Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Principles for Making Environmental
Policy Decisions
Several principles can guide us in making
environmental decisions.
An
environmental policy
consists of laws, rules, and
regulations related to an environmental problem that
are developed, implemented, and enforced by a partic-
ular government agency. Analysts have suggested that
legislators and individuals evaluating existing or pro-
posed environmental policies should be guided by the
following principles:
18-4 POLITICS AND ENVIRONMENTAL
POLICY
Factors Hindering the Ability of Democracies
to Deal with Environmental Problems
Democracies are designed to deal mostly with short-
term, isolated problems.
Politics
is the process by which individuals and
groups try to influence or control the policies and ac-
tions of governments at local, state, national, and inter-
national levels. Politics is concerned with who has
power over the distribution of resources and who gets
what, when, and how. Many people think of politics in
national terms, but what directly affects most people is
what happens in their local community.
Democracy
is government by the people through
elected officials and representatives. In a
constitutional
democracy,
a constitution provides the basis of govern-
ment authority, limits government power by mandat-
ing free elections, and guarantees free speech.
Political institutions in constitutional democracies
are designed to allow gradual change to ensure eco-
nomic and political stability. In the United States, for
example, rapid and destabilizing change is curbed by
a system of checks and balances that distributes power
among the three branches of government—
legislative,
executive,
and
judicial
—and among federal, state, and
local governments.
In passing laws, developing budgets, and formu-
lating regulations, elected and appointed government
officials must deal with pressure from many com-
peting
special-interest groups.
Each group advocates
passing laws, providing subsidies or tax breaks, or es-
tablishing regulations favorable to its cause and
weakening or repealing laws and regulations unfa-
vorable to its position.
Some special-interest groups such as corporations
are
profit-making organizations;
others are
nonprofit non-
governmental organizations (NGOs).
Examples of NGOs
include labor unions and mainline and grassroots en-
vironmental organizations.
The deliberately stable design of democracies is
highly desirable. At the same time, several features of
democratic governments hinder their ability to deal
with environmental problems. Many problems such as
climate change, biodiversity loss, and long-lived haz-
ardous waste have long-range effects, are related to
one another, and require integrated, long-term solu-
tions emphasizing prevention. But because elections
are held every few years, most politicians seeking re-
election tend to focus on short-term, isolated problems
rather than on complex, interrelated, time-consuming,
and long-term problems. Also, too many political lead-
ers have too little understanding of how the earth's
natural systems work and how they support all life,
economies, and societies.
■
The humility principle:
Our understanding of na-
ture and of the consequences of our actions is quite
limited.
■
The reversibility principle:
Try not to do something
that cannot be reversed later if the decision turns out
to be wrong.
■
The precautionary principle:
When substantial evi-
dence indicates an activity threatens human health
or the environment, take precautionary measures to
prevent or reduce such harm, even if some of the
cause-and-effect relationships are not fully established
scientifically. It is better to be safe than sorry.
■
The prevention principle:
Whenever possible, make
decisions that help prevent a problem from occurring
or becoming worse.
■
The polluter-pays principle:
Develop regulations and
use economic tools such as full-cost pricing to ensure
that polluters bear the costs of the pollutants and the
wastes they produce.
■
The integrative principle:
Make decisions that in-
volve integrated solutions to environmental and other
problems.
■
The public participation principle:
Citizens should
have ready access to environmental data and informa-
tion and the right to participate in developing, criticiz-
ing, and modifying environmental policies.
■
The human rights principle:
All people have a right
to an environment that does not harm their health and
well-being.
■
The environmental justice principle:
Establish en-
vironmental policy so that no group of people bears
an unfair share of the burden created by pollution,
environmental degradation, or the execution of envi-
ronmental laws. See the Guest Essay on this subject by
Robert D. Bullard in the website for this chapter.
How Can Individuals Affect
Environmental Policy?
Most improvements in environmental quality result
from millions of citizens putting pressure on elected
officials and individuals developing innovative
solutions to environmental problems.
