Economic Growth and the Environment Several arguments have been advanced over the relationship between the environment and economic growth. Indeed, from ancient civilization up to the modern era, people have used all the available resources to improve their standards of living. According to Urheim (2010), food and security form the core desire of individuals in any society. Accordingly, the two factors define the foundation of a country’s economic growth. In order to achieve these benefits, people have tapped natural resources to generate the desired energy to use in the production of goods and services. However, conventional sources of energy used in manufacturing and other sectors that stimulate or support economic growth, have been the main source of environmental degradation. As a result, there is an inverse relationship between economic growth and environmental degradation (Song & Woo, 2008). The environment plays an important role in any economy since it directly provides several inputs that are essential in the production processes. For instance, mineral and fossil fuels come from the environment and are useful in the production of goods and services. In addition, the environment provides other services that play a keys role in the economic activities of each society. These include filtering of air, sequestering carbon, as well as soil formation (Neumayer et al, 2007). Moreover, the environment is useful for the wellbeing of life since it supports recreational facilities and improves the health of people. However, environment resources have a limited time, and most of them cannot be replaced. This means as more of these resources are extracted to support economic growth the more the people continue to harm the environment (Song & Woo, 2008). Economic growth is paramount in achieving prosperity, as well as wellbeing of the citizens of a given country.