Week 4

Chapter 4 – Community Ecology, Population Ecology, and the Human Population.

“Some people believe that our most important goal should be to sharply reduce the rate of population growth in developing countries where 97% of the world’s population growth is expected to take place. Others argue that the most serious environmental problems stem from high levels of resource consumption per person in developed countries, which use 88% of the world’s resources and have much larger ecological footprints per person than do developing countries.”

What is your view on this issue? Explain your response...

Research has shown that developing nations impact negatively on the environment out of a need to survive, rather than one of want, as is the case for many developed countries (Miller & Spoolman, 2009, p. 14). Reducing population growth in developing countries is an important environmental goal to aim for; however, why this occurs must first be evaluated.

(Shah, 2009)

To do this, the world must look deeper into the global issue of poverty, unequal wealth distribution and affluence. Many developed nations view that freedom of trade, an ever growing economy and the subsequent generation of more jobs provide a larger tax income, a freer circulation of capital and the ability for countries to invest; so therefore the ensuing profits will “trickle-down” to help the poor, reducing poverty. Unfortunately, this is instead causing the benefits to flow up to the rich, widening the wealth gap (Miller & Spoolman, 2009, p. 318-319). It is disturbing to note that the Gross Domestic Product of the 41 deeply indebted developing countries, with a population approximating 567 million, is less than the wealth of the world’s seven richest people combined (Shah, 2010).

Affluent lifestyles of numerous urbanised countries lead to high levels of consumption, reflected in the alarming statistic published by the World Bank showing that in 2005, the richest 20% of the globe accounted for 76.6% of entire private consumption and the poorest fifth just 1.5% (Shah, 2010). Additionally, the United Nations Framework on Climate Change recognised that the “largest share of historical and current global emissions of greenhouse gases has originated in developed countries” (United Nations Framework on Climate Change, 1992, p. 2). Consequently, wealthier countries must be recognised as the greater contributors to the destruction of the ecosystem, leaving a much larger ecological footprint than those in poverty stricken developing countries (Miller & Spoolman, 2009, p. 15), and also have greater control over resource consumption, and subsequent environmental degradation.

It is suggested that industrialised nations should owe developing nations for the associated costs of climate change, amounting to over 600 billion dollars; which is triple the conventional debt that developing countries currently owe (Jubilee USA, 2009; Shah, 2010).

Developed countries have to assist in reducing poverty; by extending foreign debt cancellation, providing education, family planning guidance, sustainable energy supplies, and Microloans to the poor people of developing nations (Miller & Spoolman, 2009, p. 319). Additionally, developed nations are in a strong position to take control of their own outputs, use of natural resources, and should shift towards environmentally sustainable economies, for the benefit of the entire earth.

References:

Jubilee USA Network. (2009). Who owes whom? The climate debt we owe the world’s poor. Retrieved from http://www.jubileeusa.org/fileadmin/user_upload/Resources/Grassroots/Jubilee_USA_Climate_Change_Resource_09.pdf

Miller, G. T., & Spoolman, S. E. (2009). Sustaining the earth. (9th ed.). Belmont, CA: Brookes/Cole

Shah, Anup. (2009). Global Issues: Climate Justice and Equity. Retrieved from http://www.globalissues.org/article/231/climate-justice-and-equity

Shah, Anup. (2010). Global Issues: Poverty around the world. Retrieved from http://www.globalissues.org/article/4/poverty-around-the-world

Shah, Anup. (2010). Global Issues: Poverty Facts and Stats. Retrieved from http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-stats>

United Nations Framework on Climate Change. (1992). United Nations framework convention on climate change 1992. Retrieved from http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/convkp/conveng.pdf