The policies of a Government - Essay Example

The policies of a Government INTRODUCTION The policies of a Government are not always perfect, there are loopholes and certain issues which are left out, these issues can be detrimental for the society and the world on whole. Thus, any ignorance on the part of the State or the formulation of ineffective policies pertaining to a sensitive issue can lead to the mobilization of public to form organizations that can challenge the government, and instigate them, on the basis of wide support, to modify their policies for social welfare. This organized representation of social actors is in the form of pressure groups- alternatively known as interest groups or protest groups. United Kingdom has seen the development of these organizations at a massive scale, with the number extending into thousands while the number of political parties remains small. The public has immensely supported the petitioning of the State to succumb to significant issues, and thus the membership of these groups has increased greatly (History Learning, 2010) KEY ISSUE The issue under consideration is an environmental factor, which has been drawing the attention of billions around the globe; it is an ecocatastrophe that everyone faces, irrespective of cast, creed, gender, status or nationality. This environmental factor is the phenomenon of Global Climate Change, which has been highlighted in political and economic debates, and Greenpeace International is one of the first pressure groups that promote this issue on a world-wide scale (IPCC, 2007). INTRODUCTION OF GREENPEACE It has gained numerous supports and has forced the Governments of UK, USA, European nations and also the third world indirectly in order too meet its motto: "Greenpeace exists because this fragile Earth deserves a voice. It needs solutions. It needs change. It needs action" The slogan holds an energy within itself, and provokes the desire to act immediately; Greenpeace has effectively used the terminology which strikes the emotions of the people, such as 'Fragile Earth' and 'needs'. It focuses on creating awareness and realization that the world is heading towards a disaster, and brings this issue on main scale, by confronting the government policies and large corporations which have led to this environmental degradation, such as forcing Timberland (a major shoe manufacturing company) to sort out their supply chain, and with the support of Timberland, Greenpeace managed to coerce the big cattle companies to halt their business practices which were exploiting the Amazon rainforests (Greenpeace UK's success, 2009) Greenpeace UK is a successful pressure group which has proved its effectives at various fronts. The crux of their success is efficient planning and strategic management, from research on major climatic issues and their underlying factors to the exposure of those corporations and government policies which resist action and effect the environment negatively, they do not stop here, but take actions in the form of protests and public gatherings in order to publicize the matter at hand, and to break the barriers of resistance. They lobby so that the policies would be reframed and modified in accordance with their demands, at a national and an international scale, and hence they campaign at various fronts (Greenpeace UK, 2010). EFFECTIVENESS OF GREENPEACE'S CLIMATE CAMPAIGN Energy Sources Greenpeace is vehemently working for the promotion of sustainable energy sources, and reducing the reliance on fossil fuels which is a major contributor to carbon emissions resulting in the greenhouse effect, especially in the UK where energy sector accounts for near about half of UK's total carbon emissions. Fossil fuels are a precursor to a climate which is inimical to the health of the living creatures on this planet, and thus their use must be limited if not completely stopped. The energy system of UK has become antique, and need up gradation to be conducive enough for contemporary times, and thus Greenpeace has proposed the conversion to a decentralized system of electricity supply, wherein electricity would be generated on a local basis, which in accordance with their research would double the efficiency of UK's power stations. Endeavoring at grassroots level with experts in order to marshal support and technical backup. It has undertaken research and documented successful examples from around the world which supports their view, and furthermore presented their proposals to the MPs and the public via consultations, events, visits, film screenings and most effectively through direct actions (Chiara Ciorgetti). As a result of their deliberate efforts, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats now support Greenpeace's proposal of decentralized energy supply. These two parties are amongst the three main political parties to contest in the UK elections in May 2010, and thus depict the successive reach of Greenpeace UK (Greenpeace UK, 2010). Aviation Industry As the world moves towards a highly mechanized and technology dependant era, accompanied by the increased demands for effective transportation and communication networks of the people, it also witnesses a subsequent hike in the demand for aviation services, which is recognized to be the most increasingly growing source of carbon emission in the