Complementarity Between Environment and Development Processes

Abstract

Environmental consequences of economic growth and development became an area of major national concern primarily in industrialized countries during the nineteen-sixties. Undesirable side-effects of development became highly visible in terms of air, water, land, and noise, pollution, and people in such countries became concerned with the continuing environmental degradation and impacts on their health and life-style. The emphasis, however, was primarily on the physical environment.Two problems received much attention: the constantly increasing resource-use in the developed countries, and population explosion in the less-developed countries. Many doomsday scenarios were put forward, and there was a clamour for ‘no-growth’ in the West. This created much apprehension in the less-developed countries, because development was urgently needed to improve the living-standards of their citizens. Thus, ‘pollution of poverty’ became an important issue at the UN Conference on the Human Environment, which was held at Stockholm in 1972.