The Occurring Challenges and Revitalizing Sustainable Development Goals

(SDG) for the Betterment of the Future

Human race has progressed and survived over the last millennium from apes to

Homo Sapiens-Sapiens and it significantly shifted human lifestyle due to the

applications of science and technology which made their lives at ease. Due to the

complexity of knowledge of humans, it resulted to take advantage and reap the fruit of

their long years of education. The industrialization, the rise of factory and machines for

human goods for their consumption has brought the growth of economy and human

lifestyle is more comfortable as before. This was observed in the past century since the

industrialization age. On the other hand, as the humans enjoys and take advantage on

fruit on nature, it has seen the drastic depletion of natural resources such as the rise of

temperature which result to the melting of ice glaciers in North and South poles, flash

floods and landslides due to deforestation (Mittal & Gupta, 2015). If these such types of

phenomena will remain unsolved and still prevail in the next years or decades, there is a

possibility of that humans will cease to exist in this world. Luckily, due to governmental

and environmental organizations and other concerned individuals, Sustainable

Development Goals (SDG) are born. SDG, also known as the Global Goals is a

universal response to ensure protection of the planet and to end poverty, with the

United Nation Development Programme’s pledge of “Leave No One Behind” , UN’s

members state have committed to provide fast-pace progress especially to the behind

countries (United Nations Development Programme, n.d.), thus with SDG it promotes

the overall environmental health and sustainability of the planet.

 The last Metacognitive Reading Report (MRR) for this term tackles about the

challenges of sustainability and how to deal with victims of unsustainability. Fortunately,

the last MRR is not quite long as compared to the previous MRRs. As a result, I able to

re-read the article and thankfully, gathered some understanding about the concepts that

the article wants to point out. One of the significant thing that I have learned from the

given reading was the current SGD that we are not perfect as we know and have an

unnoticeable individual drawbacks, currently SDG that are being implemented focused

mostly on energy and its goals and it is quite unfair to other factors. The United Nations

Development Programme provided seventeen (17) SDG, most are focusing on

improving and sustaining human welfare namely; gender equality and economic growth,

however, these factors do not or may not able to point-out current situations that

concerning about various environmental dilemma. If one way of SDG’s aims is to

improve lives through boosting the country’s economy and to uplift the poor and give

assistance to the developing countries, perhaps many people lives have been

improved, but there are also an increase in consumption as well as in production, given

that the SDG is heavenly relies on improving poor states similar to the well-off states.

According to the given article, Kopnina (2015). Poor nations/states do not necessarily

harm the environment given the fact that they have more dense population. Mostly, rich

nation are the main consumer of environmental resources, so if the SDG aim is to

improve lives especially to those who live beyond the poverty line, the environment

including natural resources would deplete overtime. As mentioned earlier the existing

SDG focused on mainly on human welfare and economy, this paved a way to the next

significant learning. I have deciphered the victims of the said unsustainability are non-
humans, as I read the title of the article, I thought that the victims are humans but a I

travel through the reading, it appeared that humans are the cause of unsustainability.

The nature already existed before human does, humans are the most destructive

species that lives in this world for the sake of their economy and their personal needs.

To be more specific the victims of unsustainability are animals, their natural habitats and

the nature itself. There are currently organizations and laws that may vary depending on

countries that are concern for the environment’s health. Acts on caring for the

environment become a trend and some prolific personalities such as Greta Thunberg a

Swedish teen environmental activist which voiced out about climate change and

environmental conservation (BBC news, 2019). With her voice, it attracts millions of

people around the world to protest about the neglected issues pertaining the

environment. It is such a disgrace if corporations and most especially the government if

they failed to address those environmental dilemma that are present in their respective

countries or they are the ones who neglected this such issue. To wrap up, I have

noticed that the UNDP’s SDG’s talks about the concerns that are present and plans on

how to protect and conserve the environment but it lacks of manpower or action to

execute these plans. I have learned that talking about how to conserve environment

would not make a significant change unless we act on it.

