Environment or Economy?

In recent times, many countries are experiencing extreme economic development. However, most of these developments are fueled by natural resources. Deforestation, pollution, poaching and other related activities all stem from economic development. China's economic boom is fueled by coal, which emits a huge amount of greenhouse gases when burned to provide energy. Increasing number of affluent people in developing countries also leads to higher consumption, especially eating rare, endangered and exotic animals. Hence, it seems to be impossible for both successful environmental conservation and extreme economic growth the co-exist. In my opinion, mankind should forgo economy for nature.

First of all, if man continues to destroy the environment to the point that it becomes uninhabitable, economic success would be pointless as everyone would be beyond dead to enjoy the benefits of a good economy. Here's an illustration on how economic growth would lead to mankind's extinction: With increased affluency, more people would be able to afford their own vehicles, thus leading to more greenhouse gases emissions. So much more greenhouse gases is now being emitted and thus more heat from the Sun is trapped in the Earth's atmosphere, which would quicken the rate of the melting of polar ice caps which is already fast. This hence leads to increased sea levels and more floods would occur. In addition, current islands would soon be submerged. Thus mankind would finally drown.

Furthermore, if our ancestors managed to live without an economy during the Ice Ages, why can't we modern humans do that? They did no have an economy a few hundred thousand years ago, thus were not motivated to hunt and pick much more than they needed, unlike modern humans who do these in exchange for more profits. Their 'consume just enough' attitude a few hundred thousand years ago allowed animal populations to recover the losses.

Though having economies does have some benefits for the environment, such as people preserving forests for tourism, there are much more harm being done. Therefore for the sake of mankind's existence, we should protect the environment more and not seek so much of economic growth.