Why environmental conservation is important to the economy and which economy should we adopt to protect and conserve the environment?
Adopting the circular economy can help to protect the environment
The conservation of natural lands and of working farms and forests can generate financial returns, both to governments and individuals, and create significant cost savings as well. Air/land/water pollution causes health problems and can damage the productivity of land and seas. Deforestation resulting from economic development damages soil and makes areas more prone to drought. Economic growth leads to resource depletion and loss of biodiversity. Conservation Economics is the use of economics to understand the costs and benefits of sustaining natural ecosystems. Its purpose is to accomplish more widespread and lasting conservation by lowering its costs, revealing its benefits and fitting it within genuine economic development. The environment supports economic activity by man in four ways – it provides life support, supplies natural resources for production and consumption, absorbs waste products and supplies amenity services. The environment supports economic activity by man in four ways – it provides life support, supplies natural resources for production and consumption, absorbs waste products and supplies amenity services. A green economy is defined as low carbon, resource efficient and socially inclusive. A circular economy will enable us to sustainably address our basic needs using the resources that are available to us. Here growth is restrained by the available means. Minimizing the need for natural resources may enable us to respect planetary boundaries and live within the earth's carrying capacity. A prominent contemporary example of the use of environmental economics is the cap and trade system. Companies purchase carbon offsets from developing countries or environmental organizations to make up for their carbon emissions. Another example is the use of a carbon tax to penalize industries that emit carbon. U-Shaped curve for economic growth and the environment one theory of economic growth and the environment is that up to a certain point economic growth worsens the environment, but after that the move to a post-industrial economy it leads to a better environment. 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. 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.