Environmental Problems and Role of International, European Community, and Domestic Laws for Environment Protection - Essay Example

? Environmental Problems and Role of International, European Community, and Domestic Laws for Environment Protection of Instructor] [Course Title] [Date] Environmental Problems and Role of International, European Community, and Domestic Laws for Environment Protection Abstract Today, we are living in the 21st century. It is an era of various environmental issues that have emerged in our society because of the technological advancement, man has made for ease and comfort. There are numerous environmental problems, which have become a part of our world today causing other hazardous situation for the people living in the society. Environmental laws have been proposed by the concerned authorities to address the problem in most efficient manner. Problems relate to environment are not only confined to local regions, but this problem has reached up to global level adding complexities in daily routine of people and imposing further health related issues at other side. Environmentalists and experts from all over the world have considered it an important issue that could create more problems for all living organisms. They have suggested various suitable methods and strategic tools to deal with the problems of environment without increasing risk factors for any other problem. Concerned professionals have made environmental laws, comprise of crucial interlocking figures in the form of treaties, rules, conventions, and other statutes that organized and maintain a bond between people and the natural atmosphere, where they live. In this paper, we shall examine the provision of international, European community and domestic laws sought to reconcile the objective of environmental protection with that of continued economic growth. Introduction: All environmental issues have resulted from human activities and inventions. At one side, there are several problems related to environment, but the core issue is termed as pollution, an undesirable and intolerable situation around living environment, which gives birth to various other problems in the society by polluting air, water, and land1. Apart, from pollution other environmental issues involve the challenges of saving plants, animals and countless natural resources along with specific areas of human life from hazardous influences of those conditions that are responsible for destroying and eroding living and non-living both components of the world2. Other than human activities, climate change in the form of global warming is another major factor that contributes to cause many environmental changes in an inverse direction. But, the changes in earth`s climate is also a result of human inventions and use of technology, made to create fastest production of goods, communication and travelling. For instance, burning of fossil fuels, woods, and elimination of greenhouse gases from industries are influencing our environment dangerously3. The elimination of these toxic gases in the air is polluting our surroundings and making it difficult for every living organism to breathe in fresh air from the environment containing mixtures of many gases, which are dangerous for human`s skin, brain and heart4. Maintaining life of animals and plants and other precious creatures of the world is another vital concern of environmental problem. It is mainly because changes in earth`s temperature and polluting of air present in the atmosphere are not the only matters related to environmental issues, but the forests and marine life is also suffering equally5. Researchers have found that global warming is resulting in increasing sea level and its temperature as well, which cause death to many tiny marine animals and plants present on the upper surface of the sea level. In addition, man is consuming trees and plants to burn wood and manufacture required products along with the preparation of other goods as well such as, rubber, glue, medicines, food, and many more6. In this way, methods of deforestation are contributing to remove those natural sources that purify our environment by taking in carbon dioxide and giving us back pure oxygen. These issues are greater in number and complex to understand completely because every environmental issue is interlinked with each other that directly or indirectly connect to pollution and human activities7. Now we shall briefly describe some of the major environmental issues responsible for making our environment unhygienic and dirty. Main Environmental Problems and Causes: Geographical conditions, changes, or alterations influence the places where people live and carry out their daily practices of life. It depends upon the fact human utilize land of the earth and other natural resources for fulfilling the daily needs of food, clothing and shelter8. Natural disasters such as land sliding, earthquake, tsunami, and cyclones bring various changes in the surface of the earth. These changes mostly results in negative impact creating further complexities for people. Such as, earth becomes barren because of some natural destruction9. On other hand, environmental problems related to marine and coastal location are also important to consider and study issues take place in these regions. It has been noticed by the researchers, marine or water pollution has become hazardous for marine life. We are losing precious races of some marine organisms because poisonous and hazardous liquids and gases both are mixing in water10. Oil, chemical and salt industries are contributing to pollute the environment of the water. It is because when waste products and gases emit from these industries, directly goes in the seawater. These big industries are particularly built away from cities and near coastal regions. Chemicals and compounds, which are used in these industries, are highly dangerous for living-beings