Environmental Sustainability and Public Policy - Research Paper Example

Environmental studies Investigate the issues of environmental sustainability and the use of public policy to encourage or enforce the community into acting responsibly in this area. Industrialization and economic expansion have been the hallmark of the 20th century, with most nations opening their doors for trade and commerce with the promise of wealth and massive economic gains. Free markets and liberalization have made markets hungry for consumption, fuelling the need for more industries to develop. Former colonies have now joined in this fiesta of trade, vying for their share of wealth. The global annual GDP has risen exponentially, marked by increasing standards of living and improving social indicators. But as the world now looks in retrospect, it’s evident that this growth has come at a cost. A cost which the future generations will have to bear if the respective practices pursue. Nature has provided us with the vast pool of resources that have fuelled our industrial growth alongside provision of basic sustenance materials such as food, water and air. But rampant anthropocentrism has made most industries oblivious to the consequences of growth at the expense of a degenerating ecosystem. While economists have historically acclaimed that human beings have unlimited wants but limited resources, the emphasis has lied on financial resources. Natural resources have always been thought of as being infinite. This thought has eventually led to what Garrett Hardin deemed as the Tragedy of the commons, multiple individuals acting independently and rationally consulting their own self-interest, depleting a shared resource without any consideration for the future sustainability of that resource. This phenomenon has gained due attention from scientific circles and has inevitably transcended to political and administrative circles as well. By virtue of sharing a common environment, global initiatives are being taken to analyze the extent the environmental damages have taken place and modify the practices that need to take place. We are dependent on the environment for our survival and growth, and in return the environment requires our reciprocation for its sustenance. Facing countless environmental issues, the onus for environmental sustainability lies on governments, industries, citizens and every inhabitant of this planet; by virtue of being stakeholders. Some of the most pressing environmental issues that have surfaced include: Biodiversity: To protect ecosystems and curb extinction of species, otherwise it is bound to cause discrepancies in the natural food chain. This will automatically be a great loss for the environment and pose as a hurdle in sustainability. Climate change effects on ecosystems: The melting of glaciers and over all global biodiversity depletion is causing damage to the ecosystems as animal habitats are changing drastically. Oil pollution: Global oil mining and leaks such as the BP New Mexico leak have created massive setbacks in the animal population and permanently damaged sea beds. Several animal species are now included in the endangered species list as a consequence. Thus, it is the prime purpose of governments and environment protecting agencies to look into more environmental friendly energy sources and for now, a safer incident-free transportation system. Biosafety: To add artificial ecosystem catalizers in place of endangered species to add value back to the system and assuage the prevalent damages in the affected region. This is the least our advanced technology can do to add to the environment in place of the damages it has caused. Perhaps science and environmental sustainability can perhaps one day be known as coexisting rather than being antonyms. Global dimming: The reflection of causes an opposite effect of global warming and doesn’t allow the sun’s heat and energy to pass though. This is known to have caused the droughts in Ethiopia. Thus, CO2 levels need to be looked at and controlled otherwise they will play harmful rouge like agent in causing damage to the environment. Climate justice and equity: to increase the equity level in the existing damage distribution framework to accommodate underdeveloped nations who find it a burden to their economic pursuits. Deforestation: The massive depletion of forests is causing flooding, droughts and an irregular climate cycle in the atmosphere. And is further suffocating prevalent oxygen levels in the affected regions and increasing CO2 levels. This can be harmful for health in already polluted areas. The intensity of the issues at hand has made it necessary for governments to formulate strategic environment policies that are to cater to these issues and ensure that environmentally sustainable practices replace the conventional hazardous practices. Most governments have made environmental regulations obligatory to follow, the ignorance of which results in legal penalization. These regulations apply to both the industrial sector and the citizens at large to ensure that no section of the society goes unheeded. A friendly public service message system has also been introduced to add more to the comfort level of the citizens. Much of the credit for this environment friendly paradigm shift goes to the United Nations and other international governing bodies who have made it obligatory for their member countries to comply to these proposed policy changes. Some of the most notable events towards environmental regulations include: Kyoto protocol: The Kyoto protocol was a major breakthrough in environmental regimes, having identified the major practical working solutions. Its main area of emphasis was greenhouse gases. The Kyoto protocol made it obligatory on the participants to adopt the reforms as part of their public policies. The participants were to cut down their emission levels by 5%, setting the 1990 level