Essay on Achieving Sustainable Economic and Environmental Balance: A Challenge Ahead

Introduction

With the increasing global changes and developments, it is definite that the environment will further change in the future. Often the link between the economy and the environment case be described as manifold as the environment provides resources to the economy as function as the sink for waste and emissions. As different pessimists argue that our economy and environment will eventually collapse due to the growing population and the perception that resources are finite, they point out that resources' exhaustion, environmental degradation and climate change pose a significant risk to human survival. Comparatively, the optimists argue that, regardless of the high population growth, the world is getting better, and resources cannot be exhausted. Thus, this paper will report on the views of different pessimists and optimists like Thomas Malthus, Julian Simon, Bjorn Lomborg, Jared Diamond, the Club of Rome, and Paul Ehrlich. Later, the paper will conclude by explaining my perspective regarding the future of our economy and environment as to whether it will get worse or better.

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Optimistic View on the Future of our Economy and Environment

In recent years, environmental quality and change have become a matter of public concern, particularly with the rising debates on climate change. According to Bjorn Lomborg, a Danish scientist and author of The Skeptical Environmentalist: Measuring the Real State of the World, Lomborg states that the debate on climate change is "polluted with misconceptions and myths" (Lomborg, 2001). As an economic and environmental optimist, Lomborg argues that water and air are getting cleaner today, in that the endangered forests and species are holding their own, and adds that most of the risks associated with environmental change and global warming are exaggerated. Even though acknowledging the reality of extreme hardships in the future of economic and ecological change, the optimists offer that individuals than ever before are living in every part of the universe, and are becoming more educated, more affluent, and healthier in the sense that humans are living more peacefully and longer.

Despite major controversies over Lomborg's book, The Skeptical Environmentalist: Measuring the Real State of the World, Lomborg continues to argue that extreme weather occasions are not on an upward trend, stating that climate change will on the balance help the growing world population until around 2070, adding that the issue of high carbon tax is mistaken. By comparing the past and present changes, Lomborg and other environmental optimists present that it is crucial to view the future at an economist perspective concluding that in the coming 100 years, the third world countries will be developed and will be more than twice as productive as the developed nations are today (Lomborg, 2001). Additionally, Julian Simon, an economist, was optimistic concerning the future of our economy and environment. Unlike environmental pessimists like Malthus and Paul Ehrlich, Julian Simon was confident that growth in human population would increase prosperity and ensure the fall of commodity prices (Ahlburg, 1998). Simon showed his optimist views as he argued that the world could accommodate more people and flourish because of our collective ingenuity, technological development, and flexible markets.

Economic and Environmental Future Pessimism

There are significant debates and pessimism on the future of our economy and environment. According to Thomas Malthus (1766-1834), an enlightenment thinker and political economist, he observed population increase with significant concerns. Through an essay Malthus wrote in the late 18th century; An Essay on the Principle of Population, Malthus argues that there is a faster increase in population than the supply of food and resources needed (Malthus, 1798). With time the increasing population will exceed the economic growth and exhaust resources hence crashing production and predicts that the increase would end in what he defines as the Malthusian crisis involving diseases, war, and famine. Contradicting to the optimistic belief that our economy and environment will become better, Malthus theory outlines that the universe cannot sustain increase population and will exhaust resources unless population growth is controlled (Malthus, 1798).

Jared Diamond, a Pulitzer Prize winner, discusses our economic and environmental future. In concurrence to the environmental pessimists, Jared Diamond provides the dangers that the future of our economy and environment may be holding. Within the book, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, (Diamond, 2005) Diamond argues that in the past, societies have fallen as a result of their failure to manage environmental crisis and problems. In his views, Jared Diamond provides that the historical record should serve as a warning today, and alert the people on the dangers of environmental vulnerability and the growing population (Diamond, 2005). Further, Paul Ehrlich, a German physician, provides a specific idea on the ecological future directly opposing Julian Simon's optimism. Ehrlich, the author of The Population Bomb book, argues that growth in population would be catastrophic to the future of our economy and environment (Ehrlich, 1968). According to Ehrlich, population growth would result in overconsumption, resource scarcity, and imposing feminine dangers for humanity.

Looking at the different views delivered by the Club of Rome, it provides crucial details on sustainable development. According to the first report given by the Club of Rome, The Limits to Growth, it provided concerns on the pessimistic perspective on the future of our economy and environment (Meadows & Meadows, 2007). However, in the second report, the Club of Rome revised the perceptions giving a more optimistic perspective concerning the future of the economy and environment.

Conclusion

In my view on the future of our economy and environment, I believe that the environment and economy will only get better. With the present changing technology and economic dynamics, events such as sustainable development will help safeguard the future of climate and economy. Also, most economical and environmental factors are within human control. As such, it means that the economic and environmental dangers and catastrophes are preventable under different implementations and environmental policies.

References

Ahlburg, D. (1998). Julian Simon and the Population Growth Debate. Population and Development Review, 24(2), 317-327. doi:10.2307/2807977

Diamond, J. (2005). Collapse: How societies choose to fail or succeed. New York: Viking Press.

Ehrlich, P. R. (1968). The Population Bomb. United States: Ballantine Books.

Lomborg, B. (2001). The Skeptical Environmentalist: Measuring the Real State of The World (Vol. 1). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Malthus, T. R. (1986). An Essay on the Principle of Population. 1798. The Works of Thomas Robert Malthus, London, Pickering & Chatto Publishers, 1, 1-139.

Meadows, D. H., & Meadows, D. (2007). The history and conclusions of The Limits to Growth. System Dynamics Review: The Journal of the System Dynamics Society, 23(23), 191-197.