Sustainable Development

The history of sustainable development

Sustainable development before 1990

Sustainable development from 1990|

Before the Industrial Revolution

The world was a different place. There were no major roads and no cars, and many types of communication did not exist.

People relied on themselves and their communities to provide most of the things that they needed.

They worked in villages and small towns, working the land and relying on the local community to support them.

Food and clothing were both produced and used locally. Resources were used on a small local scale and tended not to be wasted because they were expensive. This was a type of sustainable living.

What was manufactured was done by using natural elements, as there was no electricity or gas, for example, windmills could make the life of a miller easier.

From the Industrial Revolution until the 1950s

The Industrial Revolution suddenly changed the world. Natural resources were used and transported on a massive scale - coal, iron ore and clays were mined on a scale that created huge scars in the landscape.

Factories were built in most towns and cities and the population began to grow. Villages such as Barking changed from a small village in the country to an industrial centre for shipping and industry.

The river banks along the Thames and Roding were built up and docks and ports developed to serve London with goods from around the Commonwealth.

The disposable lifestyle starts with goods being thrown away and new features on the landscape such as landfill sites.

Quarries bigger than villages are dug into the countryside as resources such as gravel, iron and limestone are used in industry and city development.

The 1950s and 1960s

Towards the end of the 1950s and in the 1960s people began to recognise that technology and economic growth were not always positive and that they could have tragic side-effects (pollution and a steady reduction of resources).

1972

'Limits to Growth', published by the Club of Rome (an organisation of European economists and scientists), suggested current economic patterns would lead to ecological disaster.

In June of the same year, the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm considered the need for a shared outlook and principles to inspire and guide the people of the world to preserve and improve the environment.

1987

The World Commission on Environment and Development chaired by the Prime Minister of Norway, Mrs Gro Harlem Bruntland, published a report Our Common Future (The Bruntland Report). This brought the idea of sustainable development into the international view.

It also provided the most commonly used definition of sustainable development, describing it as a 'development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs'.

Getting rid of poverty and involving everyone in their own futures form the backbone for environmentally sustainable development. The differences in wealth and opportunity mean people have to think short term in order to survive, and cannot plan long term.

1989

The issues raised by Our Common Future were discussed at the United Nations General Assembly which led to resolution 44/228 being passed which called for a United Nations Conference on Environment and Development.

Sustainable development from 1990|

Useful web links

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra)|

Sustainable Development

The history of sustainable development