{"id":132645,"date":"2012-12-15T10:00:25","date_gmt":"2012-12-15T15:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/?p=132645"},"modified":"2012-12-26T16:03:12","modified_gmt":"2012-12-26T21:03:12","slug":"the-fallacy-between-economic-growth-and-environmental-protection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/12\/15\/the-fallacy-between-economic-growth-and-environmental-protection\/","title":{"rendered":"The Fallacy Between Economic Growth And Environmental Protection"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Article:<\/strong> The Fallacy Behind Environmental Protection and Economic Growth<\/a> by Brian Czech in Truth Dig.<\/p>\n

The Text:<\/strong> Environmental journalists are like doctors. Doctors run from patient to patient, harried, dealing with symptoms more than causes. They\u2019re too busy dispensing pills to talk about holistic health. It\u2019s an approach that makes money for the health industry but isn\u2019t so great for public health.<\/p>\n

Environmental journalists run from issue to issue, harried, dealing with environmental impacts more than causes. They\u2019re too busy chasing stories to talk about context. It\u2019s an approach that makes money for the media but isn\u2019t so great for environmental protection.<\/p>\n

The analogy isn\u2019t perfect. Environmental journalists don\u2019t have an obligation to protect the environment like doctors are obligated to patient health. But journalists are obliged to tell the truth. Here we\u2019re concerned with the \u201cwhole\u201d truth, and it\u2019s worth extending the analogy in this direction.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

All Kinds of Problems<\/strong><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s say the doctor has an overweight patient. The patient was small as a child and developed an obsession with gaining weight. It\u2019s hard to shift mental gears. Fully mature now, this patient\u2019s top goal is growing even more! This has led to all kinds of problems: bad knees, high blood pressure, and sleep apnea to mention a few.<\/p>\n

Now imagine the doctor prescribing more pills for each new ailment, never saying a thing about the patient\u2019s obsession with growth.<\/p>\n

Similarly, we have a society \u2013 a readership \u2013 that considers economic growth the top priority.<\/p>\n

This unhealthy obsession has led to all kinds of problems: biodiversity loss, climate change, and ocean acidification to name a few. Yet society is just not making the connection. Growing the gross domestic product seems like the answer to all problems, not the cause.<\/p>\n

Yet journalists have been missing the environmental forest for the trees. Try to remember the last article you read about an environmental problem in which economic growth was even mentioned, much less explored with nuance.<\/p>\n

Journalists covering climate negotiations sometimes identify economic growth as the goal in the way of progress. As they\u2019ve noted, China and India aren\u2019t about to give up on growth now, and for that matter neither is the United States. But that\u2019s about it for coverage. There\u2019s little exploration of the nuances: of how in a 90 percent fossil-fueled economy, economic growth means climate change; of how \u201cgreen\u201d energy can\u2019t substitute for fossil fueling of the economy; of how a stabilized climate amounts to a steady state economy.<\/p>\n

No Linkage<\/strong><\/p>\n

And that\u2019s just the context of one environmental problem: climate change. When, in reading about biodiversity loss, ocean acidification, depletion of aquifers, fisheries decline and so on, do we read about the linkage to economic growth?<\/p>\n

All environmental problems track with GDP growth, and it\u2019s no coincidence. The relationship between economic growth and environmental impact is causal, just as gaining weight is causal of bad knees.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s be clear on this: Growth as we know it today doesn\u2019t happen without environmental impact.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s ironic that environmental journalists don\u2019t tap into the big picture of economic growth. After all, the best, most relevant journalism connects events and problems to society\u2019s concerns. What is more relevant today than economic growth? What is more covered in the broader media? What gets more attention from politicians?<\/p>\n

Appetite for Journalism<\/strong><\/p>\n

The environmental journalist\u2019s take on economic growth will sound odd at first. Readers are used to thinking of economic growth as the solution to problems, not the cause. But that\u2019s OK.<\/p>\n

Readers are like the obese patient intent on gaining weight. When it dawns on them that economic growth is the cause of so many problems, not the solution, their interest will be piqued, and many will develop an appetite for journalism on economic growth and the sustainable alternative, the steady state economy.<\/p>\n

We must expose society to the fallacy behind the widespread rhetoric, voiced by leaders from former U.S. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt to former Indian Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh, that there is no conflict between growing the economy and protecting the environment.<\/p>\n

Environmental journalists don\u2019t have an obligation to environmental protection. But they do have a unique opportunity. They have the opportunity to raise awareness of the whole truth, however inconvenient, that environmental protection doesn\u2019t square with economic growth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Article: The Fallacy Behind Environmental Protection and Economic Growth by Brian Czech in Truth Dig. The Text: Environmental journalists are like doctors. Doctors run from patient to patient, harried, dealing with symptoms more than causes. They\u2019re too busy dispensing pills to talk about holistic health. It\u2019s an approach that makes money for the health […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[259],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Fallacy Between Economic Growth And Environmental Protection<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"How economic growth always means environmental degradation and why environmental journalists need to comment on it.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/12\/15\/the-fallacy-between-economic-growth-and-environmental-protection\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Fallacy Between Economic Growth And Environmental 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