Latest comments posted about Debate: is economic recession good for the environment? on ChinaDialogue en-gb http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/1887-Debate-is-economic-recession-good-for-the-environment- http://staging.chinadialogue.net/images/cdlogo.gif http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/1887-Debate-is-economic-recession-good-for-the-environment- The relationship between environment and economy is not a linear correlation.In the case of climate change,the issue is growing with the development of industrialization.The depression economy would lead to reduce the R&D of new technology and renewed resource which might replace the current one.Actually,for other environmental problems,the loss of ecosystems or biodiversity are much more visible and urgent without exactly being linked to economy. Hence, different issues should be dealt with by different means.-Sean Sat, 19 Apr 2008 00:03:55 -0400 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1887#comment-7241 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1887#comment-7241 The impacts of price rises are as follows: Firstly, consumers will pay more attention to the cost-effectiveness of their spending. Producers of environmental protection products, such as energy saving lights, can highlight the money-saving merit of their products to appeal to potential consumers. Secondly, competition will intensify. The government can introduce policies to encourage enterprises to increase energy efficiency and the processing rate and recovery utilization rate of raw materials. NGOs should conduct broad cooperation with industrial partners and the government. For businesses setting their eye on quick money, they will continue drifting afield from the above mentioned frameworks. - mlc Mon, 14 Apr 2008 00:12:37 -0400 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1887#comment-7226 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1887#comment-7226 Recession puts a lid on both environmentally destructive development and investment into environmental protection. The poor and the general public will mostly suffer more than their wealthy counterparts. Protectionism and racism might raise their ugly heads. All things considered, the recession in America is good news for environmental conservation as it redresses the balance between developing and developed worlds. Most important of all, Americans as a whole are living an outrageously luxurious lifestyle. The current slump might change this once and for all. Only Mother Nature can force them to change their unsustainable way of living. Ryan Mon, 14 Apr 2008 09:28:50 -0400 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1887#comment-7227 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1887#comment-7227 Somewhere along the line, we have to think long and hard about whether economic growth and progress should be equated, and what, exactly we want out of it all. Can the system really just keep growing? How do we define "progress"? With all this growth, with all our prosperity and material goods, we in the West don't seem very happy. How much is enough? We need a wake-up call from time to time, reminding us of the cost of our consumption habits and of the consequences of exponential growth for the planet. -- Matthew Sun, 13 Apr 2008 04:59:52 -0400 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1887#comment-7223 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1887#comment-7223 Look at the countries with the most pristine environments and rainforest - Burma, the Democratic Republic of Congo - where political factors have held back rapid economic growth. Man and nature are now pitted against each other on the most dramatic scale ever conceived, with man eternally the victor and nature the loser. All the comfortable talk of protection of nature being reconcilable with rapid economic growth is pseudo-green propaganda to deceive the masses of a terrifying order. Massive economic recession that forces mid-twentieth century European resource consumption levels as a cap on all countries of the world is the only hope. This would be a far more powerful force than legislation or voluntary activities by households or businesses. However, recession on this scale is unthinkable and could only be precipitated by nuclear war or climate change itself. Ultimately only climate change itself will bring about the negative economic pressures that will reduce carbon emissions. Sun, 13 Apr 2008 07:53:25 -0400 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1887#comment-7225 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1887#comment-7225 Economies in recession might be reluctant to spend money on expensive, new sustainable technologies and instead rely on old, cheap coal technology for energy. The same for food consumption. Who does well in a down economy? McDonald's, because their food is cheap. Sat, 12 Apr 2008 16:23:22 -0400 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1887#comment-7221 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1887#comment-7221 Perhaps the issue is whose recession? Thelast two decades have encouraged the idea that growth is infinite and always a good thing. People who feel more affluent travel more, buy bigger cars and houses and more unnecessary goods. In a society that counts growth as its main purpose, status comes from material competition. So I say, yes, let's have a recession, at least in the affluent parts of the world. It might give us a chance to think about what matters in life Tom Fri, 11 Apr 2008 08:30:05 -0400 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1887#comment-7219 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1887#comment-7219 With a massive population and land mass, this country's economy is still growing rapidly. Thu, 10 Apr 2008 21:36:48 -0400 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1887#comment-7216 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1887#comment-7216 The problem with a recession is that the poorest are most likely to feel the effects. Of course poor people contribute proportionately less to environmental problems. Thu, 10 Apr 2008 12:01:13 -0400 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1887#comment-7215 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1887#comment-7215 Economic recession is not good news for the environment. At first, economic development was achieved by plundering resources at the cost of the environment. Rapid development then occurred at a rate at which the environment could not keep up, which has led to both the current recession and our environmental crisis. But a recession does not mean resource-exploitation or ecological destruction will stop, it will still have an impact on the environment and will produce a civilisational recession. Thu, 10 Apr 2008 11:15:49 -0400 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1887#comment-7214 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1887#comment-7214