Assessment tasks

1. Select one important sustainability issue of global significance and express this issue in no more than one short sentence (2 marks).
   Note: you cannot select 'climate change' (or global warming) as your sustainability issue as this is the issue chosen for the demonstration example provided in the online discussion.
   
2. Describe the main environmental elements of your chosen global sustainability issue (5 marks).
   
3. Describe the critical social elements of this global sustainability issue (5 marks).
4. Describe the key economic elements of this global sustainability issue  (5 marks).
5. Identify two major ethical problems which are strongly connected with your chosen global sustainability issue (2 marks).
   
6. Discuss the two ethical problems identified in part 5 drawing on relevant ethical theory (8 marks).
   
7. Your chosen global sustainability issue presents both significant threats and opportunities for business. Discuss these major business threats and opportunities. (5 marks).
   
8. Your chosen global sustainability issue will contain multiple causes of unsustainability and will cause actions which are considered unethical. You are required to propose an ethical and sustainable solution to the problems which underpin this global sustainability issue. This proposed solution should address causes of unsustainability, as well as financial, technological and behavioural barriers to removing these causes of unsustainability  (8 marks).

Task 1

The three major areas of sustainability are environment protection, social and economic development. We will discuss an issue from environment protection section which is deforestation. Deforestation is one of the sustainable issues worldwide which has made several other impacts in the human world. Due to the increased population, there is the growing need for living space and land for agriculture where people could occupy land for their residence and work and cultivate food respectively, which is considered a major reason for deforestation.

Deforestation has an adverse impact on the nature as it disturbs that environment of flora and fauna. For the last 10 to15 years, there is an increased level of deforestation as trees are cut down to accommodate the increased demand of the population.

Task 2

The major impact of deforestation is the reduced habitat for more than million species of animals and plants. Over 80 % of earth's land is being used for homes for human and animals. Deforestation is destructive due to the associated issues arising from it. When forest, trees and plantation areas are being cleared for agriculture, urbanization and industrial use, it creates imbalance between the human activities and the nature. Some of the major environmental elements of deforestation are, 

1. Increase in Soil erosion

When trees are cut down the soil under it loosens and becomes devoid of water content leading to create dryness (Bradford 2018). When this soil is directly exposed to the sun it will become arid and become unsuitable for plant growth. 

2. Global warming

Tress or plants use greenhouse gases which made adverse impact on human and assist is keeping the environment clear of gaseous pollutants especially carbon dioxide. Reduction in forests will lead to the rise in amount of greenhouse gases which is harmful for human and animal health. The increase in greenhouse gases is directly connected to the increase in earth's temperature resulting in the global warming phenomenon (Jakuboski 2012). 

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