Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-05-30-Speech-3-142"
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"en.20010530.7.3-142"2
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"Commissioner, President-in-Office of the Council, it is not and can never be a choice between employment or the environment. Wealth, growth, enterprise and development need not, and do not, consume the environments of mature societies. On the contrary, it may be observed that there is a clear relationship between the quality of the environment and the wealth of a nation.
Throughout the EU and North America recent years have seen dramatic reversals in the pollution of air and water due to technological improvements driven by legislation and societal expectations. In the same period there have been profound increases in the extent and quantity of habitats and natural resources that are formally recognised and protected. The infrastructure, organisation and technology that are needed for a cleaner environment are all achievable because of the wealth and surpluses of the local economies.
Significant environmental pollution of air and water and the unsustainable exploitation of natural resources have become characteristic of the early stages of developing industrial economies, as they were once with us. Environmental protection requires surpluses, education and vision together with institutional maturity and stability. A strong lobby in favour of environmental protection is a good and necessary part of any mature democratic society.
We must be committed to ensuring the widest range of opinions and values, and that they are nurtured, expressed and considered because debate can only increase knowledge and improve the quality of decisions. Likewise, environmental orthodoxies must be constantly scrutinised and re-evaluated to ensure that the protection required is proportionate and effective. Environmental scaremongering hampers open debate by inflating a stateable risk, for example the presence of a toxin, so that it becomes an inaccurately perceived threat, for example by failing to acknowledge that the quantity of the toxin falls significantly below any threatening dose.
I believe that great sensitivity, tolerance and compassion must be employed whenever it is proposed to employ the environmental standards of a developed economy to the economies and environments of emerging economies. The EU’s history has shown that localised overloading of environmental carrying capacity can be a temporary phase of an emerging economy. We need to acknowledge ..."@en1
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