Essay Sample on Sustainability of the Amish

Introduction

Over the last 30 Years, the ability to repair all degraded, damaged and manage intact sustainable ecosystems has improved substantially. However, in going beyond revegetation, hydrology revamping or cleaning of polluted water and lands to achieve ecological restoration requires more transdisciplinary work. However, poor communities especially societies that live in rural areas are dependent on both cultivated and renewable natural capital for their survival and basic needs. These communities are more vulnerable to the issue of degradation. An example of this is the Amish people. However, advocates of ecological agriculture have cited the farming of Amish people as sustainability models. Amish are a religious society with a strong community and family ties. They are agrarian people with a long history of using agricultural methods that are energy intensive and albeit productive. Their low input farming methods that the Amish society practiced today have developed and have sustained them for over 300 years; however; this essay will evaluate the relationship between ecology, the climate within the sustainability context.

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People working towards a sustainable agriculture may advocate for farmers' use of minimum water use, ensure that they promote soil health, lower pollution level. To a lot of people in the alternative agricultural movement, the Amish tend to be a window into the future and a guidepost to a sustainable society. Amish people are depicted as successful farmers with one of the most exemplary lifestyle embodied with all the sustainability requirements. Moreover, Amish are portrayed as America's most ecologically correct farmers. ( Jackson, 1980).Farms are homeostatic and operate as interrelated systems where there is energy recycling, and there is the replacement of cultural information with conventional farming. Ample ethnographic evidence and several research have suggested that Amish farming methods have minimized ecological harm. They use less fossil fuel because they use their old methods that involve the use of manual labor, manure, horsepower and do not rely on grid electricity.

Similarities Between Ecology, Climate, and Sustainability.

• They have aspects of Biology
• Affects biodiversity
• Are affected by human activities

Differences Between Ecology, Climate, and Sustainability

Ecology Climate Sustainability

Is a study of organic life It is a weather experience It is an act or Continuous behavior and practices contributing to the environment.

Determines the relationship that exists between organism and their environment It determines geographical distributions of vegetation and species distribution. Determines the future of living things and environment

Ecology

Ecology is a branch of biology that deals with relations between the environment and organisms. Ecology is a study about organic life that examines elements such as the abundance of general and local spatial distribution and their relationship with the environment. Human activities have continued to affect biodiversity because of the population growth example of human activities include pollution, agriculture, etc. Morever, human activities in an ecosystem have threatened biodiversity as a huge population leads to displacement of species.

Climate

Climate change is the total weather experience at a given place over some time. (Lamb, 1997). It is the only most important factor that determines species' geographical distributions and types of vegetation. It also has an influence on the ecosystems properties and energy flow and materials through them. Climate has an impact on biological systems, where survival and reproduction depend on adaptation to local a pattern. However, climatic changes may disrupt the match between various organism and their environment. Climate change also affects environmental diversity in various ways that include; It leads to increased intensity, frequency or extreme weather durations such as a warm spell, heavy rainfall and heat events that includes intense storm surges, drought, and rise in the sea level. (Field and Barros, 2014). Moreover, Climate affects various ecosystems and impacts on water resources, forestry, agriculture, health, and biodiversity.

Sustainability

Sustainability is the continuance capacity of more or less future indefinitely. It implies social equity that concern generations; this concern should logically be extended within a generation to equity. In ecology, sustainability describes ways in which biological systems remain productive and diverse over time. (Andrianos, Sneep, Kerber & Attfield, 2014). However, sustainable development is a question of an individual's opportunities to affect their future, voice their concern and claim their rights.

In ecologic perspective, sustainability is the biological system perspective to remain indefinitely productive and diverse. Today, in every part of the world, we are confronted with evidence that modern contemporary society is not sustainable. Paradigm and industrialization of dominant development in the past two centuries is not a sustainable approach to human or natural resources. To build a sustainable environment and society, every individual should be willing to rethink on fundamental concepts of biology, science, economics, and society. However, sustainable living things must be regenerative systems where they should be capable of reproducing, renewing themselves and maintaining their vitality and productivity from generation to generation. Additionally, the new agricultural sustainability new paradigm is developed by farmers around the globe where they may label themselves as biodynamic or organic. However, sustainable farming should be ecologically sound, socially responsible and economically viable.

References

Jackson, W. (1980). New roots for agriculture. Lincoln, Neb.: University of Nebraska Press.

Field, C., & Barros, V. (2014). Climate change 2014 (5th ed.). New York: Cambridge University Press.

Lamb, H. (1997). Climate, History and the Modern World (2nd ed.). London: Routledge Press.

Andrianos, L., Sneep, J., Kerber, G., & Attfield, R. (2014). Sustainable alternatives for poverty (2nd ed.). Chania: Cambridge Scholar Publishing.