When first presented in 1991, the Environmental Kuznets Curve offered an explanation for the relationship between economic growth and environmental quality (Grossman & Krueger, 1991). These early estimates indicated that the quantity of sulfur dioxide, an important environmental indicator, improved as income and consumption increased. These findings were contradictory to the beliefs of the time as, prior to this research, it was commonly assumed that increasing economic development and capitalism would continue to harm the envirnoment and destroy natural resources. The Environmental Kuznets Curve simplifies the relationship between collective behavior, such as changes in a nations wealth into a two-dimensional graph. Since these initial findings, there has been significant research into determining whether or not this relationship exists. Do all factors in environmental quality systematically correlate with economic development? Of course, there are many other variables that may impact environmental quality, however, many of these variables are endogenously embedded in the model and are related to the development of society as the economy evolves. For instance, does the EKC model fails to determine whether the solution to preventing environmental decline is more economic growth; or if pollution is simply an unfortunate output from economic development that we are responsible for abating once the benefits from production outweigh the negative environmental and human health costs.
The American economist Simon Kuznets is famous for winning the Nobel Prize in 1971. He is primarily known for his research demonstrating the relationship between income inequality and per-capita income. The theory suggests that as an economy...
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15. As a limit to economic growth, environmental problems are more difficult to solve than
While the new industries have had a positive impact on the economies, it did not help the environment. Before the Revolutions, people relied on charcoal, but trees were scarce and took v...
Over the past years, numerous studies on the Environmental Kuznets Curve have been in great contention by investigating the income-pollution relationship. In recent times, however, criticism of cross-section estimations of the EKC hypothesis has grown. Consequently, the contribution of this study uses time series data for a developed country with reliable data: Canada. A dynamic analysis is performed in the form of the Vector Error Correction Model to test the short-run and long-run relationship of income and pollution. Using this method it is found that short-run estimations do not support the EKC hypothesis, but only in the long-run does it support the EKC hypothesis.
Currently, pollutants are destroying the environment and harming the health of U.S. citizens. Global warming threatens to change the lifestyle of many people around the world. Industries across the globe and goods that use or contain harmful contaminants have been the largest contributors to climate change. In recent years, there has been “artificially heightened levels of greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere” and a dramatic increase in other pollutants, “resulting in an unnatural upward trend in global warming” (Global). The level of pollutants currently in the air is not considered to be linked to the earth’s natural cycle. In fact, for the past century, “human activities…have increased the atmospheric concentration of CO2 to levels far higher than any measured for at least 800,000 years” and the concentration of CO2 is becoming a devastating and possibly irreversible problem with each day (Global). Although some...
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The rules of multilateral trade are designed to eliminate trade-distorting practices, which are harmful to the environment. For example, subsidies to the fishing sector may encourage unsustainable fishing practices, agricultural subsidies can support environmentally harmful agricultural production, and tariffs on environmental goods and services can restrict the dissemination of clean technology. Also there is the environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis, which shows a relationship between environmental degradation and levels of income. This show that in the early stages of economic growth, the environmental degradation tend to be worse, but when the economy rise in per capita income and reach a certain point, the environmental damage reduce. This suggests that opposing them slows down the eventual environmental improvement in poor countries. According to Hassoun, poverty and the environment are connected in a way that poor people do not have access to electricity or gas, so they have to burn a lot of wood and coal to cook. Burning coal contributes about two-fifths of the world 's carbon emissions. By reducing poverty these may help reduce environmental problems. In some countries, the World Trade Organization (WTO) can implement more policies that can be used to progress the situation of the poor while also helping the
Globalisation and environmental sustainability is encapsulated with Environmental Kuznets Curves (EKC) which are commonly used to consider macro-changes in environmental quality resul...
The fundamental flaw of the environmental Kuznets’ curve theory (EKCT) lies in its compartmentalization of environmental impacts, which serve as its basis for establishing a direct relationship with per capita income, the indicator considered for economic development. While it is true that environmental impacts may be spliced and analyzed empirically, actual ecological processes belong to a web of inter-relationships that current science is still trying to fully understand. It is dangerous and irresponsible to assume or suggest that an assortment of piecemeal positive trends can lead to a conclusion that environmental quality improves with economic growth. Adhering to the EKCT is equivalent to accepting that ecological models follow the same trajectory. This means that the same kind of pollution that occurs in two separate countries will more or less have the same effect. The theory does not exhibit much sensitivity to the variation in the value of ecosystems and species. The reality is that some ecosystems are greater in value, are more fragile, and are more species rich than others.
Against this backdrop, many theories have been put forth to understand the economics of the environment. One such pathbreaking theory is the Environmental Kuznets Curve, which traces the link in the pollution - income growth relationship. It posits an inverted-U shaped curve between various indicators of environmental degradation and income per-capita. [ Stern, D. (2004). The Rise and Fall of the Environmental Kuznets Curve. World Development Vol. 32, No. 8, pp. 1419–1439, 200. www.elsevier.com/locate/worlddev
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In traditional opinions, environmental protection and economic growth are mutually contradictory. Economic growth is a high environmental cost, and protecting the environment will limit the economic growth. The reason of contradiction stems from the inappropriate understandings among development, economic growth and environmental protection. In fact, economic growth could have a harmonious relationship with environmental protection.
Economic growth also play a role in reducing debt to GDP ratios. Therefore, money can be spent on protecting the environment. With higher real GDP a society can dedicate more resources to promoting recycling and the utilization of renewable resources investment. Economic growth encourages investment and therefore encourages a virtuous cycle of economic growth.