as the benchmark. The Kyoto protocol identified major industrialized nations as having more responsibilities when it came to identifying the share of cuts. In order to make policy formation easier in light of industrial policies, the carbon credits system was introduced for countries to compensate for the growth cuts. Using this system, countries can trade their emission limits for financial instruments. The protocol ends this year. The Montreal protocol was held to analyze the damages done to the ozone layer and come out with a formula to cut down on them. Its purpose was to curtail the emission of ozone damaging substances. Kofi Annan has been quoted saying that "perhaps the single most successful international agreement to date has been the Montreal Protocol". This was done in the wake of increasing cases of glacier melting and medical cases of skin cancer caused as a result of ozone depletion. The UN millennium development goals towards environmental sustainability were important because they identified the consequences of environmental damage, especially in developing countries. It identified the need for uniform public policies all over the world. The areas identified were biodiversity, water contamination and sanitation. The Environmental Sustainability Index (ESI) was introduced to quantify damage level in each country so that the need for stringent policies is identified accordingly. Mostly public policies are made to cater to these specific requirements. And this is a transparent source for citizens of a country to be able to understand the sensitivity of the situation. Economically developed countries are at the forefront of these movements because they have a major share in environmental degradation and possess the necessary capital to deal with it. While developing countries are slowly joining in and adapting to environmental policy shifts, they are finding it hard to strike a balance between industrial growth and environmental sustainability. This is so because these countries are at a point where they cannot afford to downgrade their industrial pursuits but realize that some of their practices will lead to environmental degradation becoming a self fulfilling prophecy. Some critics of environmental sustainable practices deem it as an oxymoron that these two phenomena cannot co-exist, especially from developing countries. Amid rising pressure from the developed countries to upgrade their environmental regimes, developing countries of the southern hemisphere with their need for FDI from the north are left with a paradox that remains unsolved. While the Kyoto protocol accommodates some of these issues, the perplexity of the situation makes it far from being permanently resolved. The dynamics of environmental regulations at play in a region stretch far beyond the scope of public policies. But it be noted that public policies such as those enforced by EPA (Environmental protection agency) in the U.S. lay down the framework for environmental regulation enforcement. Subject to these laws are the citizens and the industrial sector. Most of the laws are concerned with waste management, use of resources, biodiversity, hunting and many other fields. In the U.S. such laws include the Clean Air Act (CAA) Clean Water Act (CWA) (original title: Federal Water Pollution Control Amendments of 1972) Endangered Species Act (ESA) Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA) Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) Noise Control Act This is a brief example of these regulations. Their scope extends to a number of other fields to ensure that there are no loopholes left. While these legal obligations play a major role in promoting environmental sustainability, the role of the media and NGOs is also influential in this regard. The environmental NGOs are able to lobby their demands to the government which ultimately translates them to public policy. The clinical actor here is the media which is able to inform the public and reinforce pro-environment sentiments. In turn the public makes high requirements from the business sector to optimize their practices and products in line with the environmental sustainability paradigm. This public pressure is what gives rise to corporate social responsibility and creation of products and services that are environmentally friendly. Formulation of environmental policies is a tricky task for most governments because it usually involves an economic opportunity cost, especially for developing countries. This is coupled with corporate lobbying which is usually against the enforcement of such policies. The other duty of governments is to disseminate information regarding the need and effects of these policies, `especially to the public to ensure that enforcement doesn’t merely rely on the legal writ, but is a result of an internal sense of responsibility. Public policy is the most instrumental tool to substantiate environmental reforms because the authority and responsibility of national environmental regulation lies within the government’s ambit and its effectiveness lies in involvement of all the Publics that are subject to these laws. Works Cited 2005 Environmental Sustainability Index- Benchmarking National Environmental Stewardship, Appendix B Robert W. Kates, Thomas M. Parris and Anthony A. Leiserowitz. April 2005 issue of Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development, Volume 47, Number 3, pages 8–21. Environmental protection agency (EPA)- Website http://www.epa.gov/sustainability/basicinfo.htm Robert Goodland- The concept of environmental sustainability, Annual review of Ecology anf Systematics, Volume 26, (1995), 1-24 Chapter 6- Public policies to ensure environmental sustainability- http://hdr.undp.org/en/media/hdr03_chapter_61.pdf United Nations-framework convention on climate change- Kyoto protocol Garrett Hardin-The Tragedy of the Commons-Science- Vo. 162-December 1968 Read More