Warum der Schutz von Natur von geopolitischer Bedeutung ist
Investitionen in den Naturschutz sind langfristig rentabel:
- Ohne Naturschutz verkommt das Naturkapital und die Kosten steigen.
- Dies hat Auswirkungen auf die Produktivität eines Wirtschaftsstandorts.
- Und dies hat Auswirkungen auf die machtpolitische Stellung in der Welt.
Ein Beispiel aus China:
- China wächst nicht nachhaltig.
- Es trifft zu wenig Massnahmen zum Naturschutz.
- Das gefährdet China als produktiven Wirtschaftsstandort.
Saubere Luft & Sauberes Wasser = bessere Gesundheit = weniger Gesundheitskosten = Höhere Profitabilität eines Wirtschaftsstandorts.
Michael Beckley schreibt dazu in seinem Buch «Danger Zone»:
Kurzfristige Vorteile: „For much of the past forty years, China was lucky: It was nearly self-sufficient in food, water, and most raw materials. Cheap access to these inputs, plus low labor costs and lax environmental standards, helped make China an industrial powerhouse.“
Langfristige Nachteile: „China’s impressive economic performance was the very definition of unsustainable growth because the country trashed its environment in the process. As a result, Beijing now has to pay premiums for basic resources, and economic growth is becoming very expensive.“
Umweltverschmutzung und Frischwasser: „China’s environmental crisis can be captured by many statistics. But it is only when one breathes its air and drinks its water that the sheer volume of destruction becomes apparent. Half of China’s river water and nearly 90 percent of its groundwater is unfit to drink.[1] A quarter of China’s river water and 60 percent of its groundwater is so contaminated that the government has declared it “unfit for human contact” and unusable even for agriculture or industry.[2]“
Bodendegradation: „In 2014, Xinhua reported that more than 40 percent of China’s arable land was suffering “degradation” from overuse.[3] According to official studies, pollution has destroyed nearly 20 percent of China’s arable land, an area the size of Belgium.[4] An additional 1 million square miles of farmland have become desert, forcing the resettlement of 24,000 villages and pushing the edge of the Gobi Desert to within fifty miles of Beijing.[5]“
Fazit: Sauberes Wasser, saubere Luft und eine gesunde Umwelt stärken nicht nur unsere Gesundheit, sondern sichern auch unsere Wettbewerbsfähigkeit für die Zukunft. Zudem bietet Naturschutz noch eine zusätzliche Wertschöpfung: Tourismus. Nationalparks und Naturschutzgebiete sind eine gute Einnahmequelle für eine Region. Ökosysteme bieten weitere Leistungen: Naturschutz verhindert Erosion, Überschwemmungen und Dürren – weniger Schäden, weniger Kosten. Dies zeigt: Umweltschutz und Wohlstand hängen zusammen. Intakte Ökosysteme fördern langfristig Wohlstand, während Umweltschäden hohe Kosten verursachen.
[1] Josh Rogin, Chaos Under Heaven: Trump, Xi, and the Battle for the 21st Century (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2021); Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian, “Special Report: Trump’s U.S.-China Transformation,” Axios, January 19, 2021.
[2] John Bolton, “The Scandal of Trump’s China Policy,” Wall Street Journal, June 17, 2020.
[3] “Internal Chinese Report Warns Beijing Faces Tiananmen-Like Global Backlash over Virus,” Reuters, May 4, 2020; Laura Silver, Kat Devlin, and Christine Huang, “Unfavorable Views of China Reach Historic Highs in Many Countries,” Pew Research Center, October 6, 2020.
[4] Demetri Sevastopulo, “Biden Warns China Will Face ‘Extreme Competition’ from U.S.,” Financial Times, February 7, 2021.
[5] Jim Garamone, “Biden Announces DOD China Task Force,” Defense News, February 10, 2021; Alex Leary and Paul Ziobro, “Biden Calls for $50 Billion to Boost U.S. Chip Industry,” Wall Street Journal, March 31, 2021.
[6] Biden’s Remarks at Munich Security Conference, February 19, 2021, https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2021/02/19/remarks-by-president-biden-at-the-2021-virtual-munich-security-conference/.
[7] Steven Lee Myers and Chris Buckley, “Biden’s China Strategy Meets Resistance at the Negotiating Table,” New York Times, July 26, 2021.
[8] Dai Xu, “14 Misjudgments: China’s ‘4 Unexpected’ and ‘10 New Understandings’ About the U.S.,” May 26, 2020, https://demclubathr.files.wordpress.com/2020/06/what-china-doesnt-realize-us-china-relations-in-2020-dai-xu-weibo-may-26–2020.pdf.
[9] Election Study Center, National Chengchi University, “Taiwanese/Chinese Identification Trend Distribution,” January 25, 2021, https://esc.nccu.edu.tw/PageDoc/Detail?fid=7800&id=6961.