ASPECTS REGARDING THE LINK BETWEEN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT,

ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION AND POVERTY

Perțicaș Diana Claudia 1, Florea Adrian Gheorghe 2

1
The Economic department, Faculty of Economics, University of Oradea, Oradea,
Romania
2
The Economic department, Faculty of Economics, University of Oradea, Oradea,
Romania
diana_perticas@yahoo.com
aflorea@uoradea.ro

Abstract: The pollution of the environment has become a main problem that requires all of
our attention. Degradation of the soil, atmospheric pollution with various greenhouse gases
which is proven to have made people and animals sick and in some cases it has led to the
extinction of certain animals and plants, water pollution – water being very important for
our survival and other such examples that prove the consequences of neglecting
environmental problems. This paper tries to see what the influence is, but more importantly
how the impact of environmental degradation is felt by the poor countries. Equality and
poverty reduction are two social and economic objectives, meant to reduce the
vulnerability of individuals and to ensure the basic needs of the population. Between
biodiversity, economy and human capital there is a strong link. We could say that these
elements are in a state of continuous interdependency. Life is based on ecosystems and
we can find them at the base of every human activity. Nature offers us a series of vital
goods and services for maintaining well-being and for economic and social development
without which we could not advance. Eradicating poverty is and will be a part of the
objectives set in the process of making a sustainable development. Sustainable
development, at present, follows to prevent and solve the environment problems that
humanity is facing, out of which we will mention: climate change, exhaustion of natural
resources and clean water supplies, drought, floods, loss of biodiversity, difficult waste
management, especially of the radioactive kind, workforce migration etc. – all these events
may create hard to manage economic and social consequences.

Key words: pollution, poverty, environment

JEL Classification: O13, O44.

1. Introduction
Pollution represents the contamination of the environment with materials that affect human
health, the quality of life or the natural function of ecosystems (living organisms and the
environment they live in). Even if sometimes the pollution of the environment is the result
of natural causes like volcanic eruptions, the largest part of polluting substances come
from human activities.
If we refer to the contamination of air by humans, this has been around in various forms
since people started using fire for agriculture, making food, heating homes, etc. But the
real problem – as to what pollution is concerned – appeared during the Industrial
Revolution (18th-19th centuries), when air pollution has recorded levels that have not been
seen until then.
In urban areas, pollution measures very high values mainly due to cars (which in some
places are very numerous) but also because the development of industrial areas. This type
of pollution is called “smog” and it is made up of a mixture of carbon monoxide and organic
compounds resulting from the incomplete burning of fossil fuels such as coal, and sulfur
dioxide from the impurities in fuels. In contact with oxygen, these fat and sulfuric acids
condense in the form of raindrops, thickening the fog.

