Economic growh & environmental quality (haiti vs california) Essay

Economic growh & environmental quality (haiti vs california) - Essay Example This is because unlike California, Haiti has seen numerous political and environmental shocks that have severely hindered its growth. Nevertheless, economic growth in both California and Haiti comes with negative environmental outcomes comprising water and land pollution, greenhouse gas emissions as well as destruction of ecological landscape. Haiti economic growth largely centers on agriculture given that majority of the island is mountainous. Most of Haiti lush rainforests has been cleared for small-scale farming and charcoal burning, hence leaving only 28.3% of its land mass to be good for arable and commercial farming1. Agriculture accounts for the nation 25% of its GDP production. As a result, two thirds of Haiti labor-force still lives on small-scale subsistence farms which has resulted in economic stagnation, that has made Haiti the poorest nation in the western hemisphere. Hence, the nation has no substantial industrial or manufacturing sector, which then makes 40% of Haitian population to be unemployed even as the average income for most Haitian is less than $200 per year2. Haiti economy is largely driven by informal small-medium enterprises, which accounts for 80% of the nation new jobs. Nonetheless, the textile industry forms the second largest economic activity after arable farming. On the other hand, Californ ia has a GDP per capita income of $60,190 per year with the unemployment level standing at a much lower level of 7.4%3. Secondly, California has a diverse and highly skilled workforce working in different sectors unlike Haiti, and varies from high tech, to retail and service industry, to manufacturing, biotech, entertainment, to agriculture. Thus, before the 2007-2008 financial crises, California experienced per capita GDP growth that surpassed even the United States per-capita GDP expansion. In particular, the state share of the entire California manufacturing output grew from eight to