Responsibility For Environmental Problems - Essay Example

s and s Systems Responsible For Environment Problems College: Introduction In this essay, the researcher seeks to investigate whether the States and State systems are responsible for the ever increasing environmental problem based on Green IR theory. Green theory focuses on the need to expose the blindness of the traditional theories of environmentalism. The green theory aims at shedding light on an area usually secluded by the mainstream international Relation Theories. For example, in liberal and realist IR theories, environmental degradation is disregarded in the game of IR and merely perceived as the environment (MCKINNEY, SCHOCH & YONAVJAK 2007, p. 43). Green thus suggest a greater need for interdisciplinary scholarship to solve environmental challenges resulting from increased and interdependent global crises. Green theory arose after World War Two as a counteractive measure to advancement of technology based on higher energy consumption resulting from pollution in total disregard for sustainable ecology. Thus, Green Theory and Green Political parties emerged to advocate ecological responsibility, social justice, non-violence and grassroots democracy being overlooked by state and state systems. Green Theory thwarts socialism and liberalism since the two concepts of accepted ideology of industrialization negate the ecological and social costs of their activities (DUNNE, KURKI & SMITH 2013, 46). Consequently, Green writers advocate ‘ecocentric’ philosophy that perceives all creatures of the earth as having values independent of human beings. The subsequent movement of Green Theory came in 1990s and sought to transcend traditional environmentalist notion through advancing its coverage to a more cosmopolitan philosophy. Such new framework to green theory attempted to transform traditional mechanisms to general concepts like justice, democracy, and rights through stressing how the environment is linked to all aspects of humanity. Thus, green theorist attaches state and state systems as accountable units to environmental problems and suggests that collective actions of states can help remedy such daunting environmental challenges. Body The paper reviews a burgeoning literature on the environment based on two principle cohorts of authors; on one end, International Relations scholars and, in other category, a number of ‘green writers’ primarily environmental activists, biologist as well as philosophers. Such cohorts are in convention based on a narrow definition of global environmental change thus emphasize on similar four or five environmental challenges of climate change (thinning of Ozone layer, polluting international waters, tropical deforestation) attributed to a ‘state’ of the environment reporting (MCKINNEY, SCHOCH & YONAVJAK 2007, p. 78). Their proposed solution mechanisms are primarily designed as the top-down institutional arrangements above or between states based on systemic levels in intergovernmental frameworks and summed up by prescriptions for practitioners. Critical analysis of the literature available point towards the fierce contradictions between the theoretical assumptions of IR scholars and the empirical findings of the green authors. The IR scholars tend to attribute the nation-state at the core of the examination while on the contrary the Green Writers attaches principle significance to a number of non-state performers who majorly describe the domestic and transitional politics on the environment. In this context, the researcher discusses and reviews the literature from both cohorts and advocate dialogue argument rather than disciplinary enclosure. The paper merges the theoretical strength of key international Relation Scholars with the empirical bounty of green authors that culminate into the study of global environment Politics (GEP) to the current state of affairs with the contemporary issues that are beyond the sheer intergovernmental arrangements of neo-liberal framework. The Green Theory deals with the trans-boundary or inter-country ecological problems and has become a key topic in International Relations. The theory is radical in nature compared to other international. Relations theories. The factors beyond the purview of IR theory inspire the Green Theory leading to improved awareness of the ecological blindness of the International Relations theory. The Green theory resulted from the increased environmental challenges attributable to unforeseen acceptable practices (MCKINNEY, SCHOCH & YONAVJAK 2007, p. 30). The theory analysts view the real-world environmental challenges differently from critical theory preachers, neoliberalism, and Realism. Green theorists focus their examination on non-human nature, ecological risk distribution and need for future generation unlike Realists assumption of persistent squabbles between member states of the global world. Variants of Green Theory Bio-Environmentalist The bio-environmentalist variant focuses on the reorganization of the society such that humans can better live in harmony with the surrounding. The notion that endless economic growth besides population growth are the primary causes of the environmental crisis the states have failed to address. Such variant was inspired by the authoritarianism to alter consumption patterns of consumers and to reorganize the society into smaller and more ecologically friendly interdependent communities. Social Greens The perception of social greens to environmental challenges emphasize on the social systems of the society that generate them. Such view attaches economic, societal structures as perpetuating the unsustainable systems advanced by states that are currently witnessed. The suggested remedies by social greens lot is through establishing Commons between all persons and future society through the efficient local governance systems of the states. Institutionalists Variant The Institutionalist look at the role played by the international institutions in the establishment of and advancement of environmental degradation and their efforts to ratify such challenges. The global political structures and institutions mainly deal with environmentalism issues as they hold that cooperation and interaction lead to ramification of the global environmental crisis. States and State System Responsibility to Environmental Problems Green Theory enables us understand the world politics and environmental challenges through Green Political Theory. The Green Political Theory has three components; Eco centric ethics, Limits of Growth and Decentralization of Power. Such features reconstruct the global politics keeping the issues circumventing the environment fathomable based on state and state systems. The Green Theory acknowledges the need of political transformation in a world perspective. The Theory attempts to discourse and respond to the environmental problems through recommending ecological modernization and a collaborative solution designing by the state systems. However, the theory proposes propagation of such remedies across the world on a global balance that states and states systems have failed to implement a key contribution of state to global environmental challenges hence. Furthermore, the Green theory proposes that via environmental governance globally, states should