Urban and Industrial Development Accelerate Environmental Pollution - Research Paper Example

Introduction: Environmental pollution results from a number of human intervention strategies on the planet. Some of these interventions have had adverse effects on the ecosystem to the extent that certain populations are rendered bear. The growth of towns to cities, villages into towns and cities into large metropolitans has had very vociferous effects on the level of pollution on the environment. The same discourse allows this paper to thrust its efforts to bring out the reasons as to why industrial and urban developments are said to accelerate environmental pollution. These developments were able to lead to a variety of pollutions, and examples include water and air pollution. They also accelerate the environmental pollution, through the destruction of the ecosystem, and this leads to the exploitation of resources and disposal of wastes inefficiently. Environmental Pollution: Environmental pollution can simply be defined the identification of a harmful substance to both the environment and human life. (David Briggs, 2003, p.2). Environmental pollution results from a number of human activities that range from family level to community level. These activities can have devastating impacts on the health situation whereby people end up losing their dear lives because of activities that could be avoided if precautions were taken. Environmental pollution has an effect on the ecosystem, affecting the air, water and the land. Theoretical explanations have come up to try and explain these phenomena at the height of urban and industrial development. Yet, despite their efforts to come up with the explanations, countries that suffer most are those still living under very poor conditions and whose economies do not stand to protect the matter. These poor nations still suffer from the exploitations of the highly developed in terms of policy formation at the international level. Countries like China and the USSR have suffered the effects of pollution resulting from unchecked development strategies and their leaders have come out strongly to support any interventions to eradicate the pandemic. Olei (p.17) states that, in China and USSR there is an ecological continuity that, illustrates how development without democratic counterweight can slowly lead to poverty through the depletion of natural resources. As documented by Thompsons et al. (2003, p.12) our current approaches to production, use and nonuse can not last long hence parading fears over wildlife and human health. That we have considerable knowledge on environmental hazards, and information on human health effects are growing, but many concerns remain. Laurent on the other hand states that, there is a well documented in terms of inequality of the environmental crisis and its repercussion China is facing. So just how does economic growth illustrate the increase in pollution by all means? Theoretical explanation –Conflict theory It is estimated by 2020 China’s rubbish will reach 400 million tons which comes from 150 million being released every year now (Leon Gaurero, 2008, p.376). On the other hand, Public discourse on environmental problems is often framed on costs and interests according to conflict theorists. From a social perspective, environmental problems are created by the efforts of humans competing for power, income, and their own interests (Lerner, 2004). According to conflict theorists, our capitalist economic system is to be blamed or identified as the primary source of conflict over polluting (or conserving) our very natural world. According to Davies (1970) the capitalistic economy, water and air are seen as infinite and free resources thereby welcoming contamination. In this case a polluter doesn’t really care what and who is being affected by their actions. In case a paper mill was discharging toxic wastes into a stream, it doesn’t bother them but only the people down the stream. Moreover, if a power plant is polluting the atmosphere, the plant is not accountable for the air, but only the cost of cleaning up a polluted area (Davies 1970). According to Tobin, Brinkmann and Montz (2000) ecological downfalls frequently make life unpleasant and inconvenient, but most Americans are able to tolerate it in exchange for the benefits and comforts associated with the developed industrial economy. According to the theorists, a higher standard of living has been confused to consumption that is more is better. They believe, politicians encourage lower taxes so that Americans be able to make more money to spend. Television and print media overwhelm the citizens with goods and services that tell people that they cannot leave without them. David Kortens contradicts this assumption by stating categorically that, high usage of the products needs high production and energy, and these leads to. Furthermore, Hawken (1993) believes that we should have the capability of putting economic values on renewable and non-renewable natural resources. He advocates for natural capitalism, which he defines as, the awareness of the significance of nature as a system, it is not different from assessing the value of financial capital or labor. For him, it is possible for the society to place a price tag on a tree once its cut, but what is the value as a living part of our environment system? Is it possible to value nature? Robert Bullard defines environmental racism as legal differentials or segregations that are based legal environmental procedures. Research indicates the poor are environmentally marginalized in terms of income and color. It shows the increased levels of inequality that exists in the society in terms of the environment. Evidence also suggests that that low-income people of color suffer higher levels of environmentally caused illnesses and deaths as a result of their heightened dangers. The problem has been