United Kingdom. The government is steadfastly ignoring the disaster this industry shall bring upon the already affected climate of the world. However, it the environmental concern cannot be subsided by the wishes of a few major corporations, it needs to be uplifted, worked upon, and solved. For climate change is a menace which shall affect the lives of billions around the globe while these exploiters continue with their practices inadvertently. Thus Greenpeace, as a representative of the concerned masses, has highlighted this issue, but facing a resistance on the part of the powerful factions of the corporate and political world, Greenpeace had to resort to stricter measures, that made use of the direct action strategy, by publicly exposing the careless response and the ignorance of the negative externalities which the aviation industry of the UK has extended to the world atmosphere, and thus it has been successful in amassing huge support (Greenpeace UK, 2010). Road Transport Roads are an effective means of transport, and the UK has a very extensive road network, in addition to this the increased number of vehicles in the market has resulted in a proliferation of motor vehicles in every part of the country. This has inevitably resulted in an increased emission of greenhouse gases and a continued source of environmental degradation. The government was ignorant to this aspect of climatic change, until Greenpeace brought into focus that it is a responsibility of the government to regulate the industrial authorities with specific tools, in order to slow down the aggregate demand in order to protect the environment. Hence, with the efforts of Greenpeace, the present UK government of the Labour Party headed by the Gordon Brown as the Prime Minister resorted to using fiscal tools to control demand. His government thus imposed road taxation for gas-guzzlers. However, the efforts do not halt here, there is a wide scope to work for the community as yet, and Greenpeace rightly sees the potential for putting more environmental friendly policies into effect. As the car manufacturers are a very powerful group, it is not easy to coerce them into submitting to the policies of the government that easily, they create resistance and barriers, and refuse to cooperate, hence in order to make them change their reckless attitude, Greenpeace has resorted to exposing the most polluting and non-cooperative car manufacturers to the public, bringing a bad reputation to these giant corporations, and forcing them to accept the policies and adapt to changing reforms in order to protect their goodwill and image amongst their current or potential customers. Greenpeace's campaign also comprises of efforts to promote alternatives which are significantly efficient and are less polluting (Greenpeace UK, 2010). Coal Use Coal is a fossil fuel that can be burnt to produce energy efficiently but with major detrimental impacts on the environment. The New Labour (Labour Party of United Kingdom in power) has supported the use of coal, by subsidizing the price of coal, which has resulted in an increase in the demand for the mineral and more burning of coal in power stations, since it is inexpensive to utilize for the production of energy as compared to its rather expensive alternative, natural gas, which is however less hazardous for the atmosphere. Greenpeace has thus made use of more upfront policies, such as protests and marches against the government (Mail Online, 2006), also stressing and highlighting the threats which the United Kingdom would face on environmental front as a result of this policy measure by New Labour. It is also making efforts to carry out investigations researches in the plundering of the environment in this manner and has proposed alternative solutions to meet energy needs instead of submitting to the menace of coal power plants (Greenpeace UK, 2010). Nuclear Power As similar to the coal environmental crisis, the world is also threatened by the extensive utilization of nuclear power plants as an energy source. There are other factors attached to the generation of electricity through nuclear power stations: cost involved in electricity generation and maintenance, the inefficiency of production resulting in a large amount of waste and nevertheless the accidents that take in the power plants are devastating. Even if we ignore these major problems for some time, we can not ignore the environmental concern attached with nuclear power generation, it is not effective and is not less environmentally hazardous, and hence to use this as an alternative is an ineffective strategy on part of the Government of UK (Greenpeace UK, 2010). Greenpeace is thus effectively working to explore other alternatives which are less environmentally dangerous, and which would not lead to climatic change in a negative way. Its efforts are worthy of being appreciated; it also sheds light on the other issues that would arise as a result of the creation of a new nuclear power plant, it is trying to halt the development of these power plants in the UK and abroad in order to protect the environment, it is thus vehemently working to conserve what is remaining of the earth's atmosphere and spreading awareness amongst the people through its public demonstrations, direct actions, events and film screening etc (Mormont and Dasnoy, 