Table of Contents
BEST IELTS Writing Task 2, 14th April
IELTS WRITING TASK 2 (AC + GT)
IELTS WRITING TASK 2 (AC + GT)
Economic growth is the only way to end world poverty. However, some people say it leads to environment damage and should be stopped. To what extent do you agree?
SAMPLE ANSWER
Some people say that economic growth can eradicate poverty. Others opine that economic development causes environmental damage and hence it should be discouraged. In my opinion, environmental protection is of paramount importance and hence economic growth should be restricted.
A good reason to stop economic growth is to protect the environment from getting polluted by its harmful by-products. In other words, economic growth needs the establishment of many factories which emit obnoxious gases into the atmosphere and discharge other pollutants into the soil and water. If untreated, these by-products cause huge environmental complications. For instance, the demand for electricity rises due to high economic growth; the majority of power plants in the world use fossil fuels to produce electricity and thus cause considerable damage to the environment.
Another critical reason to protect the environment and discourage economic growth is the lack of any substantial evidence to prove that economic growth eradicates poverty. To put it in another way, billions of people are still living under poverty even after many decades of economic development, casting doubt on the role of economic growth in removing poverty.
For example, years of economic growth has made rich people richer and poor people are still struggling for the basic necessities of life. Moreover, with the advancement of technologies less manual work is required in factories and hence fewer job opportunities are available although economy is developing. Obviously, economic growth chiefly benefits the affluent and does hardly anything for the poorest sections of the society.
In conclusion, sacrificing the environment for the sake of economic development is not a wise step, especially, when it is doubtful whether economic development can eradicate poverty.
