|
|
|
| Current Issue |
|
|
| Resources |
|
|
|
Asia: Meeting the Environmental Challenge
| Article
# : |
20561 |
|
|
Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
|
| Issue
Date : |
11 / 1992 |
3,019 Words |
| Author
: |
Charles Pearson
Charles Pearson is professor and director of international
economics at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced
International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. He
recently returned from 18 months in Asia, where he taught and
conducted research in Japan, Thailand, and the People's
Republic of China. |
Environmental performance is the Asia Pacific can no longer be ignored: The region has 55 percent of the world's population crowded into 23 percent of global land area; the world's largest forest biomass, two-thirds of the world's coral reefs, and one-third of the world's mangrove forests; and some of the most densely industrialized countries in the world. As the residents of Asia confront serious environmental degradation, they affect and are affected by global environmental concerns--deforestation, extinction of species, fisheries harvest exceeding sustainable yield, ozone depletion, greenhouse warming, and many others. Every environmental problem known to man--from the effect of rising sea levels on low-lying coasts and Pacific islands to destruction of panda habitat in China, and from pesticide poisoning of agricultural workers in Malaysia to the conversion of natural areas to golf courses in Japan--is present in the Asia-Pacific region. But the Asian view of the problems does not necessarily replicate Western views. Some of these differences emerged at the recent Earth Summit in Rio, wherein the West focused on global issues and developing countries played up their economic-development needs.
The diversity of views with-in Asia is great. Japan is rich, geographically small, and dependent on imported natural resources. China and India are large in population and land area but poor by Western standards. Southeast Asian countries are rich in natural resources and may be poor in terms GNP (Laos, Vietnam), growing rapidly (Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia), or rich by world standards (Brunei). The essential nature of environmental problems differs radically among Asian countries. Given the diversity, has Asia's environmental challenge been recognized? How is it being managed? What can the industrialized West do to help?
Roots Of The Problem
Asia's environmental challenges are so diverse and its national economies so different that some organizing framework is needed to sort through the problems and responses. It is useful to distinguish between two types of environmental degradation: the kind associated with strong economic growth, or the effluents of affluence, and the kind associated with no growth, or the pollution of poverty. The Asia-Pacific region, with many high-income or rapidly growing economies and many poor, rural countries, has both problems, in spades. Indeed, some countries, such as India and China, exhibit both types within their own borders.
Strong economic growth creates two forms of environmental stress.
...
Read Full Article
Look for this article in Ask.com
|
|
