Environmental and Economic Sustainability
Abstract
As hard as decisions can be for people, organization or agencies, their worthiness would be revealed through repercussions. Making environmental management choices adds a level of complexity and so is deciding to favor local economy. Either way, both sides have moral support. When it comes to confronting the situation, numerous approaches and factors may hold in mind. However, whichever the method is used to pass a decision, there will be both positive and negative impacts. Making decisions when confronted by such a dilemma can be the same as mixing various fruits to produce a smoothie. Only the decision-maker can decide the fruit flavor one likes best. As such, factors influencing decision making include approaches used in terms of reasoning, theories or tools for decision support, time, and people to be affected by the decision. If I were a government or citizen confronted by choosing between protecting the environment or local economy, the factors mentioned above might impact decision processing.
Keywords: Decision, environment, economies, management, opportunities, government, people
Environmental and Economic Sustainability
Agreeably, there is a trade between industrialization and ecology. The first one may develop on the grounds of poor environmental care such that, industries are laid on lands that were meant for ecological care as well as animal habitats. On the other hand, active conservation of environment may suppress economic opportunities. As such, the tradeoff leads to the debate among environmentalists and industrialists, with relevant authority torn in between. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the factors that might influence the decision-making process when either the economy or environment is at stake.
As a rational profit-oriented citizen, I Would give more credit on industry development to make way for employments and thus sustain better living conditions. Human nature is such that people look ta the immediate results or monetary gains and pay less attention to long-term well-being. In that way, people favor industries over the environment. Being a government official, on the other hand, the central role is to look ta the well-being of economy- monetary and environmentally. As such, I would favor protection of the environment over industries because based on the current situation, ecology is the need of hour. When not well-considered, it can be lost tomorrow.
Factors Which Might Affect the Decision-Making Process
The decision-making process may be influenced by factors like decision situation, time, decision criteria, people to be affected by choice and, the approach of thought- in terms of problems or opportunities. Also, decision processing can be hampered by support such as theoretical frameworks, techniques and tools (Egilmez,Gumus & Kucukvar,2015). To make a decisively choice concerning environment issue that has a wide range of irreversible consequence is paramount for both current and future people’s well-being. Deciding whether to make a judgment concerning issue A or B depends on factors like which one is better to base on the opinion or objective of decision-makers. For example, if the central point is to prevent current practices that will cause adverse effects tomorrow, then a person would be guided by such motives. Preventing cutting down of trees to clear a foundation for a business premise may be motivated by the notion of avoiding climatic change tomorrow that will propagate severe effects. From an environmentalist approach, there would rather be few jobless people, from the effort of conserving ecology, compared to dealing with a hunger strike, low production in future resulting from climate change.
People or decision-makers are factors who approach an issue with a different perspective. Typically, people are unique in term if beliefs, abilities, values as well as personalities. When it comes to choosing between environment or economy, decisions will be shaped by views of decision-makers. Many who are monetary-oriented will likely to favor economy while environmentalists will side with the ecology preservation. When approaching the issue of local economies versus the environment, it will depend on the approach of thinking- in terms of a problem or opportunity. Certain environmental strategies might be an opportunity, while others could be a problem. For example, the Shield environmental agency in the UK developed services of re-using or recycling mobile phones and other telecommunication networks. As such, over 18 million phones were replaced every year, and without the opportunity, probably this would have been a hazardous issue. In such a case, if a decision will induce opportunities, then it is worth taking.
To conclude, the most significant factor is time. A decision made at a particular moment of circumstance can change so fast in that what appeared rational at one point can be something else later. In the case between environment and local economy favor probably siding with the latter may be right choice currently but regrettable latter if the alternative prevails.
Reference
Egilmez, G., Gumus, S., & Kucukvar, M. (2015). Environmental sustainability benchmarking of the US and Canada metropoles: An expert judgment-based multi-criteria decision-making approach. Cities, 42, 31-41.