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Baccalaureate Oral Exam 2009: Series A4-A5    

Is the Environment an Economic Issue?

In recent years, there has been growing awareness, in both the developed and developing countries, of the interaction between economic forces and the global environment. More evidence has emerged of the damaging impact to the land, sea and air of certain uncontrolled economic activities. At the same time, environmental degradation, such as deforestation or the pollution of fishing waters has seriously jeopardized people's means of livelihood.
During this century alone, the world's level of economic activity has grown tenfold, while the total population has tripled. The strains on the world's ecosystem are becoming serious. Production processes have contributed significantly to the deterioration of the air, water, and soil with repercussions far beyond the borders of the industrialized countries that account for the bulk of such pollution. The volume of industrial and toxic wastes has reached alarming proportions, posing serious difficulties of disposal: poor countries are sometimes induced to accept such wastes as a means of earning foreign exchange, but under conditions that can be harmful to their own environment. Concern is mounting as well about long-term threats to the earth's ozone layer and climate from such varied causes as about industrial pollution and vehicle emissions, excessive timber cutting, and the clearing of rain forests for agriculture.

The World Economy: A Global Challenge, p.86.