extended to encompass race, class, gender, education and political power. (Leon Gaurero, 2008, p.376-377) Social Causes of Environmental Pollution: It goes without mentioning that environmental pollution is a global scare to all cities and governments. There are certain forces that depict the rate at which this problem has evolved over years without being crosschecked properly. They help to shape the dimensions of strategies to be adopted by all systems in trying to control this global menace. The first force that is seen to accelerate environmental degradation is structural. According to Olei (2014), the environmental lobby group has not offered enough in the last forty years to overcome ecological challenges in tangible realities. Because of this they are now being reduced to “party of catastrophe” where they offer very undesirable levels of anxiety without dispensing practical solutions that are perceived by many citizens. The irrational result of this situation is that environmental issues are likened by most people in developed economies to distant foreign policy problems while they actually are part of their daily lives. In the end they might be ever present if not overwhelming in a matter of tens of years and it is true in developing and emerging countries (Gonzalez, 2005). For instance, the United Nation’s environmental headquarters are in Kenya, a country on the eastern side of Africa. It is expected that the country to offer exemplary showcase to the world. But in reality, Kenya’s forest cover does not reach the 10% margin set by the United Nations and it also has high levels of air and water pollutions. The second force is more circumstantial according to Laurent. The slow economic recovery, little job creation and the ever increasing social inequality worked concurrently in the United States and Europe to minimize the long periods of environmental discussions in the face of ‘urgent’ social needs (Gonzalez, 2005). These problems according to him, have taken the environment protection a back seat in terms of public opinion to economic growth in the US and in Europe. The other force demanding attention from environmentalists and social scientists is the region of climate change which in many terms is inevitable. According to Laurent Olei there are other social factors that determine pollution of the environment in urban areas. They include, income and power inequality and he suggests that they can only be resolved through forwarding justice principles and building good institutions. According to David Briggs 2003, p.6), in urban environments traffic-related pollutants characteristically illustrate the order-of- magnitude of variations. For example gasses are normally concentrated on length scales, that measures between ten to over a hundred metres. Other processes contributing to local variations in environmental pollution are evaporation and leakage. He further states that in the U.K, benzene emissions are accounted by ca 1.8%of fuel leaks; methane emissions are accounted for by ca 13.7% leakages from gas pipelines to the atmosphere. Leakage and evaporation solvents that occurs during the processing process, normally account to 40% of the atmospheric emission, of organic compounds that do not contain methane (NMVOCS). Furthermore, platinum emissions are always caused by wear and tear, of the catalytic converters. For example, tyre wear and road wear account for approximately 16% of the total emissions emanating from the automobiles (David Briggs, 2003). Emissions to other media such as surface waters, ground waters and soil do occur through a range of processes. Deliberate spillage, discharge for example from storage and use account for this. Also leakages and runoffs emanating from agricultural products are examples of aqueous polluting substances. Lawful dumping or unlawful ones represent a major source of emissions of solid wastes, through final release into the wider ecosystem may only take place when these pollutants decompose off. (David Briggs2003, p.7). It is stated that certain pollutants travel long distance in order to avoid them be noticed. But by whatever processes pollutants normally pass through the environment, four related factors are important in the potential for exposure and health consequences: Their determination, movement, their rotting products and toxicity (David Briggs 2003, p.9). In terms of decomposition the plastic wastes are stated to accumulate to levels that are unimaginable. Around 10 percent by weight of the municipal waste stream is plastic. Thompsons et al. (2005)states that, there are cases unintentional pollution of soils with pieces of plastic which results into spreading of sewerage mud. The mud eliminates the thought having manure that can be prepared from municipal solid waste. Also, the sludge results into plastics being carried into streams, rivers and finally into the ocean through rain water and floods (Thompson et al. 2005) Community socioeconomic status and Air Pollution measures Rongium Sun and Danan Gu conducted a research study among the elderly men in China toestablish the rate of pollution as accelerated by urban development. The study focused on air pollution as the determiner of adverse health effects on the population. The Study used data from the third wave of Chinese Longitudinal Health Longevity Survey (CLHLS) in 2002.The first wave used only the elderly who were aged 80 years or more and it was conducted in 2 provinces with more than 85% national population reside in 1998. The second wave was done in 2000.The third wave was conducted in 2002 and it added younger elderly people of 65-79 years of age compared to the original number of interviewees which resulted into sample population of 15,940.Because these pollution data concentrated in urban areas only, the individuals from rural areas were excluded from this analysis because pollution is lower there than in cities. The