How can we balance economic development and environmental sustainability and relationship between economic growth and environmental pollution?
Economic policies such as rationalization of price subsidies, the clarification of property rights, and facilitation of technology transfer may help in achieving environmental sustainability. Rationalizing subsidies will save money, improves efficiency and can significantly lower pollution. Expanding educational opportunities for women and, improving soil conservation, water supply and sanitation services. For instance, investments in female education, particularly at the secondary level, have some of the highest returns for development and the environment. Reducing land usage and making supply chains more efficient with less resources required to operate or maintain them and reducing harmful emissions and pollutants in every stage of the business. Balance economic growth and opportunities with less environmental impact. Economic development is often put ahead of environmental sustainability as it involves people's standards of living. However, quality of life can decline if people live in an economic place with a poor environmental quality because of economic development. Economic Development refers to the development of the economy in terms of financial progress, advancement in technology and improvement in standard of living. Sustainable Development means the use of available resources in such a manner that present and future generations can reap the benefits. The early stage of economic development, environmental pollution will continue to increase with economic development until economic growth reaches a “turning point.” Subsequently, environmental pollution will show a downward trend and environmental quality will improve. All economic activities either affect or are affected by natural and environmental resources. Activities such as extraction, processing, manufacture, transport, consumption and disposal change the stock of natural resources add stress to the environmental systems and introduce wastes to environmental media. Environmental pollution is a global issue for both developed and developing economies. These manmade activities influence all the components of the environment. The municipal, industrial waste and agricultural practices, increasingly domestic, which cause wastewater, are primary emerging pollutants nowadays.
According to Medium, the relationship between human society and the environment is a complex one that requires a balance between economic development and environmental sustainability. Achieving this balance requires a multi-faceted approach that includes policy changes, sustainable practices, education, and a reconnection with the natural world.
I agree with Rana Hamza Shakil that sustainability is the balance between the environment, equity, and economy. Economic policies such as rationalization of price subsidies, the clarification of property rights, and facilitation of technology transfer may help in achieving environmental sustainability. Reducing land usage that making supply chains more efficient with less resources required to operate or maintain them and reducing harmful emissions and pollutants in every stage of the business. Balance economic growth and opportunities with less environmental impact. Forest resources should be used in an environment friendly and developmentally sound manner. Instead of using non-renewable natural resources, use of renewable natural resources should be preferred. Waste water generated by industries should be recycled. Increase in GDP leads to increase in material and energy use, and therefore to environmental unsustainability. There is an uncomfortable scientific truth that has to be faced: economic growth is environmentally unsustainable. Economic sustainability is all about giving people what they want without compromising the quality of life, especially in the developing world. Environmental sustainability: It is the process of meeting the needs of air, food, water, and shelter as well as ensuring that the environment is neither affected nor polluted. Economic development is often put ahead of environmental sustainability as it involves people's standards of living. However, quality of life can decline if people live in an economic place with a poor environmental quality because of economic development. Taking steps to reduce or eliminate pollution from nonpoint sources such as streets and farms will help to maintain the ecological balance. Sewage and run-off of agricultural fertilizer can cause the rapid growth of algae in lakes and streams. The growth of algae blocks sunlight and depletes the oxygen in the water. Natural resources are the basic condition for development; human resources are the basic condition for sustainable development. Development in connection with the environment is oriented toward exploitation and reclamation, whereas sustainable development is oriented toward conservation and reasonable usage. A balanced ecosystem is important because it ensures the survival and well-being of all the living and non-living elements in the environment, including humans. It helps maintain biodiversity, soil quality, and the water cycle, which are essential for the planet's health and sustainability. The relationship between economic development and environmental pollution can be traced back to the emergence of the growth limit theory, which holds that with the increase in industrial output, the consumption of natural resources, accumulation of waste, and concentration of pollutants will increase. In the early stage of economic development, environmental pollution will continue to increase with economic development until economic growth reaches a “turning point.” Subsequently, environmental pollution will show a downward trend and environmental quality will improve. Environmental economics focuses on how they use and manage finite resources in a manner that serves the population while meeting concerns about environmental impact. This helps governments weigh the pros and cons of alternative measures and design appropriate environmental policies. Air pollution can affect businesses through reduced workforce productivity, work absences, premature deaths and lower crop yields. Climate change presents a range of risks and impacts that are expected to negatively impact our economy. These include property loss and damage, infrastructure and service costs and risks to financial stability. Increase in GDP leads to increase in material and energy use, and therefore to environmental unsustainability. There is an uncomfortable scientific truth that has to be faced: economic growth is environmentally unsustainable.