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As a prime consequence of this phenomenon, the quality of air has started to decrease
especially in large cities but not only there, because pollution has no form of barriers. The
reduction of air quality has been recorded for the first time in Los Angeles, around the
1930s, when a different type of smog, the photochemical type, caused by the engines of
cars and planes that release hydrocarbons from incompletely burnt fuel into the
atmosphere.
Most of the pollutants are “washed away” by rain, snow or fog *these pollutants are not
always made in the area where they are washed; they can be sometimes brought to
different continents). Through this process, through the mixture of pollutant substances
and rain, what is produced is called “acid rain”. This falls over lakes and forests, causing
the death of fish and animals, of the entire ecosystem which leads to the death of people.
Not only the health of the individuals is affected, but also the good they create. For
example, historical statues, building facades and car paints etc. (the facades of buildings
from Rome, Athens and London are the most affected by acid rain, due to the wind which
blows from greatly industrialized areas).
Another consequence of pollution is global warming, which represents the increase of the
Earth’s temperature. This phenomenon manifested especially in the 20 th century, when
due to the extensive use of fossil fuels, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the
atmosphere has risen dramatically, a phenomenon which is still happening today.
Carbon dioxide, but also other gases are known under the name of greenhouse gases –
because of the fact that they lead to the thinning of the ozone layer (which has a role in
blocking solar radiation).Thus, air pollution affects the upper regions of the atmosphere,
the so-called stratosphere, by exhausting the ozone layer and creating a hole (above the
Antarctic there is one such hole which is formed for a few weeks each year).
The powerful industrialization and the continuous growth of economics has determi ned the
apparition of ecologic phenomena that are increasingly frightening. For example, the cities
of China pump into the atmosphere a huge cloud of dust and hydrocarbons which travels
up to 1700 km above the Pacific Ocean.
In order to create a sustainable economy but in the same time without affecting the
environment in a very significant way, the notion of “sustainable development” appeared,
which not only has the purpose of protecting the environment, but also the quality of life.
In this paper, the necessity of coming up with a sustainable development in mainly
presented, because of the rise of population worldwide. This in turn determines the
increase of survival needs. The fact that the Earth’s population registers a steadily
increasing level of education, has led to the creation and diversification of some needs and
wishes of people.
The notion of “sustainable development” and the need to make it happen has traveled a
long way until it became universally accepted. Along the way, many authors wrote about
the problem of exhausting resources, about the effects of pollution and the economic,
ecologic and social implications that arise. From observing the pollution phenomenon and
its implications, to the point when we are aware of this problem and a large part of the
population has accepted this problem, a great number of authors had to write about it, from
economists to ecologist, biologists or psychologists. All have talked about this problem in
various conferences made with the purpose of finding a solution to the issue.
This report presents in its first part several notions about sustainable development and its
links with the level of poverty or the degree of implication of women in society, and in the
second part it will present the analysis of the main measuring indicators for making this
development come true.

2. Opinions on sustainable development

Sustainable development has become in the last decades the engine of all international
environmental protecting agencies; a key word found in almost all development plans, the

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theme for numerous conferences and the slogan of environmental activists (Bell, Morse,
1999, pg. 4)
Across time, the notion of sustainable development received a series of definitions, but
Simone Bell and Morse Stephen attribute a totally unique one: “sustainable development
means not cheating the future of your children” (Bell, Morse, 1999, pg. 5). In their vision,
sustainable development can be seen as any activity that does not damage the
environment.
Pearce David, Barbier Edward and Markandya Anil (Pearce, Barbier, et al. 1990, pg. 1)
define sustainable development as being that type of development t hat can persist in time,
specifically meaning it will not degrade the natural capital stock. By the notion of “natural
capital” the authors understand all the above ground and underground resources, like, for
example, water, fish and not forgetting air quality.
Starting from the word “sustainability”, Rogers P. (Rogers, Kazi et al, 2008, pg. 22), along
with other co-authors, defines sustainable development as a bridge, a connection between
the edges of a pit, where at one end is the much sought economic growth and at the other
end is the environment. From the wish of finding out what makes this bridge, the authors
enumerate nine steps in their works, which need to be followed in order to make a
sustainable development. These steps are:

Table 1: The nine steps to sustainability

Leave everything clean or transform it in its original state
Develop and produce as much as you can without exceeding the renewal capacity of the
system
Sustainability will be made as income will increase – Kuznets
Pollution makers and those who are polluted can find an efficient solution together – Coase
Let the market balance itself
Internalize externalizations
Let the ecologic accountability system reflect the expenditures made for protecting the
environment
Reinvest the profit into renewable resources
Let future generations the possibility to develop at least as well as the present ones
Source: Roger P. Peter. Jalal K. Kazo, et all, Measuring Environmental Quality in Asia,
1997, taken from Roger P. Peter, Jalal K. Kazi, Boyd A. John, An introduction to
sustainable development, Earthscan, 2008, pg. 23

After all the nine steps towards sustainability have been made, the authors say that all that
is missing is the most important thing, which they define as being the “key” to sustainability
– which is “saving”.

