The “Trade-Off” in Developing Countries

Compares to economic growth, environmental considerations in developing countries are usually receiving less priorities due to the lack of environmental legislations. Many countries such as China and India view economic growth as their central targets. They may hold some heavy industries that the highly industrialized countries have shifted out of borders and act as their raw material suppliers whereas buying final products from those developed countries. According to the linked article, besides the transfer of no-longer acceptable hazardous industries to the developing countries, “another problem is the rapid proliferation of informal small-scale enterprises in townships as well as in rural areas, which often create serious air and water pollution because of lack of sufficient knowledge and funds.” When pursuing material wealth, developing countries usually do not weight environmental health as much as it should be values. They ignore the impact on future generations that may cause serious problems such as global warming, water pollution, and sandstorms, which has already threatened people’s health in China. It is easy to pull out that there exist a “trade-off” between environment and economic growth; developing countries must consider the circumstance cautiously. However, it does not mean that no solution is possible. As indicated in this website, developing countries can prevent such problems from happening by environmental monitoring, epidemiological studies, launching bio-manipulation and so on.