# Ancient Problems of Sustainability

The first problems in dealing with the environment - which one would now qualify as sustainability problems - occurred in Mesopotamia. The dangers inherent in the delicate irrigation system that was used there ultimately caused its collapse. Processes such as accretion and salination (which particularly affected the topsoil and, consequently, also the roots of crops growing there) eventually caused insurmountable difficulties. The decrease in yields could not be compensated by switching to other species of plant that were less salt-sensitive. Even though the Mesopotamian culture existed for approximately two thousand years, the seeds of its destruction were already sown when the system was created. In a certain sense, its 'intrinsic sustainability' was therefore not very great.

In Greek antiquity, philosophers such as Plato (400 BC) and his student Aristotle (384 BC) discussed man's place in nature and his role in the depletion of the nat

Ever since the Industrial Revolution, we have pretended to be independent of our natural surroundings. Nowadays, a particular failure of existing models of development to offer effective and lasting solutions to recurrent - and worsening - problems of world poverty, environmental degradation, and the inability of most developing countries to achieve parity with economically advanced nations has made the crisis around the globe particularly acute.

The most disappointing development after the advent of the sustainable development movement in the environmental sector has been the breakdown of the Rio bargain. Under the "Rio bargain," developing countries would participate in multilateral environmental agreements; in return, developed nations would help oil the wheels through capacity building, technology transfer, removal of trade barriers and action on debt. In reality, nothing of the sort has happened. Countries have responded in a lukewarm fashion to their environmental commitments. Habitat loss continues, finite resources get scarcer and atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations keep rising.

Nowadays, there are numerous sources of environmental problems linked with sustainable development: among them are deforestation, atmospheric and marine pollution, climate change, ozone depletion, and species loss.

Some topics in this essay:
Earth Summit, Ancient Sustainability, Industrial Revolution, Revolution England, Kyoto Protocol, Australia Zealand, Love Canal, Brundtland Report, Common Future, Sustainable Development, sustainable development, natural environment, ozone layer, earth summit, climate change, environmental impact, industrial revolution, # sustainable development, greenhouse gas, brundtland report, global warming,