Poverty as a cause of environmental degradation

Abstract

Environmental degradation worsens poverty. This article explores, on the contrary, the question of poverty-induced environmental degradation. This is a difficult task because a low-consuming person is, other things equal, a smaller burden on ecosystems than a high consuming affluent person. This article then describes several rural and urban cases of poverty induced environmental degradation in Latin America, building on the distinction between "pressure of population on resources" and "pressure of production on resources". In principle, it would seem that poverty becomes a cause of environmental degradation only when the poor are numerous and exceed the carrying capacity of their territory, but the notion of carrying capacity is not easily accepted by economists. On the other hand, the belief shown in the Brundtland Report that poverty can be eliminated by overall economic growth (rather than redistribution at world level) might be counterproductive, for ecological reasons. Finally, the paper moves away from the language of international eco-managerialism: if poverty is a cause of environmental degradation, should not some radical social movements be also understood as ecological movements?.