Chapter 10 - The Environment & Development

Introduction
The topic “environment and development” is so broad that it could easily cover any number of sub-topics, such as cultural
ecology and human ecology, political ecology, or developing world. Separately, environment is defined here as the entirety
of the physical world consisting of the world’s land masses, oceans, and atmosphere. Development is defined as the
process of growth and change in human social, political, and economic systems. The two terms have traditionally
intersected in developing areas where one or more natural resources have been utilized to promote economic growth. This
intersection has been extended in the recent literature to include not only the impact of development on environment but
also human perceptions of environment in the development process and the role of non-human actors in development.
“Developing areas” are defined as those places where economic and/or social development has been slower, hindered, or
in some way less than average. This need not refer to country or continental units of space, nor need it be restricted to the
“global south” or “Third World.” Those terms often connote a homogeneity that research has shown to be problematic.

Environmental impact: (The Limits to Growth and Overconsumption)

Critics such as the Club of Rome argue that a narrow view of economic growth, combined with globalization, is creating a
scenario where we could see a systemic collapse of our planet's natural resources. The marginal costs of a growing
economy may gradually exceed the marginal benefits, however measured.
Concerns about negative environmental effects of growth have prompted some people to advocate lower levels of growth,
or the abandoning of growth altogether. In academia, concepts like uneconomic growth, steady-state economy and
degrowth have been developed in order to achieve this and to overcome possible growth imperatives. In politics, green
parties embrace the Global Greens Charter, recognizing that "... the dogma of economic growth at any cost and the
excessive and wasteful use of natural resources without considering Earth's carrying capacity, are causing extreme
deterioration in the environment and a massive extinction of species." 
The 2019 Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services published by the United Nations'
Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services warned that given the substantial loss
of biodiversity, society should not focus solely on economic growth. Anthropologist Eduardo S. Brondizio, one of the co-
chairs of the report, said "We need to change our narratives. Both our individual narratives that associate wasteful
consumption with quality of life and with status, and the narratives of the economic systems that still consider that
environmental degradation and social inequality are inevitable outcomes of economic growth. Economic growth is a means
and not an end. We need to look for the quality of life of the planet."
Those more optimistic about the environmental impacts of growth believe that, though localized environmental effects may
occur, large-scale ecological effects are minor. The argument, as stated by commentator Julian Lincoln Simon, states that if
these global-scale ecological effects exist, human ingenuity will find ways to adapt to them. Conversely Partha Dasgupta, in
a 2021 report on the economics of biodiversity commissioned by the British Treasury, argues that biodiversity is collapsing
faster than at any time in human history as a result of the demands of contemporary human civilization, which "far exceed
nature's capacity to supply us with the goods and services we all rely on. We would require 1.6 Earths to maintain the
world's current living standards." He says that major transformative changes will be needed "akin to, or even greater than,
those of the Marshall Plan," including abandoning GDP as a measure of economic success and societal progress.
In 2019, a warning on climate change signed by 11,000 scientists from over 150 nations said economic growth is the driving
force behind the "excessive extraction of materials and overexploitation of ecosystems" and that this "must be quickly
curtailed to maintain long-term sustainability of the biosphere." They add that "our goals need to shift from GDP growth and
the pursuit of affluence toward sustaining ecosystems and improving human well-being by prioritizing basic needs and
reducing inequality." A 2021 paper authored by top scientists in Frontiers in Conservation Science posited that given the
environmental crises including biodiversity loss and climate change, and possible "ghastly future" facing humanity, there
must be "fundamental changes to global capitalism," including the "abolition of perpetual economic growth."

Global warming: Economics of Global Warming

Global warming is the gradual heating of the Earth's surface, oceans and atmosphere, and is caused by human activity,
primarily the burning of fossil fuels that pump carbon dioxide (CO2), methane and other greenhouse gases into the
atmosphere. Already, global warming is having a measurable effect on the planet. There is a close correlation between
economic growth and the rate of carbon dioxide emissions across nations, although there is also a considerable divergence
in carbon intensity (carbon emissions per GDP). Up to the present, there is also a direct relation between global economic
wealth and the rate of global emissions. The Stern Review notes that the prediction that, "Under business as usual, global
emissions will be sufficient to propel greenhouse gas concentrations to over 550 parts per million of CO2 by 2050 and over
650–700 ppm by the end of this century is robust to a wide range of changes in model assumptions." The scientific
consensus is that planetary ecosystem functioning without incurring dangerous risks requires stabilization at 450–550 ppm.
As a consequence, growth-oriented environmental economists propose government intervention into switching sources of
energy production, favoring wind, solar, hydroelectric, and nuclear. This would largely confine use of fossil fuels to either
domestic cooking needs (such as for kerosene burners) or where carbon capture and storage technology can be cost-
effective and reliable. The Stern Review, published by the United Kingdom Government in 2006, concluded that an
investment of 1% of GDP (later changed to 2%) would be sufficient to avoid the worst effects of climate change, and that
failure to do so could risk climate-related costs equal to 20% of GDP. Because carbon capture and storage are as yet widely
unproven, and its long-term effectiveness (such as in containing carbon dioxide 'leaks') unknown, and because of current
costs of alternative fuels, these policy responses largely rest on faith of technological change.
British conservative politician and journalist Nigel Lawson has deemed carbon emission trading an 'inefficient system of
rationing'. Instead, he favors carbon taxes to make full use of the efficiency of the market. However, in order to avoid the
migration of energy-intensive industries, the whole world should impose such a tax, not just Britain, Lawson pointed out.
There is no point in taking the lead if nobody follows suit.