dear doctor
This is chosen from a study by Awan (2013) hoping being interesting
"Environment and Sustainable Development There is close link between environment and sustainable development which is used in the broad perspective and the overall development of human beings without any distinction. The World Conservative Strategy initiated by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP),the world wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and international Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), provided the platform for international debate on sustainability. The most noteworthy step towardssustainable development is the publication of an international report titled “Our Common Future” by World Commission on Environment (WCED) in 1987. This is commonly known as “The Brundtland Report “.The report defined sustainable development as “Development that meets the needs of the present, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”.
According to this report, the major objective of development should be to ensure the satisfaction of human needs and aspirations of a material kind. It emphasized the fact that over exploitation of resources may compel human societies to compromise their ability to meet the essential needs of their people in future. Settled agriculture, the diversion of watercourses, the extraction of minerals, the emission of heat and noxious gases into the atmosphere, commercial forests, and genetic manipulation, were all mentioned in the report as examples of human intervention in natural system during the course of development. It called upon all countries to adopt the objective of sustainable development as the overriding goal and test of national policy and international cooperation.
DIFFERENT DIMENSIONS OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT Sustainable development has many dimensions. Some of them are briefly described in the followings:
- Social Dimension
* Workers‟ health and safety.
* Impact on local communities, quality of life.
* Benefits to disadvantaged groups, for example, the disabled.
Economic Dimension
Creation of new markets and opportunities for sales growth.
Cost reduction through efficiency improvements and reduced energy and raw material inputs.
Creation of additional value. International Journal of Asian Social Science, Environmental Dimension
Reduced waste, effluent generation, emissions into environment.
Reduced impact on human health.
Use of renewable raw materials.
Elimination of toxic substances.
The development has different nature which deals with the welfare of human being and its ultimate goal is his amelioration. The sketch of different nature of developments is given below:-
1. Spiritual Development- It deals with the religious and moral values.
2. Human Development- It deals with Society and social structure.
3. Economic Development- It deals with the Economy and Economic System.
4. Political Development- It deals with the Government and political system. 5. Cultural Development - It deals with the Culture, Customs, Traditions and norms.
6. Ecological Development- It deals with the Nature (Environment).
Trade-off between Economic Growth and Environment There is tradeoff between economic growth and environment because of desire to high growth and excessive use of resources that cause environmental pollution. Poor people and poor countries depend on the soil for food, the rivers for water and forests for fuel. Because they need these resources desperately, they have little choice, without assets or income, but to overuse them and to destroy their natural environment simply to survive. In doing so, they threaten their health and lives of their children. As the income and consumption levels of the poor increase there is likely to be net increase in environmental destruction. Meeting increasing consumption demand while keeping environmental degradation at a minimum is an uphill task. As the poor countries desire more economic growth they will use more available natural resources resulting in environmental degradation. Economic growth is vital for giving more options to poor societies, but their models of development must become less energy intensive and more environmentally sound. For industrial counties, too, stopping growth or even seriously slowing it is not much of an option for protecting the global environment. Their slower growth would imperil growth in the poor nations, which are dependent on the markets of the rich nations. Moreover, their continuing growth is needed to generate new environmentally safe technologies and extra margin of resources needed for transfer to poor nations. But the growth models of industrial nations must change drastically. The current quantity of growth should be replaced by quality. In order to create balance between economic growth and environmental degradation it is necessary to break the cycle of poverty and environmental destruction in the less developed countries (LDCs). However, the earning capacity of under-developing countries (UDC) is continuously declining due to protectionism of the Developed Countries (DCs). According to the United Nations estimate of 2001,annual losses of the developing countries due to lack of access to the goods markets of the developed countries were more than double the total amount of aid received in 2000 from all resources. If lack of access to capital and labour markets is included the total annual losses will be about $500 billion. In addition to trade barriers, the industrialized countries are panelizing the poor developing countries by heavily subsidizing their own agricultural sectors, which is estimated to be around $300 billion per annum. The industrialized countries must change their policies to enable the less developed countries to break vicious circle of absolute poverty (Haq, 1999)."
