Download environmental and economic security in a national perspective

ENVIRONMENTAL AND ECONOMIC SECURITY IN A NATIONAL PERSPECTIVE
Tetiana Gorban
Tavria State Agrotechnological University, Melitopol, Ukraine
Research advisor – Yulia Polikarpova
The independence of Ukraine and building of an open democratic society and mar ket economy have revealed
importance of the national security of Ukraine. National security is generally defined as government protection of vital
interests of individuals, society and the state from internal and external threats; a condition essential for preserving and
enhancing the spiritual and material values.
A key component of the national security of Ukraine is economic security. If economic security is provided, the state
has a possibility of creating and developing conditions for substantial development, decent life and welfare of its residents.
Most scholars consider that the components of economic security are foreign -trade, scientific, technical, financial, social,
ecological, industrial, energetic, population, food, and criminal ones. In our o pinion, current ecological situation in Ukraine
makes us change such attitude. Environmental and economic security should be seen as equally important.
Environmental security is defined as ecological conditions that guarantee prevention of environmental d egradation and
various risks to human health.
The objective of this research is to analyze interdependency of environmental and economic security of a country.
On the one hand, ecological condition of the environment directly depends on economy. In solvin g the problem of
environmental security economic component is extremely important.
Many environmentalists state that economic growth causes environment pollution. It happens because production
process can only transform the natural resources; it can’t utilize them completely, because a substantial part of them returns to
the nature in the form of wastes. The higher is the level of economic development the more wastes and trash the environment
will have to swallow down and decompose. Due to developed indust ry (for example, in such regions of Ukraine as Donetsk,
Dnipropetrovsk, Kyiv, Lugansk and Zaporizhzhia) the anthropogenic pressure on the environment increases. In order to
overcome consequences of environmental disasters huge amounts of money are spent, b ut they could be used for investment
purposes and economic development.
The society where consumption has become a key value means satisfying inessential needs and unnecessary wants. It
does not matter what economic growth is achieved, if this is done by wasting natural resources, polluting the environment and
causing global changes in climate. That’s why not only environmentalists, but even some economists believe that economic
growth should be limited to some extent.
Although, it can’t be considered to be the only way to solve the problem. Ukrainian reality proves that slump in
production is not always accompanied by similar reduction of volume of harmful emissions in the environment. Moreover, in
crisis conditions the Ukrainian enterprises tend to save money on the expenses of environmental protective measures.
But on the other hand, the environment can have a critical and direct impact on economic development, as well as
social and political stability, and security. Natural disasters (such as the earthquake that caused explosions at the nuclear
power plants in Japan) throw countries with well-developed economies far behind the ones with better conditions of
ecological safety.
While economy is grounded on the natural resources and tends to spend them (ex tract, process, produce goods, sell
them and receive the profit), ecology is trying to preserve them by means of defining the safe quota of their usage as well a s
limit the profit. In most cases economy will have to accept the rules dictated by the ecologi cal imperative.
The contradiction of interrelationships between economy and ecology mean that economy strives to growth and further
development, but this may cause harmful consequences to the nature. But this contradiction is not a dilemma of choosing
economic development or environmental security (“Economic security or environmental destruction?”). It should be seen as
strive to a common goal: to provide such level of economic development that would grant not only production of material
welfare, but provision of ecological security for people living on the planet Earth. Consequently, the concept of
Environmental Security proposes that we work to enhance environmental awareness and strive to develop a common
understanding of the threats to environmental security.
The essence of environment preservation consists in a finding of a rational parity of the society’s ecological interests a
in a pure, healthy and highly productive environment with its economic interests defined by satisfaction of material needs of
people.
So, the conclusion can be made that environmental safety and economic security are interdependent and should be
considered the key elements of the national security of Ukraine.