A presentation created during the Youth Exchange Money is No Honey, financed by Erasmus+ through European Union. More information about the international mobility programs here:
https://erasmus-plus.ec.europa.eu/opportunities/opportunities-for-individuals/youth-exchanges
2. • Economic growth refers to the increase in production or real output of
an economy, typically measured by a country’s GDP (Gross Domestic
Product). The expansion of output, and thereby GDP, is encouraged
through the production and consumption of goods and services in the
economy.
• Traditionally, economic growth and development are seen as the
primary goal of governments across the globe, devoted to the idyllic
objective of upgrading their citizens’ living standards.
4. THE INTERPLAY BETWEEN ECONOMY
AND ENVIRONMENT
• Besides the Environment functioning as a driver of economic growth, it
is also greatly affected by human activity, which can further influence
economic productivity. This includes:
• polluted waterways,
• lack of clean air,
• lost forested areas,
Which can impose massive economic costs in the form of unfit labour,
increased occurrences of natural disasters, loss of crops, declining
animal populations, and so on.
6. ATTEMPTS TO REVERSE
ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE
• Rigorous measures implemented to tighten environmental regulations
and reverse existing environmental damages to protect the future health
of citizens
• E.g., river Thames
• Developing countries attempting to emulate this model
7. POLLUTION IN POLAND
• By the late 20th century, Poland was described
as one of the most polluted countries in the
world
• The World Health Organization says that 33 out
of Europe’s 50 most polluted cities are in
Poland, including Krakow and cities in the
southern Silesia coal mining region. Air
pollution is highest in winter when individual
households use cheap coal and fuels or even
trash for heating.
• Most of the air pollution across Poland is
the result of the country’s dependence
on coal to power its homes and
economy. The country’s coal industry
remains an important part of the local
economy.
• As with many other countries, another
major source of pollution comes from
vehicles. Many of Poland’s vehicles are
over 13 years old and produce a huge
amount of exhaust fumes. Replacing all
these vehicles with modern, cleaner ones
will be both expensive and time-
consuming.
8. WHAT IS POLAND DOING TO STOP THE
POLLUTION?
• In September 2019, the government launched a €25 billion scheme over
the next 10 years to tackle some of the country’s poor air pollution
hotspots. 4 million homes and public buildings were “earmarked” to be
renovated and be equipped with improved insulation and more efficient
heating apparatus. It is the largest scheme of its kind across Europe.
Editor's Notes
In the period from 1989 to 2018, Poland's GDP increased by 826.96% and it was the best result in Europe. In the same period, Ireland's GDP grew by 789.43%, Slovakia's by 783.83% and the Czech Republic by 549.47%. In 1990, the Polish national income amounted to USD 65.978 billion, and by 2017 it had increased to USD 524.5 billion. Achieving these results was possible thanks to the privatization of state-owned enterprises, the development of private entrepreneurship, but also the rapid increase in work efficiency and openness to foreign direct investments. In 2018, the Polish economy grew by 5.1% compared to 4.8% in 2017. Economic growth in the fourth quarter of 2018 in Poland amounted to 4.9% on an annual basis and compared to the third quarter, where GDP increased by 5.1%, it was slightly lower. During this period, investments increased by 6.7%, private consumption also increased by 4.3%, and domestic demand increased by 4.8%. The PMI index in January 2019 was 48.2 points. and was higher than in December 2018 when it amounted to 47.6 points.
Even with the increased environmental awareness in developing nations, the notion of promoting economic development at the cost of the environment is a well accepted phenomenon. Most individuals, firms, and governments of developing countries have already surrendered to environmental degradation as a consequence to pursuing profits/income.
During the 19th and 20th centuries, technology advancements peaked in the West, especially with the onset of the industrial revolution wherein their profits and outputs soared. During the same time, the air quality degraded due to the increased smoke and carbon emissions released from factories, as well as several natural waterways were found polluted. There was an increase in diseases and sickness as the lack of transport systems meant most workers lived suffocatingly close to factories, and large forested and ecologically important areas were destroyed for housing development and agricultural purposes, as well as for procuring raw materials for production.
While the environment suffered, the economy prospered, especially in comparison to the global markets.
We are currently in the midst of a climate crisis. In the last century, humans have consumed resources, as well as released wastes into the environment at an alarming rate.
Our CO2 emissions have spiked, with little to no promise of declining anytime soon. Other data suggests that we are likely to cross the threshold for dangerous warming (+1.5 C) between 2027 and 2042 , species are being lost at 1000 to 10000 times the normal rate, and our current consumption levels demand 1.6 to 1.7 of Earth’s resources.
We have sufficient evidence to support that if we continue our current ways of living, by the year 2030, we would have caused irreparable damage to the planet.
Eventually as the average incomes rose, so did the demand for a better quality of life, which led to the collective realisation of environmental significance and its effects on human health. Thereafter rigorous measures were implemented to tighten environmental regulations, and reverse existing environmental damages to protect the future health of citizens.
To a large extent, MEDC’s have been successful in doing so. For instance, the river Thames (situated in the UK) was once considered biologically dead owing to massive pollution, sewage disposal and industrial waste. However, today it is considered one of the cleanest rivers that passes through a major city, owing to stringent changes in regulations and enormous clean-up efforts undertaken in the 1960’s.
Developing countries are now attempting to emulate this model, employing the tacit assumption that environmental damages can be reversed in the future once economic growth and development goals have been secured.
However, this notion to reverse environmental damages in a delayed future time period can be interpreted as naive, and detrimental to their own future prosperity.
Rapid industrialization following World War II in Poland, as well as in neighbouring Czech Republic, Slovakia, and eastern Germany, severely polluted many areas of the country. By the late 20th century, the Polish Academy of Sciences had described Poland as one of the most polluted countries in the world. Upper Silesia and Kraków, in particular, had suffered some of the highest levels of atmospheric and groundwater pollution in Europe. Several areas of central Poland, where cement is produced and brown coal (lignite) is burned, also were contaminated by air pollution.
The country’s major rivers remain badly polluted by industrial and urban effluents, and Poland’s cities and larger towns are major sources of pollution. Much higher levels of respiratory disease, abnormal pregnancy, and infant mortality have been reported in areas of environmental degradation. Pollution has also reduced crop yields and adversely affected tree growth in many of the forests in the Sudeten and western Carpathians.
The problems of environmental degradation were not officially recognized until the early 1970s and were not addressed until the Solidarity movement began agitating in the early 1980s. Significant reduction in the emission of pollutants occurred, however, as a consequence of the rapid fall in industrial production in the early 1990s, following the abandonment of communism and the introduction of economic reforms. Throughout the decade the government implemented antipollution policies, such as closing the most damaging industrial plants.