Resource Constraint: Exceeding Global Limits to Growth

Many earlier predictions of resource depletion, such as Thomas Malthus' 1798 predictions about approaching famines in
Europe, The Population Bomb, and the Simon–Ehrlich wager (1980) have not materialized. Diminished production of most
resources has not occurred so far, one reason being that advancements in technology and science have allowed some
previously unavailable resources to be produced. In some cases, substitution of more abundant materials, such as plastics
for cast metals, lowered growth of usage for some metals. In the case of the limited resource of land, famine was relieved
firstly by the revolution in transportation caused by railroads and steam ships, and later by the Green Revolution and
chemical fertilizers, especially the Haber process for ammonia synthesis.
Resource quality is composed of a variety of factors including ore grades, location, altitude above or below sea level,
proximity to railroads, highways, water supply and climate. These factors affect the capital and operating cost of extracting
resources. In the case of minerals, lower grades of mineral resources are being extracted, requiring higher inputs of capital
and energy for both extraction and processing. Copper ore grades have declined significantly over the last century. Another
example is natural gas from shale and other low permeability rock, whose extraction requires much higher inputs of energy,
capital, and materials than conventional gas in previous decades. Offshore oil and gas have exponentially increased cost as
water depth increases.
Some physical scientists like Sanyam Mittal regard continuous economic growth as unsustainable. Several factors may
constrain economic growth – for example: finite, peaked, or depleted resources. In 1972, The Limits to Growth study
modeled limitations to infinite growth; originally ridiculed, some of the predicted trends have materialized, raising concerns
of an impending collapse or decline due to resource constraints. Malthusians such as William R. Catton, Jr. are skeptical of
technological advances that improve resource availability. Such advances and increases in efficiency, they suggest, merely
accelerate the drawing down of finite resources. Catton claims that increasing rates of resource extraction are "stealing
ravenously from the future".

Energy: Econodynamics & Energy Efficiency

Econodynamics is an empirical science that studies emergences, motion and disappearance of value—a specific concept
that is used for description of the processes of creation and distribution of wealth. Energy economic theories hold that rates
of energy consumption and energy efficiency are linked causally to economic growth. The Garrett Relation holds that there
has been a fixed relationship between current rates of global energy consumption and the historical accumulation of world
GDP, independent of the year considered. It follows that economic growth, as represented by GDP growth, requires higher
rates of energy consumption growth. Seemingly paradoxically, these are sustained through increases in energy efficiency.
Increases in energy efficiency were a portion of the increase in Total factor productivity. Some of the most technologically
important innovations in history involved increases in energy efficiency. These include the great improvements in efficiency
of conversion of heat to work, the reuse of heat, the reduction in friction and the transmission of power, especially through
electrification. There is a strong correlation between per capita electricity consumption and economic development.

Possibility of Infinite Economic Growth

Ecological economics criticizes the possibility of infinite economic growth. Current economic models suggest the economy
can grow continuously as a perpetual motion machine. However, according to the Laws of Thermodynamics perpetual
motion machines do not exist. The First Laws says matter and energy cannot be created or destroyed, and the Second
Laws says that matter and energy move from a low entropy (energy loss), useful state towards a less useful higher entropy
state. Thus, no system can continue without inputs of new energy that exit as high entropy waste. Just as no animal can live
on its own waste, no economy can recycle the waste it produces without the input of new energy to reproduce itself.
Matter and energy enter the economy in the form of low entropy natural capital, such as solar energy, oil wells, fisheries,
and mines. These materials and energy are used by households and firms alike to create products and wealth. After the
material are used up, the energy and matter leave the economy in the form of high entropy waste that is no longer valuable
to the economy. The natural materials that power the motion of the economic system from the environment, and the waste
must be absorbed by the larger ecosystem in which the economy exists.
It cannot be ignored that the economy intrinsically requires natural resources and the creation of waste that must be
absorbed in some manner. The economy can only continue churning if it has matter and energy to power it and the ability to
absorb the waste it creates. This matter and low entropy energy and the ability to absorb waste exists in a finite amount,
and thus there is a finite number of inputs and outputs to the flow that the environment can handle, implying there is a
sustainable limit to motion, and therefore growth, of the economy.