final sample included 7,358 elderly inhabitants of 735 city districts withdrawn from 171 cities. Control variables: According to Rongium Sun and Danan Gu (2008), the control variable was the weather. The other variable as they had classified them included: demographic which they subdivided it in to age, sex and ethnicity variables. Further Rongium Sun and Danan Gu identified socioeconomic status as a control variable, it included education which they divided also into;1-6 years of schooling, 7 years or more or none. Rongium Sun and Danan Gu (2008).Another control variable was occupation (white collar occupation vs. others). Family network resources included marital status (currently married vs. not married) and a number of children. Community socioeconomic status was measured by the GDP per capita of each city in China .To capture a possible nonlinear relation between the GDP per capita and individuals’ health, they used the cutoffs that were adopted in 2002 by the World Bank. The same World Bank classified countries regions into 5 categories based o annual per capita: poverty (was greater or equal to $365), low income (was between $366-$745), lower-middle income ($746-$2,975), upper-middle income ($2,976-$9,025) and high income (greater than $9,205) .Since the maximum GDP per capita in every city district in their sample was about $2,367, Rongium et al classifies these 735 city districts, to three categories of GDP, low, medium, and high, which corresponded to the three lowest categories characterized by the World Bank. Air pollution was measured by the air pollution measuring index..It is used widely in environmental research as a measuring tool for the contamination in the air. Actually, it monitors the concentration three pollutants. They include; sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, and inhalable particles (consisting of particulate matter greater than 10 micrometer in diameter, carbon monoxide and ozone). They were the most common pollutants in China as well as other developing nations like the US. Since health outcome variables adopted in the study reflected health status rather than immediate, specific responses, they used air pollution indexes for the year 1995 to take into consideration the lagged response to air pollution. Research had shown that pollution yielded significant mid-or long-term effects on health or mortality, but it was overlooked in the research. The pollution index was graded from 1 to 7, with lower scores indicating better quality. The results showed that, in regions with a medium GDP per capita there was an effect on air pollution by instrumental activities of daily living. Air pollution is an issue that affects the urban population, when compared to rural areas. Meaning that pollution is higher in developed cities and exposure is higher than in lowly developed cities. As it is vivid the development of towns into cities and villages into towns has an effect on the speed of pollution because such do depict an increasing effect on the population. The findings are also consistent with the environmental risk transition framework: Economic development in its early stage results in higher community health risks. Societies at this stage normal shift their environmental risks from the family to their communities, in the form of the quality of air they breathe. Second, the cumulative or total exposure matters a lot in the current level of air contamination. The increased levels of air infectivity in developed areas can be attributed to respondents’ higher exposure at an earlier stage of economic development. Third, relative sensitivity of individuals in urban areas increases the risk of air pollution their lives. Ending Statement: Environmental pollution according to David Briggs (2003) is a situation whereby there is the high presence of an agent in the environment which if left unchecked could affect both human and animal lives. Environmental pollution starts from the family level to the largest organization on land. Pollution occurs on land, water air and soil. Pollution results from emissions in to the atmosphere by harmful gasses like carbon monoxide and methane gasses which have an adverse effect on the ozone layer. Other harmful pollutions include the dumping of plastic materials in to fields and many more. Conflict theorists do believe that at the height of modern capitalism, countries have had to fend off themselves with problems of pollution at huge levels. According to them, it is because of capitalism that the world is suffering from environmental pollution. Despite the better legislation mechanisms present in almost every developed and developing nations industry still emit their raw wastes in to the rivers and sea shores. It is unfortunate that such useless wastes do not decompose but remain to form huge piles of wastes for years .It is therefore very important for all legislative arms to ensure that strict adherence to government laws are maintained. The rate of pollution in these cities is catapulted by the rate at which they experience growth and development at all levels. References: Briggs David (2003) “Environmental pollution and the global burden of disease” Small Area Health Statistics Unit, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health. British Medical Bulletin. Imperial College, London, UK. Vol. 68(pp.1-24)Retrieved on 7th Davies, J. (1970). The politics of pollution. New York: Pegasus. Thompson C. Richard, Moore J. Charles, Vom Sal S. Fredrick and Shanna H. Swan (2005) “Plastics, the environment and human health: current consensus and future trends”. Marie Biology and Ecology Research Centre, Marine Institute, Plymouth University Drake Circus, Plymouth PL4 8AA, UK. Olei Laurent. Inequality as pollution, pollution as inequality: The social-ecological nexus. OFCE/Science Pro-Paris, Stanford University, Harvard University. U.S. Accessed on 7th Dec. 2014 Read More