Developing countries living standard

Minerals are well regarded as national assets. Extensive use of mineral resources forms the physical basis of a high standard of living not only in the developed but also in the developing countries. A strong positive correlation exists, for example, between the per... 

Developing countries like India are listed under Kyoto as Annex II countries, and they are not obliged to make any cuts in greenhouse emissions reduction yet. But as they raise living standards their emissions will obviously increase India s have risen by more than 52% since 1990. Under Kyoto, they will have to accept reduction targets in a few years from now. The protocol s architects say it is fair to allow them a grace period, because the problem has been caused by the industrialised countries. But India, with more than 1 bn people, will soon be a major polluter. 

Unfortunately, positive trends could not be seen for the megacities in developing countries. The very low income of people only allows for the purchase and use of old vehicles with low technical standards (Nakamura et al., 2004). This is of major concern, in so far as half of the world population (48% in 2003) live in urban areas. 

We five in the age of quality. Quality is measured, analyzed, and discussed. The simplest product and the most trivial service come from quality-assured organizations. Conspicuously embracing quality is the standard of the age. Even university faculty are now subject to quality audits of their teaching. Some of these new-found enthusiasms may be more appropriate than others, but I have no doubt that proper attention to quality is vital for analytical chemistry. Analytical measurements affect every facet of our modern, first-world fives. Health, food, forensics, and general trade require measurements that often involve chemical analysis, which must be accurately conducted for informed decisions to be made. A sign of improvement in developing countries is often a nation s ability to measure important aspects of the lives of its citizens, such as cleanliness of water and food. 

How will this situation be in 2020 when so many Chinese people have improved their living standard This is not only a concern for China but for all countries that use China for their economic output "China, the world s factory." Most developed countries import their ecological footprint from outside and therefore have a national ecological deficit. A developed country as the Netherlands has a footprint that is nearly five times its national biocapacity. How remarkable it is that our economic and ecological interests and performance become so interwoven on a global scale. There seems to be no national solutions any longer, these problems take an international or even a global dimension. 

The increase in living standard of some large developing countries like India and China, allowing them to eat more and to eat more meat. 

At this moment I only wanted to lay a further point before the meeting, that arises out of these two interesting papers, and that is that it is not merely that the so-called South politically, the tropical countries, have a lower living standard and are at a lower level of development, and have perhaps a more difficult physical environment than the middle latitude countries. It is that special stresses are now arising out of two circumstances, both of which were referred to by both speakers. The first is the population explosion, which is a matter for the scientist to concern himself with and the other is that I must say that in the last two decades the tropical climate, rather climates in the plural, have behaved extraordinarily badly. The timing could not have been worse. 

There is a worldwide tendency to replace conventional soaps (made from fats and oils derived from animals and plants) with synthetic detergents (syndets) from petroleum sources. In developed countries syndets have replaced soaps to the extent of 70-80%. In India, the situation is nearly the reverse the total estimated production of soaps exceeds 700,000 tons, while that of syndets is only 100,000 tons. With the increasing demand for soap, the import of oils and fats tends to increase tremendously, affecting not only the soap industry but also the edible oils industry which is closely linked to it and also is subject to an ever-increasing demand (based on the improving standards of living and the increase in population—625 million in 1977). 

Sustainable Development is generally understood as not impairing the ability of future generations to enjoy the same or a better standard of living than what is currently enjoyed in developed countries. Environmental sustainability means we aspire to replace our use of nonrenewable or scarce materials with materials that are renewable and more abundant, while reducing our dependence on fossil fuels. We also aspire to take from the environment no more than we return, leaving ecosystems in a healthy state. This requires us to take only raw materials that can be relatively quickly renewed by naturally occurring Earth systems processes and leave only waste that serves as raw materials for industrial or Earth systems processes. 

Michael G. Nelson (University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah), who contributed the chapter on Engineering of Mineral Extraction, writes, Mineral extraction provides most of the materials and fuels needed for the comfortable and productive lives desired by all the world s people. As developing countries raise living standard for their inhabitants, it is particularly important that mineral extraction take place with full consideration the protection of the environment. This chapter describes the methods used for the extraction of soUd minerals from the earth, and details the procedures to be followed to ensure that the environment is protected. ... 

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