Pollution and Poverty Essay

g eitherplacenment activity on the environment claim that a wealthy state could excessively be a polluting state and affluence can constitute a serious threat to the environment. The movement for protecting the environment commenced with a guide word of conservation and gradu wholey changed into an anti technology movement. It opposed the activities of the government, oil companies and the atomic industry.The impetus for the movement included several contrasting factors, such as developments in the physical sciences, which resulted in the capacity to detect very clarified amounts of chemicals the Vietnam War and the decisive book on this subject by Rachel Carson, namely, static Spring. The movement against the use of thermonuclear brawn was stimulated by the pro behaviorration of nuclear weapons. However this movement had exaggerated the dangers to the bea, by expressing unfounded fears over blink of an eye traces of radiation in the environment, caused by the nuclear e nergy programs (Hollander, 2003. Pp. 251).            It is important to control the Montreal Protocol, which was the first international consensus reached on prohibiting the use of certain chemicals. This Protocol was inspired by the movement, which had opposed the operation of supersonic aircraft for transportational needs. The operation of supersonic aircrafts regaining the stratospheric ozone layer of the automatic teller machine. The documentary Against Nature depicts the views of wealthy Western nation environmentalists who press that providing help to short(p) nations will compel them to increase production, which would make the world less sustain able.Those advocates of elitism demand that the poor nations should continue their traditional way of life such as agriculture, to be powered by animals or serviceman and non by tractors, and that energy should be produced by using appal dung rather than oil.  These comments c alculate the social issue of state growing. However, cosmos growth depends on the rate of fertility, which is continuously declining in every country. Thus, population growth should non be considered as a long destination global problem (Hollander, 2003. Pp. 251).                        In the case of fisheries such a point of view would be incorrect, because nearly a fourth of the worlds fisheries lease been over exploited. There is a severe depletion of fish re bloodlines all over the world. In order, to address this problem there should be adequate institutional systems to ensure property rights. This arrangement could also prove to be unsufferable for the poor people who live in the coastal areas and whose principal solution of living is fishing (Hollander, 2003. Pp. 251).            Just a century ago, fundamental elements manage water a nd air were unsafe in the rich countries. For instance, there were grampus smogs half a century ago. However, efforts were undertaken to provide better health to the world and that goal was achieved. Politicians have actively involved themselves in matters relating to measures that seek to take down the pollution of the air, acid rain and stratospheric ozone depletion.These areas are fully controlled by semipolitical ideology, with little or no leeway for science and economics. For instance, in the form 1973 there was an oil crisis due to the vicious control exercised by OPEC on oil production. This was the creation of politics. There will be no dearth of oil in the coming years, because there are still undiscovered deposits of heavy oil and tar sands. The earth contains vast resources of oil, which have non yet been explored. Such a measure involves a high live factor (Hollander, 2003. Pp. 251).             Sophistication in science results in new types of automobiles such as hybrid electric cars and fuel cell technology found cars. Consumption of fossil fuels such as coal is increasing every year and the burning of coal provides eighty percent of the energy subscribements of the US. most half of the electric power derives from the uptake of coal. In the US, eighty louver percent of the fossil fuel reserves consist of coal. Even if the enjoyment of coal continues at the current rate, it will be available for other two hundred and fifty years (Hollander, 2003. Pp. 251).            Solar energy is an rife natural source of energy, but producing energy from solar power is not cost effective. All the same, the utilization of solar energy is gradually on the increase. This is due to its high cost and the governments reluctance to boost its use by subsidizing it production and reducing costs. Uranium based nuclear fission energy is also a renewable ener gy source. The drawback with this source of energy is its cost and the requirements of technological infrastructure, more thanover, the poor countries would not be able to afford nuclear fission plants (Hollander, 2003. Pp. 251).            The concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is on the increase. This leads to global thaw. However, it is very difficult to evaluate human voice to the warming process, amidst natural temperature variations. In the period between 1940 and 1975 there was a thermal cooling of the atmosphere and this phenomenon defied a proper explanation. The analysis of beam data has revealed that there was no global warming in the goal two decades. At this juncture, it can be stated that human voice to the global warming process is of lesser significance.The theories, which attribute global warming to human activities, do not clearly integrate various atmospherical changes and properties. The meteorolog ical experts are in agreement with the fact that there are uncertainties in the atmospheric temperatures. Changes in the climate could be dealt with by fashioning certain adjustments. Such adjustments are easily available to the affluent nations. myopic nations would have to face much difficulty, in switching over to alternate adjustments provided by the Kyoto Protocol. Natural calamities such as floods, droughts, hurricanes and earthquakes affect the poor countries more severely. The economies of the poor countries would be disabilityd further, with the result that the impoverished countries become much poorer There has been a prediction that the sea level would rise if the cytosine caps melt due to global warming, but that is a natural process, which is not dependent on human contribution (Hollander, 2003. Pp. 251).            The bettering actions agreed to in the Kyoto Protocol would require the US to curtail its fossil fuel cons umption by thirty percent in the next ten years. This would require the US to spend more money on other energy sources and would not achieve any tangible results. The estimated cost to be incurred by the US, if it was to go in for non fossil fuel sources of energy, would be of the order of $2.3 trillion. The remedial actions provided by the Kyoto Protocol to mitigate the problem of global warming, energy confine schemes and the adoption of stricter measures after 2012, would only serve to curtail the economic growth of the poor countries.  (Hollander, 2003. Pp. 251).            The sophistication of science and improved living standards provide an hazard to mitigate the problem of environmental pollution. Poor people do not attach much importance to problems arising from pollution. This is because they encounter more immediate problems to be resolved. Despite, affluence being a contributory factor to pollution, nevertheless, it prov ides an opportunity to address such problems  (SWAN, September 1972).       In poor nations, basic requirement ilk food, water and shelter are difficult to fulfill. Only on the fulfilment of these basic needs, will there be any devotion of concept to issues beyond such immediate requirements. The rich countries are at the flash opening their factories, on a very enlarged scale, in the poor countries. This is because the labor there is cheap and abundant, and more importantly, the laws regarding environmental pollution are lax or non existent. This permits the rich nations of the world to totally ignore all safety measures in such countries, while causing immeasurable damage to the environment of those countries.Such an incident transpired in 1984, in the city of Bhopal in India. The Union Carbide Company operated a battery plant in that place, without stipendiary heed to safety regulations and with scant regard to the safety of the inhabitants. A la rge amount of methyl isocyanate gas leaked into the atmosphere, causing a large takings of deaths and physical impairment. In the event of the existence of uniform standards, in the context of use of environmental pollution, such malpractices will be curtailed. From the foregoing discussion it is unpatterned that it is essential to maintain the same environmental standards throughout the world.References Hollander, J. M. (2003. Pp. 251). The Real environmental Crisis Why Poverty, not Affluence, Is the Environments Number One Enemy. Berkely, atomic number 20 University of California Press.SWAN, J. A. (September 1972). Poverty, Prosperity, Pollution. Annals of Internal Medicine , Vol. 77. Iss. 3, Pp. 465 465 .