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Is it fair to ask underdeveloped countries to "go green" when many advanced industrial countries owe their success to destructive environmental practices?
Results so far:
| Yes | 47% | 420 votes | Total: 899 votes | |
| No | 53% | 479 votes |
Yes
by Ron Whyte
Created on: March 05, 2008 Last Updated: October 12, 2011
My first impression is to argue a yes vote although not for the reasons you may expect. We must first be reasonable to the understanding of individual countries just as we do to the global condition.
It is not reasonable to suggest to an underdeveloped country to "go green" out of the gate when they are having difficulty feeding their poor or they are barely surviving internal wars or natural catastrophes such as monstrous tidal waves. To ask these nations to go green would be to slap the poor for being poor.
I am not a staunch environmentalist nor am I akin to the Global politics, which tend not to mend but to tear at each party until one side gives up or at least makes a compromise. I am however very much in favor at looking to the future and thinking of others who will be affected by our actions.
The question suggests many so-called advanced countries owe their success to destructive environmental practices; this begs the question or should I say description of an advanced' country. In my opinion, if these so-called countries were so advanced they wouldn't have the difficulties they do now with the many problems they face in their general humanistic' rights and issues let alone their inability or their desire to do the right thing environmentally now.
We must stop taking the easy route to get the job done! So many environmental destructive issues were not started only as a cost-saving effort although it would suggest it would be the greater leverage, in many cases it simply was easier and the thought of who gets hurt down the road likely was never considered.
History has shown us in all too many examples how cutting corners initially can cost massive amounts to rectify in future cleanups. If we had considered and not ruled out the cost of future repairs or integration of new developing technologies might a cure, many things could or would be different. Many assuredly should have been done differently.
Hindsight is always brought up in times of trouble but I believe much of it can be avoided if we consider future cost. Many times there are cheaper more cost effective alternatives in construction and developmental ways, which are also Greener', but are rejected because to do so would require something that is not in place' and so the easy standard' is taken instead. I have also noted an alarming ignorance to the human costs of such decisions. By this I am referring to the cost of farming out work to cheaper groups or nations and the cost of human safety. These days much of what is too costly or dangerous here is shipped out as a cost-savings measure to foreign countries where these concerns are a low priority but is the job loss at home considered in the calculations? And I'm not even going to get into the who's wheels get greased' paper jungle of hidden corporations and who benefits' dark corner of deceit, but do not think this is not a factor or forget its power of decision-bending.
In conclusion, I don't think it reasonable to suggest an underdeveloped country go green within the same contents or rather up to the same standards as an advance country, this would be unfair and often unrealistic. If on the other hand a developing country considers the cost of retrofitting and or upgrading today's easy solutions while development continues, then tries to do their best with what they have both economically and socially to go green with what they have, at least they are ahead of the game for the future.
If we had done so while we were evolving, we would be far better off then we are now.
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No
by Monique Kuschel
Created on: February 19, 2008
It would be fair if the industrial countries would recognize their mistakes, their impact on the environment and consider the health of future generations first.
The companies that started and survived the industrial revolution over the last 100 years, have become large corporations, they have stockholders to satisfy, they are employing large numbers of employees and are the most priced investments on the world wide Stock Exchange.
Large underdeveloped countries, like China, are securing the future of our large corporations,allowin g them to produce the same polluting products, without restrictions, responding to the demand of a massive growing economy.
Before the underdeveloped countries would even consider to "go green", the industrial nations would have to become green themselves, which they have yet not achieved, for the main reason to assure the survival of the large corporations that drive our economies.
All our major corporations will survive due to the emerging economies, polluting our world from different parts of the globe. Their manufacturing plants will be situated in these countries, employing the cheap labor at first, building the products needed, increasing the wealth of their own employees, assuring the increasing demand of their products.
Sooner than later, the work force in the industrial nations will be unemployed, creating a need to develop the products a post industrial nation is willing to accept. This shift in awareness will create new, greener products, the former polluting industrial companies will have been absorbed within the framework of the emerging nations.
While it seems to be a defeat to create polluting emerging industries and greener post-industrial markets, it is the slow but necessary shift necessary to avoid a complete collapse of the world economy. Change needs to happen carefully and slowly.
By need or by choice the post industrial countries will finally tap into the greener choices available to us , creating employment and products allowing the modern world to discover a new way to live and thrive. Eventually, in the distant future, these industries will influence the markets of the emerging countries, which by then would have become the largest polluters on the planet.
The USA, Russia and Europe have been the largest polluters over the last 100 years, these post industrial countries will become green eventually, the pollution will have shifted to Asia, South America. On a global level, the pollution will have shifted to others parts of our planet. The impact will be the same as we are experiencing at this point in our history.
The big question remains, will our planet be able to survive the shift?
Will the slow but steady evolution of creating a world economy, raising the purchasing power of all humans, to sustain the production driven economic landscape we have adopted, be too much for our planet's Eco system? That is the big question, none of us are able to answer, until we actually acknowledge the damage of the past and carefully evaluate the damage the future of an industrial third world will create.
We have two choices, either we all go green tomorrow, which would collapse our world economy and create a dangerous situation, change our lives overnight and create political turmoil, leaving us without the resources needed to employ and feed all of us or we can let the world progress at its own speed, securing and expanding the world economy, sustaining our livelihood and eventually creating a green way of producing and living.
Again it is all about what our planet can handle. Either our shores will flood and our air will be devoid of oxygen enough to sustain our lives, or we will succumb to the total break down of our societies, as we know it.
The choice is difficult, if we actually consider it a choice. The future will let us know if we made the right choice at the right time, to save our planet and our ultimate survival.
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