Poverty and the Environment

Poverty and the Environment

The Facts
Emergencies
Causes
The Effects
The Legate of the "Earth Summit"
The Future
Environmental degradation and poverty are inextricably intertwined, creating a vicious circle in which poverty generates environmental problems and, in turn, further perpetuates poverty, spreading around the world.
The Facts: According to the United Nations, human activities are causing environmental deterioration which had never been seen before:

- Every second emissions of carbon dioxide are weighing over 200 tonnes, contributing to the rise in global temperature, while it is estimated that about one billion people around the world breathes polluted air, below the minimum standards set by the WHO;

- Every day, about 47,000 hectares of forest destroyed, while 346,000 hectares of land become desert. Consider that half of the deforestation caused by human activity has occurred over the past 20 years;

- Each day it is estimated that between 100 and 300 species of animals become extinct.

Poverty exerts a strong pressure on the peoples and nations, especially in developing countries, which drives these individuals to engage in unsustainable and environmentally damaging. The poor, in fact, in an effort to survive, and the poor nations, in an attempt to pay equally urgent service its foreign debt, they are forced to engage in the exploitation of their natural resources.
Emergencies: There is a general consensus on the fact that the industrialized nations are responsible for most of the pollution world-that is, the so-called "emergencies vociferous" such as, for example, the rise in global temperature and the depletion band ozone that protects the Earth.

But it is the so-called "silent emergencies"-such as soil erosion and pollution of drinking water-that directly affect how many are in a state of extreme poverty. Lacking the resources to prevent degradation of the environment in which they live, their struggle for daily survival often leaves no other choice. What these people is to be put at risk, in fact, is not so much the environment in which they live, but rather life itself.
Causes: Many of the causes of environmental degradation are closely linked to poverty. However, not only the poor are often forced to environmental intensive exploitation because of the scarcity of food and fuel, but at the opposite end of the spectrum, even the rich exploit the natural resources of the poor.

- Unequal distribution of land: It is not so much the lack of land, as its unequal distribution pushing the poor to the exploitation of marginal environments. The ownership of most of the arable land, especially in developing countries, it is in fact concentrated in the hands of small privileged minority, who use them for crops destined for foreign markets. Forced to grow more fragile lands such as, for example, the slopes, or the virgin rain forests, the poor often inevitably add their work to environmental degradation.

- Terms of trade: For most of the poor countries of the world, the export turnover depends on the products of tropical agriculture that are vulnerable to fluctuations or reductions in trade flows. An increase in exports often requires the payment of a price in the country in terms of damage to the environment and an increase in poverty.

- Excessive consumption of resources: A irresponsible use of natural wealth and resources is largely responsible for unruly patterns of consumption of resources, which are heavily diverted in favor of industrialized nations-although less than 25% of the world's population lives in these countries.

- Economies environmentally blind: The traditional economic tools used to calculate the Gross National Product (GNP) and measure the "success" of the market do not have any environmental component. As a result, they exaggerate the progress while simultaneously generating environmentally destructive policies.

Effects: The long-term results of this short-term exploitation are devastating, and often increase rather than alleviate poverty. Here are some examples:

- Deforestation: In the poor countries of the tropical belt, the destruction of forests to increase food production often end up getting a result diametrically opposed. For instance, today only 2% of the tropical forests of Haiti has remained intact, but only in the last decade, the island's agricultural production has fallen by 15%. In Africa, the map of absolute poverty coincides with that of the deforested areas, which are the starting point of further environmental problems such as, for example, soil erosion, loss of rainwater, no longer retained by the roots trees and possibly desertification; In this way, you run out of natural resources on which the poor depend for their survival.

- Reduction of fish stocks: The poor are disproportionately affected by the decline of fish stocks worldwide, since it is the fish that they derive 40% of the protein in their diet. From 1950 to 1990, in fact, the volume of the catch quintupled, supported by the industrialized nations that have subsidized fishing companies encouraging them to deplete fish resources of the seas not previously exploited, often off the coast of the nations in the developing world. Many countries have realized the damage caused and have agreed to implement measures that can remedy this situation through the mediation of the United Nations; but because the damage done can be overcome, there will still need to pass the years.
- Pollution and toxic waste: The damage to the environment and to people from pollution and the dumping of toxic waste has long been evident. For example, in the Arctic, which is home to many indigenous people, disproportionately high levels of toxic contaminants, produced primarily in industrialized nations, poisoning the air and the food chain, running out of food sources and destroying the health of these impoverished populations. At the same time, some of the industrialized countries have addressed their toxic waste to poorer nations which instead of standards for the protection of human and environmental weak or non-existent.

- Increasing global temperature: Models of unsustainable consumption and production, adding to the depletion of natural resources and increased environmental pollution, they also create other problems, such as, for example, the rise in global temperature and the depletion of ozone, endangering the ecological balance of the planet. The environmental consequences of this situation reinforces social inequalities and poverty.

- Losses unsustainable: In the long run, however, the environmental losses eventually be reflected in the financial statements, since all economies, developing nations such as those in industrialized countries, are affected by the economic impact caused by environmental degradation at the moment in which their agricultural crops begin to decline and the volumes of the fish decreases; as they begin to grow instead the costs for the treatment of toxic wastes, for the provision of health services and to alleviate hunger. Around the world (wherever occurring), in short, this decrease in productivity reduces living standards, creating further poverty.

The Legate of the "Earth Summit" 20 years after the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment held in Stockholm in 1972, that first link between poverty and sustainable development has become the basis for a wide range of claims.

In 1992, the 178 members were represented at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, demanded an end to poverty and made recommendations that all nations were moving to attack this problem by adopting specific national policies.

Agenda 21, the project of the Earth Summit for development in the twenty-first century, calls on governments to "put the poor can achieve sustainable livelihoods", through the implementation of specific national programs to combat poverty, to be implemented jointly with a set of international efforts.

Alleviate poverty through the elimination of unsustainable environmental practices, it will mean in practice a change of consciousness, as well as changes in legislation and in lifestyles, especially with regard to the industrialized nations.

- Conservation: Governments must introduce policies on the distribution and use of natural resources in such a way that people who live in poverty are both protected and enabled to make use of these resources.

- "Give a hand of green markets": The accounting procedures of each nation must incorporate into their columns relating to a claim a space reserved for the protection of natural resources - and in the columns relating to the debts space allocated to environmental degradation (eg loss agricultural land due to erosion, destruction of forests due to intensive logging, thinning of the ozone layer due to the emission of pollutants).

- Penalty: A number of economists and environmentalists propose that environmentally harmful practices are penalized and that the responsible actions are instead rewarded through economic instruments such as taxes, subsidies, rights of use, charges, tradable permits and a system of deposits and refunds, based on the principle that "the polluter pays".

- Incentives: Systems that enhance the rich natural capital existing mainly in developing countries, could enrich their economic situation and offer to all citizens of the economic incentives to preserve their environment.

- Participation: Individuals, as well as local groups or communities such as non-governmental organizations (NGOs), can make a difference in the lives of the poor. Input at the local level-where the Indian Chipko movement, who avoided through practices of non-violent resistance, the destruction of forests in the Himalayas some great intended for commercial exploitation-is fundamental to the creation of policies more responsive to the needs of the people and the ecological protection of the nations.

The Future: For a sustainable future, and free from poverty, the most important step to help protect the natural resources in the government is to give voice to people from all strata of society, so that those who are afflicted by environmental degradation be- rich and poor-have a chance to influence the course of things.