Development and sustainability are mutually reinforcing outcomes

Sustainable Development and Species Conservation

In terms of extinctions, since European settlement of Australia some 20 mammals have become extinct and 97 plant species are also known to be extinct. While any species loss is a matter of regret, two factors need to be considered. First, the extent of the loss comprises about 7 per cent of the pre-European mammals and a tiny fraction of the 25,000 plant and 40,000 plus other vegetation species identified in Australia. The mammalian loss was not caused by deliberate extirpation but as a consequence of new species. The previous isolation of Australia made it inevitable that native species would be vulnerable to competition of new strains. Other isolated areas like Hawaii and the south west of the US suffered comparable species loss.

Secondly, species loss occurred in the period prior to 1920. In that period, the premium on species preservation was much weaker than it is today. If it has not been arrested, species loss has certainly been considerably reduced in recent decades. This casts doubt on the estimates of future loss ("3329 plant categories threatened" and an estimated "50% of Australia’s woodland birds will become extinct") in an ACF/NFF report.

Urban pollution

Urban pollution has been radically reduced over the past century. This outcome has been maintained over the more recent decades. Thus, in Melbourne the EPA reports that nitrogen dioxide levels halved from the early 1980s, carbon monoxide levels fell by one third, and ozone levels by 40 per cent. Most other cities in the developed world experienced comparable improvements. These reflect several factors including the general reduction in heavy industry and its associated pollution with higher living standards, and the greater affordability of mandated pollution standards.

Global Warming

More intractable than these matters is the possibility of catastrophic global warming as a result of human activity. The possibility of this is far from proven. Indeed, the only reliable tracking of world temperatures, the NASA satellite data, show only a trivial temperature trend over the 22 years it has been available.

The greenhouse effect has spawned a considerable regulatory apparatus, globally and nationally. Yet, hardly any country is reducing the level of its greenhouse (mainly carbon dioxide) emissions along the lines agreed to at Kyoto in 1997–and even meeting the Kyoto targets would have a negligible effect on any man-made warming that might be taking place.

In the event that there is a need to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide the outlook is for much higher prices for energy (with attendant losses of real income). Perhaps these outcomes would be cushioned by vast increases in nuclear power if that proved politically acceptable in those countries like Australia which continue to resist this form of energy. It is most unlikely that sufficient cost breakthroughs will be available to allow (politically correct) solar-based energy to fill the gap. In any event, should greenhouse be seen to be likely, a resilient economy provides the best means of coping with the reduced income levels it may require.

Concluding Remarks

Development has been and can remain sustainable. The world’s environmental resources are vast. Human impingement upon these resources creates its own antidote where the resources are valued by humans as long as our ownership structures allow ways that valued environmental resources can profitably be traded for other goods and services.