IMPORT AND EXPORT OF POLLUTION
Developed nations are engaged in international trade when the strength of pollution is high in a specific nation they transport their waste to developing nations for their medication. Economic activities have various essential environmental effects which are external to the agents who are causing them. Many production procedures make different kinds of harmful waste. The engagement of global market contributes to global pollution directly o indirectly. The complication of the world economy makes an issue when it comes to the quantification of the environmental impacts of trade. Many nations around the world engage in the export and import of pollution for economic satisfaction (Lei, Su & Zheng, 201). The demand for pollution is addressed through consumers without concentrating on the real sources of pollution. When goods are purchased overseas, it causes pollution to the buyers but the country has its economic gain from the purchase. For instance, individuals from other countries use many products from China. They include clothes, kitchenware, and electronics among other things. They are sold by many companies to create many of their products to save more money.
In addition, research has indicated that outsourced products’ pollution does not remain in a foreign nation. Importing and exporting pollution possess a great danger to the environment. Environmental problems around the world have prompted more attention to the environmental performance of individual nations associated with pledges made by nations in different international treaties. Such issues create a rift in the progressing intensity of international trade in both intermediate inputs have resulted in more differences between the emissions location and the consumers’ location (Liu, Adams & Walker, 2018 ). Exchanging the products locally by imports leads to the reduction of locally emitted pollutants but it continues to increase somewhere else. Economic incentives to export and import dangerous waste are strong on both sides. Wealthy countries are sending their dangerous products to the poor. They want to save the money while the poor want to earn it. For example, while plastic recycling and importing can be real and lucrative in the developing world, crook companies find them more profitable to either cremate plastics or throw them in landfills. When plastic is burned it releases noxious fumes to the air which end up in local waterways (Sun et al., 2018). No matter how far the waste is left behind, it still goes somewhere around the earth which is the only habitat for humankind. The immediate adverse effects of imported waste affect the ecosystem of the world along the way. Additionally, plastics find their way into the countries through the coastal area that will enter the world oceanic conveyor belt. This will posse high demand for unrecycled materials for new plastics around the world.
Importing and exporting pollution has serious dangers upon human health. Individuals living in developing nations might be easily affected by pollution and are at risk of getting infections. The disposal methods of these toxic wastes in the developing nations expose the whole nation to chemicals which are highly toxic. There are little or no protective gears when working and processing the chemicals and they are exposed directly. The health issues caused by intoxication of chemicals include cancer, damage of the kidney, bone disease and many others. Furthermore, electronic waste is growing from generation to generation around the world due to many technological innovations. Research shows that most of these wastes are transported to Africa and Asia so that they can be reused. They also have adverse impacts on people who live and work around those dumpsites because they are exposed to deadly chemicals (Brandi et al., 2020). The presence of heavy metals and chemicals causes poisoning and they mostly affect adults or children who live around those areas and are looking for something to sell.
There have been measures to the issues that are related to the global waste trade and many attempts for its regulation for over thirty years. This issue has proved to be the most difficult to adjust since there is too much waste that is being traded at the moment. In addition, there are always loopholes in the international concurrence that enables the nations to dump dangerous waste in troubling ways (Duong & Hultberg, 2018 ). The amount of waste transported to developing nations increases the disproportionate risk which the individual in the nations faces. Most of these wastes are manufactured in Europe yet those who suffer the consequences are from the developing nations.
References
Brandi, C., Schwab, J., Berger, A., & Morin, J. F. (2020). Do environmental provisions in trade agreements make exports from developing countries greener?. World Development, 129, 104899.
Duong, T., & Hultberg, P. T. (2018). Trade openness, economic growth, and environmental degradation in Asian developing countries. Journal of Applied Business and Economics, 20(5).
Lei, Y., Su, L., & Zheng, M. (2018). Water pollution footprints induced by industrial import and export in China. Chinese Journal of Population Resources and Environment, 16(2), 149-158.
Liu, Z., Adams, M., & Walker, T. R. (2018). Are exports of recyclables from developed to developing countries waste pollution transfer or part of the global circular economy?. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 136, 22-23.
Sun, J., Mooney, H., Wu, W., Tang, H., Tong, Y., Xu, Z., … & Zhang, F. (2018). Importing food damages the domestic environment: Evidence from global soybean trade. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115(21), 5415-5419.