Question

 

Greta Thunberg, speaking at 2019 UN Climate Action Summit, famously scolded the attending politicians, "... all you can talk about is money and fairytales of eternal economic growth. How dare you?!" Do you think there are some good reasons to try and slow down economic growth? Explain.

Answer 1

There are different reasons to try and slow down economic growth. The first reason is the environmental protection, pollution control and prevent warming of the earth due to greenhouse gasses. It is the reason that can help prevent changing climate across the world, stop rising sea level and saving many lives due to less number of floods, or other natural disasters. To achieve these objectives, if growth rate is reduced then it is good for the economies across the world and specifically in those countries who are already developed. The second reason is the conservation of natural resources that are already depleting with a fast rate and with conservation, these resources can be left for the future generations. It is very important to do, and if not doing so, the economy will suddenly come to stand still point and create havoc in terms of rising cost of natural resources, overall price level and less jobs in the economy. The third reason is the prevention of different type of diseases that are related to skin, lungs and our own breathing system, caused by the damaged OZONE layer and excessive pollution. A slowed economic growth can help the government prevent these diseases and increase quality of lives for the people and increase the overall number of years into the life of their people.

Here, it is important to understand that developed countries, should convince developing and or underdeveloped countries to be together with them in this movement. It can be done, when developed countries give full financial assistance, technological support and other help in policy planning that can discourage these developing and or underdeveloped countries from adopting pervasive economic policies, that delivers short gains on the immediate basis, but harms a lot in the long run.

So, above are some of the reasons for slowing down the economic growth.