target to respect all life forms and not solely protect the current human society but other forms of life that are critical to main the stability of biodiversity. Such strategies would otherwise result in human life survival, but it has been a hurdle task by the failed state regimes based on ecological negations. Green writers hold that humankind is the primary complex and developed species of the mankind and hence it is the states and their system moral responsibility to respect all the other life forms coexisting in our surrounding through designing and implementing systems that would otherwise empower humankind to adopt such respects to the ecology. The state have failed to weed out the human chauvinism from this point forward mankind has persistently destroyed the earth’s natural resources injudiciously for personal development rendering other life forms challenged. Such failure by state systems is hence a second contribution of state to ensure a sustainable environment. According to Green Theory, the state systems have failed to weed out the environmental injustices that are prevalent across the globe. A few of the advantaged communities, nations and societies capture the larger packages of the environment while exploiting it fully for their technological development to justify the same. In doing so, the minority (less privileged nations and people) is left with little share (PATERSON 2001, p. 78). Such exploitation is fueled by the IR where the developed nations around the globe have a tendency to emit a larger carbon footprint on the earth while ironically preaching and force to lessen the carbon footprint of the developing and under-developed countries of the world. Such discriminative state systems culminate into an upsetting situation. The principle remedy according to Green Theory is to lower the ecological risks across the world as well as to warrant fair portion of the environment possessions where a share of environment and resources are issued to all the societies curbing the imbalanced distribution resources to lesser communities. The states and states systems are also a contributing factors to environmental problems due to failure to adopt and implement the concept of ecological modernization as proposed by Green Theory (DUNNE, KURKI & SMITH 2013, p. 37. The ecological modernization asserts ‘technological advancement, innovation, and economic growth should occur through strategies that utilize less energy and resources as well as the preserve waste produce per unit of GDP to minutes.’ However, several states have failed to design systems that comply with such concepts leading to the states higher degree as a contributor to environmental problems. In order to reduce effect of environmental pollution such as depletion of the Ozone layer, every state requires an environmental governance program that guarantee modernization of the economy that minutes resources extracted. Such a strategy would otherwise lead to a win-win circumstance as overwhelmingly hailed by Green Theory while being hard-pressed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). To this end, the discussed environmental issues and possible remedies proposed are in line with the two mechanisms of IR theory such and Neoliberalism and Neorealism. However, Neorealism authors have dissented the notion of Green IR theory besides disputing the concept of environment conservation, a common feature of many states and states systems. On the contrary, Neoliberals have hard-pressed the Green IR theory besides researching to unearth the willingness of the countries to collaboratively share the concept of environmental protection as well as checking on their economic advancement while preserving the economic factors and resources extracted. The Neoliberals have consequently acknowledged such an idea in IR discerning, illustrating and prophesying actions of states for the equivalent (DUNNE, KURKI & SMITH 2013, p. 59). Accordingly, we can recognize that in order contrivance the Green IR Theory, on a practical perspective, states and societies affected by the risks and decisions must be a part of the creation of the IR theory. In addition, the proponents of Green Theory stress that since environmental crisis is a collective challenge, the remedies designing must be a joint responsibility. There is a need for states to execute a joint research, build trusts as well as work on the shared environmental flagships to marmalade the exhausting resources as well as preserve their technological progression hand in hand. The IR theory has accomplished a lot of alterations in the recent past and were currently, and all composed a new and a distinct stream of the IR theory. Conclusion In summary, it is palpable from the confab that Green theory has underwritten to the understanding of a world environmental problems through incorporating world political frameworks (CLEMENS 2004, p. 77). The theory allurements the attentions to shared resources that require to be utilized judicially through efficient incorporation of human and non-human survival. Exponential growth of population as well as the economy has culminated into rapid exhaustion of world environmental resources with the Green Theory acknowledged as the principal contributor through bestowing files that illustrate whatever requires to be accomplished in order to revamp the bearable development (CLEMENS 2004, p. 67). The stance of Green Theory on the world politics and undertaking of the global environmental concerns is fundamental and needs comprehensive upheaval of the current political, economic and social frameworks in order to recoup the globe. Green theory is a remedy for the academic gap between the environments. In addition, a green public sphere must be designed in order to reconfigure the connections between human and non-human nature of the globe. The green movement consequently grants techniques to fathom the salient problems circumventing the globe politics and activities undertaken to discourse environmental challenges by the states and their respective systems (DUNNE, KURKI & SMITH 2013, p. 89). The opponents and proponents of Green theory will solely assist in fathoming the world politics, global security as well as politics with environmental establishment in a superior approach. To end with, it is the researcher’s firm position that states and state systems are responsible for the environmental problems. Reference CLEMENS, W. C. (2004). Dynamics of international relations: conflict and mutual gain in an era of global interdependence. Lanham, MD, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. DUNNE, T., KURKI, M., & SMITH, S. (2013). International relations theories. Oxford, Oxford University Press. LAUENROTH, W. K., SKOGERBOE, G. V., & FLUG, M. (1983). Analysis of ecological systems state-of-the-art in ecological modelling : proceedings of a symposium held from 24 to 28 May 1982 at Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, U.S.A. Amsterdam, Elsevier Scientific Pub. Co. http://site.ebrary.com/id/10675864. MCKINNEY, M. L., SCHOCH, R. M., & YONAVJAK, L. (2007). Environmental science: systems and solutions. Sudbury, Mass [u.a.], Jones and Bartlett. PATERSON, M. (2001). Understanding global environmental politics: domination, accumulation, resistance. Basingstoke, Palgrave. Read More