JAN 2014 LD Topic : Developing countries should prioritize environmental protection over resource ex

Rachel Carson once said "Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature -- the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter." The main benefit of resource extraction is revenue, but prioritizing environmental protection over extraction of resources is more empowering for the citizens of a country, and often more profitable. To best understand this debate it would be beneficial to define the following terms. Ecotourism is defined as "responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the well-being of local people." Political Corruption means the abuse of political power by the government leaders to extract and accumulate for private enrichment, and to use politically corrupt means to maintain their hold on power. BRIC Nation- BRIC is a grouping acronym that refers to the countries of Brazil, Russia, India and China, which are all deemed to be at a similar stage of newly advanced economic development. These are considered to be the 4 most developed countries in the current world. Resource Extraction is the act of using force against nature to receive valued items from the Earth. I value future generations and a healthy ecosystem. Protecting the environment is beneficial to people in the present as well as future. A healthy ecosystem is key to the development of a nation. Resource extraction is detrimental to the health of citizens as it causes air pollution, natural disasters, and lastly, corruption in the government of a country, especially a developing one. C1"Benefits of Ecotourism Ecotourism is a way to preserve nature as well as make a profit. Benefits Include: Build environmental and cultural awareness and respect. Provide positive experiences for both visitors and hosts. Provide direct financial benefits for conservation. Provide financial benefits and empowerment for local people. Raise sensitivity to host countries' political, environmental, and social climate. C2--National Parks provide an Economically Stable and Esthetically pleasing experience In America, a developed country, Natural Parks are beneficial, so why not in a developing country? 11,700,000,000 visitors -> popularity and cultural influence, giving people a sense of self 28,000 full time employees -> Creates Jobs 49 national heritage areas-> esthetics pleasing and Culture influential National Parks create jobs, empower local people culturally, and give citizens a central organization to rally around. These three factors are key in the development of a country. China, a BRIC country, has 225 national parks, proving that a national park system is a factor in development. C3--Resource Extraction Causes Poverty Countries rich in natural resources actually tend to have high and growing levels of poverty, extreme income inequalities, greater risk of conflict, and high levels of political corruption. Too often, government revenues from resource extraction are simply not making their way into spending for basic social services such as health, nutrition and education. Worse yet, profits from extractives too often fuel terrible violence, as we have seen in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan. "On average, resource-rich countries have done even more poorly than countries without resources," according to Joseph Stiglitz, former chief economist at the World Bank and professor of economics at Columbia University, in the United States. C4--Violence Connected to Extraction Violence harms people, nations and environments. Its seems as if the stress of extraction and associated environmental degradation, erupts into violence which further degrades the environment and a kind of spiraling degradation occurs. There is little incentive or will for the stakeholders to break the cycle. ...armed violence plays a critical role in facilitating natural resource extraction, without which ecological unequal exchange could not occur and much environmental degradation would not occur. C5--Force Against Nature "Resource Extraction is the act of using force against nature to receive valued items from the Earth." The argument presented with this contention is; we, as humans, have a moral responsibility to protect Mother Nature. "using force" is certainly not protecting nature, but rather, the opposite. EX-1 Deforestation Deforestation is clearing Earth's forests on a massive scale, often resulting in damage to the quality of the land. Forests still cover about 30 percent of the world"s land area, but swaths the size of Panama are lost each and every year. The world"s rain forests could completely vanish in a hundred years at the current rate of deforestation. Logging operations also cut countless trees each year. Loggers, acting illegally, also build roads to access more and more remote forests"which leads to further deforestation. EX-2 Palm Oil Crisis Indonesia is the largest exporter of palm oil, but production there comes at a huge cost. Oil-palm plantations have savagely encroached on the nation"s diverse rainforests, and slash-and-burn clearance for new plantations recently engulfed much of Southeast Asia in acrid smog. This described as code orange, code red being unbreathable. Now a report from environmental group Greenpeace blames illegal oil-palm concessions for driving the Sumatran tiger to the brink of extinction. According to maps released by Indonesia"s Minister of Forestry, 1.24 million acres of irreplaceable forest were lost from 2009 to "11, including nearly two-thirds of all Sumatran tiger habitat. Just 400 of these indigenous Asian felines are now thought to remain on the island, which sees a staggering quarter-million acres vanish for palm and pulp each year, decimating the vital tracts of rainforest that the animal depends upon for hunting. "Accelerating deforestation and rampant poaching mean this noble creature could end up like its extinct Javan relatives," according to the World Wildlife Fund. This also has negative effects on the Sumatran Orangutan, Rhino, and Elephant. The Sumatran tiger is classified as critically endangered by IUCN in 2008 as the population was estimated at 441. Sumatran elephants feed on a variety of plants and deposit seeds wherever they go, contributing to a healthy forest ecosystem. Their population dwindles at 2,200. Sumatran rhinos are more closely related to the extinct woolly rhinos than any of the other rhino species alive today. There is no indication that the population is stable and just two captive females have reproduced in the last 15 years. Of the nine existing populations of Sumatran orangutans, only seven have prospects of long-term viability, each with an estimated 250 individuals. The species' range is now restricted to North Sumatra. Deforestation and "slash and burn agriculture has effectively devastated the populations of 4 species of animals that live nowhere else in the world. EX-3 Gulf Oil Spill The Gulf oil spill is recognized as the worst oil spill in U.S. history. Within days of the April 20, 2010 explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico that killed 11 people, remote underwater cameras revealed the BP pipe was leaking oil and gas on the ocean floor about 42 miles off the coast of Louisiana. By the time the well was capped on July 15, 2010 (87 days later), an estimated 4.9 million barrels of oil had leaked into the Gulf. Thousands of birds, sea turtles, dolphins, have been killed so far. Birds have fared the worst -- 3,902 have officially been collected dead*. These birds include the threatened brown pelican, Louisiana's state bird. 517 sea turtles, all of which are considered endangered, have been killed by the spill. Another 500 oiled turtles have been collected alive. Many of these turtles belong to a species called Kemp's Ridley, the smallest and most endangered sea turtle in the world. 71 marine mammals, mostly dolphins, have been killed over the course of the spill thus far. This proves that resource extraction can cause a major crisis, and if it takes a top 10 developed country 87 days to stop a spill, how long would it take a developing one? Resource extraction has a negative effect on any country that partakes in it. Developing countries must prioritize environmental protection over extraction because it can provide all of the positives of extraction as well as leave a positive impact on the citizens of a country, and future generations. I have shown the economically beneficial impacts ecotourism has on a country, the empowerment national parks gives citizens, and the negative effects resource extraction can have on a country and its government. Prioritizing environmental protection over resource extraction is undoubtedly the best way for a country to develop.