scholarly journals The Impact of Poverty on the Environment: Surprising Findings from the Indian Case

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 51
Author(s):  
Siddhartha Mitra ◽  
Raadhika Paul

In the 1980s a powerful school of thought, propagated by the Brundtland Commission Report and seconded by powerful think tanks, developed which asserted that poverty was a major cause for environmental degradation. This implied that significant alleviation of poverty would also substantially reduce environmental degradation. Some reasons were given for this view, prominent among these being the compulsion of poorer households to mine natural capital to meet their needs, sometimes in a dirty manner. In course of time, a less recognized counter-school emerged which pointed out the flaws in the Brundtland hypothesis: the greater gasoline consumption of richer households, their greater possession of consumer durables sourced from natural capital, and the higher power of the rich to mine limited and open access natural capital for commercial gain, among others. The debate needs to be obviously resolved through quantitative studies, hitherto lacking in the Indian case. Using results from NSSO data for 3 recent years and 4 sources of dirty fuel we show that there is a general tendency for the non-poor to consume more of these fuels than the poor. This is a surprising result and it shows that poverty alleviation, though desirable, is probably not even a partial cure for environmental degradation. Some explanations for this result, based on the relative magnitudes of clean fuel consumption by the non-poor and poor, are provided.

2021 ◽  
pp. 23-47
Author(s):  
Jakkie Cilliers

AbstractCilliers provides a summary and analysis of Africa’s development history since the 1980s including the impact of the Brundtland Commission report that culminated in the Millennium Development Goals and, in 2015, the Sustainable Development Goals. Other key matters covered in the chapter are the impact of the various structural adjustment programmes, Africa’s growing dependence upon commodities, the continents rapid democratisation and slow pace of urbanisation. The chapter concludes with a summary of key characteristics of Africa’s likely future—the Current Path forecast to 2040—that includes a forecast of economic size, demographics, income and poverty levels. The chapter serves as essential backdrop to the struggle for development that is examined across different sectors in subsequent chapters.


2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Adiqa Kiani ◽  
Ejaz Ullah ◽  
Khair Muhammad

The main objective of this study is to investigate the impact of poverty, globalization, and environmental degradation on economic growth in the selected SAARC countries. This study is employed panel Autoregressive Distributive Lag (ARDL) technique for empirical analysis using selected SAARC regions including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka over the period of 1980 to 2018. Globalization impacts economic growth positively and significantly.  In addition to this the significant negative relationship is found between population and economic growth. The results show that poverty is positively related with environmental degradation. Furthermore, the results indicate that globalization is positively and significantly associated with environmental degradation in the SAARC region. Finally, the results show that urbanization is positive and significantly associated with environmental degradation, which could be the serious concerns for the policy makers to control.


2021 ◽  
pp. 135406612110014
Author(s):  
Glen Biglaiser ◽  
Ronald J. McGauvran

Developing countries, saddled with debts, often prefer investors absorb losses through debt restructurings. By not making full repayments, debtor governments could increase social spending, serving poorer constituents, and, in turn, lowering income inequality. Alternatively, debtor governments could reduce taxes and cut government spending, bolstering the assets of the rich at the expense of the poor. Using panel data for 71 developing countries from 1986 to 2016, we assess the effects of debt restructurings on societal income distribution. Specifically, we study the impact of debt restructurings on social spending, tax reform, and income inequality. We find that countries receiving debt restructurings tend to use their newly acquired economic flexibility to reduce taxes and lower social spending, worsening income inequality. The results are also robust to different model specifications. Our study contributes to the globalization and the poor debate, suggesting the economic harm caused to the less well-off following debt restructurings.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 5866
Author(s):  
Muhammad Khalid Anser ◽  
Qasim Raza Syed ◽  
Hooi Hooi Lean ◽  
Andrew Adewale Alola ◽  
Munir Ahmad

Since the turn of twenty first century, economic policy uncertainty (EPU) and geopolitical risk (GPR) have escalated across the globe. These two factors have both economic and environmental impacts. However, there exists dearth of literature that expounds the impact of EPU and GPR on environmental degradation. This study, therefore, probes the impact of EPU and GPR on ecological footprint (proxy for environmental degradation) in selected emerging economies. Cross-sectional dependence test, slope heterogeneity test, Westerlund co-integration test, fully modified least ordinary least square estimator, dynamic OLS estimator, and augmented mean group estimator are employed to conduct the robust analyses. The findings reveal that EPU and non-renewable energy consumption escalate ecological footprint, whereas GPR and renewable energy plunge ecological footprint. In addition, findings from the causality test reveal both uni-directional and bi-directional causality between a few variables. Based on the findings, we deduce several policy implications to accomplish the sustainable development goals in emerging economies.