Table 2: Savings as key to sustainable development

Savings
Depreciation of Depreciation of man- Natural capital
as a GDP ≥ + +
human knowledge made capital depreciation
percent.
Source: Roger P. Peter. Jalal K. Kazo, et all, Measuring Environmental Quality in Asia,
1997, taken from Roger P. Peter, Jalal K. Kazi, Boyd A. John, An introduction to
sustainable development, Earthscan, 2008, pg. 27

Savings, calculated as a GDP percent, need to be higher or equal to the sum between the
depreciation of human knowledge and the depreciation of man-made capital plus the
depreciation of natural capital. At present, what is followed is generally only the economic
growth, which leads to the fact that other aspects are mostly omitted, thinking that money
can solve any kind of problems. The authors pose a pertinent question, meant to shed light

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on this issue: “How can the increase of GDP stop the extinction of the Dodo bird?”
(Rogers, Kazi et al, 2008, pg. 28).

3. Opinions on the pressure made by poor countries on the environment

In specialized literature, we see a constant dispute as to who is responsible to the level of

pollution we have today. On one hand, the representatives of developed countries blame
the poor countries for a lack of a good governing, non-polluting technologies from those
places and the fact that the people living in such countries are preoccupied with ensuring
only their basic needs, which leaves the environmental issue untreated. On the other hand,
poor countries declare that the present modern lifestyle with multiple and diverse needs,
with developed industries and many transport systems relying on nonrenewable resources
which on top of that are extremely pollutant, contribute to the massive degradation of the
environment. We do not know who is completely right, but we can offer you data in helping
us decide who to believe (Hill 2010, pp. 26-27). Each individual from the North American,
Western Europe, Japan and Australian regions use approximately 32 times more
resources than an individual from poor countries and produces that much more waste.
In our research, we have identified 5 myths (Rogers, Kazi et al, 2008, pg. 51) about this
link:
a. Most environmental problems are made by poor countries. The explanation of
this myth has to do with the fact that the poor frequently resort to cutting trees in
order to ensure their basic needs, which leads to local deforestation. This creates
the main cause for landslides, pollutes surface water because they don’t have
filtering and purification technology for the waste waters, which even if they reach
the underground waters in a small amount, it is enough to leave catastrophic
damages behind.
b. Reducing the poverty level obligatory leads to the degradation of the natural
environment. The argument behind this myth is that once the level of poverty is
reduced, consumption will be stimulated, which will lead to an increase in the
demand of good obtained directly from nature, the increase of pollution levels as a
result to making these goods and a decrease in resources. In reality, when the
poor increase their revenue, from one dollar a day to two dollars a day, they will
have the necessary resources, time and disposition to focus their concerns (which
until now were concentrated on satisfying basic needs) on protecting nature.
c. An increase in population will inevitably lead to environmental degradation.
This theory has its roots in Ehrlich Paul’s work, named “The Population Bomb”, in
which he raised an alarm on the fact that the Earth’s population was increasing at
an alarming rate, which will lead to an inevitable larger pressure on the planet. At a
first look, this theory is not wrong. Ehrlich correctly observes that the population of
the globe is getting bigger and bigger, as does the Population reference Bureau
shows in the table below:

Table 3: Earth’s population evolution

Nr. Billion people on Earth Year Nr. Years between each new billion
1 1800 -
2 1930 130
3 1960 30
4 1975 15

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 5 1987 12
6 1998 11
7 2009 11
8* 2020 11
9* 2033 13
10* 2046 13
11* 2066 20
12* 2100 34
* - predicted data
Source: Population Reference Bureau – taken from Roger P. Peter, Jalal K. Kazi, Boyd A.
John, An introduction to sustainable development, Earthscan, 2008,p. 30.

d. The poor don’t have enough resources to invest in environmental protection

e. The poor do not have sufficient technical and technological knowledge in the
field of resource management. Unfortunately, the poor have a difficult time
accessing knowledge regarding environmental protection. Most of the times, their
activities are guided by the local culture and customs. Buying such technologies
involves a much too large effort for them, and when a part of these technologies
are donated by various NGO’s or associations, they frequently remain unused,
because they don’t know how to manage them.

To better explain the link between poverty and development, the authors use a chart in
which the two components are presented as vicious circles.

