain a significant proportion of species beyond the next century (Li, X., Zickfeld, et al. 2020), We also need to use no more than the earth can regenerate; this means reducing CO2 emissions to the same absorption rate and only cutting the number of trees that can be replanted. The decisions that need to be made are those that consider the quality of life for future generations and not just the present. Currently in the world there is a divide between the richer and poorer nations, the richer nations live comfortable lives but are generally not sustainable, the poorer nations live sustainable lives but often have a lower quality of life. A decision needs to be made for a middle ground (Solomon, et al. 2009), The current world population is around 8 billion, with the average person living to 65 years of age. Contrast this with the statistics from 1945 where the population was approximately 2.5 billion with an average life expectancy of 46 years. This change and increase in the number of people on the planet has placed huge demands on the earth's resources, and will continue to do so in the future. We are depleting the resources at an unsustainable rate; in the past 10,000 years the earth's ecosystem has been through more disruption than the previous 65 million. To continue using the earth's resources at the current rate may lead the earth to an irreversible state, a situation where future generations will have a lower quality of life due to scarcity of resources, this is what is known as 'sustainability'.