2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 441-452 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Haase ◽  
Emily Brennan ◽  
Carol L. Wagner

Background: International Board Certified Lactation Consultants (IBCLCs) have been in existence for over 3 decades, are currently represented in 110 countries, and have the only internationally recognized certification to provide safe and evidenced-based care for breastfeeding women and their infants. Research aim: To review the literature about the efficacy of IBCLCs on breastfeeding outcomes as well as studies that have examined the effectiveness of the IBCLC’s role. Methods: The design was a scoping review of the literature and critical analysis using PRISMA guidelines of existing studies published from 2008–2019. Qualitative and quantitative studies were reviewed. Results: Twelve ( N =12) studies met inclusion criteria. Seven themes emerged in the analysis including studies of the role of IBCLCs in resident physician education; IBCLC’s role in breastfeeding interventions and the management of breastfeeding problems; the impact of IBCLCs in inpatient and outpatient settings; and the impact of geographic access to IBCLCs on breastfeeding rates. Certification of and ongoing professional development of IBCLCs are also discussed. Conclusion: In this scoping review of existing literature assessing the effectiveness of IBCLCs in promoting and supporting breastfeeding, it is clear that IBCLCs play a positive role in supporting breastfeeding throughout the world. However, there are certain limitations that must be addressed. Recommendations for future research and clinical practice are discussed in the context of present limitations to breastfeeding expertise and support.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Noémie Aubert Bonn ◽  
Wim Pinxten

Abstract Background Research misconduct and questionable research practices have been the subject of increasing attention in the past few years. But despite the rich body of research available, few empirical works also include the perspectives of non-researcher stakeholders. Methods We conducted semi-structured interviews and focus groups with policy makers, funders, institution leaders, editors or publishers, research integrity office members, research integrity community members, laboratory technicians, researchers, research students, and former-researchers who changed career to inquire on the topics of success, integrity, and responsibilities in science. We used the Flemish biomedical landscape as a baseline to be able to grasp the views of interacting and complementary actors in a system setting. Results Given the breadth of our results, we divided our findings in a two-paper series with the current paper focusing on the problems that affect the integrity and research culture. We first found that different actors have different perspectives on the problems that affect the integrity and culture of research. Problems were either linked to personalities and attitudes, or to the climates in which researchers operate. Elements that were described as essential for success (in the associate paper) were often thought to accentuate the problems of research climates by disrupting research culture and research integrity. Even though all participants agreed that current research climates need to be addressed, participants generally did not feel responsible nor capable of initiating change. Instead, respondents revealed a circle of blame and mistrust between actor groups. Conclusions Our findings resonate with recent debates, and extrapolate a few action points which might help advance the discussion. First, the research integrity debate must revisit and tackle the way in which researchers are assessed. Second, approaches to promote better science need to address the impact that research climates have on research integrity and research culture rather than to capitalize on individual researchers’ compliance. Finally, inter-actor dialogues and shared decision making must be given priority to ensure that the perspectives of the full research system are captured. Understanding the relations and interdependency between these perspectives is key to be able to address the problems of science. Study registration https://osf.io/33v3m


2015 ◽  
Vol 25 (13) ◽  
pp. 2503-2517 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vítor V. Vasconcelos ◽  
Francisco C. Santos ◽  
Jorge M. Pacheco

Global coordination for the preservation of a common good, such as climate, is one of the most prominent challenges of modern societies. In this manuscript, we use the framework of evolutionary game theory to investigate whether a polycentric structure of multiple small-scale agreements provides a viable solution to solve global dilemmas as climate change governance. We review a stochastic model which incorporates a threshold game of collective action and the idea of risky goods, capturing essential features unveiled in recent experiments. We show how reducing uncertainty both in terms of the perception of disaster and in terms of goals induce a transition to cooperation. Taking into account wealth inequality, we explore the impact of the homophily, potentially present in the network of influence of the rich and the poor, in the different contributions of the players. Finally, we discuss the impact of polycentric sanctioning institutions, showing how such a scenario also proves to be more efficient than a single global institution.


2012 ◽  
Vol 279 (1742) ◽  
pp. 3520-3526 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Tilston Smith ◽  
Amei Amei ◽  
John Klicka

Climatic and geological changes across time are presumed to have shaped the rich biodiversity of tropical regions. However, the impact climatic drying and subsequent tropical rainforest contraction had on speciation has been controversial because of inconsistent palaeoecological and genetic data. Despite the strong interest in examining the role of climatic change on speciation in the Neotropics there has been few comparative studies, particularly, those that include non-rainforest taxa. We used bird species that inhabit humid or dry habitats that dispersed across the Panamanian Isthmus to characterize temporal and spatial patterns of speciation across this barrier. Here, we show that these two assemblages of birds exhibit temporally different speciation time patterns that supports multiple cycles of speciation. Evidence for these cycles is further corroborated by the finding that both assemblages consist of ‘young’ and ‘old’ species, despite dry habitat species pairs being geographically more distant than pairs of humid habitat species. The matrix of humid and dry habitats in the tropics not only allows for the maintenance of high species richness, but additionally this study suggests that these environments may have promoted speciation. We conclude that differentially expanding and contracting distributions of dry and humid habitats was probably an important contributor to speciation in the tropics.


1982 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 96-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marilyn Johnson

Research into the impact of psychology of women courses (and women's studies, generally) has been conducted only infrequently. The literature consists largely of anecdotal reports of changes in attitudes toward women as a function of participating in such courses. Existing quantitative studies are usually limited to measures of pre-course to post-course attitude changes, and occasionally such changes are related to demographic factors. The purpose of this article is to review current studies and to suggest additional research approaches in this area. At least three methods are recommended for studying the effect of psychology of women courses. First, there is a need for comparative studies of two types: psychology of women course vs. other course comparisons, and psychology of women course vs. other related experiences (consciousness-raising groups, feminist therapy, etc.). Second, there is a need for follow-up assessment of students in these courses. Finally, in both the comparative and follow-up studies, behavioral measures should be used.


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