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Chapter 24
Politics and Environment
Politics and Environmental
Policy
• Social Change in Democratic
governments
– Constitutional
democracies designed to
allow change in order to
www.shambala.org/images/ capitol.gif
ensure stability
• Environmental Policy in the
– Special interest groups
U.S.
compete to put pressure
– Lawmakers must first
on government officials
feel that the
to advocate laws that
environmental issue
favor their cause or vice
should be addressed
versa
– Bills reviewed by several
– Bargaining in
committees in House and
government to maintain
Senate
status quo
– After law is passed,
– Government reacts to
Congress must
issues, not prevent them
appropriate funds
Courts & Environmental
Regulation
•
•
Almost every environmental
regulation is challenged in
court by industry and/or
environmental organization.
Terms
– Plaintiff
– Defendant
– Civil suit
• Plaintiff seeks to collect
damages for injuries to
health or for economic
losses
– Class action suit
• Filed by group on behalf
of a larger number of
citizens
• Limitations in Lawsuits
– Expense
– Time
– Permission
– Abuse of system
www.adelantesi.com/Arc
hive/ gifs/law.gif
– Environmental law is the
fastest growing sector in
American legal
profession
Influencing Environmental
Policy
• Solutions: (individuals
affecting environmental
policy)
– Change comes form
grassroots political
movements
– Ways to influence
policies
• Vote
• Contribute money to
candidates
• Lobby, write, e-mail
elected officials
• Educate and
persuade
volusia.org/elections
• Expose fraud, waste,
and illegal activities
• 3 Types of Leadership
– Leading by example
– Working within existing
economic and political
systems to bring about
improvement
– Challenging system as
well as proposing and
working for better
solutions
www.universitystar.com/ 00/10/19/voting.gif
Environmental Groups
www.camgreen.org.uk/
www.camgreen.org.uk/
www.purplepatch
.com.au/
• Mainstream
Environmental Groups
www.sierraclub.ca/ bc/education
1.
Green Peace
2.
Sierra Club
3.
Environmental Defense Fund
4.
National Audubon Society
5.
World watch Institute
6.
Wilderness Society
– Multi-million dollar
organizations led by
chief executive officers
and a staff of experts
– Active primarily on the
national level
– Work within political
system (major forces in
persuading Congress)
– “Group of 10” – largest
US agencies rely on
corporate donations
Grassroots Environmental
Group
• At 6000 grassroots citizen
groups exist in the US
• Grassroots movement for
environmental justice –
growing coalition to protect
human and environmental
rights
• Very active on college
campuses and public
schools
www.sa.rochester.edu/ grassroots/
• Basic Rules for Effective
Political Action by
Grassroots Organizations:
– Have a full-time
continuing organization
– Limit # of targets and hit
them hard
– Organize for action
– From alliances
– Communicate your
positions
– Persuade and use
positive reinforcement
– Concentrate at state and
local levels
Anti- Environmental Movement
• Goals
– Since 1980, there is a
massive campaign to
weaken and repeal
existing legislation
• Lobbying in
Washington, D.C. and
state capitals
• mayors and
government officials
unable to implement
without government
funding
• Coalitions
• Global trade
agreement (GATT)
• Tactics
– Establish an enemy
– Weaken and intimidate
– Threaten or use violence
– Influence public opinion
– Falsify data
– Divide and conquer
– Exploit ignorance of
public
www.seattleglobaljustice.org/
Evaluating Claims
• Are environmental threats
exaggerated?
– Some cases of regulatory
overkill
• Asbestos
• Acid rain
– Must evaluate laws and
regulations
– Passing laws in regards to
certain chemical or
species doesn’t improve
the environment
– Need an integrated and
holistic approach
– No confrontations
• Whom should we believe?
– Tough questions need to
be posed on both sides
– Citizens encouraged to
identify with majority
– Many complex issues
require understanding of
environmental issues
www.nmsu.edu/~safety/image
s/ signs/sign_cautio...
