How does development link to the environment?
- Population growth due to health developments cause an increase in need for resources
- This causes impact on the environment with many land areas being used for production
- Urbanisation causes land areas to clear to make way for new towns, leading to things like deforestation
- The need for agriculture causes desertification from overgrazing
Identify 6 factors that put pressure on the environment.
1) Population growth
2) Industrial development
3) Species extinction
4) Deforestation
5) Desertification
6) Water pollution
Describe how population growth puts pressure on the environment.
- Ehrlich (1968) argued that the growing population causes environmental degradation due to desperate use of resources to sustain
- Rees (1996) estimated that the average consumption of someone from the West uses 10-14 acres of land in their lifetime whereas if resources were shared equally everyone would get 4.25 acres
- The rich consume resources of the poor with their ‘throw away’ economy that leads to waste
Describe how industrial development puts pressure on the environment.
- Technology with mining and using fossil fuels to create energy has effect on environment and climate
- CO2 levels are on the rise which causes global warming
Give an example of a country’s industrial development puts pressure on the environment.
China will have contributed to 40% of global CO2 emissions by 2050.
Describe how species extinction puts pressure on the environment.
- Ellwood (2001) notes that global extinction crisis is accelerating with dramatic declines in wildlife
- Habitat loss is a major cause of decline in many species
- Over past 500 years mankind has forced 816 species to extinction with a rate of 1 species every 4 years
- 12% of bird life, 25% of mammals and more than 30% of amphibians are threatened with extinction
Describe how deforestation puts pressure on the environment.
- Kingsbury (2004) argues deforestation may be the world’s most significant environmental problem
- Forests absorb a lot of CO2 so has implications for climate change
- Estimations of major rainforests (e.g. Amazon) being cleared within 30 years
- Motivated by poverty and debt as Brazil cleared 12% of Amazon in the 70s in attempts to repay World Bank
Describe how desertification puts pressure on the environment.
- In 2000, drought and desertification affected 110 countries
- Result of over-cultivation and overgrazing land for agriculture and cattle farming to provide resources for export to pay off debt
- Fertile land in developing countries owned by the West for cash crops
- Kinsbury (2004) noted that Africa in the 1970s were able to feed themselves with the land however by the 1980s they relied on aid
Give evidence for agriculture putting pressure on the environment.
24% of the earth’s land surface has been cultivated for agriculture.
- Millennium Ecosystem Assessment report (2005)
Describe how water pollution puts pressure on the environment.
- Clean drinking water threatened by pollution of rivers and streams
- Unclean drinking water threatens continuity of human and animal life
- Majority is caused by waste products of industrialisation with pesticides and chemical fertilisers
- In 2001, more than 1 billion people didn’t have access to piped water
Identify 4 factors that cause environmental degradation.
1) Economic necessity
2) Greed
3) Western consumer demand
4) Globalisation
Describe how economic necessity causes environmental degradation.
- Many of the poor in third world countries have no choice but to use environmental resources to survive
- Countries use their economic resources in order to sell to the West to pay off debt
Identify a sociologist who talks about economic necessity causing environmental degradation.
Ellwood (2001) argues that animals are poached by impoverished African villagers for the valuable ivory to stay alive by selling it to pay for food.
Describe how greed causes environmental degradation.
- The desire to accumulate wealthy by local elites and international corporations results in exploitation and selling off environmental resources
- Cost-cutting to increase profits may also lead to companies partaking in illegal dumping of toxic waste
Describe how Western consumer demand causes environmental degradation.
- Most developing countries are dependent on raw materials or cash crops for the majority of their income to pay off debt
- This may result in either overproduction or in the use of production techniques that pay little attention to the environmental costs with emphasis on profit
- Western consumerism demands resources to be in constant supply with a lot of it going to waste
- 4.5lbs of trash per day in the US is burned or dumped which causes pollution to air and environment.
Describe how globalisation causes environmental degradation.
- Export-led economic growth (e.g. cash-crops) and debt of countries have sped up consumption of natural resources
- Oversupply has led to falling prices, gaining no value to pay off debts however more is produced to continue income to pay off debt
- Emphasis on free markets in IMF policy has led to cuts in environmental spending due to insisting that developing Governments interfere less in their economies
What are Modernisation theory’s views on environmental degradation?
- Economic development comes above environmental protection due to being more important for development
- The environment is just a resource that allows creation of wealth
- Lands needs to be used for feeding population and industrialisation
- Developing countries are ‘under-polluted’
- Growing population eats up resources and destroys environment and so more focus on population control as threatens sustainability
Identify 3 criticisms of Modernisation theory.
1) The WHO found that 4/5 worldwide urban areas don’t meet WHO air quality guidelines with 98% being in poorer countries
2) Feeding people and generating wealth from environmental resources is not sustainable and will worsen problems such as famine and poverty
3) It is the West’s consumer culture that causes majority of environmental damage, not those in developing countries
What are Neoliberalism’s views on environmental degradation?
- Pearce (1989) argue that many services in the market are free (e.g. water) which causes environmental destruction for no cost and is therefore not entitled to environmental protection due to being free
- Market incentives should be used, such as green taxes to make polluters pay for the cost of cleaning up
- Skalir (1989) stated that some of the major polluters are US businesses who relocate to other countries due to the lower land regulation with higher freedom to pollute to maximise profits
Identify 1 aspect of Neoliberalism that has credibility.
Policies such as charging 5p for plastic bags to reduce plastic waster in ocean and the Landfill Tax (1996) give credibility to this theory as it has real life applications.
Identify 2 criticisms of Neoliberalism.
1) Calculating everyone’s daily pollution can be costly and timely
2) There is no guarantee the environment will stay protected as it is often more cost-efficient for companies to pollute than not to maximise profits
What are Dependency theory’s views on environmental degradation?
- Considering structural inequalities between Metropolises and Satellites is key to achieving sustainable development
- Pressures from these inequalities cause environmental destruction
- George (1988) describes debt crisis causing environmental problems as ‘financial ecocide’ as debt-ridden Satellites sell their fertile earth to Metropolises to gain more revenue
- Redclift (1987) argues that sustainable development is too optimistic about capitalism’s ability to deal with environmental problems leading to cultural differences in sustainability as the environment is only considered after development objectives conceived within a capitalist framework have been set
Identify 2 criticisms of Dependency theory.
1) Wallerstein’s World Systems Theory argues that Satellites can move out of dependency
2) Modernisation theory argues Western aid causing debt brings about development as Thailand had economic growth due to long hours and low wages
What are Environmentalism’s views on environmental degradation?
- If development and the environment are to coexist the nature of development needs to change in some way
- Schumacher (1973) argued that there needs to be an appropriate use of technology and more small scale development
- Some consideration of the need for consumption patterns to change in developed countries with distribution of wealth and power needing to be addressed
- Jackson (1994) argues a link between poverty and environmental destruction that cannot be solved by development due to the poor not benefiting from it and so the quality of development needs to replace the quantity
