Title:
Sustainable Development: A Challenge for the 21st Century
Sustainable Development: A Challenge for the 21st Century
Author(s)
Wilhite, Donald A.
Advisor(s)
Editor(s)
Hatcher, Kathryn J.
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Abstract
The term "sustainable development" is usually
credited to the 1987 report of the World Commission On
Environment And Development, entitled Our Common
Future. To achieve the changes in human actions judged
necessary to restore and preserve the planet's environment, the
Commission recommended the development of a United
Nations' program on sustainable development. The discussions
and recommendations concerning this program provided
the impetus for the United Nations' Conference on
Environment and Development, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
in June, 1992. Debate at this conference focused on, among
other things, world environmental and development issues
related to climate change and sustainability. Since this
conference, many nations have pursued the concept of
sustainable development through entities appointed to
formulate a process to define a sustainable future. In the
U.S., this approach has taken the form of the President's
Council on Sustainable Development, created in 1992 by
President Clinton. Since 1988, pursuant to a bilateral agreement between the
U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and
Environment Canada, the United States and Canada have
jointly sponsored a series of five symposia on the implications
of climate change. These meetings have focused on
regions of mutual interest such as the Great Lakes, Great
Plains, and the Pacific Northwest. This series continues in
May, 1995, with a much broader focus: sustainable development
in the context of global environmental change. The
latest symposium, Planning for a Sustainable Future: The
Case of the North American Great Plains, will emphasize a
region that represents a critical environmental zone, where the
impacts of climate change are likely to be more severe and to
materialize more rapidly than in less fragile ecosystems.
This symposium, the rationale for it, its planning, implementation
and intended results, will be discussed as a model
process by which a region can begin defining its sustainable
future.
Sponsor
Sponsored and Organized by: U.S. Geological Survey, Georgia Department of Natural Resources, The University of Georgia, Georgia State University, Georgia Institute of Technology
Date Issued
1995-04
Extent
Resource Type
Text
Resource Subtype
Proceedings