Geography 0460: Theme 3 – Economic Development
3.7 Environmental Risks of Economic Development
Hello Geographers! This chapter is incredibly important because it looks at the messy side of progress. While economic development brings jobs, wealth, and better standards of living, it often comes at a high cost to our planet. We will explore the specific environmental threats caused by human activity and how we can manage them responsibly using the concept of sustainable development.
Let's make sure we understand the key threats and solutions!
Part 1: Threats to the Natural Environment and People
Economic development generally involves industrial expansion, intensive agriculture, urban growth, and increased resource consumption. These activities put huge strain on natural systems, affecting environments both locally (in the area of development) and globally (worldwide).
Environmental Threat 1: Land Degradation
When we clear land for farming, mining, or settlement, we often expose the soil, making it vulnerable.
(A) Soil Erosion
Soil Erosion is the removal of topsoil (the most fertile layer) by wind or water. Economic activities accelerate this process:
- Deforestation: Trees are cut down for logging or to clear space for cattle ranches (primary sector activity). Tree roots usually hold the soil together. Once removed, the soil is easily washed away during rainfall.
- Intensive Farming: Using heavy machinery and growing the same crop repeatedly (monoculture) can compact and deplete the soil structure, making it weaker and more prone to erosion.
Quick Analogy: Think of the soil as a sponge protected by a net (vegetation). Remove the net, and the sponge crumbles easily when wet!
(B) Desertification
This is the process where fertile land turns into desert, usually due to mismanagement of the land, especially in dry or semi-arid areas.
- Causes linked to development:
- Overgrazing: Too many cattle/sheep (economic activity) eat all the grass, killing the vegetation cover.
- Fuelwood Collection: People often chop down trees and bushes for firewood (a basic economic need in LICs), stripping the land bare.
- Poor Irrigation: Irrigating with salty water can lead to salinisation, making the soil infertile.
Key Takeaway: Land degradation threatens our ability to grow food, impacting future generations.
Environmental Threat 2: Pollution
Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause adverse change. Economic activity is the number one source of pollution.
(A) Air Pollution
This affects people's health (respiratory issues) and the environment (acid rain).
- Sources: Power stations (burning fossil fuels like coal), factories, high volume of vehicles in urban areas.
- Local Impact: Smog (thick fog mixed with pollutants) in major industrial cities.
- Global Impact: Release of greenhouse gases (see below).
(B) Water Pollution
This affects aquatic ecosystems and contaminates drinking water.
- Industrial Effluent: Waste water containing toxic chemicals (like heavy metals) dumped directly into rivers or the sea.
- Agricultural Runoff: Excess pesticides and fertilisers (inputs in intensive farming) wash into water bodies, causing eutrophication (overgrowth of algae, which suffocates other aquatic life).
- Mining: Acid mine drainage can contaminate groundwater supplies.
(C) Noise and Visual Pollution
These types of pollution often impact the quality of life and tourism.
- Noise: Constant loud sounds from manufacturing plants, heavy construction, or busy transport links (airports, highways). This causes stress and health problems for local residents.
- Visual: Damage to the landscape aesthetic. Examples include large, unsightly landfill sites (rubbish tips), open-cast mining scars, electricity pylons, and uncontrolled spread of industry and housing (urban sprawl).
Think of P.A.W. V.N. (Paws and VN)
- Pollution: Air, Water, Visual, Noise
Environmental Threat 3: Enhanced Global Warming
This is one of the most severe global risks resulting from increased economic activity, particularly since the Industrial Revolution.
Enhanced Global Warming refers to the accelerated warming of the Earth’s atmosphere due to human activities, primarily through the release of excessive greenhouse gases (like Carbon Dioxide and Methane).
- The Link to Economic Development:
- Burning fossil fuels (coal, oil, natural gas) for energy production (factories, electricity, transport) releases massive amounts of CO2.
- Deforestation reduces the planet's ability to absorb CO2.
- Intensive agriculture (especially large cattle herds) releases Methane.
- Consequences (Global Impacts):
- Melting ice caps and glaciers, leading to sea-level rise (threatening low-lying coastal areas and islands).
- More frequent and intense extreme weather events (droughts, floods, tropical storms).
