Explain how the opportunity costs of negative environmental impact are high.
The negative environmental impact has high opportunity costs as explained below
(i) The industrial development in past has polluted and dried up rivers and other aquifers making water an economic good. Also, cleaning up of polluted rivers and replenishing water resources require huge investments.
(ii) The intensive and extensive extraction of both renewable and non-renewable resources has exhausted some of these resources. Huge amount of funds need to be spent on technology and research to explore new resources.
(iii) The health costs of degraded environmental quality are also rising as decline in air and water quality has resulted in increased incidence of respiratory and water-borne diseases.
(iv) Global environmental issues such as global warming and ozone depletion also contribute to increased financial commitments for the government. Thus, it is clear that the opportunity costs of negative environmental impacts are high.