Professor Dr. Riad Kazem Salman al-Jumaili
Faculty of Education for Humanities / Department of Applied Geography
Introduction:
Since the concept of sustainability appeared as an indicator in the academic tradition and turned into a principle circulating in the corridors and political forums to be considered an international approach on the basis of which the countries of the world are evaluated in the extent of their serious use of its concept and applications, this concept has been surrounded by many definitions, interpretations, and interpretations that perhaps this controversy at the origin of the idea is due to the broad areas of its application from On the one hand, the acceleration of real-life indicators at the global level makes understanding this principle an urgent practical necessity or as a technical treatment suitable for all circumstances and possibilities, and we will try to focus in this article on the content of the principle of sustainability and some of its connotations, mainly applied ones.
Sustainability content and acceleration of its use
No two disagree that the principle of sustainability is one of the humanitarian principles with great meanings and broad connotations, and interest in it has increased recently, in which concepts and cosmic phenomena have prevailed that have changed the principle of looking at the future of existence in a family as a result of the introduction of emergency and unaccounted economic, technological, technical and environmental changes that have contributed to changing many aspects of life and ways to deal with them. The enormous information revolution, the increase in the number of inhabitants of the planet, the repercussions of global climate change, water scarcity, increased rates of desertification, the increase in demand for energy and resources and the accompanying manifestations of environmental pollution are all effective factors that have contributed to accelerating the focus on the concept of sustainability and ways of dealing with it Perhaps the reason for this is due to the fact that the majority of world leaders and thinkers firmly believe that the future is unknown and hides among it a lot of surprises and events that would threaten the entity of humanity at all, or may change the origin of the human equation and threaten the human capabilities and achievements that he reached through generations of thinking, industrialization and its signs appeared clearly in the last two decades of the third millennium, leading the principle of (sustainability) in Finding different formulations of the content of sustainability and trying to link it with different elements, axes and spheres of life are all logical scientific attempts that open the door to reconsidering dealing with nature and its resources in more sustainable, objective and rational ways and methods to find a kind of balance and new adaptation to nature and declaring a clear agreement items and milestones with and smooth life events to ensure the continuation of life manifestations and images without disturbing any of These items are [Longyu Shi et.al:2019].
Perhaps the subtleties and secrets that fall under the content of sustainability are many and varied, and the interpretations that are also subject to them are deep, and here it is possible to stand on some of these subtleties in the origin of the content, namely:
1- The principle of rationality
Sustainability has a clear, rational dimension in many of its theoretical foundations and practical applications, as it has become a sustainable development method in ways of dealing with resources, the environment, and even in economic activities. The principle of rationality is defined as realistic human behaviour based on strong scientific evidence and has calculated positive effects that can often be based on moral principles and human feelings [K.C. Adaina et al. 2012]. Some argue that rationality is the most obvious concept in the context of sustainability, as it gives sustainability its importance and makes it more acceptable than other development concepts and the principle of rationality is embodied in various ways in dealing with the environment, including basing the matter on scientific research in leadership and management, identifying the safest and least harmful ways to the environment and determining priorities and programs to be taken in addressing various types of exploitation of Natural Resources and ways to protect them from depletion.
2- The principle of fear of resource depletion and innovation of solutions
The principle of resource depletion has been a nightmare in the imagination of mankind for quite a while, but the prospects for achieving this principle scientifically have become very close, specifically in many minerals and even metallic resources, and its manifestations have begun to appear at the Level of food and water shortages, down to obtaining clean air free of pollution, fears of depletion of natural resources have increased in front of the appetite for open industry, which has hindered the transition towards sustainability and enshrined the pattern of unfair exploitation of resources at the expense of the type of comprehensive resource and the amount of pressure in its exploitation processes, so to take into account the exploitation of nature and turn into a principle of innovation and the push to promote a transition to sustainability that balances life’s needs with natural gifts [ Daniel Hausknost. et.al:2019] The development of the principle of technology since the middle of the twentieth century has so far played two important roles in this sense. The first is the negative role represented in the development of technical and logistical capabilities with possibilities that exceeded the imagination that was employed in the exploitation of environmental and natural resources to ugly and unacceptable limits, especially in the field of agriculture, land exploitation, and oil and natural gas extraction, while the second role is a positive role represented in pushing the transformation processes towards the principle of sustainability while providing many possibilities to achieve this without putting the factor of economic profits at the top priority [Nadine Rötzer et al. 2018].
