Ask a Teacher
Will pollution affect the development of our country |
Yes!The industrialization of the developing world is creating unsustainable pollution levels. The solution requires a technological and an intellectual revolution; an alternative route to economic prosperity that preserves resources and limits carbon emissions has to be developed before it’s too late. Environmental economics views the real economy in which we all live and work as an open system. This means that in order to function, the economy must extract resources (raw material and fuel) from the environment, process these resources, and dispose of large amounts of dissipated and/or chemically transformed resources back into the environment. The process starts with the extraction of resources, which can be exhaustible (fixed in overall quantity) or renewable ( resource grows through time). The process ends with the disposal of transformed resources which could pollute the environment. Pollution is waste that has been disposed off in the air, in water or on land, and that reduces the value of those resources in alternative uses. Resource depletion and environmental pollution are key factors in determining the natural capital of a nation and achieving sustainable development. Environmental economics uses cost-benefit thinking to deal with environmental problems and issues. Benefits and damage assessments are used to integrate the un-priced but valuable functions of natural environments into cost-benefit analysis of real world projects, and to illustrate the kinds of economic damage done to national economics by resource depletions and pollution. In an ideal world all wastes that cannot be recycled would be outlawed. The costs of a pollution free society would be very high. The other extreme is to live in a society where there is no pollution control. The real world is somewhere in between these two extremes, i.e., it is necessary to achieve a balance between the social costs and social benefits of reducing pollution. All industries and other firms should strictly follow EPA guide lines to combat pollution. Empirical evidence indicates that after substantial amount of polluting emissions have been reduced, extra waste reduction is much more costly than previous reductions. There is a point beyond which the costs of further reducing pollution by far exceeds the increase in social benefits and what people are willing to pay. The benefits of pollution control are measured by the reduction in damages caused by pollution to human health, and to material, natural and agricultural resources. Developing countries will suffer the most from the weather-related disasters and increased water stress caused by global warming, consequences outlined in our other trend chapters. Even 2°C warming above pre-industrial temperatures – the minimum the world will experience – would result in 4-5% of African and South Asian GDP being lost and developing countries are expected to bear 75-80% of impact costs. Example: According to analysis by the Global Burden of Disease Study, air pollution in China contributed to 1.2 million premature deaths in 2010, representing a loss of 25 million years of healthy life.We need to find a means to continue the country’s expansion while reducing fossil fuel use. This means investing in a power generation network that can replace coal, including renewables, nuclear and gas, and phasing out low-efficiency generators. Progress needs to be measured by something other than GDP, which does not include environmental conditions or quality of life. There are two main ways developed countries need to help with this process. There needs to be a flow of funding to the developing world, providing the means to finance change, and we must cooperate to develop new low- carbon technologies. It’s crucial that countries such as China build up their research and development capacity for solar power, wind turbines and carbon capture, and international cooperation can help developed countries become involved higher up the supply chain. |