Short-term economic gain should not equal the destruction of
the environment
Introduction:
What’s more important, Short-term economic gain or the environment? First it is important
to understand what economic growth is, Economic growth is defined as an increase in the
size of a country's economy over a period of time. This is typically measured by the total
production of goods and services, which is called gross domestic product or GDP. That
sounds pretty important right? Well what about the definition for environment, The natural
environment or natural world encompasses all living and non-living things occurring
naturally. Now that sounds important to me.
Argument 1:
As we can see in this slide, 43% of the global carbon emissions in the world are a result of energy
production. Switching to renewable energy sources will result in a long term economic gain as the
cost of fossil fuels will increase drastically as they are finite sources of energy which means they
cannot be renewed and once all of these resources are burned for fuel, there is no way to produce
enough energy needed for the world. This is why as a world we need to make the switch to
renewable energy sources that will be cheaper and more environmentally friendly.
Argument 2:
A switch to renewable resources is inevitable, so we may as well make the switch earlier as it will
have a long-term positive effect on the economy as well as the earth’s resources. The world will
benefit greatly from the change and if it will eventually have to happen why not prepare and make
the change sooner rather than later.
Rebuttal:
Cost for renewable energy and environmentally friendly products is too high and isn’t worth it. This
isn’t true renewable energy may have a greater cost in the short term, long term it will save money
from environment and the constant increasing price of non-renewable energy. There are many
options for renewable sources apart from the basic examples, for example it would only take 184 of
Elon Musk’s Gigafactory’s to power the world and as Leonardo DiCaprio said “That sounds
manageable”. As technology improves so do the renewable energy source, such as solar 3.0 which a
much more efficient for of solar cells that is cheaper to produce, lighter and thinner. These new cells
can even be placed on windows of buildings and will be implemented in the next few years.
Conclusion:
In conclusion although there might be a short-term economic loss, in the long term it will result in an
increased GDP with a stabler economy. The carbon dioxide emissions will decrease hugely resulting
in a cleaner environment and safer world.