making it difficult for them to breathe inside water11. Environmentalist have found that when small or big marine animals breathe in toxic water inside either they die or become ill. Similarly, sensitive water plants are also easily damaged by these poisonous mixtures in water around them. Consequently, when these fishes are consumed by human their bodies also get toxic substances through indirect sources resulting in bad health12. Another type of environmental issue we counter daily is known as noise pollution, which is not a new issue, but the technological advancements have increased this problem up to greater extent like other problems. Like other environmental issues, noise pollution also started because humans` need of more sophisticated and comfortable lifestyle13. Noise pollution refers to unwanted and irritating sound that exist in the atmosphere, which can badly influence one`s hearing. Main sources of noise pollution are vehicles, planes, trains, and construction noises. The sound, which goes beyond the hearing capacity of normal human beings, is considered noise pollution. It does not seem as very crucial issue, but it damages hair cells of ears and decreases the power of hearing. The most devastating and prominent effects of environmental changes includes acid rain, the mixing of rain water with nitrogen dioxide present in the air and forming nitric acid14. Ozone depletion another dangerous situation, which has caused small, pores in the ozone around earth, which allows sunrays directly hitting land surface bringing a long various deadly diseases. Next is global warming mainly because of emission of greenhouse gases like, CO, NO2, CO2 chlorine, NH3, H2S, and SO2. The presence of solid, liquid and gases form of these toxic gases creates and undesirable influence on living organisms. Moreover, these all pollutants contribute equally to create unwanted effect everywhere and effecting health of people15. Hygienic layers of toxic substances increase risk factors for particular types of cancers, lung problem, respiratory allergy etc. Environmentalists and other researchers have been looking into this matter seriously since past many years and intending to proposed strategies to deal this these problems. Moreover, various laws and regulations have also been set by concerned authoritative and governmental bodies of the states. Nevertheless, positive impacts of such laws and agreements are not much obvious because we observed no prominent change in our environment according to the needs of current time16. However, every state and region has its own environmental laws and as this problem is not limited to developing or underdeveloped countries. In addition, modern technological advanced countries are facing this problem of unhygienic environment same intensity. Therefore, preventive measures and strategies have been planned at global level under laws and regulations of governmental and non-governmental welfare associations17. Some of the most influential sets of laws and their negative and positive both types of impacts are as following. Environmental Laws and their Impacts: The governmental bodies of various countries are struggling to remove and reduce the use of all major contributing elements. Environmental researchers and other professionals are consider the economic growth factors and emerging requirements of growing population, which seem to be possibly fulfilling the needs only the advance and excessive use of technology18. These are main challenges for lawmakers, and strategy planners to keep in consideration the impact on economic growth of the world. Because, today we totally depend upon technology and digital gadgets, which are the main sources of pollutants in the air, water and land19. As a result, all laws and regulations are made with complete understanding of their pros and cons of after effects because today we are at that stage, where we cannot obsolete the use of those technologies, which are no more the parts of our luxuries, but have become basic needs of living sophisticated life20. Here we shall describe three types of laws and their effects including domestic laws, international laws, and European Community Laws. Domestic Laws: Domestic laws mean a system of legal rules and regulations that are compulsory to be practiced within the defined boundaries of the region. Historical records showed that domestic laws are not new for the countries, but they are being put into practiced and modified since the environmental issues have greatly grasp the attention of researchers21. The term environmental law is relatively new, however solutions and strategies to overcome the problems are have already been there. In the basic system of law, there is a law called a tort that suggests strategies for fighting against destructive situations. Nuisance plans and acts were most common, because they led a positive applicant not only just to get reparation, but also a legal permission from jurisdiction to decrease the annoying factors from the environment such as, rubbish or dirt and smoke or fumes22. Researchers have explored that in civil jurisdiction system petitioners put into practice tort and laws in association with property rights in the similar manner. Traditionally, tort law are considered basic fundamental safeguard means of common people`s rights and the requirement to justify particular harm. This has been the most influential method of protecting environmental hazards. The insufficiency of tort and laws related to property rights encourage senate, along with other local authoritative bodies to plan and implement precautionary initiative to handle the most promising environmental matters23. There has been a debate over the controversial topic of realistic nature of the initial regional order dealing with stink, fumes, and wastewater. Some researchers argue that they are basic and old environmental regulations. However, some consider