Poverty, Environmental Degradation And Sustainable Development: A Discourse

Abstract

This paper is a contribution to the ongoing debate on the topical issues of poverty, environmental degradation and sustainable development by highlighting the divergent views and attempting an explanation of the diversity. Poring through the literature, the authors observed that there are three discernable debaters on the trajectory between poverty, environmental degradation and sustainable development namely: those who argue that the poor (the South) is the major cause of environmental degradation as a result of high population and increased pressure on environmental resources; those who contend that the high consumption propensity of the rich (the North) is the main factor in environmental degradation; and, those who argue that both the rich and the poor, in varying capacities, contribute to the unsustainability of the environment.