Sustained Economic Development - Role of Ecology and Environment

Sustained Economic Development - Role of Ecology and Environment

Introduction
Economy of a country is a matter of prime concern, especially these days when every country is out and actively participating in taking the lead for the survival and to emerge as a supreme power. The economic development of a country is considered to be the development of the country itself. Though there are many things that has an upper take to the economy, still the country need to prioritise this in order to match the pace of the world. The market value, shares and dividends have got an upper hand over the priceless emotions, affection and love. Such an economic development is controlled by many ecological and environmental factors.

Role of ecology and environment in the economic development is to a great extent. Any country portrays its economy in terms of the available resources, which yields the per capita income. These resources are nothing but the gift of ecology and environment. All the living and non-living things of any community, or for that matter, any country, gets summed up into the wide sectors of ecology and environment. Both these terms ‘ecology’ and ‘environment’ coincide in their implication at many inferences. Let us briefly check what actually ecology and the environment include in itself, which has got a deep rooted impact on the economic growth.

Ecology

Ecology is the interaction between the biotic and abiotic community amongst themselves and with each other, thereby giving an entirety called ecosystem. Ecology includes all the forms and species of life, their utilisation, role in the environmental matters, impacts on the atmosphere, every possible aspect that can be collated to express a sound interaction. The ecological aspect of life is of utmost importance for the existence and survival of any species.

Environment

Environment is again a similar form as ecology. Environment deals with the existence of the resources of any form, its usage by the living species and their impact. Environment is more of a abstract term which can be better explained by the words like atmosphere or surrounding in physical world; or situation or circumstances, if explained in terms of vitality. Environment is the space, the void which incapacitates the life providing them a cosy atmosphere to reside.

With this brief explanation of the terms, let us discuss the core issue of the topic, the role of ecology and environment in economic development.

Role of ecology in Economic Development

Ecology and economic development have an inversely proportional relationship. With an increase in one, the other suffers a back-shift. There are various factors that influence the economic development. Let us discuss a few of them:

•Population

This is a burning issue for any developing country like India. The population index of the country determines the per capita income and expenditure for the country. The revenue of the country is again dependent on its citizens. The more the people, the more is the revenue, taking the honesty of public as a default note. But conversely, the population also adds to the expenses of the country with respect to the basic utilities of food, clothing, shelter, employment etc. the increased population is a set-back for the economic development of any country, unless the manpower is appropriately utilised. Now we will check the influence of manpower on the economic growth.

•Manpower

This is the biggest resource for any nation. Alas! Majority of the countries fail to realize this and fall as a prey to the fast spreading pest of computerization and online take over the rich manpower. Many of us fail to utilize this resource to its fullest. The manpower needs to be well channelized in order to add to the net fruitful productivity of any country. Such a productive manpower is definitely a boon for the economic development. Still this utilization of manpower is interrupted by the meagre factors like illiteracy, ignorance, high status consciousness, super ego, infrastructure and a good capable governance to tighten the hinges and get the task accomplished.

•Wealth Distribution

This is again a major challenge before any country, as the improper wealth distribution is making the rich, further richer and even the middle class is declining to approach the poverty zone in actuality. Though the status of the people appear to be far good with their high profile lifestyle, still the majority class lingers on the products bought on EMI which is not completely owned till the product loses its strength. This fake projection of the lifestyle of an average citizen is in no way contributing to the economic development. The actual economy surges with the increasing loan on its citizens. A proper distribution of the wealth, atleast making the masses reach above the poverty line is a great contribution to the economic development.

Role of environment in Economic Development

Environment again follows an inverse relationship with the economic development. A gross destruction to the environmental resources causes a brightening development of the economy, as the economy is evaluated on the tradable resources alone. Let us discuss the environmental factors influencing the economic growth:

•Minerals, ores and other resources

The resources have a great hand in uplifting the economy of the country. These are the tradable forms which promotes rich transactions with the other countries and hence adding to the revenue of the nation. Also these resources create a big breakthrough in the financial market, which has a direct impact on the economic growth of the country.

•Soil and Land

This is again a rich resource which requires a good intellect to be converted into gold. The more the land is judiciously used, the more is the income for the country. Utilising a productive soil for farming and the barren land for construction purposes is the most sensible move, which could help in more export of the raw materials and add to the national treasure.

•Water utilization

Again the project like hydro-electric power is a good source of economic growth. Despite relying on the nuclear energy for power, utilising such conventional forms of energy could save some amount of national expenditure in monitoring and safe handling of the nuclear reactors and disposal of the radio-active wastes.

Feedback mechanism of Economic Development to the ecology and environment

Economic development is an appreciable trend, still the sustained economic development has caused much widespread hazard to the nature, ecosystem and the environment. Though the natural resources get replenished, still creating an irreversible damage to the resource just to have the economic growth is no less than a foolish stake. Some of the feedback mechanisms operating are:

•Population – causing overconsumption, overutilization of the available resources, hence the surge in economic development.

•Employment issues forcing to the child labour, causing severe medical emergencies.

•Corruption resulting in wealth accumulation to a group of people, resulting in poverty.

•Environmental hazards like the nuclear explosions and the radio-active dumping causing health hazards for many generations ahead

These are a few examples for the economic downsurge just in a greed for having a faster economic growth.

Conclusion

To conclude, we can just call the economic development as an open sword, which calls for a cautious handling in order to safeguard the available resources. The opportunities that appear are always lucrative, but a sensible mind should be able to judge and preview the pros and cons of the measures taken. It would be wise if we can have a steady economic growth, conserving our ecological and environmental treasures which will always yield us with their goodness.