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Planetary boundaries: Social Equity

BJ Buenafe
Portland State University
FRINQ:Life Unlimited
Professor: Michael Flower
02 December 2014

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ABSTRACT
To live in a sustainable planet, we need to live in harmony with the
environment. Not
only should we concern about the present, but also the future. The future
need the same
fairness as the present but in a strong sustainability state. To achieve a
strong sustainability we
need strong environmental justice , social justice and economic justice.

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Social Equity is all about fairness. Fair access to livelihood, education,
resources, etc. Its the cornerstone of society. Most people confuses equity
with equality. Equity and equality have similar concepts, but not entirely.
Equality is basically the term that all are created equally, whereas equity is a
more flexible measure allowing for equivalency while not demanding
sameness which is fairness. Equity derives from the concept of social justice.
It represents a belief that there are some things which people have, that
there are basic needs that should be fulfilled, that burden and rewards
should not be spread too diver gently across the community, and that policy
should be directed with impartiality, fairness and justice towards theses
ends. Different cultures and religions around the world may differ in
important respect, but they all share a concern with equity and fairness. We
hunger for human needs, economic needs, environmental needs, and
subjective well-being. Inequalities remain unacceptably high across all
nations and Inequalities in income and wealth are severe and widening. We
need to set equity rules as a common law so the rule becomes a preventive
criterion as it can serve as guidelines for intergeneration equity issues
( Schneider,Kalis, and Martinez-Alier, 2010). Humans need to create a

sustainable planet. A sustainable world one in which human needs are met
equitably and without sacrificing the ability of future generations to meet
their needs. To push human well-being towards a sustainable state in space
and time are social equity and intergenerational equity. The concept of social
equity distributes well-being over space, ensuring the fair treatment of all
members of society promoting spatial sustainability of a well-being decision.
The concept of intergenerational equity distributes well-being through time,
ensuring well-being of present and future generations of a population or
nation (Summers, and

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Smith, 2014). In this paper, social equity will focus on particularly
environmental justice and economy related to climate change and toxic
pollutants issues.
To keep on living on our planet, we need sustainability and its became
the goal of humanity. There are no simple definition of sustainability, but the
general intent is to create and maintain conditions, under which humans
and nature can exist in productive harmony, that permit fulfilling the social,
economic and environmental requirements of present and future
generations (Stahl and Bridges, 2013). Sustainability is difficult to
contemplate. Sustainability has been an issue for years, but the difficulty of
providing social equity and living within the rule of the biophysical
environment. How can we and our children live good lives without eroding
the health and productivity of the physical planet to lead good lives?

We need environmental equity to protect the people from

environmental pollution and to live in and enjoy a clean and healthful
environment. Community in poverty are more exposed to pollution from
factory which slowly destroys the community and environmental habitat. The
inequity is responsible for the climate change, the poorest nations are
vulnerable to global warming, but also have the least impact on mechanism
to halt its progress. Whereas developed countries such as the United Sates
are similar to the poorest nations, but the main difference is that they can
significantly halt climate change. Developed countries dispose hazardous
wastes in developing countries. Environmental equity construct has
distributive and procedural dimensions, can be rationalized by both
deontological and consequentialist arguments, and can be
compartmentalized from preventive, corrective and retributive

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perspective. Environmental issues impact human well-being. For well-being
to be sustainable, both present and future, societal equity issues associated
with environmental justice must be realistically distributed among all
humans of society.
Now economy equity is also another issue. We need to provide fairness
in economics of equal in life chances, life chances, peoples needs, and
meritocracy. The inequalities related to health, education, income, voice,
opportunities, income, health status indicators tend to be correlated. The rich
tend to be healthier and better educated than others and the poor are the

opposite. Equitable downscaling of production and consumption that

increases human well-being and enhances ecological conditions at the local
and global level, in the short and long term. We all know that most economy
are rising which is not sustainable and human progress without economic
growth is possible. For well-being to be sustainable, both in the present and
future, societal and economic equity issues must be realistically distributed
among all members of society (Beder, 2000). We need well-being truly
sustainable through time because each generation has the right to inherit
the same diversity in natural, cultural, heath, and economic resources. The
depletion of natural capital can lead to irreversible losses such as species
and habitats, which cannot be recreated using man-made capital. Not only
resource consumption increase the real prices of those future generations,
but that resources may be depleted.
In conclusion, a sustainable planet is possible through our decisions.
We can halt economic growth and still continue to progress. Not only should
we focus on the present, but the future too. The environment is our future
and it must stay safe. Once we damaged our environment, its irreversible.

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RESOURCES
http://www.uow.edu.au/~sharonb/esd/equity.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pa9lMGiYCi4

http://www.globalissues.org/article/231/climate-justice-and-equity
The role of social and intergeneration Equity in making changes in
Human Well-Being Sustainable; Summers,Smith, 2014