Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
nuclear plant, and in Brokdorf, the crowd numbered in the thousands.
In Denmark in 1962, 30,000 people marched to protest nuclear weapons
and power plants. Voters have consistently elected members of parliament
who back green legislation and programs.
Interest groups are numerous and influential. In Germany in the 1950s,
the Isar Valley Society, the Conservation Ring, and the Alpine Society
mobilized to block dams for electric generation. In the 1960s, the League
for Bird Protection had 57,000 members and, in an example of interna-
tional diffusion, made one of its projects to promote Rachel Carson's book
Silent Spring . The Netherlands has groups like Friends of the Earth with
85,000 members. Other groups are Codename Future, the National Youth
Coalition on Environment and Development, and Young Environmental
Activists. The world headquarters of Greenpeace is in Amsterdam.
The German Socialist Party was the first in the world to put the environ-
ment in its platform in 1961 with the call for “Blue Skies over the Ruhr.”
The country's Green Party has been the most effective such party in the
world, with its partnership in the governing coalition from 1998 to 2005.
It continues to elect a block of members to the Bundistag and is likely
to go back into power in the future. In a similar fashion in Sweden, the
Environment Party Greens joined the Socialists in a governing coalition
in 1998. From 1982 on the Danish parliament was dominated by the unof-
ficial Green Majority, and later by a coalition with strong environmen-
tal membership. All four of these northern countries have enacted strong
laws to protect the air and water and to limit nuclear power.
The German governmental structure has differences and similarities
to the United States. Unlike the United States, it does not have a strong
president. The chancellor is a member of parliament and selects the cabi-
net ministers from its members. The proportional representation system
makes it easier for a small party like the Greens to win seats. The other
three parliamentary democracies of the Netherlands, Denmark, and
Sweden are similar. Germany is a federation like the United States, and
laws are delegated to the states for implementation. Indeed, compared to
the United States, Germany has more power at the state level. The three
smaller countries are not federations. The consequences for the environ-
ment are not apparent. Structure, by itself, does not seem to make the
leaders more green or less green.
The ultimate example of diffusing ideas via the diplomatic agenda was
the 1972 Stockholm Earth Summit, sponsored by Sweden. For some
delegations like that from the People's Republic of China, it was the first
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