Text c changing the course of chemistry

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The education of chemists and all those interested in chemistry is an ever-evolving endeavor to keep up with the latest innovations, discoveries, concepts, perspectives and techniques of the field. One of the most exciting developments in recent years is the development of Green Chemistry – the design of chemical products and processes that reduce or eliminate the generation of toxic substances.

The path that the field of chemistry has taken over the course of the past 200 years is one of creativity, innovation, and discovery. It is also a path that we have followed without fully considering the consequences of either what we have created or the methods and processes we have used to do so. This is largely due to the fact that historically we have had little understanding of the impact of chemicals on human health and the environment. In recent decades, science has dramatically increased our knowledge of the various types of adverse consequences of chemicals. More importantly, it has begun to provide us with a molecular-level understanding of these consequences, thereby allowing us to design our chemical products and transformation processes in order to minimize these adverse consequences. This is the basis of the green chemistry movement, which has been bringing about a wide range of innovations throughout the chemical enterprise.

Green Chemistry education seeks to enhance chemists` understanding of the impacts of their design choices and experiments. Curricula based on the 12 Principles of Green Chemistry cast the field of chemistry in an entirely different light. Hazard and waste become recognized as design flaws or, more positively, as opportunities for innovation. Routine handling of inherently safe chemicals reinforces the beneficial impacts and problem-solving potential of the chemical enterprise. Students gain an appreciation for product lifecycles and environmental ethics and are empowered to follow their moral inclinations as scientists and engineers.

UNIT VI

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

TEXT A

Pre-Reading Task

What ideas come to your mind if you see or hear the word “Sustainable development”?

Share you view with other students.

Read the text and say if your ideas are correct.

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

The term Sustainable Development was coined by the Brundtland Commission known by the name of its Chair Gro Harlem Brundtland and used in its Report “Our Common Future” in 1987.

Sustainable Development is a pattern of resource use that is designed to meet human needs while preserving the environment so this can be done not only in the present but also for generations to come. At its heart it is the simple idea of ensuring a better quality of life for everyone and forever.

The features of sustainability are:

• to maintain the over all quality of life

• to maintain continuous access to natural resources

• to avoid lasting environmental damage

• to consider as sustainable a development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Sustainable Development is often thought to have three components: environment, society and economy. The well-being of these three areas is interwined, not separate. Sustainability means to equally consider environmental, social and economic needs. It is about maintaining the equilibrium between human activity and the natural environment over a long term.

The principles of Sustainable Development require first of all social equity among all people in the world, that is creating equal opportunities for the current generations and concern for future generations. Unfortunately, for many people the basic needs have not been met yet. They have to live under poverty level. To establish a standard of living that at least meets the basic needs should be one of the main objectives of Sustainable Development.

S ustainable Development ties together concern for the carrying capacity of natural systems with the social challenges facing the humanity. Environmental sustainability requires that human activity only uses natures resources at a rate at which they can be replenished naturally.

This suggests the effective practice of personal responsibility and the development of mechanisms to protect the environment. In this context the state can create the conditions which encourage people to save the environment. Sustainable Development attempts to minimize greenhouse gases, reduce global warming, preserve environment resources and provide communities that allow people to reach their fullest potentials.

Sustainable Development enjoins current generations to take a system approach to growth and development and to manage three types of capital for the welfare of their own and future generations:

• natural capital (that is, the environmental renewable and nonrenewable resources which are parts of our natural environment and form of our ecosystem, e.g. fossil fuels, nuclear power, metals, timber, and so on);

• produced or economic capital (buildings, technical facilities, machinery, roads, water supply systems, pipelines, etc.).

• social capital (education, knowledge, health, culture, institutions and social networks, technology.)

Future-oriented management means: we have to leave our descendents intact ecological, social and economic systems. The one cannot be achieved without the other.

It is in common interest of all nations to establish polices for Sustainable Development since it can be achieved at global level only by joined efforts of all of us. Yet, Sustainable Development will not be brought about by polices only. It must be taken up by society at large as a principle guiding the many choices each citizen makes every day as well as the big practical and economic decisions. This requires profound changes in thinking, in economic and social structures, as well as in consumption and in production patterns.