Gender, Environment, and Sustainable Economic Growth

Both human and natural environment are interlinked with eachother dynamically and keep this relation stable within themselves andwith each other. The existence of all living organism including humanbeing depends on the interlinkages between the physical humanenvironment and natural environment. Natural resources and physicalenvironment form a basis for sustainable livelihood system, in whichhuman needs are met in the short and long run [Dankelman (2001)].Although economic growth is an explicit goal in nearly every nation, buta wide range of independent scientific research provides undeniableevidence that the growth of the global economy is not sustainablebecause it consumes many of the environmental services that strengthenthe production of goods and services [e.g., Houghton, et al. (1996);Vitousek, et al. (1997)]. Environmental services refer to the variousways that the environment influences production- and indeed-supportsmost part of human existence [Costanza and Daly (1992)]. There is agrowing understanding that the degradation of environment and growth ofwaste materials can reduce the productivity of natural resources, aswhen ozone accumulates in the troposphere and lowers crop yields. Thisincreases the quantity of human capital required to produce a specifiedquantity of food. The addition of wastes also slows the rate at whichnatural capital can process the waste material, as when sewage reducesthe ability of aquatic ecosystems to process organic materials [Ayres(1996)]. There is also an increasing understanding that “economic growthdoes not necessarily go hand-in-hand with growth in the well-being ofpeople”. It reflects the rising discrepancy between rich and poor andbetween genders in most countries [Ayres (1996)].