Week 7: Challenge of Sustainable Development

This week’s topic was “The Challenge of Sustainable Development”, and I have to say, it really shifted my perspective.

We often hear about sustainability through the lens of things like recycling, planting trees, or using metal straws. Those are good, of course. But this week made me realise that it goes much deeper than just trying to be eco-friendly. Sustainability is also about justice. It’s about economics, power, politics, and the systems we live in. And once you start looking at those areas, everything feels a lot more complicated than it first seems.

One thing that kept coming up was inequality. So many people around the world still struggle to access what we’d consider basic needs — clean water, proper food, decent healthcare, and quality education. It’s not just a gap. It’s a painful reality. And it reminded me that sustainable development isn’t only about protecting nature. It’s also about correcting long-standing injustices that people have been suffering from for years.

Prof. Suhaimi gave us an example that’s still stuck with me. He mentioned how a cow in Europe gets a daily subsidy that’s almost equal to what a person in Africa lives on each day. That hit me. Not in an abstract, statistics-on-a-slide kind of way, but in a real, emotional way. Suddenly, inequality wasn’t just an academic term. It felt personal.

Another thing that stood out was how unsustainability doesn’t happen by accident. It’s not just the result of poor choices or random events. In many cases, it’s the product of systems that were built to prioritise profits over people, and convenience over responsibility. That’s the part I didn’t really expect. It made me see sustainability not just as a technical or environmental issue, but a moral one too.

And of course, the environment is still at the heart of it. For too long, we’ve acted like the Earth can give and give without limits. But now we’re seeing the effects — rising temperatures, disappearing species, water scarcity. What makes it even harder to accept is that the people who suffer the most from these problems are usually the ones with the least power to change anything.

All in all, this week made me realise that sustainable development isn’t a simple checklist. It’s a massive, ongoing challenge. But it’s also something we can’t afford to ignore.