DIVERGENT VIEWS
There are very divergent views on environment, ranging from the view that development has not caused any threatening environment problem for humanity to the view that there is a need for urgent action. To quote Davis (1990) whose ideas reflect the first view:
Thus the grizzly truth may turn out to be that limits are more prophetic than its detractors and even some of its defenders thought possible. In fact during the last three decades several basic developments have occurred that together amount to a revolution in environmental concerns. First, the sheer number of discoveries of environmental problems has increased precipitously; second, the long-term seriousness of the problems has been increasingly recognized as more of the consequences of growth are felt; third many problems formerly thought to be local in character are in fact global or near-global in scope; fourth, the involvement of science in understanding the causes of environmental change has increased rapidly; and fifth, the international scope of environmental damages has led inevitably to strong demands for conservationist policies.
The fact is that an increasing number of economists are now preoccupied with environmental matters. Keyfitz (1991) stressed that now we have to recognize the ozone layer, carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, extinction of species, waste, and desertification. At high levels of income and technological development the effects of changes in economic and demographic variables on the ecosphere are great and cannot be neglected. Like Davis , Keyfitz (1990) articulates that the world is changing. “Communication, the conquest of space, computing, the new cellular biology, atomic physics, were indeed changing the world at exactly the time when economists discovered human capital”. Yet, he differs from Davis on account of five factors: (a) non-linearity and non-substitutability of resources availability; (b) capital setting limits of economic progress; (c) structural bottlenecks in employment generation; (d) greater recognition of the fact that economy is set within the ecology; and (e) awareness of warming of the bio-sphere. |
