Models of Sustainability
Successes, Sustainability, and Duplicability: Assessing the China Model of Development
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Fei Ling "Philip" Wang
The economic and sociocultural development in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) since the 1980s has been widely lauded as a great success, epitomized by two impressive accomplishments: the rapid growth of GDP and the massive accumulation of foreign exchange reserve. All that has been achieved without much political change and limited native technological innovation. A peculiar China Model of political economy seems to have emerged to facilitate China’s new position in the world, powering the rise of Chinese power and leadership in the region and beyond. Is the China Model only an exceptionally national phenomenon or can it become an international even worldwide paradigm? With that question in mind, this paper seeks to assess the China Model by analyzing its record of successes and problems, the nature and key elements of its dynamics, its sustainability, and its worldwide duplicability.
The Need for Renewable Energy Resources and the Reasons Why the United States and Russia Lag Behind
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Tim Delaney, Anastasia Malakhova
The continued dependence on fossil fuels by the largest nations in the world has caused a tremendous strain the earth's environment and ecosystems and has contributed to the deterioration of the planet's carrying capacity. Our dependency on the burning of fossil fuels has led to a number of serious problems that are being felt around the world, including global warming and the greenhouse effect. As a result, it is more important than ever before to fully develop and utilize renewable energy resources. In this paper, the authors discuss the need for renewable energy resources while also offering a number of reasons why nations such as the United States and Russia lag behind in the development of renewable forms of energy.
Environmental Sustainability: Impact of Biological Diversities in Environmental Sustainability
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Wisdom Chibuzor Odunze
The paper examines the impact of Biological Diversity on Environmental Sustainability as regards to analyzing the causes and implications on the drivers to biodiversity loss. Biological Diversity (Biodiversity) is the variety and variability of life on earth which measures variations at the genetic, species, and ecosystem level. Environmental sustainability is the interaction with the environment in order to avoid depletion of natural resources for optimum long-term environmental quality. It also looks at the impact of anthropogenic activities (human induced) have on the exploitation of natural resources such as water and land through pollution and climate changes which are some of the drivers to biodiversity loss that impact negatively on environmental sustainability. Thus, loss in biodiversity have negative impact on the food web and chain, reduction in ecosystem services and humankind such as low in economy, existing species, increased contact with diseases, more unpredictable weather, loss of livelihood, and losing sight of nature. The loss in biodiversity adversely affects the ecosystem through destruction of habitat, habitat fragmentation, pollution and finally mass extinctions thereby affecting environmental sustainability. Therefore the understanding of the implication of biological diversity loss on environmental sustainability is very important for individuals, industrialists in application of modern technology for pollution control, and policy makers for sustainable environment. It is therefore recommended that effective support to global environmental initiatives, managing our forestry and wetland by conservation and regulations, moderate consumption and developing technologies to cope with our energy demand and curb biodiversity loss to achieve a sustainable environment.
