Environmental protection is the basis of sustainable development?

Abstract

Sustainable development (SD) as a sociological-economic-political category rests on three pillars: environment, society and economy. The intersection of these three sets of immeasurably different sizes is defined as SD. Essential SD is the unhindered flow of substances and energy, i.e. the unfolding of biogeochemical cycles. Established in 2015 by the United Nations, it contains 17 interrelated and interdependent goals, such as the circulation of substances and energy in nature. Practically every goal is directly or indirectly related to the environment, with goal 13 explicitly apostrophizing it: "Climate Action-Climate Changes". The environment is indeed the central entity of civilization and together with food, health, energy and transport and information forms its framework. The question is how sustainable are the environment and SD, especially in the context of global perturbations, such as the CoViD-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, and almost daily disasters such as the recent earthquake in Turkey and Syria? The evidence is that the environment, as the carrier of SD, suffers unpredictable, uncertain and sudden changes, which it cannot compensate with natural mechanisms, and especially to be sustainable, since SD does not have a risk assessment. That is why we should certainly move from suitable to: smart development.