3- The principle of the emergence of sustainable leadership
The principle of sustainability cannot be achieved without the availability of leadership at a high level of awareness of the contents of this concept and its dimensions, specifically in the fields of thinking and management, on the first level, the concept of sustainability presents ideas and principles Produced by thinkers and media who were able to convince decision makers to reconsider many practices and social behaviors regarding the environment and resources through a series of researches, studies, experiments and field work that produced many amazing results that can change the face of the world and create transformations at the economic, social and political levels, while the other field area, which represents the second face of sustainable leadership is management al-Rashida Which would create a sharing, understanding and integration of responsibilities and organize the work of companies, organizations and individuals in the direction of achieving positive business leadership [Philip Hallinger et.al: 2018]. These results have prompted scientific leaders to address the leadership the principle of sustainability with confident steps and thoughtful programs at the scientific and political levels.
4- The principle of ensuring the right of future generations
One of the most prominent human contents of sustainability is to look at the future with care and justice by spreading the concept (the rights of our future generations of resources and goods) that the gifts of nature and its resources are not limited to a particular human being generation, but are common to all present and future generations who are waiting for their right to resources. This concept began to spread in the middle of the last century until it was enshrined in the constitutions of more than 120 countries in the world until 2019 and including constitutional clauses that guarantee the rights of future generations of resources [Sigrun I. Skogly.:2021 ] This principle is also based on providing legal protection to preserve an appropriate amount of resources, including allocating funds to finance future projects that monitor their returns in private banks for future generations without depriving them of what is available now from natural and technological resources and gifts. The matter did not stop there, but contemporary currents have emerged calling for the need to feel guilty and admit default in front of our future generations for what was wasted and the scale of environmental degradation caused by man to the environment, which is a legitimate right for us and our future generations and take the necessary decisions to preserve their future rights.
5- The principle of repairing damage
This principle is based on the fact that it is necessary to avoid the damage caused to nature resulting from the unfair exploitation of its environmental conditions, and the owners of this current have focused on the development of technical, technological, and legal frameworks to protect the environment from degradation by assessing interests and weighing them in the environmental balance or what is known as (reparation for damage) and calling for the adoption of environmental laws that criminalize those who polluter is fined) and this principle applies to institutions, companies, and individuals alike [heloísa Oliveira:2022]. This indicates a legal shift towards criminalizing environmental damage and regulating the rules related to environmental damage, with the development of environmental standards that regulate the consumption of any of its natural resources as needed without causing further damage to it.
Conclusion:
It can be summarized in this paper that the principle of (sustainability) is one of the development principles that has been reached through bitter experiences that humanity has gone through during its long history, and this principle carries among It high concepts that enshrine the frameworks for Preserving all the human achievements of civilization, technology, and creativity, in which the natural environment had a distinctive role, so it was the contents and objectives.
References
1-Longyu Shi, Linwei Han, Fengmei Yang, and Lijie Gao (2019), The Evolution of Sustainable Development Theory: Sustainability, 11, 7158; doi:10.3390/su11247158:P;5; www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability.
2-K.C. Adaina and Sudhir Chella Rajan (2012), Rethinking Rationality in the Context of Environmental Policy. The Indian Economic Journal. Volume 60(1), April-June.P:24.
3-Daniel Hausknost, and Willi Haas (2019), The Politics of Selection: Towards a Transformative
Model of Environmental Innovation Sustainability, 11, 506; doi:10.3390/su11020506, p:2 www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability.
4-Nadine Rötzer, and Mario Schmidt, (2018), Decreasing Metal Ore Grades—Is the Fear Resource Depletion Justified, Resources 2018, 7, 88; doi:10.3390/resources7040088, p: 14 www.mdpi.com/journal/resources.
5-Sigrun I. Skogly, (2021), The right to continuous improvement of living conditions and human rights of the future, Final Draft 4 January, p: 4.
6-Heloísa Oliveira, (2022), THE PRINCIPLE OF REPARATION WHY THE POLLUTER-PAYS PRINCIPLE DOES NOT SUFFICE AND HOW TO ”REBUILD THE LAW ON ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE” Lisbon Public Law, p:4, lisbonpubliclaw. pt. Working Paper Series No. 2022-1
7- Philip Hallinger, and Suparak, Suriyankietkaew (2018) Science Mapping of the Knowledge Base on Sustainable Leadership, 1990–2018, Sustainability 2018, 10, 4846; doi:10.3390/su10124846, p:21, www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability
