Text to answer question.
What is sustainable development?
There are many definitions of sustainable development,
including this one which first appeared ∈1987:
“Development that meets the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to meet their
[5] own needs.”
But what does this mean? What are the needs of the
present? Take a minute and write down five to ten needs
that you have ∈ your own life.
Have you listed any needs that conflict with one another?
[10] For example, if you listed clean air to breathe, but also
listed a car for transportation, your needs might conflict.
Which would you choose, and how would you make your
decision? If we have conflicting needs, how much is that
multiplied when we look at a whole community, city,
[15] country, world? For example, what happens when a
company’s need for cheap labor conflicts with workers’
needs for livable wages? Or when individual families’
needs for firewood conflict with the need to prevent erosion
and conserve the soil? Or when one country’s need for
[20] electricity results ∈ acid rain that damages another
country's lakes and rivers?
Available at: http://www.worldbank.org/depweb/english/sd.html. Access on: 13 sep. 2016, with alterations.
According to the text and to your knowledge, sustainable development is