The Contemporary World

Lesson 7 Unit 1
Activity 7

Differentiate stability from sustainability:

STABILITY SUSTAINABILITY

 The condition of being stable or in  The ability to sustain something.

equilibrium, and thus resistant to
change
 The tendency to recover from  In ecology, it is the means of
perturbations configuring civilization and human
activity so that society, its
members and its economies are
able to meet their needs and
express their greatest potential in
the present, while preserving
biodiversity and natural
ecosystems, planning and acting
for the ability to maintain these
ideals for future generations.
 The diversity of a particular region  The utilization of resource without
gets stabilize after that there is the compromising the other, or the
competition between species for future generation.
various aspects.
 It can be a feature of a sustainable  a way to characterize system
system but is not necessarily. behavior and is quite well bounded
to certain methods in dynamic
system analysis, it is a broader
normative term.
 Synonyms: firmness, solidity,  Synonyms: admissible, allowable,
steadiness, secureness, strength, maintainable, supportable, and
security, safety, balance, tenable.
soundness, and rationality.
 Using the table above, we can clearly see the differences between stability and

sustainability. Whereas stability is the condition of being stable or in equilibrium, so it is

resistant to change while sustainability refers to the ability to sustain something.

To simply understand the distinction between the two, there are some instances

of each to further explains its given definitions. Sustainability for example, is the action

to provide people’s needs without damaging the ecosystem such as the usage of

renewable energy, planting of tress and taking care of wild animals as we believe that

every part of our ecosystem as well as all organisms are important to sustain our

environment, it also helps prevent pollutions and other damages to our natural

resources. On the other hand, stability is being the same or no change at all. In

economic stability, it must remain at an acceptable rate and growth so that a country

will remain working and can supply people’s needs without changes.

To sum it all, stability helps us to stay in a good condition to avoid negative

changes that might affects us all and the world as a whole. Meanwhile, sustainability is

needed especially in terms of environmental sustainability as it is a hope to prevent

further species extinctions and it is also for the sake of our future generations.