Oftentimes people have questioned the need to be environmentally responsible. This is puzzling. After all, it would seem abundantly clear that protecting the environment is something that should be done, given the fact that the Earth’s environment is necessary for sustaining life. However, it is also true that human beings need to at the very least use the resources of this environment, in a sense having to disturb them, in order to maintain higher level functions. Thus, the very clash between environmentalists and those who would value other goods over nature seemingly boils down to whether people want to maintain our current standards of living or our environment.
In reality there is no such clash. People who believe that sacrificing our environment in the current manner being done is necessary for our continued economic growth are being grossly misled. Part of this is because our environment helps to maintain our current standard of living. This is very obvious: if our environment decreases in quality, our soil and air are negatively affected. If our soil and air are negatively affected, agriculture suffers. Because much of our quality of life depends on the amount of food available (and the subsequent ability to both free up resources for other tasks and to maintain healthy lifestyles), a decrease in environmental quality makes our lives worse.
More importantly, the most likely source of economic growth for developed nations will have to result from environmental protection and other similar policies. Growth, of course, is a relative term. For developing nations, obviously the path set by the current industrial powers is enough to follow. But the reason that we have to deal with environmental health and divert our economy towards its correction is because the environmental damage has become a huge cost of our growth. It is much like the parable of the broken window: everyone has applauded our growth due to environmental destruction, but that destruction reduced potential growth. Only by restoring environmental integrity can future growth in the currently developed world be possible.
Lastly, in a more blunt statement, the destruction of the planet by environmental ruin would undo every ounce of growth by our expanding economy. It is thus not only obvious, but necessary to prioritize environmental quality over economic growth for the sake of both.
