Rich countries cause major environmental damages
Rich countries cause major environmental damages
Rich countries cause major environmental damages. They should pay more for it. What's your view?
I agree with the above statement and feel that rich and developed countries who exploit nature for various economic activities should also take responsibility and pay more for the damages cause to environment.
The rich nations have accumulated enormous wealth because of increase in industrial development to become major suppliers of all type of products. The rise in industries has resulted in reduced forest cover, river pollution due to discharge of waste chemicals in river waters and rise in air pollution due high amount of carbon emissions. In short unbridled industrial activity has played havoc with the entire ecological system effecting humans, animals, air, water , soil and plant life.
The rich nations like USA, Britain, France, Germany, and Canada are selling goods to major world markets and earning billions of dollars at the cost of Mother Nature. In two decades of climate-change negotiations, a deep divide has remained between wealthy nations and developing ones, each side insisting the other move first to lower carbon emissions and curb the effects of global warming.
Industrialized, rich nations have flourished in part because they were able to burn fossil fuel indiscriminately for decades, and the impact of those emissions is only now being recognized as climate changes. As poor countries view it, rich nations got rich at their expense. As the earth continues to get warm, it will heighten water scarcity, intensify flooding and droughts and worsen some infectious diseases — all of which will first hit developing countries that have not yet had the chance to burn fossil fuels in large quantities.
There should be no doubts that that the U.S. bears more blame than any other nation, having emitted about one-quarter of all the CO2 that has ever resulted from the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation. Ethics and morality says that those who cause the problem must take responsibility for compensating for the environmental damages. Poor nations around the world have struggled with natural disasters and disease for years, ultimately, rich or poor, global warming is a problem we truly face together and hence the rich neighbors should take the lead in rectifying and correcting their mistakes.
U. S President Obama had talked about spending $10 billion a year on adaptation aid and rich countries will begin to seriously cut their emissions. This aid is a welcome step and should be followed by other wealthy nations to enhance the ecology and reduce environmental damage.
Discussion
- RE: Rich countries cause major environmental damages -Deepa Kaushik (04/14/14)
- Rich countries should be rich in their thought and conscience. Conversely, we visualize the rich countries keen towards fastening up to lead the extent of damage they make to the nature and habitat, under the cover of scientific development and research. They spend lots and lots to make sophisticated technology releasing hazardous waste products to the atmosphere causing pollution.
Pollution has raised to the extent of making some species to get extinct and a few others are on the endangered category. With the release of harmful gases, we have already made a hole in the ozone layer. With advancement in science and technology, mankind is lavishly spending money for the ease and comfortable living, at the cost of destruction of the surrounding environment.
Human tries to find a place on earth to have a peaceful atmosphere. Home is not a place of peace anymore with hi-tech appliances and machineries working for us. With all these comforts, we still look out for a soothing natural habitat close to nature, which is otherwise destroyed for more and more sophistication.
It is high time and the rich countries need to put a stop on their race towards destruction. Only difference between the rich and poor nations come up when the fight back mechanism comes into play against the natural calamities and manmade disasters. Richer nations do cover up their resources very well, whereas the poor ones struggles to manage the situation. Though the contribution to the destruction is more by the richer countries, yet those are the poor nations that bear its ill-effects.
- Rich countries cause major environmental damages -Janhvi Johorey (04/04/14)
Rich countries cause major environmental damages. They should pay more for it.
What's your view?
Introduction
Saving earth should have become a top priority for nations across the world by now. Global warming has caused extremes of temperature, freak storms and cold waves and it has harmed agricultural produce. If the world does not take constructive steps to prevent the problem from escalating further, ice caps will melt drastically and sea levels will rise beyond manageable points. Parts of the world will face flooding and disasters as a result for this. It is sad to see that more debate centred on how earth would be destroyed in 2012, according to the Mayan calendar rather than the negative effects of global warming. People will focus on superstitious beliefs regarding doomsday predictions, but they will not see the facts that are staring at them in the face. Unless rich countries realize that they need to pay for the environmental damages they are causing, they stand to lose a lot more than just cash. If the earth undergoes irreversible changes as a result of global warming, mankind will share the blame for destroying its own existence.
Viewpoint
Environmentalists and scientists have been cautioning world leaders for a long time now regarding global warming. Rich countries have a lot more cars and industries and they do contribute more significantly to the environmental unbalance as compared to poorer nations. Advanced nations have definitely released more CO2 and caused considerable damage to our world. Moreover, they also have the capacity to pay for the damage and they should definitely be held accountable. Developed countries have a historical and ecological obligation to pay more for the destruction they have caused to this earth.
Richer nations have consumed a greater amount of natural resources and they have contaminated the atmosphere to a far greater extent than poorer nations. According to the UN Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, developed and rich countries have 15% of the total world population yet they use an astounding 85% of its natural resources. Such a blatant exploitation of natural resources necessitates that richer countries should pay more money for the damages that they have caused. Rich countries also have scientific and technological advancements as a result of sheer exploitation of the earth’s resources which has resulted in tremendous damage to the ecology. The cost of this damage should therefore be paid by the rich countries.
Environmental damage is the sole result of the greed of man. In an effort to best each other, countries have been locked in a battle for resources. The latest confrontation over Crimea is solely because it is such a resource rich region. The battle for resources is nothing new. It is the cost we are paying for this battle that is finally catching up with us. The abuse meted out to the environment by present generations has resulted in a situation where global warming will hamper productivity and livelihoods. If rich nations want to just stand by and watch the poor nations struggle with the effects of climate change, it is will be major violation and injustice. Rich countries have a moral obligation to take responsibility for their actions and stand up for what is right. If they continue to ignore the crying need for ecological conservation, they will incur more costs such as damage to their homes and loss of lives due to freak weather conditions.
Conclusion
Rich countries have as much to lose as poor countries when it comes to the impact of weather phenomenon such as global warming and climate change. As rich countries are wreaking more damage on earth, they deserve to pay the price for it. Poor countries are being unjustly treated at climate conventions because of the obstinacy of rich countries to realize that the cost for stopping ecological damage should be met in the proportion to which the damage is caused. Each nation should be held accountable for its actions. Those who are responsible for more pollution and ecological damage must be made to pay more otherwise principles of fairness and justice will not be met.
