Environmental protection should have priority over economic growth

Rising sea levels, the disseapearing North Pole, Melting gletsers and a lack of freshwather supply. All well known effects caused by the emission of greenhouse gasses. They all regulaly are in the news. The increased emisson of greenhous gasses, and thereby the increased climate changes, is caused by our never fullified need to comsume. This raises the question if we should start to live more climate aware. So should we need to prior environmental protection over economic growth? I think we should not do so, because on the long term economic growth can also lead to a cleaner environment and therefore environmental protection should not have a higher priority. A higher GDP per capita means stricter laws, while a more advanced economy can reach better energy efficiency and because of that environment will become cleaner. First of all, economic growth can lead to a cleaner environment because better developed countries have stricter environmental laws. According to Simon J. (1996, The ultimate resource 2): A study of European countries confirms the theory that increased income brings about decreased pollution. Countries with higer per capita income tended to have more laws that conrol pollution. So the higer the GDP per capita, the better the environmental legislation and because of that a cleaner environment. Secondly, due to economic growth economies become more advanced and becoming so, the condition of the environment will improve because of the better posibilities of dealing with climate problems. As incomes rise, the demand for improvements in environmental quality will
increase, as will the resources available for investment (The World Banks World development report 1992, p.39) The more advanced an economy becomes, the better the opportunities they have to become less poluting and the demand for this improvements will increase, so pollution will decrease. In contrast, the Carbon emission grew at a 3.1% percent annual rate in 2000-2004, compared to 1.1% in the previous decade.(Agence France Presse, Carbon emmissions climbing at alarming rate: study. 2007).Pollution became worse last 15years, although over this period there was worldwide economic growth. This can be explained by the fact that: The accelaration of carbon emissions was biggest in developing nations with booming economies such as China, where the rise reflects the growth in per capita GDP, the study said. Developing nations contribute about 40 percent of total emissions, but they were responsible for a large majority of the growth in carbon dioxide emissions between 2000-2004. So the carbon emission grew because the explosive economic growth of developing nations. Currenly they are in a fase when economic growth leads to more pollution, but on the long term the pollution will decrease, because the economy has become more advanced and more effective on reducing their polution. To conclude, on the long term economic growth can lead to a cleaner environment. It leads to better developed countries and so environmental legislation will improve and more advanced economies will pollute less. On the long term economic growht can have a positive effect on the environment and therefore I am conviced that it should not have less priority than environmental protection.