them simple policies to address public health issues24. It is believed because most of the regulations were made after observing drastic changes in the health condition of the people due to environmental conditions. Many states have developed to control environmental issues and provide them diversified levels of freedom, authority, and control25. The basic work of such domestic organizations is to merge the local efforts focused to safeguard the atmosphere. Environmental rules have been customarily been set and planned with respect to significant themes like, nature conservation and safety of the major realistic mediums including land, water and air. Researchers have discovered that domestic laws easy and to manage and apply designed plans, but it has observed that these laws fail to acknowledge the significances of the holistic advances and to address with the vital realistic bonds, such as the influences of air pollution on seawater quality. Some other states have agreed to variant methods26. For instance, New Zealand has a seminal 1991 Resource Management Act that incorporate all departments and related activities, however, Canada has combined five of its major environmental regulations into one merged act of common strategic tools. A parallel technique is also utilized in the states, such as Chile, which have set environmental framework rules, under which domestic laws can be circulated in an appropriate manner. Apart, from domestic and local rules, NGOs, and concerned authorities like WTO have set international laws to handle the environmental matters at global level27. International Laws: Environmentalist have discovered that when we analyze the international laws related to protection and safe guard of the environment we observed more than fifty resolutions of national justice system from around twenty five states, all widely associated to international environmental laws. The degree to which these plans and pronouncements take place in the local grounds relies on major elements: national system of justice adopts a variety of approaches to the bonds among their own national and international laws28. The commitments of international laws adopted by the native region are different in nature from other states procedures and realistic methods of implementation. In addition, there is a worldwide confederation of approximately 135 national organizations called as the International Organization for Standardisation (ISO)29. Its main aim is that to establish voluntary technologically advanced levels of goods and services to make their supplements more effective, secure and neat to assist the international processes to keeping environment hygienic for the people. With the development of 14000 standards of ISO another standard of it is develop to deal with the matters of environment most prominently pollution, which is adversely effecting our atmosphere and consequently lives of all living beings30. The 14001 standard of ISO called as Environmental Management System (EMS) and it need organization to get a justification from the concerning systems. It is because standards of ISO intend to work for large geographical area specifically for developing countries, which needs aid and assistance for establishing awareness regarding legislations related to atmospheric concerns. ISO approach this standard with the aim of encouraging participation of developing countries in international law and decision-making processes31. ISO also consider economical priorities of both developed and developing countries along with the availability of useful natural resources. Apart, from EMS other legislations and agreements of ISO concerning environmental matters at global level include “Environmental Performance Evaluation”, “Environmental Labels and Declaration,” and Life Cycle Assessment32. Furthermore, it has been noticed that an obvious rationalization in the USA during 1970 in support of national environmental regulation was that pollution is uncontrollable at national level because it is not a local but a global issue. So, if states that are facing similar environmental issue they should co-operate with each other to suggest and exchange sustainable strategies as well as resources to deal with the all types of pollutions and their harmful effects efficiently33. Most promising international laws regarding pollution issue includes, “Policy statement for Abatement of Pollution, 1992”, Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Acts, 1981, Canadian Environmental law association (CELA), , Environmental Law Foundation and many others. Nevertheless, it is clear that environmental hazards take place because of the human activities and dependency on technological devices34. Because they emit poisonous gases in the environment along with unbearable noise giving rise to different sorts of pollution that eventually cause other major atmospheric issues. However, as far as the impacts of the domestic and international environmental laws are concerned it has been found that despite too many agreements, treaties and policies no satisfactory result has been observed since past many years. In fact, problems are continuously rising with the passage of time and influencing economic growth of the states, most prominently the developing countries35. It is because poor or developing countries do not have enough resources and assists to work with respect to the international laws on environmental problems. In addition, it is observed that at global level developed countries throw dangerously influential elements more in the air as compare to the poorer countries because they have more facilities and easy access to advanced devices and their interaction with such factors is more36. For instance, if we consider a minor example of deodorant use, which contains Chlorofluorocarbon (CFC), is much more in the western countries such as the UK and the USA than poor countries of Africa. There