Write an Essay on topic - Poverty and Environment – Their Interrelationship is the Key to Sustainable World
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Many readers are probably familiar with the tale of four blind men being asked to identify the object in front of them. Each blind man just investigated a part so no one identified the whole as an elephant. Similarly, both environmental degradation and poverty alleviation are urgent global issues that have a lot in common, but are often treated separately. This article explores some of these linkages.
Both environmental degradation and poverty alleviation are urgent global issues that have a lot in common, but are often treated separately. Consider the following:
Human activities are resulting in mass species extinction rates higher than ever before, currently approaching 1000 times the normal rate;Human-induced climate change is threatening an even bleaker future;At the same time, the inequality of human societies is extreme:The United Nations 1998 Human Development Report reveals that, Globally, the 20% of the world’s people in the highest-income countries account for 86% of total private consumption expenditures—the poorest 20% a minuscule 1.3%To highlight this inequality further, consider that approximately 1 billion people suffer from hunger and some 2 to 3.5 billion people have a deficiency of vitamins and mineralsYet, some 1.2 billion suffer from obesityOne billion people live on less than a dollar a day, the official measure of povertyHowever, half the world — nearly three billion people — lives on less than two dollars a day.Yet, just a few hundred millionaires now own as much wealth as the world’s poorest 2.5 billion people.Sources: Poverty facts and statistics; Loss of Biodiversity; Climate change and global warming.
Issues about environment, economics and politics are inter-related through the way humans interact with their surroundings and with each other.
Biological diversity allows a variety of species to all work together to help maintain the environment without costly human intervention. We benefit because the environment sustains us with the variety of resources produced.
However, there is often a mainstream belief that for poor countries to develop, environmental concerns have to be sacrificed, or is a luxury to address once poverty is alleviated.
Therefore, the approaches to such issues require rethinking. The overloaded phrase sustainable development must recognize the interconnectedness between human beings and the environment if true environmental and social justice is to be obtained.
As Delhi-based environment organization, the Centre for Science and Environment, points out, if the poor world were to develop and consume in the same manner as the West to achieve the same living standards, we would need two additional planet Earths to produce resources and absorb wastes … and good planets are hard to find!
Both environmental degradation and poverty alleviation are urgent global issues that have a lot in common, but are often treated separately. Consider the following:
Human activities are resulting in mass species extinction rates higher than ever before, currently approaching 1000 times the normal rate;Human-induced climate change is threatening an even bleaker future;At the same time, the inequality of human societies is extreme:The United Nations 1998 Human Development Report reveals that, Globally, the 20% of the world’s people in the highest-income countries account for 86% of total private consumption expenditures—the poorest 20% a minuscule 1.3%To highlight this inequality further, consider that approximately 1 billion people suffer from hunger and some 2 to 3.5 billion people have a deficiency of vitamins and mineralsYet, some 1.2 billion suffer from obesityOne billion people live on less than a dollar a day, the official measure of povertyHowever, half the world — nearly three billion people — lives on less than two dollars a day.Yet, just a few hundred millionaires now own as much wealth as the world’s poorest 2.5 billion people.Sources: Poverty facts and statistics; Loss of Biodiversity; Climate change and global warming.
Issues about environment, economics and politics are inter-related through the way humans interact with their surroundings and with each other.
Biological diversity allows a variety of species to all work together to help maintain the environment without costly human intervention. We benefit because the environment sustains us with the variety of resources produced.
However, there is often a mainstream belief that for poor countries to develop, environmental concerns have to be sacrificed, or is a luxury to address once poverty is alleviated.
Therefore, the approaches to such issues require rethinking. The overloaded phrase sustainable development must recognize the interconnectedness between human beings and the environment if true environmental and social justice is to be obtained.
As Delhi-based environment organization, the Centre for Science and Environment, points out, if the poor world were to develop and consume in the same manner as the West to achieve the same living standards, we would need two additional planet Earths to produce resources and absorb wastes … and good planets are hard to find!
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