by Glenda Thompson

Created on: March 08, 2008   Last Updated: November 25, 2008

The world's resources are the common heritage of mankind and should therefore be protected for generations to come. It is important for advanced industrial countries who have expended thousands of dollars on destroying the environment, over the years, for their own selfish gain, to help prevent the same destruction from taking place in underdeveloped countries and help them to understand the value of "going green."

Most undeveloped countries have extremely poor environmental situations. Pollution is unrestricted and there are usually countless environmental problems that are not addressed by the governments concerned. The creation and enforcement of environmental regulations in poor countries can sometimes end in disaster if there is a choice between buying food and having a clean environment. Feeding the population will always take precedent.

Rich, developed countries often take advantage of the problems in third world countries by dumping hazardous waste, building industrial plants which emit pollution and carrying out mining excavations in ecologically fragile areas. Some transnational companies that produce chemicals that would be considered far too dangerous for use in their own countries find a market for their products in the undeveloped countries.

In addition to problems that are created by development and industrialization, poor countries also suffer environment difficulties that are caused by poverty and war. The United Nations and other international organizations have studied ways in which to prevent foreign companies from dumping waste in developing nations by making them pay for the clean up in the Third World environment.

Shouldn't undeveloped countries learn from the mistakes made by the richer nations in the world?

Let's look at a few areas in which the Third World should, for the benefit of health and livelihood be "going green" and being conservation conscious. Fishing. A large portion of the populations in undeveloped nations depend on fish as their only source of protein. The destruction of the ecosystems in which fish thrive could mean the destruction of human populations in these areas.
In February 2006, the World Conservation Union, at a United Nations assembly working group called for the halt in "illegal and destructive fishing of the high seas." Participants at the meeting emphasized the need for more scientific research in the High Seas, noting that bottom trawling was causing huge damage to the natural sedimentary resources at the bottom

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