are other evidences as well, which prove the 50% role of developed countries in polluting the environment and strategies are planned and implemented are consider for economic concern first. Because use of advance devices would be reduce or eliminate or altered in such manner that could inversely influence economic matters, then those strategies might not be applied37. Role of European Community: Since past three decades, the European Union has taken an extensive and a variety of environmental precautionary initiatives targeted at improving the condition of the atmosphere for the people of European states and giving them an improved standard of life. Environmentalist working for the betterment of environment of European cities believed that they could easily safeguard their environment, if all member states co-operate with each other and equally participate to support the designed and recommended strategies of experts for their own benefits38. Practices of community environmental legislation should be the foremost priority of all member countries to ensure their active role in each regulation. Moreover, to any application and enforcement of law should be taken at national level, the European Commission plays a successful role of “Guardian of the Treaty”: according to the Article 211, initial alignment of the EC treaty, the Commission is to guarantee that terms of the treaty and the precaution adopted by the concern bodies pursuant thereto are implemented39. In order, to favour the adaptation and enforcement of Community environmental legislation the system has taken the command on environmental liability, the advices that are given for limited criteria for the inspection of environment through inspection laws and the authority over the protection of the atmosphere via criminality legislations40. Moreover, researchers have found that the EU is leading more than 80% legislation of environmental matters in the UK. They aim to maintain the environment up to the remarkable level and making the atmosphere of the UK clean and fresh for people to breathe in without intake of any dangerous and poisonous gases, eating contaminated seafood, or facing hearing problem with the increasing noise pollution. Nevertheless, on other hand critics believed that EU policies of environmental affairs are not efficient because of the required higher cost needed to compile these legislations. As it directly influences the competition in business sectors and eventually effecting economic consideration of European organizations. In addition, these policies have tendency to give rise to competition to European business from the countries like China and India, because these countries have very strict and defined domestic laws. Despite numerous laws and regulations, EU environmental policies are unable to meet the demands of the required remedies41. For instance, recently it has been noticed the Caroline Spelman the lawyer of the UK environment secretary recognized the unsuccessful adaptations of EU “Air Quality Directive” to meet the needs of the current situation. Moreover, it has found that EU emits approximately 22% global greenhouse gases and caused more than two billion tonnes of toxic fumes annually42. However, EU legislation regarding atmospheric matters encourage other states to take initiative measures against environmental challenges, but higher cost of EU policies and greater emission of greenhouse gases cause a failure to all EU efforts to maintain condition in many states including the UK43. In addition, economy of European member states is also suffering because of expensive efforts without satisfactory outcomes. Conclusion: Concisely, it could be noticed that undoubtedly there are numerous environmental problems, which results from human activities through every means and mostly causing pollution of every type. Nevertheless, this issue is not ignorable as it is creating countless problems for every living creature present in this era of machineries. As a result, state professionals are highly concerned and they have planned methods to reduce the impacts or eliminate the basic sources of pollutants. Environmental laws have been made such as domestic, international, and EC laws. However, it has found that despite working with advanced technologies international and EC laws are unable to provide satisfactory protection to the areas under their control. However, domestic laws are relatively productive and effective in this regard and are playing considerable role up to good extent to resolve environmental affairs at national level. List of References U.S.E.P. Agency, 2008. Environmental laws: summaries of major statutes administered by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). New York: Nova Publishers. Civitas, 2011. Environmental Policy. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 20 January 2012]. Europa, 2011. Implementation of Community environmental legislation. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 20 January 2012]. Ferrey, S., 2010. Environmental law: Examples and Explanations. New York: Aspen Publishers Online. Harris, F., 2012. Global Environmental Issues. Oxford: John Wiley and Sons. Islam, N. and Martinez, M., 2001. Environmental Law in Developing Countries. IUCN Environmental Law Programme, pp.3-140. Martuzzi, M. and Tickner, J., 2004. The Precautionary Principle:Protecting Public Health, the Environment and the Future of Our Children. World Health Organization, pp.7-209. M-bote, P. and Cullet, P., 2009. Environmental Justice and Sustainable Development Integrating Local Communities In Environmental Management. International Environmental Law Research Centre, pp.1-9. Morris, P., 2009. Methods of Environmental Impact Assessment. New York: Taylor and Francis. Oas., 2007. Domestic Environmental Law. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 20 January 2012]. 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