United States: Decoupling the Economy from Natural Resource Degradation: Enhancing the Role of the Environmental Impact Assessment

Abstract

Unbalanced exploitation of renewable and non-renewable resources by industrial, agricultural, and other economic sectors are depleting these resources across the world. Environmental pollution and degradation are adversely affecting socio-economic conditions. Thus, an urgent and ambitious action is required to rehabilitate nature by striking a balance between environmental quality and human uses of natural resources. To relieve the unsustainable practices, decoupling nature from growing demands for economic exploitation has been proposed. However, a feasible procedure is required to decouple unsustainable economic practices from the environment. This article illustrates the complexity of applying decoupling in the context of discharging hazardous chemicals in transboundary water resources, and more specifically in the Great Lakes, between Canada and the United States. Furthermore, the article argues that “environmental impact assessment” should be reinforced in regulatory measures to apply the decoupling idea practically.