Getting started. Environmental awareness from Fringe concern to Mainstream Politics and a new economic model.
Achim Steiner believes that global economic growth needs environmental sustainability. Simply put, environmental sustainability - encompassing better use of resources, less fossil fuel use, lower ecological footprints, green technologies - is a pre-condition for long-term economic development.
Watch Steiner's Video and make notes in the comment section.
- Do you agree with what he saying.
- He is proposing and new economic model. Do you think this is possible rather than just desirable?
- Thinking specifically about Hong Kong and China, what forces support this new model?
- And what forces in China an Hong Kong work against this model.
Advanced. The Fukuyama thesis.
This thesis suggests that democracy and the growth of civil society is a new and final form of world governance that will help protect the environment.
We will see these concepts towards the end of this lesson where we look at the growth of Green Politics.
"What we may be witnessing is not just the end of the Cold War, or the passing of a particular period of post-war history, but the end of history as such: that is, the end point of mankind's ideological evolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracyas the final form of human government."
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ReplyDeleteYou will use up your resources so that you will end up destroying your businesses
DeleteFor environmental gain we have to destroy our environment
It can be a consequence but it isn’t inevitable.
He proposes environmental sustainability as a requirement.
Economical growth = environmental destruction
This will lead to a reduction in economic growth
Hong Kong – the richer you are the more sustainable you can be – it is a luxury
Gain resources from other countries.
China and its accountability to the citizens – cheap labour, cheap land, more access
China has a communist system – civil societies won’t work if you don’t have democracy and that the civil society is controlled. Liberal democracy is needed for environmental sustainability. (Civil societies are in-between all sectors and bringing them together.)
Achim Steiner:
ReplyDelete- End up destroying economic business if you do not preserve your environmental resources.
- Proposing that environmental sustainability as a requirement.
- Flips the model that economic growth = environmental destruction.
- If economic growth = environmental destruction, this will lead to a reduction in economic growth
In Hong Kong and China, being rich is like a license to destroy the environment as they can buy their resources globally.
China works against the model, Communism, multi party
China will disagree/limit the amount of power environmental groups or civil societies have
If you don’t have an active civil society/democracy, there will not be environmental progress – Fukuyama thesis. Liberal democracy
Counter argument is the anti Malthusian argument e.g. invent new resources/new ways to extract resources
I agree with Steiner's economic model because I believe that environmental sustainability is a necessity for long term economical development. However, China largely works against this model due to its cheap labour and huge area of land which encourages them to be unsustainable. Furthermore, the communist nation has a lack of regulations of sustainability in industry. The counterargument is the anti-malthusian viewpoint, which states that economic development encourages innovation anyways, so you don't have to be sustainable to grow economically.
ReplyDeleteAlthough Achim Steiner believed that global economic growth required environmental sustainability, from an anti-malthusian stand point, that may not be the case. Although environmental sustainability is a desirable aspect to incorporate into ones business as it can maintain economic growth, even if non-renewable resources are depleted, Boserup believed that other newer and better technologies would be developed to replace those resources. The development and use of which, would further economic development.
ReplyDelete