Environmental problems and their solution in Economies: With the help of input-output analysis, cost benefit analysis, pollution tax and environmental subsidies, economics shows various ways and means to solve the environmental problems. Environmental problems are basically man-made and economics has solution for them. Economic growth will be undermined without adequate environmental safeguards, and environmental protection will fail without economic growth. The earth's natural resources place limits on economic growth. These limits vary with the extent of resource substitution, technical progress, and structural changes. The early stage of economic development, environmental pollution will continue to increase with economic development until economic growth reaches a “turning point.” Subsequently, environmental pollution will show a downward trend and environmental quality will improve. In the long term, environmental problems can have a severe impact on human life, both physically and mentally, as well as disrupting economic stability. Therefore, it is essential to implement environmental economics to reduce environmental problems and create a more sustainable society. The critical difference in the study of natural resource economics and the environmental economics is that the natural resource economics is interested in the demand, supply, and distribution of natural resources, while environmental economics studies the environmental issues. Economic development leads to economic growth. Growth happens through the changes brought about by development, as the quality of life can impact the output of products and services. The goal of economic development is economic growth. Economic growth and development indicate progress in a country's economy. Increase in GDP leads to increase in material and energy use, and therefore to environmental unsustainability. There is an uncomfortable scientific truth that has to be faced: economic growth is environmentally unsustainable. There is a close relationship between the environment and development: The environment is the locality and the object of development, while development is the cause of environmental changes. Dirty air causes major health issues, which have serious consequences for our economy. Air pollution can affect businesses through reduced workforce productivity, work absences, premature deaths and lower crop yields. The longer we take to clean our air, the greater the economic costs will be. Economic growth means an increase in real national income / national output. Economic development means an improvement in the quality of life and living standards, e.g. measures of literacy, life-expectancy and health care. Ceteris paribus, we would expect economic growth to enable more economic development. Taking these three pillars of sustainability further if we only achieve two out of three pillars then we end up with: Social + Economic Sustainability = Equitable. Social + Environmental Sustainability = Bearable. Economic + Environmental Sustainability = Viable. Economic policies such as rationalization of price subsidies, the clarification of property rights, and facilitation of technology transfer may help in achieving environmental sustainability. In other words, the relationship between environment and development is strong and not limited to production and consumption, but takes another dimension: redistribution of income, often from the poor to the rich, because the latter are the initiators of development projects that pollute the environment. The production and use of goods can deplete natural resources and generate pollution. In addition to the scale of consumption increasing with income, the composition of what people consumes changes, which could either exacerbate or offset their environmental footprint. How does the environment affect the growth and development of a child? A child's environment determines how well they develop based on the exposure they get. Whether social, economic, or even physical, the environment will influence how they eventually grow up. Economic development is often put ahead of environmental sustainability as it involves people's standards of living. However, quality of life can decline if people live in an economic place with a poor environmental quality because of economic development.
Economic policies such as rationalization of price subsidies, the clarification of property rights, and facilitation of technology transfer may help in achieving environmental sustainability. Rationalizing subsidies will save money, improves efficiency and can significantly lower pollution. Forest resources should be used in an environment friendly and developmentally sound manner. Instead of using non-renewable natural resources, use of renewable natural resources should be preferred. Waste water generated by industries should be recycled. Clean air and water, healthy food and preserved nature all benefit human health and result in far more economic benefit than economic cost. The global economy recycles less than 10 percent of materials; about 50 percent of processed materials are used to provide energy and are thus not available for recycling. It is simple: economic growth is not compatible with environmental sustainability. Recycling and reducing pollution is a common economic and environmental stability practice that can help increase the value of materials. As, a company producing aluminum cans can sustain operations by recycling used cans and creating molten aluminum for recasting, instead of mining for aluminum ore.There is tradeoff between economic growth and environment because of desire to high growth and excessive use of resources that cause environmental pollution. Poor people and poor countries depend on the soil for food, the rivers for water and forests for fuel. Taking steps to reduce or eliminate pollution from nonpoint sources such as streets and farms will help to maintain the ecological balance. Sewage and run-off of agricultural fertilizer can cause the rapid growth of algae in lakes and streams. The growth of algae blocks sunlight and depletes the oxygen in the water.
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Geoscience
- Asia
- India