How Economic Growth Influence Global Warming

The Cost of Economic Growth
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March 7, 2017
Introduction
Despite the number of efforts dedicated to stopping Global Warming, the threat is still at large. With millions of trees still being cut, thousands of factories releasing harmful pollutants into the air, and mountains still being flattened out to give way for new residential complexes, the presence of this age-old phenomena is simply, unsurprising. Nonetheless, it is undeniable that almost every country these days have undergone (or undergoing) an impressive amount of economic growth. With dozens of towns being urbanized, farms being transformed into subdivisions, and barren lands being converted into factories every single day, the effect of these changes in every country’s economic growth is unparalleled (OpenStax, n.d.). However, this poses the question: “does economic growth necessarily entail environmental destruction, and thus, Global warming?” The author of this article believes that this is not necessarily the case. In his opinion, Global Warming happens due to the reliance of countries and corporations for economic growth brought about by traditional means and processes.
In the succeeding chapters, the effect of economic growth on Global Warming would be discussed in more detail. The cause of increased CO2 emissions would be given attention since these are one of the main causes of Global warming (Investopedia.com, n.d.). It is a commonly held belief that Economic growth directly correlates with the increase in CO2 emissions and thus, these notions must be discussed. More particularly, this correlation would be discussed within the concept of the “Free-rider problem”, the “presence of negative externalities”, and their contributions to the problem would be discussed in detail in the succeeding chapters.
The Free-Rider Problem
According to Investopedia.com (n.d.), the free-rider problem “occurs when people take advantage of being able to use a common resource, or collective good, without paying for it”. In this equation, the people and their actions are seen as ‘problematic’ due to the lack of accountability for public resources. More particularly, the free-rider problem happens due to the lack of taxation imposed for the use of public resources while there exist a ‘responsibility-free’ environment where supply is relatively abundant. In the societal and economic level, the free rider problem manifests itself in cases when groups and corporations cut down trees for logging purposes, dump their trash into the rivers, and emit smoke in the atmosphere without the foresight of what could happen in the future, when the collectivities of their actions result in negative repercussions, such as acid rain, thinning of the atmosphere, and increase of CO2 gases in it. In this case, the natural resources and domain – atmosphere, water bodies, and trees – are regarded as public domains and thus, the responsibility of taking care of this is not vetoed upon the entities who are abusing it, but rather to the government itself.
Ever since the Industrial revolution (until the concept of ‘sustainable development’ appeared), t...