nadp.sws.uiuc.edu/isopleths/
maps1999/phfield.gif
Improving US Political System
• Government is
unresponsive to citizens
because…
– Government officials get
money from wealthy
individuals and companies
– Costs the average senator
$3.9 million to get elected
www.opc-marketing.com/ ind-fundraising.htm
• Bureaucracies:
– Most agencies become
stagnant and are
influenced by businesses
– Federal and state
agencies overlap their
policies
– A sunset law –
terminates agency until
reviewed
www.ci.burien.wa.us/
Improving the Political System
• Level the playing field for
ordinary citizens
– Allow them to sue
violators
– Award attorney fees
– Allow them to sue govt
officials
– Raise fines for violators
and punish more
– Call for courts to regulate
frivolous suits
• Reducing the Crime
– Robbery, assault, and
shootings push people
out of cities and into
suburbs, clearing more
land and wasting energy
– Less willing to ride bikes,
walk or use public transit
– Use of lights, TVs, alarms
to deter burglars
www.aperfectworld.org/.../ government/police.gif
Global Environmental Policy
• Progress in
international
cooperation and policy
• 1972 UN Conference in
Human Environment in
Stockholm, Sweden
• 115 nations have
agencies and over 215
international treaties
have been signed
• 1992 Rio Earth Summit
• Met again in 1995 and found
little improvement because
1992 agreements not
binding
• Global Forum – brought
together 18, 000 people from
1400 NGOs from 178
countries
www.philexport.ph/.../jun20/ newsfeatures.html
Chapter 25
Environmental Worldviews,
Ethics, and Sustainability
Environmental Worldviews in
Industrial Societies
• Environmental
Worldviews
– Ways people think the
world works, what they
think their role in the
world should be
• Environmental Ethics
– What people believe is
right and wrong
environmental
behavior
• Individual centered
– atomistic
• Earth centered
– holistic
• Human centered
– anthropocentric
• Life centered
– Biocentric
• Ecosystem centered
– ecocentric
General Types of Environmental
Worldview
www.cms.k12.nc.us/allschools/providence…
Major Human- Centered
Worldviews
• Planetary
Management
Worldview
– Humans are the most
important and
dominant species
– Should manage the
planet for own benefit
– Others species have
instrumental value
•
Basic beliefs
– We are the most important
and in charge of nature
– There is always more
– All economic growth is good
– Success depends on how well
we understand, control, and
manage earth’s life-support
systems for our benefit
www.flagline.com/images/ novelty-earth.gif
Human Centered Worldview
• Schools of Thought
– No problem school
• Technology will solve all
problems
– Free-market school
• Minimal government
interference and
regulation
– Space-ship-earth view
• Earth is a spaceship, a
machine that we can
understand and manage
– Stewardship
• Humans have
responsibility and must
treat earth as our guardian
– Responsible Planetary
Management
• Want to mix economy,
technology, and
government intervention
for self-interest
www.campfireusaia.com/ qool.html
Life/Environmental – Centered
Worldviews
• Managing the planet
– Some feel that we may not
be able to learn technology
fast enough to save the
earth
– A free market would rely
too much on resources
– We don’t understand the
earth
mofep.conservation.state.mo.us/ overview/mofep4.gi
•
Biocentric &Ecocentric
Worldviews
– Inherent value of nature
– Everything has a right to
exist
– Animal rights movement
(species-centered
worldview)
– Earth-wisdom worldview
• Nature exists for all
species
• There is not always
more
• Not all economic growth
is beneficial
• Success depends on
willingness to cooperate
with earth.
More Worldviews
• Are biocentrists
antihuman/antireligious?
– They feel that they are prohuman
– They feel that they are
helping the earth, which
indirectly helps humans
• Social Ecology Worldview
– As long as we have an
industrial society, we will be
damaging the environment
– This will cause
decentralization for political
and economic systems
• Ecofeminist Worldview
– Idea that being humancentered and androcentric
(male-centered) is the
problem with the
environment)
– By being male-dominant, we
are destroying nature
– Emphasize gentleness,
caring, compassion, nonviolence, cooperation, and
love
www.sopers.co.nz/ signs/signs.htm
Ethical Guidelines for Earth
• Ecosphere and
Ecosystems
– We should try to
understand nature
– When we must alter nature,
we must avoid
environmental harm
• Species and Cultures
– We should preserve
genetic diversity
– Avoid premature extinction
of other species
– Protect ecosystems
• Individual Responsibility
– Should not cause any
suffering to our food
sources
– Leave the earth better than
we found it
– Use only what we have
– Heals the wounds we have
already caused
newfarm.osu.edu/images/ crops.gif
Earth Education
• We should teach our
children about our earth
–
–
–
–
Respect life
Understand earth
Seek wisdom
Evaluate consequences of
lifestyles
• Learning to Live Simple
– Gandhi’s Philosophies
• Voluntary simplicity
• Earth provides enough,
use minimal amounts
• Transfer energy from
material to non-material
• We should learn to work
with the earth
– Learn to make our own
area sustainable
www.crawfordinternational.com/ cai_values_ethi..
