ECODEVELOPMENT: ORIGIN, IMPEDIMENTS AND EXAMPLES - ENVIRONMENT - 2024

The eco - development is a model of sustainable development whose mission is to achieve a healthy balance between economic development, the environment and ecology. Peoples have different forms of economic development, understanding this as the ability of countries or regions to create wealth in order to improve or maintain the general well-being of their inhabitants.

However, in recent years there has been an over-exploitation of resources in order to produce more, responding to a high demand for different goods by society in general.

The answer to this problem that brings about changes in the climate, and exploitation of workers, among other inequalities, is the so-called “eco-development”.

Origin

The first to speak of eco-development was Canadian Maurice Strong in 1973. However, it was not until 1987 that it gained international strength after the publication of the “Bruntland Report”.

It was created by former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Bruntland, and is considered the cornerstone of this concept. In it, the current global economic development model is compared with another sustainable one, analyzing, criticizing and rethinking the applied policies.

In short, eco-development is a form of development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the capacity of future ones.

Environment and eco-development

The environment is basically everything that surrounds us, and is made up of biotic agents (living beings like us, animals and plants) and abiotic (non-living, like water, air or the sun).

These agents are constantly related to each other within a dynamic system, which at the same time is made up of subsystems: ecological (made up of resources such as air, water, soil), biogenesis (which encompasses producers, consumers, etc.), cultural (education and heritage), social (politics, media and health), and economic (companies, services, agriculture or hunting).

With all of them connected and in harmony, it is possible to achieve sustainable development. It is logical, but it is not easy to achieve.

What prevents ecodevelopment?

One of the main impediments to implementing eco-development are big cities, their pollution and the unsustainable development they have.

If a city is an area where a built environment predominates over a natural one, what we know today does not leave much room for “mother nature”.

Factories of all kinds that dump their waste into the water or spread into the air, or millions of vehicles that move at the increasing population rate, are some examples that go against the environment.

The Bruntland report highlights in Chapter 9 called "Urban challenges", that "settlements (the network of cities, towns and small towns) encompass all environments within which economic and social interactions take place."

Therefore, we can understand that cities are complex physical systems where people, buildings, facilities and certain natural and semi-natural environments interact. But it is worth wondering if this interaction respects the last two components. And the answer is no.

Megapolises, those cities that together with their metropolitan area exceed 10 million inhabitants, are at the same time the most polluted in the world.

Mexico

According to the site breaththelife2030.org (a campaign for the pollution-free air of the World Health Organization, whose information is based on data from this organization), Mexico City, in Mexico, doubles the amount of particulate material (solid particles of various sizes, which have organic and inorganic components that determine their toxicity) limit set by the WHO.

Meanwhile, in Beijing, China, the limit is exceeded by seven, which caused 1,944,436 deaths in the last year.

Why are there so many people in the cities?

Currently more than half of the world's population lives in urban areas, according to data from the United Nations (UN).

The reason why there is a greater population growth in these areas is because in the popular imagination they have become the ideal place to achieve the possessive aspirations of each individual, thus managing to get out of poverty, increase prosperity and career possibilities.

However, as Wu Deng and Ali Cheshmehzangi analyze in the book "Eco-Development in China: Cities, Communities and Buildings", if population growth is sudden and out of control, marginality will increase. In other words, there will not be a possible social "harmony", something quite common in these times.

In this way, it is understood that large cities are, on the one hand, a problem due to the development methods applied until today, but at the same time the key to achieving a sustainable one at a global level.

Examples of ecodevelopment

So today we live in cities crowded with people, with industries that are not very "clean" and with an air quality that damages our health. Although it seems difficult, it is possible to reverse this situation by applying eco-development principles.

Two very clear cases:

Seat

The Spanish carmaker Seat, owned by the Volkswagen Group, has what is called “Seat al Sol” (5). This is a program through which it transformed its factory in Martorell, Spain, placing 53,000 solar panels (a space equivalent to 40 soccer fields), which provides 25% of the energy needed to produce one of its models.

BMW

The second case is that of the German automaker BMW and its i3 model. It is a compact 100% electric, whose interior is made of recycled materials that, after a complex process, managed to look like the most sophisticated on the market.

Then, an industry that used polluting energies, now began to use renewables (sunlight), recycles what has already been produced and places it in cars that do not emit polluting gases, which are increasingly accessible to the public thanks to state aid that incentivize your purchase.

Thus, the eco-development model is very clear: the private company uses nature without damaging it, produces sustainable goods and the State collaborates in its acquisition and in raising awareness of its benefit for ecology.

References

1. Gro Harlem Bruntland. (1987), Bruntland Bruntland Report. Taken from scribd.com.
2. World Health Organization. (2016). Breathlife. Taken from breathelife2030.org.
3. Elliot Harris, Assistant General for Economic Development and Chief of Economics of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (April 2018). Taken from un.org.
4. Wu Deng and Ali Cheshmehzang. (2018). ”Eco-Development in China: Cities, Communities and Buildings”.
5. "Seat to the Sun". (June 2018). Taken from seat-mediacenter.com.