1995). Energy Efficient Light Bulbs As a very small effort with major consequences, Greenpeace has promoted the use of energy efficient bulbs in place of the traditional (incandescent) ones, since according to their proposal, the energy efficient bulbs would conserve energy and reduce the load on electricity consumption, as an indirect result of this, energy consumption would reduce, and the United Kingdom can manage to reduce its carbon emissions by 5 million tones. Greenpeace has created awareness amongst retailers and customers, and has strived to ask the retailers to remove the traditional bulbs from their stock piles and replace them with energy efficient light bulbs, this voluntary action would have a positive effect on the environment as the amount of greenhouse gases pumped into the air to produce electricity to sustain the older bulbs would reduce. Hence this small effort on the part of Greenpeace can have major positive consequences for the UK and the world as a whole. (Greenpeace UK, 2010). CRITICISMS One of the major criticisms levied at Greenpeace was the accusation that it is more focused towards political issues rather than scientific issue, this is the reason why an early member ecologist from Canada withdrew from the organization in 1986 (Moore, 2008). Greenpeace was at times accused by its members of treachery, stating that the organization made secret hidden contracts with major environmentally unfriendly companies to not flaunt their reckless practices in the public since it would bring a bad name to these corporations; they were also accused of not properly managing their funds, and it was highlighted that they spent nearly $180 million revenue just to pay the organizational salaries. The activities of Greenpeace were at times also condemned to be harsh, and their investigators were accused of using means that breached the privacy of other individuals. They were also labeled to be insensitive to issues of the local citizen of Iceland, Canada, Greenland, etc., which were directly affected by the practices to halt the business practices of organizations that employed these native individuals, as it was their subsistence income. It was also accused of making false claims in order to gain massive support and to intensify the issue at hand; at times their advertisements were also banned by the Advertising Standards Authority UK for being supported by insufficient data to backup their claim. CONCLUSION Despite of these criticisms, it can not be denied that Greenpeace has worked immensely to uplift the environmental concerns and issues that the world is facing, especially with regards to Global Climate Change. It could however use better methods to attain information and data, and backup their claims by adequate and substantial proofs. The above mentioned facts pertaining to the various campaigns of Greenpeace was just a highlight of their efforts, the effectiveness of their campaigns is depicted through the massive support it has managed to amass, a large number of 2.86 million of supporters (Sarah, 2008), since the time of its establishment its has undertaken numerous efforts to protect the environment, and this path has not been easy for Greenpeace members, they have suffered resistance, even physical tortures such as the detaining of Greenpeace investigators by the Japanese officials, when these individuals were trying to document the cruel practices of the Japanese Organizations in order to expose them to the world (Mark, 2010). But, they have not bent to the pressures of the powerful parties, and firmly faced criticism and resistance, and yet manage to bring the environmental issues at the forefront and earn respect, support and most importantly- Success. 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Retrieved April 21st 2010 from http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/wg3/en/ch3-ens3-1-2.html Jean-Michel Belouve (2010) IPCC and Governments- Even Deception. Translated into English by Google. Retrieved April 21st 2010 from http://www.belouve.fr/?page_id=262 Mail Online (2006) Greenpeace protestors scale tower in protest at 'Blair's legacy of fumes'. Retrieved April 21st 2010 from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-414177/Greenpeace-protestors-scale-tower-protest-Blairs-legacy-fumes.html Marc Mormont & Christine Dasnoy (1995) Source strategies and the mediatization of climate change. Media, Culture & Society, Vol. 17, No. 1. Mark Willacy (2010) Anti-Whaling Activities to Front Court. Retrieved April 21st 2010 from http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/02/08/2813750.htm Moore, Patrick (2008). "Why I Left Greenpeace". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved April 21st 2010 from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120882720657033391.html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries Rhyss Williams (1994) Greenpeace accused of telling lies in advert: Watchdog bans anti-nuclear image. Retrieved April 21st 2010 from http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/greenpeace-accused-of-telling-lies-in-advert-watchdog-bans-antinuclear-image-1447196.html Sarah Jane Gilbert (2008) Harvard Business School, HBS Cases: The Value of Environmental Activists. Retrieved April 21st 2010 from http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/5797.html Read More