Finding a Balance Between Economic and Environmental Sustainability | Essay

OPINION

OPINION
From decades, it is believed that economic growth is a kind of panacea to the world’s
problems like poverty, sustainability, inequality etc. There is a harsh truth that we cannot
ignore, it is that economic growth has become environmentally unsustainable. It is no more
necessary to punish the environment for economic growth. Time has come when we have to
think about the disturbing climate and seasons and make an effort to remake Earth as a happy
and healthy place to live.
Earlier mainstream economists believed economy to be physical unlike ecological economist
who always considered economy as physical. However, worsening climatic condition has
made mainstream economist to think alike ecological economist. Now, every economist is of
the view of separating economic growth from energy and material consumption.
Consumption of resources per unit of GDP has slightly declined but it is still insignificant to
achieve absolute sustainability. Economy in which we live is never circular because energy
cannot be recycled and material is recyclable up to a limit. There has been immense growth
in technology all over the world. People has become so addicted to these technologies that it
becomes difficult for them to imagine their life in its absence. Sometimes, economic growth
is not socially desirable. Inequalities are rising, poverty has yet not been resolved completely
and life satisfaction is slow or still (Demaria, 2018).y.
No doubt, economic growth is beneficial for a country and its citizens. For instance, more a
business grows and its profit increases, more that country would grow. This would create
more jobs, resources and increase the quality of life of the country’s citizens. These benefits
from economic growth attracts and motivates citizens to work more to achieve a higher
growth but these benefits are only for a short-term.
When an economy progresses and grows it uses the energy and resources of Earth. Natural
environment gets adversely affected by the smoke emission and ultimately affects the
climate. For economic growth we over-use natural resources like oil and gas and with the
help of technological improvement and advancement we consume every bit of it. We try to
extract all those resources which actually acts as the foundation for economic growth and if it
continues it will gradually swallow up the entire economy, society and environment as a
whole. The time has arrived when we start thinking of de-growth strategies to conserve and
reinvent (Higgins, 2013).
It is important to balance economic growth and sustainability. It is important for the
organisations to start practising Environmental Accounting which assist in identifying
1