As I stated earlier, the given MRR is quite short compared to the past MRRs, due

to that instances, I gained knowledge and was able to comprehend the points that were

stated in the given article. However, there are some gaps in my side that hinders me to

fully understand the given article. The first concern about this topic is the use of jargons,

specifically the word “anthropocentricity” I had to web search for the certain word for me
to connect and understand the article because its definition are not given. Before I

searched, I have a guts that “anthropocentricity” is referring on how SDG are being

properly executed based on human perception. Another concern that gave me

confusion is the population proportion. It was stated in the MRR that there are no

correlation between the population and human consumption of resources. I initially

thought that there relationship was inversely proportional to each other as one increase

and the other decreases, the article used “no correlation” if that so, it means there are

no observable connection between these factors? And I’m unsure about that, and it was

also mentioned that one of the factors of unsustainability is denying the population

growth. I thought that it was going to discuss the effect of growing population to the

consumption rate but going back on the previous statement where it was said that there

are no such correlation about the factors, and I’m unsure if I misunderstand this part.

Lastly the last concern is the “egalitarianism” and the like thing. Just like the first

concern that I have encountered it was sounded like Greek to me, my unfamiliarity with

the said term would lead to much bigger problem given the fact that it was concerning

about the environment. but with an instant web search it was about equal rights and

opportunities to all people and I don’t know the connection about the SDG or I might

overlooked it.

The last MRR that I have read would be one of the significant article because it

change my personal views on Sustainable Development Goals as a whole and their

concepts. With this article it gave me somewhat realization or to be exact a paradigm-

shift, my belief in SDG as the perfect plan to save and protect the environment and

animals as well as the humans is slowly shattered, and as I contemplate, I realize that
SDG have also its flaws but unnoticeable because of the given 17 SDG plan which

deceiving to imagine including me. As a newly enlightened person, reading thoroughly

the article made me agree that the current SDG are focused mainly on humans and

how nature should adjust to the human needs, neglecting other factors such as animals

and how natural resources would be conserved. Lastly, I realize that if this human-

centered SDG still exist and no amendment would be done by the national government

or most especially the United Nations, we humans are just putting the nature into

greater risk and to all living organisms that shelter in this very planet.

The human race has progressed and survived over the past millennium from

apes to Homo Sapiens-Sapiens and it significantly shifted human lifestyle due to the

applications of science and technology which made their lives at ease. Due to the

complexity of knowledge of humans, it resulted to take advantage of and reap the fruit

of their long years of education. Industrialization, the rise of factories and machines for

human goods for their consumption has brought the growth of the economy and the

human lifestyle is more comfortable than before. This was observed in the past century

since the industrialization age. On the other hand, as humans enjoy and take advantage

of fruit on nature, it has seen the drastic depletion of natural resources such as the rise

of temperature which result in the melting of ice glaciers in North and South poles, flash

floods and landslides due to deforestation (Mittal & Gupta, 2015). If these types of

phenomena will remain unsolved and still prevail in the next years or decades, there is a

possibility that humans will cease to exist in this world. Luckily, due to governmental and

environmental organizations and other concerned individuals, Sustainable Development

Goals (SDG) are born. SDG, also known as the Global Goals is a universal response to
ensure the protection of the planet and to end poverty, with the United Nation

Development Programme’s pledge of “Leave No One Behind”, the UN’s members' state

has committed to providing fast-pace progress especially to the behind countries

(United Nations Development Programme, n.d.), thus with SDG, it promotes the overall

environmental health and sustainability of the planet.

The last Metacognitive Reading Report (MRR) for this term tackles the

challenges of sustainability and how to deal with victims of unsustainability. Fortunately,

the last MRR is not quite long as compared to the previous MRRs. As a result, I able to

re-read the article and thankfully, gathered some understanding about the concepts that

the article wants to point out. One of the significant things that I have learned from the

given reading was the current SGD that we are not perfect as we know and have

unnoticeable individual drawbacks, currently, SDG that is being implemented focused

mostly on energy and its goals and it is quite unfair to other factors. The United Nations

