hi, guys, I am applying for the international political economy program(IPE), and this is an essay , any of your advice will be very much appreciated!
Conflict between economic development and environmental protection
As a college student in Beijing, I witnessed the dense haze in the winter of 2012. The haze nearly lasted for one month that there is no way for fresh air, for outdoor activities and for sunshine. It was the first time that I realised the crucial importance of environmental protection and the new crisis China is facing. In fact, this is a challenge for most developing countries, especially in East Asia, where many countries are transforming from agricultural countries to industrialized countries just like China.
In fact, the relationship between economy growth and environment protection has raised a heated discussion for a long time. Environment not only provides the substantial foundation and activity space for human, but also responses for production, castoff by human activity. Economic development not only enhances the integration national power and improves people's life, but brings a lot of serious environmental problems. Which one is more important, economic development or environmental protection? What is the order of these two goals? Wether can we find a balance between them? We seem to have not found the answers yet.
For many industrialized countries, the conflict between economic development and environmental protection is not news, that many of them have paid high expenses for pursuing high economic growth regardless of protecting the environment. England and Japan service as good examples. The 1952 London Fog caused thousands of people's deaths and left a powerful strike to the British economy. Like UK, Japan had the familiar experiences during 1960's, that the heavy metal pollution led a large number of people suffered from minamata disease and itai-itai disease. Although governments took up a set of measures to reduce impacts, the effects of these two events still exist. Even until now, London's air quality ranks near the bottom of European cities and victims of metal pollution still suffer.
In spite of a lot of negative materials, most developing countries still cannot avoid the same mistakes. It is no surprise to hear public nuisance incidents happened in China and Southeast Asia. Economic growth first or environmental protection is a tough choice for us. With the high pace of globalization and urbanization, most East Asia countries faces rapid social transformation and great chances and challenges, it is important for those countries to gasp these opportunities to improve productivity and international competitiveness, while on the other hand, blindly pursuing GDP growth is doomed to pay high costs. Although in recent years, people in these areas seem to recognise the importance of protecting environment, governments have come out of bills to prevent pollution, and a few new concepts such as Green GDP have been put out to call for public's attention, these efforts do not have practical progress.
Personally speaking, I believe that there must be hard constraints to prevent damaging the environment while ensure economic development, and I deem that international trade can make a significant contribution to this goal. But it is hard for any economic integration organization to erect trade barriers in the name of environmental protection, because any trade barrier is against economic liberalism. How to find the balance between the economic benefit and social benefit? It is a tough issue that bothers us for quite a long time. As an undergraduate student, I am confused but full of passion for studying this issue. Since **** is well known for IPE studies, therefore, it is my desire to apply for your admission.
Conflict between economic development and environmental protection
As a college student in Beijing, I witnessed the dense haze in the winter of 2012. The haze nearly lasted for one month that there is no way for fresh air, for outdoor activities and for sunshine. It was the first time that I realised the crucial importance of environmental protection and the new crisis China is facing. In fact, this is a challenge for most developing countries, especially in East Asia, where many countries are transforming from agricultural countries to industrialized countries just like China.
In fact, the relationship between economy growth and environment protection has raised a heated discussion for a long time. Environment not only provides the substantial foundation and activity space for human, but also responses for production, castoff by human activity. Economic development not only enhances the integration national power and improves people's life, but brings a lot of serious environmental problems. Which one is more important, economic development or environmental protection? What is the order of these two goals? Wether can we find a balance between them? We seem to have not found the answers yet.
For many industrialized countries, the conflict between economic development and environmental protection is not news, that many of them have paid high expenses for pursuing high economic growth regardless of protecting the environment. England and Japan service as good examples. The 1952 London Fog caused thousands of people's deaths and left a powerful strike to the British economy. Like UK, Japan had the familiar experiences during 1960's, that the heavy metal pollution led a large number of people suffered from minamata disease and itai-itai disease. Although governments took up a set of measures to reduce impacts, the effects of these two events still exist. Even until now, London's air quality ranks near the bottom of European cities and victims of metal pollution still suffer.
In spite of a lot of negative materials, most developing countries still cannot avoid the same mistakes. It is no surprise to hear public nuisance incidents happened in China and Southeast Asia. Economic growth first or environmental protection is a tough choice for us. With the high pace of globalization and urbanization, most East Asia countries faces rapid social transformation and great chances and challenges, it is important for those countries to gasp these opportunities to improve productivity and international competitiveness, while on the other hand, blindly pursuing GDP growth is doomed to pay high costs. Although in recent years, people in these areas seem to recognise the importance of protecting environment, governments have come out of bills to prevent pollution, and a few new concepts such as Green GDP have been put out to call for public's attention, these efforts do not have practical progress.
Personally speaking, I believe that there must be hard constraints to prevent damaging the environment while ensure economic development, and I deem that international trade can make a significant contribution to this goal. But it is hard for any economic integration organization to erect trade barriers in the name of environmental protection, because any trade barrier is against economic liberalism. How to find the balance between the economic benefit and social benefit? It is a tough issue that bothers us for quite a long time. As an undergraduate student, I am confused but full of passion for studying this issue. Since **** is well known for IPE studies, therefore, it is my desire to apply for your admission.
