What are the benefits of sustainable development on the environment?

Question

What are the benefits of sustainable development on the environment?

Answer 1

The benefits are mostly for us, human beings. People benefit most from developing sustainable urban environments.

An urban environment is a challenge to natural limits--lighting for the night, water piped into the desert, reinforced concrete to withstand earthquakes.

Specific benefits--

"Sustainable" means being able to carry on business-as-usual for a long time. I think it means keeping our high and relatively wasteful (compared to the rest of the world) standard of living.

That's a cynical view.

An optimist would say that we are keeping human civilization going. I believe this also.

Without reliable supplies of fresh drinkable water, non-smoggy air, 24x7 electricity at your fingertips, fully-stocked grocery stores and jobs, how long would your city be livable?

If you want the tree-huggy answer, the "environment" benefits from having less human-caused pollution. Clean air, clean water, less soil erosion, more animal species are able to live, more open space for non-human animals to use. But relaly, we humans are the ones who benefit most from these.

It's not about saving the planet. It's about saving ourselves and our own environment! Not sh*tting where you eat, sleep and live.