Economic Development and Environment Degradation: What Should We Prioritize?

Nowadays, global warming becomes trend in our society. Global warming itself means a process in which temperature of every aspect in the earth rises. It makes unstable climate, rising of the earth’s temperature and ecological imbalance. Global warming occurs because of the usage of green house, uncontrolled deforestation, and air pollution. The air pollution is the significant factor contributing harmful gasses such as CO, and CO2 endangering the earth’s atmosphere. Then, it makes a big question in our minds, “What makes the air pollution occur?” This time we need to analyze it.

The air pollution occurs because of the economic development. Why I say like that? It is because the economic development itself creates a habit we call as cosumerism. It implicitly states people in the upper social class can easily to buy automobiles, for example. Then, they need to buy some gasoline which endanger the earth’s atmosphere by its combustion.

There is an example regarding to the preceeding case which still happens in Indonesia. A few days ago, Indonesian government declared a plan entitled “Low Cost Green Car” or abbreviated as LCGC. They think if Indonesia can make local products, it will increase Indonesia’s income and help the lower class people easily to buy that, for its price less than others. However, the fact is the price is not ‘designed’ for the lower class people.

The government might not think if it will occur more air pollution and traffic jam which is a foe for several cities such as Jakarta, Bandung and Surabaya. Some people who live in those cities wish they had not trapped in the traffic jam. They also wish the government fixed public transportations such as train, bus, taxi, etc. It is because they want to decrease gasoline usage. Then, they hope the government can take back the plan, for it will make the upper social class people easily to buy the LCGC.

That is just an example of a relation between the economic development and the environmental degradation. From that example, we can conclude that the economic development is the significant factor of the environmental degradation. In my own opinion, I hope the government could prioritize a better life for our next generation by not proceeding the LCGC creating bad impacts to our environment. Besides that, I also wish everyone in the world could keep their money or give them to the poor instead of buying automobiles which endanger the earth that we depend on.