Development Programme provided seventeen (17) SDG, most are focusing on

improving and sustaining human welfare namely; gender equality and economic growth,

however, these factors do not or may not able to point-out current situations that

concerning the various environmental dilemma. If one way of SDG’s aims is to improve

lives through boosting the country’s economy and to uplift the poor and give assistance

to the developing countries, perhaps many people lives have been improved, but there

is also an increase in consumption as well as in production, given that the SDG is

heavenly relying on improving poor states similar to the well-off states. According to the

given article, Kopnina (2015). Poor nations/states do not necessarily harm the
environment given the fact that they have a more dense population. Mostly, rich nations

are the main consumer of environmental resources, so if the SDG aims to improve lives

especially to those who live beyond the poverty line, the environment including natural

resources would deplete over time. As mentioned earlier the existing SDG focused

mainly on human welfare and economy, this paved the way to the next significant

learning. I have deciphered the victims of the said unsustainability are non-humans, as I

read the title of the article, I thought that the victims are humans but as I travel through

the reading, it appeared that humans are the cause of unsustainability. Nature already

existed before a human does, humans are the most destructive species that live in this

world for the sake of their economy and their personal needs. To be more specific the

victims of unsustainability are animals, their natural habitats, and nature itself. There are

currently organizations and laws that may vary depending on countries that are

concerned about the environment’s health. Acts on caring for the environment become

a trend and some prolific personalities such as Greta Thunberg a Swedish teen

environmental activist who voiced out about climate change and environmental

conservation (BBC news, 2019). With her voice, it attracts millions of people around the

world to protest about the neglected issues about the environment. It is such a disgrace

if corporations and most especially the government if they failed to address those

environmental dilemmas that are present in their respective countries or they, are the

ones who neglected this such issue. To wrap up, I have noticed that the UNDP’s SDG

talks about the concerns that are present and plans on how to protect and conserve the

environment but it lacks manpower or action to execute these plans. I have learned that
talking about how to conserve the environment would not make a significant change

unless we act on it.

As I stated earlier, the given MRR is quite short compared to the past MRRs, due

to that instances, I gained knowledge and was able to comprehend the points that were

stated in the given article. However, some gaps in my side hinder me to fully understand

the given article. The first concern about this topic is the use of jargon, specifically the

word “anthropocentricity” I had to web search for a certain word for me to connect and

understand the article because its definition is not given. Before I searched, I have a gut

that “anthropocentricity” is referring to how SDG is being properly executed based on

human perception. Another concern that gave me confusion is the population

proportion. It was stated in the MRR that there is no correlation between the population

and human consumption of resources. I initially thought that their relationship was

inversely proportional to each other as one increase and the other decreases, the article

used “no correlation” if that so, it means there is no observable connection between

these factors? And I’m unsure about that, and it was also mentioned that one of the

factors of unsustainability is denying the population growth. I thought that it was going to

discuss the effect of the growing population on the consumption rate but going back on

the previous statement where it was said that there is no such correlation about the

factors, and I’m unsure if I misunderstand this part. Lastly, the last concern is

“egalitarianism” and the like thing. Just like the first concern that I have encountered, it

was sounded like Greek to me, my unfamiliarity with the said term would lead to a much

bigger problem given the fact that it was concerning about the environment. but with an
instant web search, it was about equal rights and opportunities for all people and I don’t

know the connection about the SDG, or I might overlook it.

The last MRR that I have read would be one of the significant articles because it

changes my personal views on Sustainable Development Goals as a whole and their

concepts. With this article it gave me somewhat realization or to be exact a paradigm-

shift, my belief in SDG as the perfect plan to save and protect the environment and

animals as well as humans is slowly shattered, and as I contemplate, I realize that SDG

has also its flaws but unnoticeable because of the given 17 SDG plan which deceiving

to imagine including me. As a newly enlightened person, reading thoroughly the article

made me agree that the current SDG is focused mainly on humans and how nature

should adjust to human needs, neglecting other factors such as animals and how

natural resources would be conserved. Lastly, I realize that if this human-centered SDG

still exists and no amendment would be done by the national government or most

especially the United Nations, we humans are just putting nature at greater risk and to

all living organisms that shelter on this very planet.

The reading was concise and direct to the point maybe because of its length. It

was an eye-opener at the same time engaging and I have never realized that I would

immerse myself with the topic. On the other hand, despite the fact of being immersive, I

would like to ask several questions about the said topic, first is the consideration about

other SDG, it means that other SDGs are stable? Given the fact that only environmental

is mention in this article but I’m certain that other issues are not being discussed in the

reading. The next question that lingers on my mind is that is there are any governmental

organizations it may be local, national, or international that would like to amend the
existing SDG given the fact of its flaw? Lastly, if the government organization or the

United Nations would not update the current SDG what would be the possible scenario

would happen? Would this negligence would lead us to a discovery that eventually

resolves SDG problems or it would lead us to our destruction?