Amidst the rise in economic development, the environmental crisis in every part of the world. Numerous incidents of environmental disasters were reported to have claimed lives of many people. Some examples of these disasters are the incident in Minamata bay in Japan and the Love Canal tragedy which were both products of uncontrolled dumping of hazardous waste in the land and water bodies by chemical companies. Another incident occurred in London way back in 1953 that killed approximately 12,000 people due to the heavy combustion of coal during winter season. All of these were products of human negligence to the environment.
The government does things to meet the demands of the growing population without considering the effect to the environment. They tend to produce goods that come from the environment hoping to meet the unending needs and wants of the people, which will more likely never happen due to limited resources.
We must admit that most of us don’t know the cost and externalities we have to pay for every gadget we purchase or the things we have right now. What are the components of that product, and what environmental media suffers due to different processes?
Sustainable development, according to Brundtland Commission, refers to meeting the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of the future generation to meet their own needs. We need to manage all the resources that we have so that our children will get a chance to enjoy what we have and what’s left to us now. Who knows, they might still want to see birds flying in the blue sky and fish in clean and fresh water. They might still want to drink potable fresh water from our groundwater containment. They might still want to breathe the air, free from any contamination. We have to consider the needs of the future generation and try to limit ourselves by consuming less of natural resources. The Native American proverbs says that “We do not inherit the world from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.” So if you have something borrowed, will you destroy it? Or take care of it?
Due to the significant negative impact in the environment brought by economic development, the government set laws and policies that companies need to comply with. In the Philippines, several laws are ratified to protect the environment. These laws were the RA 6969 or the Toxic Substances and Hazardous and Nuclear Waste Control Act, RA 9275 or The Clean Water Act, RA 8749 or The Clean Air Act and RA 9003 which is The Ecological and Solid Waste Management Act. The laws are not made to be stagnant, it should be strictly implement and follow at any cost. Environmental laws prove to be instrumental in attaining sustainability and environmental protection.
Do you want to participate in attaining sustainable development? Start complying now. In Triple i Consulting, we have environmental specialists who can assist you for environmental concerns and compliance and how the project will be implemented in an environmental-safe manner.