Environmental Degradation Essay

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Poverty can be considered both a cause and effect of environmental degradation. While poverty may be measured by one’s private consumption alone it may be extended to include access to common property resources and state-provided commodities and it is in this context that this paper focuses. Inequality may be the underlying factor of this unsustainability because the poor, who rely on natural resources, deplete natural resources faster as they have no real prospects of accessing other types of resources. Moreover, a degraded environment can accelerate the process of impoverishment because the poor depend directly on natural resources. These natural resources can become depleted and also carry other negative effects when used inefficiently, worsening poverty. This correlation between poverty and the environment can be substantiated by examining human activity, agricultural practices and health issues.
Human activity is one area which highlights how poverty is a causal element of environmental degradation. As humans, we have the natural will to survive. The World Bank (1992) asserts that the poor do not deliberately degrade the environment but poor people oftentimes lack the resources to avoid degrading their environment. The people in abject poverty, who struggle at the edge of subsistence, are preoccupied with their daily survival. Therefore, with the lack of sufficient income, people start to use and overuse all resources available to them when their survival is at stake. Though, all people regardless of being poor or rich depend on natural resources, the problem with poor people is that they use the resources directly. With no other alternative in many poor regions, people pollute the rivers by washing inside them and by dispos...

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...blished. The Barbados Light and Power Company has indicated that they are interested in participating in a 9.2 megawatt wind turbine farm. Of all the fossil fuels, natural gas produces the least carbon dioxide per unit of energy, hence Barbados uses this resource as its main source of energy. The policy outlines that coal has the highest carbon dioxide emissions per unit of energy and this fossil fuel also needs to be imported using foreign currency and it should therefore be used as little as possible. Currently the major energy source in the world is from fossil fuels. Renewable energy produces less than 25% of the total. While therefore it is desirable to use renewable energy for environmental reasons, Barbados as a net fuel importer has little alternative but to use oil and gas and to develop local reserves, if they are to grow while developing such technology.

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