Ecological challenges for the new sustainability paradigm: Ecological pillar of sustainability and its significance for the NSP: Major problems

Abstract

Currently, humankind faces a variety of environmental problems. Some problems are of particular concern. Especially over the last decade, extreme weather events have accumulated. The disastrous Tsunami catastrophes in Indonesia and Japan as well as other natural disasters, such as hurricanes, heat waves, and droughts, killed tens of thousands of people, injured others, made many people lose their homes and livelihood, and scared people all over the world. It is obvious that this kind of disasters regularly impact water and food supply and thus are life- threatening for millions of human beings and animals, usually impacting all three pillars of Sustainability. There is an ongoing discussion about the question to which extent these factors are due to anthropogenic influence because weather is a complex and chaotic system. Notwithstanding, climate change is not the only problem of concern to humankind. There are many other key issues including urgent challenges in the food and water sector as food and water are the base of all life on earth.