Earth-Wisdom Revolution
• Efficiency revolution to
make the most of the earth
• Pollution prevention
• Sufficiency revolution –
being sure that everyone
has his or her basic needs
• Demographic revolution –
balance population growth
• Seeing the world as a flow
of matter and energy
www.tij.co.jp/jcorp/ docs/program/
Chapter 27
Economics and Environment
Economic Goods, Resources and Systems
• Economy: a system of
production, distribution, and
consumption of economic
goods (material items/
services that satisfy people’s
wants)
• Economic Resources: The
kinds of capital that produce
economic goods and services
1. Earth Capital/ Natural
Resources
2. Manufactured Resources:
items made from earth capital
with help of human capital
3. Human Capital: people’s
physical and mental talents
Economic Systems
Pure Command Economic System/ Pure Capitalism:
• All economic decisions made by markets, in which buyers and
sellers of economic goods freely interact without government or
other interference
• Depicted as a circular flow of economic goods and money
between households and businesses operating essentially
independently of the ecosphere.
• Market equilibrium occurs when the quantity supplied equals the
quantity demanded, and the price is no higher than the buyers are
willing to pay and no lower than the sellers are willing accept.
Centrally Planned Economy:
• All economic systems made by the government
• Government control and ownership of the means of production
are most efficient and equitable way to produce, use, and
distribute goods.
All countries have mixed economic systems that fall somewhere in
between pure market and pure command systems.
Circular Flow of Money in Pure Market System
Economic Growth and External Costs
• Economic growth: an
increase in the capacity of the
economy to provides goods
and services to people for
final use
• Gross Domestic Product
(GDP): the market value of all
goods and services produced
by the economy within its
borders for final use
• Gross National Product: GDP
plus net income from abroad
• Real Per Capita GDP: the real
GDP divided by the
population
• Ecologically Sustainable
Development: occurs when the
total human population size and
resource use in the world are
limited to a level that does not
exceed the carrying capacity of
the existing natural capital
• GDP and GNP hide the negative
effects on the ecosphere of
producing many goods and
services. They don’t include the
depletion and degridation of
natural resources or earth
capital on which all economies
depend.
• Solution: Environmental and
social indicators should be
subtracted from the GDP/GNP
to give a more realistic picture.
Environmental Solutions Using Economics
Pricing products using full cost:
• Would close the gap between
real and false prices by having
prices tell the environmental truth
• Cause business to pay the full
cost of the environmental harm
created
Cost-Benefit Analyses:
• Comparing estimated short term
and long term costs with
estimated benefits for a course of
action.
Government Regulations:
• Phase in government subsides
that that encourage earthsustaining behavior and phase
out current perverse subsides
that encourage earth-degrading
behavior
Poverty
• Poverty: the inability to
meet one’s basic economic
needs
• Trickle-down hypothesis: a
growing economy is the
best way to help the poor. It
enables more wealth to
reach workers and provides
greater tax revenues that
can be used to help the
poor.
• Most of the time, however,
this wealth does not trickle
down, instead it flows up.
Solutions to Reducing Poverty
• Forgive the money that
developing countries owe to
developed nations
• Increase nonmilitary aid to
developing countries from
developed countries
• Shifted most international aid
from large-scale to small-scale
projects intended to benefit
local communities of the poor
• Encourage banks to make
small loans to poor people
wanting to increase their
income
• International lending agencies
should be required to use a
standard environmental and
social impact analyses to
evaluate any proposed
development project
Converting to Earth Sustaining Economies
• Reward earth-sustaining o
earth-degrading behavior
• Use full-cost accounting to
include the ecological value of
natural resources in the market
place
• Use environmental and social
indicators to measure progress
toward sustainability
• Use full-cost pricing to include
external costs of goods and
services
• Replace taxes on income and
profits with taxes on
throughput of matter and
energy
• Use low discount rates for
evaluating future worth of
irreplaceable or vulnerable
resources
• Establish public utilities to
manage and protect public
lands and fisheries
• Revoke the governmentgranted charters of the
environmentally and socially
irresponsible businesses
• Make environmental concerns
a key part of all trade
agreements and of loans made
by international lending
agencies
• Reduce waste of energy, water,
and mineral resources
• Preserve biodiversity
• Reduce future ecological
damage and repair past
ecological damage
• Reduce poverty
• Slow population growth