Provide a 5 pages analysis while answering the following question: Sustainable Development and Industrial Ecology. Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide. An abstract is required. Overuse of water resources is leading to their exhaustion (Nebel & Wright, 1993, p.3). Chemical wastes and other toxic refuse are contaminating the air, water, and soil of the earth to such an extent that life on earth is being threatened. The prospects for survival, let alone development, would be bleak in a world where resources are depleted, air and water are polluted, and life is difficult due to ozone depletion and greenhouse warming, not to speak of the fatal threats to health posed by the toxic wastes. Environmental science studies how human activities affect the regenerative capacity of natural resources (Nebel & Wright, 1993, p.5). These studies have led to the evolution of several concepts, a major one being sustainability, which in turn has led to the study of sustainable engineering and design, and industrial ecology. All these disciplines work towards the same objective, and that is, the protection and maintenance of the natural environment.

Sustainability relates to whether or not a process can be continued indefinitely. According to Brundtland Report, 1987, “sustainable development is that which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (“Sustainable issues,” 2004). Sustainability is the ability of the ecosystem to maintain ecological processes into the future. For sustainable living, human beings should consume the earth’s natural resources at a rate at which they will be replenished. Now, with the threats posed to the survival of life on earth by the accumulation of toxic wastes, deforestation, and over-exploitation of earth’s natural resources, it is high time that human beings began following a sustainable lifestyle.