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ACHIEVING SUSTAINABILITY - FINAL STEPS IN A DYNAMIC DANCE
Citation:
HANSEN, V. E. ACHIEVING SUSTAINABILITY - FINAL STEPS IN A DYNAMIC DANCE. Presented at EPA Region 8 Pollution Prevention and Toxics Unit Meeting on Systems Metrics and Environmental Management for Sustainability, Denver, CO, December 06, 2006.
Impact/Purpose:
To inform the public.
Description:
Achieving sustainability relies upon adequate metrics to evaluate the environment and guide decisions. Although adequate assessment is important to prescribing remedies, achieving a sustainable environment cannot be delayed. It must be achieved today as well as tomorrow so that the environment meets conditions favorable to human life. Because conditions favorable to human physiology, sociology, economics, and institutions exist, these conditions can be used to guide planning, and were established by the U.S. Legislature when the Greater Sand Dunes National Park (GSDNP) was formed. The legislation provides "...fundamental criteria against which the appropriateness of plan recommendations, operational decisions, and actions are tested." These criteria act as filters to make certain decisions that could affect the GSDNP but does not diminish its value to humanity. These criteria do not substitute for sustainability metrics, but provide a strategy to address the concept of sustainability until science can provide sufficient knowledge to address it.