- Changes in rainfall patterns, affecting agriculture and potentially causing food shortages in vulnerable regions.
Did you know? The greenhouse effect itself is natural and keeps the planet warm enough to live on. Human activities have simply made the 'blanket' of greenhouse gases too thick, trapping too much heat—hence the term 'enhanced'.
Part 2: The Need for Sustainable Development and Management
Because economic growth often clashes with environmental protection, we need a smarter approach: Sustainable Development.
What is Sustainable Development?
Definition: It is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
Don't worry if this seems like a mouthful! It simply means we must achieve a balance between three vital things:
- Economic Needs (Profit): We need growth, jobs, and wealth.
- Social Needs (People): We need fairness, health, and education.
- Environmental Needs (Planet): We need clean air, water, and healthy ecosystems.
If we only focus on economic needs, we ruin the environment, which eventually destroys both the economy and society (e.g., polluted water causes sickness and reduces the workforce).
The Importance of Management
Effective management is essential to reduce environmental risk. This involves:
- Legislation and Policy: Governments imposing strict laws on pollution levels for factories (e.g., fines for illegal dumping).
- Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs): Before a new dam or factory is built, studies must be conducted to predict and mitigate (reduce) the harm to the environment.
- Zoning Laws: Separating dirty industrial areas from residential areas to protect people from noise and air pollution.
Key Takeaway: Sustainability is about balancing the needs of today with the needs of tomorrow. We must manage development, not just let it happen randomly.
Part 3: Resource Conservation
Conservation means using our resources wisely so they do not run out. Resources are anything useful to humans, such as water, fossil fuels, timber, and minerals.
Why is Resource Conservation Important?
- Finite Resources: Many resources (especially fossil fuels and minerals) are non-renewable; once used, they are gone forever. We must conserve them to prolong their supply.
- Environmental Protection: Conserving resources often means less extraction (mining, drilling), which reduces land degradation and pollution.
- Cost Effectiveness: Recycling and reusing materials saves the high cost and energy involved in manufacturing new items from raw materials.
How can we achieve Conservation?
We often use the '4 R's' strategy:
- Reduce: Simply use less. For example, using less electricity or driving less often.
- Reuse: Using items again for the same or a different purpose. For example, refilling water bottles instead of buying new ones.
- Recycle: Processing used materials into new products. For example, turning old plastic bottles into new fibres or packaging.
- Refuse: Declining products that are wasteful, such as single-use plastics or excessive packaging.
Example: Water Conservation
In countries facing water shortages (covered in Topic 3.6), conservation is critical:
- Implementing water pricing (charging more for high use).
- Using drip irrigation in agriculture (delivering water directly to the plant roots, reducing waste through evaporation).
- Fixing leaking pipes (managing existing infrastructure efficiently).
Key Takeaway: Conservation extends the life of valuable resources and limits the environmental damage caused by finding and processing raw materials.
Part 4: Case Study Guidance (3.7)
You need a case study of An area where economic development is taking place and causing the environment to be at risk.
A strong case study should clearly link the development type (e.g., oil drilling, rapid industrial growth, large-scale mining) to specific environmental threats.
How to Structure Your Case Study (Example: Oil Extraction in the Niger Delta, Nigeria)
- Identify the Economic Development: E.g., Large-scale petroleum extraction and processing (secondary/primary sector activity).
- Describe the Environmental Risk/Threat:
- Water Pollution (Local): Frequent oil spills contaminate rivers and mangrove swamps, poisoning fish (loss of income for local fishers) and drinking water.
- Air Pollution (Local): Gas flaring (burning off excess natural gas) releases toxic fumes, contributing to respiratory illnesses and acid rain.
- Land Degradation: Construction of pipelines and drilling sites destroys farmlands and local ecosystems.
- Describe the Impact on People:
- Loss of traditional livelihoods (fishing, farming).
- Health problems due to contaminated water and air.
- Describe Management/Solutions (if any):
- Government regulations (often poorly enforced).
- Cleanup efforts (slow and expensive).
- Community resistance and activism pushing for sustainability.
Remember, the examiner is looking for clear evidence that you understand the cause-and-effect relationship between the economic activity and the specific environmental problems identified in the syllabus (soil erosion, pollution, global warming).