Figure 4: The link between sustainable development, environment and poverty

Source: Taken from Roger P. Peter, Jalal K. Kazi, Boyd A. John, An introduction to
sustainable development, Earthscan, 2008, p. 51.
The first circle illustrates how poverty is accountable for the exhaustion of resources and
degradation of the environment, because here only the need to survive is essential. The
second circle shows how developed countries, in their wish to produce even more, lead to
the exhaustion of resources, excessive pollution, which in turn is responsible for the
present climate changes. As the graph clearly shows, the two circles can be broken only
by coming up with a sustainable development.

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As to what poverty is concerned, it is defined by Aliber Michael as being “a system of
relations whose cumulated effects exclude a part of the population from the development
and well-being processes.” (Aliber, 2002, pg. 6).
According to publications made by WMO, from 1992, in most poor countries, the level of
atmospheric pollutants was so high that it was responsible for an increasing number of
diseases or even premature deaths caused by respiratory illness (Singh 2002, p.336).
Another author that believes in the existence of a link between environmental degradation
and poverty is Marquita Hill (Hill 2010, p.26). In her vision, the lack of a good governing is
the main problem of poor countries, but does not forget examples in which developed
countries (or cities, such as Los Angeles) have a very high level of atmospheric pollution.
According to existing predictions, if the population of Earth will maintain its present growth
levels, will be over 9 billion by 2050. But, as Hill notes, there are predictions for the number
of people, but for technology’s evolution or science, there are none. Given these
conditions, the degradation of the environment is an inevitable process, and the most
affected countries will be, most certainly, the poor and underdeveloped ones.

Figure 5: The Earth’s population 1950-2050

Source: US Census Bureau, taken from Hill Marquita, Understanding Environmental
Pollution, Third Edition, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 2010, p. 26

In 1987 the World Commission for Development is established, also known as the
Brundland Report. The main purpose of this report was to study the dynamics of
environmental degradation and to offer long term viable solutions for human society. This
report contains some objectives, according to which making sustainable development
means:
§ Ensuring a continual growth for the economy, with respecting the basic conditions
of conserving natural resources;
§ Eliminating poverty and ensuring conditions for satisfying the essential needs:
work, food, energy, water, home and health;
§ Directing economic growth processes towards a new quality;
§ Ensuring a controlled population growth;
§ Conserving and boosting natural resources, overseeing the impact of economic
development on the environment;
§ Restructuring production technologies and maintaining their risks under control;
§ Ensuring an integrated approach to economic growth decisions, environment and
energy resources.

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In conclusion, we can say that, As Michael Aliber (Aliber 2002, p.26) stated in his work,
that there is a strong link between the problems regarding the protection of the
environment and that making a sustainable development cannot be done without
eradicating poverty. But we cannot say for sure, as others authors do, that poor countries
are accountable for the present environmental degradation problems with which we have
to live.
Acknowledgment
This paper has been financially supported within the project entitled „SOCERT.
Knowledge society, dynamism through research”, contract number
POSDRU/159/1.5/s/132406. This project is co-financed by European Social Fund through
Sectoral Operational Programme for Human Resources Development 2007-2013.
Investing in people

References
1. Aliber Michael, (2002) Povery-Eradication and Sustainable Development, HSRC;
2. Bell Simone & Morse Stephen,(1999), Sustenability Indicators, Measuring the
Immeasuirable? Second Edition, Earthscan,UK,;
3. Hill Marquita, Understanding Environmental Pollution, Third Edition, Cambridge
University Press, Cambridge, UK, 2010;
4. Pearce David, Barbier Edward, Markandya Anil, (1990), Sustainable development.
Economics and Environment in the third wolrd, Edwar Elgar;
5. Population Reference Bureau – taken from Roger P. Peter, Jalal K. Kazi, Boyd A. John,
An introduction to sustainable development, Earthscan, 2008;
6. Roger P. Peter, Jalal K. Kazi, Boyd A. John, (2008), An introduction to sustainable
development, Earthscan,;
7. Singh Naunihal, Population and Poverty, Geditura Mittal, New Delhi, 2000;
8. US Census Bureau, taken from Hill Marquita, Understanding Environmental Pollution,
Third Edition, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 2010.

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