Environmental Protection Should Be a Higher Priority than Economic Development

The issue of whether environmental protection should be prioritized than economic growth has been widely debated recently. It is an important issue because it is concerned with poverty reduction, quality of life improvement and provide valuable products. This essay will examine arguments supporting unrestricted economic growth and some problems with the views. It will then put forward reasons why environmental protection should be a higher priority than economic growth.

It has been claimed that the key aspect of poverty reduction and quality of life improvement is economic growth. (Department of International for Development, 2014).  This is supported by the reason that a growing economy creates many opportunities, such as jobs and businesses, which raise people out of poverty. In addition, a strong economy enables the development of infrastructure, such as roads, ports, schools and hospitals. This development enables people to improve their quality of life as they get better access to health and education. However, economic growth also creates wider social problems, such as social and income gaps, and does not always directly to reduce poverty. The reason for this is that growing economy encourages capitalists to generate monopolistic business and this situation causes problem of inequality wealth among the poorest people and the richest people. Furthermore, the environment greatly influences the quality of life. This is proved fact that in a damaged environment, quality of life is severely diminished. For example, the massive industrialization causes the air and water pollution. This situation causes problem of health and social, such as respiratory disease, overcrowding population and rising stress level in urban areas. As the result, people who live in a damaged environment should increase their health expense.

It has been argued that prioritising the environment would be a hugely expensive policy.  It is claimed that to halt global warming, for example, this action would cost of around 1 percent of global gross domestic product (Biello, 2007). Furthermore, avoiding deforestation would cost approximately US$ 4 billion per year (Grieg-Gran, 2008). However, the environment, in its original state, actually provides valuable products. Both of marine life and forest biodiversity, produce economic sustainable resources, such as fish, timbers, rattans and agarwoods. It is argued (Food and Agricultural Organization, 2008) that fisheries industries  involve a thousand of workers and these produce the products whose are worth billions of dollars per-annum. Also the further evidence is that the forest products, such as plywoods and agarwoods are valuable commodities in a global market (Jensen, 2009). In addition, protected environment enables people to use its sustainable resources. According to Nepstad and Schwartzman (1992), sustainable resource management will support environment to produce these products so people can use this resources continuously.

In conclusion, proponents of economic growth assume that it can reduce poverty and improve quality of life. However, a protected environment has much more benefits, such as its supporting quality of life and providing economic sustainable resources. Therefore, the government has to prioritize environmental protection than economic growth since environment provides valuable products which can be used for people’s welfare

REFERENCES

Biello, D. (2009). Is combating climate change worth the cost?. Retrieved from http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post/is-combating-climate-change-worth-t-2009-01-14/?id=is-combating-climate-change-worth-t-2009-01-14. Retrieved date 16 July 2014.

Department of International for Development (2014). Growth: Building Jobs and Prosperity In Developing Countries. Retrieved from http://www.oecd.org/derec/unitedkingdom/40700982.pdf Retrieved date 08 July 2014.

Food and Agriculture Organization. (2008). World review of fisheries and aquaculture. Retrieved from http://www.fao.org/docrep/013/i1820e/i1820e01.pdf retrieved date 16 July 2014.

Grieg-Gran, M. (2008). The Cost of Avoiding Deforestation Update of the Report prepared for the Stern Review of the Economics of Climate Change. Retrieved from http://pubs.iied.org/pdfs/G02489.pdf Retrieved date 16 July 2014.

Jensen, A. (2009). Valuation of non-timber forest products value chains. Forest Policy and Economics, 11(1), 34-41. Retrieved date 08 July 2014.

Nepstad, D. C., & Schwartzman, S. (1992). Non-timber products from tropical forests: evaluation of a conservation and development strategy. Retrieved date 08 July 2014.