What is Environmental Degradation?

Environmental degradation is the unreasonable development and utilization of the environment by human beings, causing changes in the structure of the environmental system, leading to a decline in self-regulation and functional decline. It is an evolution of the environment that is not conducive to the survival and development of humans and organisms. Can be caused by natural and man-made causes. In particular, the degradation of the environment caused by the spread of harmful factors into the environmental media by human activities is severe. Such as land salt evolution, water and soil loss, excessive logging, reclamation, fishing, etc. are all the causes of environmental degradation. Therefore, human beings need to change their activities to prevent global environmental degradation. ^[1]

Obviously, in the environment-economic system, due to the vicious expansion of the economic subsystem, the environmental subsystem has been damaged. The reasons for this situation are firstly that human beings have insufficient understanding of the relationship between themselves and the natural environment, and secondly that some development and utilization technologies are immature. However, some scholars believe that there is a deeper reason for this. Their views can be summarized as follows ^[2]

Environmental degradation and population

Demographic economists believe that the degradation of the earth's environment is caused by excessive population growth. The rapid population growth will accelerate the demand for natural resources. Sometimes in order to survive, people will plunder natural resources and environmental resources at the expense of the environment. ^[2]

Environmental degradation and poverty

Some economists have concluded from environmental comparisons between developed and developing countries that poverty is an important cause of environmental degradation. These economists, by examining the distribution of the poor and their relationship with the degree of environmental degradation, found that countries and regions with low per capita income levels usually have more severe environmental degradation than those with higher per capita income levels. More serious. Their explanation is that the poor are more dependent on natural resources than the rich, and the poorer the region, the more dependent they are on the natural resources and environment. Because of poverty, I hope to increase labor force and increase family income through multiple births. Population growth can only supplement living needs by intensifying the use of limited resources. Especially in some ecologically fragile areas, such as tropical forest areas, arid and semi-arid areas, and high mountain areas, deforestation and overgrazing have accelerated environmental degradation. Some of the population may leave the land and move to cities, but if the cities cannot fully absorb this population, it may also cause urban environmental degradation. The larger the city scale and the higher the population density, the more urban production and domestic waste, and even more than the environmental absorption capacity. In addition, the pollution of the city's voice and the mental stress caused by the noise of the city will reduce people's quality of life. It can be seen that, on the one hand, poverty causes environmental degradation, and on the other hand, due to poverty, the cost of investing in environmental improvement is reduced, and environmental degradation is intensified. ^[2]

Environmental degradation and international trade

Other scholars, starting from the growth effect of free trade, point out that free trade will increase the possibility of market failure and allow externalities to pass between countries. Poor countries are becoming places for rich countries to move pollution. This can be found in two ways. First, industrialized countries often import large quantities of products from less developed countries, such as timber and agricultural products. Japan's forest coverage is much higher than China's, but it imports large quantities of disposable wooden tableware from China. Second, the environmental standards of industrialized countries are usually higher than those of less developed countries, and some multinational companies have relocated polluting industries to less developed countries. ^[2]

Environmental degradation and economic development

Kuznets put forward a hypothesis in the 1950s that during the economic development process, the income gap first widened and then narrowed. This income inequality is inversely related to per capita income and is called the Kuznets curve. Some economists have observed that during the course of economic development, the environment also deteriorated and then improved. In the early stage of economic development, due to the low level of economic activity and the low level of environmental pollution, in the stage of economic take-off and large-scale development of manufacturing, the consumption of resources exceeded the regeneration of resources, and the environment tended to deteriorate. At the advanced stage of economic development, the economic structure changes, severely polluting industries stop production or are transferred, and the accumulation brought about by economic development can be used to govern the environment. At the same time, people's environmental awareness has also increased, and environmental governance technologies have improved. The environment began to improve. This also forms an inverted U-shaped curve. ^[2]