Steady-State Economics and Environmental Philosophy Research Paper

Steady-State Economics and Environmental Philosophy - Research Paper Example According to an article â€Å"CASSE proposes the establishment of a steady state economy with stabilized population and per capita consumption.† (U.S. Fed News Service) To begin let’s examine the significance the environment has on a state’s economy. Why is it important that the two thrive together to produce a stabilized economy, The environment and the economy rarely have traveled together on the same path. Gains in the economy come at the sacrifice of the environment. Protection of our natural resources hamstrings business development. Or so the argument goes. But what if by protecting special lands, cleaning up environmental problems and growing responsibly, we actually increase jobs, stop the population migration, and revitalize our communities? (DiBerardinis) According to an article published for Environmental Law the state of the environment plays a very significant role in the advancement or the downslide of the economy, The warning of "global environment al crisis" is being sounded more and more frequently by scientists, politicians, and other observers. The doomsday predictors of the 1960s, like ecologists Paul Ehrlich(1) and Rachel Carson,(2) have been joined by an ever-growing chorus of doomsayers in the 1990s.(3) Rachel Carson's concerns regarding pesticides were prominent in the early 1960s; today, concerns about the potential myriad of ecological effects from global warming predominate. Loss of biodiversity from habitat destruction, pollution, and other threats is also a major present concern.(4) The proliferation of environmental alarms has, as expected, been accompanied by claims of critics that the alarms are overstated.(5) Besides denying the existence or magnitude of environmental threats, these critics question the priorities of the leading environmental advocates and their focus on government regulation, rather than the market, to address those priorities.(6) Underlying the debate over whether humans' demands on the Ear th have exceeded its ecological carrying capacity is a debate over the propriety of economic growth, the primary goal for rich and poor countries and for most international institutions.(7) The doomsayers generally see humans' unbridled pursuit of economic growth as a major root of all or most environmental evils; their critics generally see growth as providing a solution to environmental problems.(8) While this debate has continued, there has been increasing consensus behind the concept of "sustainable development," which became a global future through its adoption by the United Nations-sponsored Brundtland Commission in a 1987 report entitled Our Common Future.(9) That report defined sustainable development vaguely as development that "meet[s] the needs and aspirations of the present without compromising the ability to meet those of the future."(10) Although that concept has helped raise the prominence of environmental protection on national and global policy agendas, it has not u nseated economic growth as the primary public policy objective. (Wenig) The impact of the environment is crucial to the survival of a state’s economy. There are many ways to help ensure the environment’s safety. There are organizations that rise up to protect natural habitat from extinction. There are organi