Developing nations should prioritize economic development over environmental sustainability.

Today I will be proposing two major contentions. 1A: It is the government’s role and duty to serve the interests of its citizens It is the government’s role and duty to place the needs of its citizens first. People give up part of their civil rights in exchange for aid. This aid comes in the form of government involvement in society, whether it be government intervention in the economy, military buildup, or national security. Most of the countries that we’re concerned about in this debate today are western liberal democracies, and the point of a democracy is to ensure that the people’s voices and interests are heard, and are ultimately part of the decision making process. 1B: Economic growth and development ensures that the interests of the people are served When we’re talking about developing nations, we’re talking about countries who primarily depend on their primary and secondary sectors, whose economies revolve around their agricultural and industrial sectors. We’re talking about areas that are populated with people that still live under a dollar a day, such as the slums of Bangladesh and the rural plains of Africa. We’re talking about people who are barely surviving in dirt-poor living standards, without access to clean water and proper shelter. The immediate needs of the people, namely, getting out of poverty and better living standards, can only be solved through economic development, which can in turn be stimulated, according to positive economics, by increased government spending. Employment will be boosted through increased spending on things such as infrastructure, and the country’s production possibilities curve will push outwards if government resources are spent on technology and research on efficient production methods. 2A: Developing nations do not play a large role in contributing to environmental issues such as global warming and deforestation. It is important to note that developing nations are not to fault for the world’s increasingly serious environmental issues and problems. Most of these developing nations are largely dependent on agriculture, which leads to nearly no significantly detrimental impacts on the environment, unlike other more developed industrialized countries. It’s pointless to talk about the burning of fossil fuels in these countries when most of its population can’t even afford to have the most basic necessities such as adequate food, water and shelter. Electricity is a luxury and is exclusively owned by only the richest in these countries. This is immediately reflected in the level of carbon dioxide emissions by each country—nearly 70% of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions come from only ten countries, all of whom are developed, industrialized nations. [1] 2B: Developing nations therefore should not be responsible for resolving the world’s environmental problems. This distribution of the world’s environmental problems ultimately means that: Firstly, requiring developing nations to invest in green technology will not, in any way, effectively solve the world’s environmental issues. The cost of investing in such technology—the construction of wind turbines, the implementation of solar panels—far outweighs the benefits in this scenario. Secondly, requiring developing nations to invest in green technology is unjustified and unfair. Developing nations do not significantly contribute to the world’s environmental problems, and should not be responsible for fixing other countries’ problems for them. Actions have consequences, and developed nations should be left to deal with their own consequences instead of imposing this burden on innocent nations. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org...