• Question: Do you think that's possible with how the global market is? With the recession, and such poverty in places like Africa, how would they be able to afford to be environmentally friendly? Would they not want to develop as fast as possible, and this would be the most environmentally damaging?

    Asked by rohagan762 to Aggelos, Andrew, Eileen, Naomi, Shane on 15 Nov 2012.
    • Photo: Eileen Diskin

      Eileen Diskin answered on 15 Nov 2012:

      That’s a really good question, and you make a very good point. Usually with development comes environmental damage. This happend in the USA (where I’m from) and also in Europe, with the Industrial Revolution. And I think now that’s happening in China. And in the USA and in Europe, we’re still developing and we’re still destroying the environment, even today.

      But at the same time, I think (and I hope) that we’re starting to learn a lesson. It has taken a really long time, but we’re seeing now the effects of our development on the environment. We are learning that that there are better, more environmentally friendly ways to do things, using special technologies developed by scientists (for example, electric cars).

      And I don’t think its fair to tell other countries that also want to develop now ‘you can’t because its bad for the environment’. What I think SHOULD happen, is that we should share what we’re learning, and we can share our more environmentally friendly technologies with places that want to develop. So they get to develop, but also can know from early on how to be friendly to the environment – before they spend lots of money on technologies that destroy the environment. And in the end, that’s better for us too in the long run!

      Hopefully that makes sense to you as a possible solution 🙂

    • Photo: Andrew Jackson

      Andrew Jackson answered on 15 Nov 2012:

      I agree with you and eileen. Its one of the biggest challenges facing all humans right now and will be something that our and your generation will have to solve sooner rather than later. This is one of the reasons i really think we need more people working in this area and studying science, engineering, politics, sociology and history (so we can learn from the mistakes of the past).

    • Photo: Aggelos Zacharopoulos

      Aggelos Zacharopoulos answered on 15 Nov 2012:

      @rohagan762,
      I ll try and answer your (great) question with regard to the adoption of renewable energy technologies.

      It is very difficult to convince the goverments of developing countries in this time of recession to put down the long term investment required for renewable energy technologies. Conventional fossil fuel do cost less for them and could help their development in the short term. So these countries should be the last ones required to switch to renewables. The developed world shoud lead by example which is something that it is not doing consistently at the moment. While some countries have adopted policies to promote renewable energy generation and meet EU targets for CO2 emmissions some others have neglected their responsibilities and opted for easy short term solutions. As you mention in such challenging times it is difficult to have a colelctive effort to adopt the new environmentally friendly technologies. But the clalleges that we face are real and in the near future. Global warming and increased energy prices. This is a fight that scientists working on renewables are fighting as we speak. Get the goverments to face up to the consequences of not doing the right thing now.

      When the developed world adopts renewable energy sources, the developing world will follow either because it will follow the example set or because it will be required for the economy to work on the global scale. Lets see!

    • Photo: Naomi Elster

      Naomi Elster answered on 15 Nov 2012:

      @rohagan762 This is a really big issue that most people either don’t see or else brush over, I’m really glad you brought it up. Well done. I’m not a climate expert but as far as I can see it’s a double-edged sword for the developing world – on the one hand, you are right. It is absolutely not fair to expect the developing world to invest in being environmentally friendly, or even to worry about it, when they have so many more pressing needs, like development, food and medicines. On the other hand they do not have the technology we do to help them cope with climate change – they rely on subsistence farming where they barely make enough to feed themselves, and this is really vulbnerable to climate change.

      I think Eileen’s solution is great – that we share our more advanced, environmentally friendly technologies with them in order to help them develop. Some people say that the western world should give aid that is specifically for developing countries to improve their environmental friendliness but I disagree – I think that aid should be spent on schools and hospitals. I also think that when plans are made to invest in the environment, the developed world should bear most of the cost – we can afford it better and also, much of the blame is on us while the developing world has borne the brunt of it.

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