Chap+19+Environmental+Policy+and+Decision+Making

Environmental Policy and Decision Making


 * Forces and Trends in the New Century**


 * Population Growth** : The population on Earth has doubled in the past 50 years. Growing population demands increasing amounts of: food, space, goods & services


 * Globalization:** Goods & services move around the globe. Problems in one area of the earth quickly become issues in other parts of the world.


 * Communication revolution**: Communication technologies have changed the way we communicate with each other. Civil society, through this increased communication is demanding a larger role in government decisions.


 * Knowledge Economy**: Knowledge has become the economy's most important and dynamic resource. With this world view more people understand that pollution is waste, waste is inefficient and inefficiency is expensive.

**Forces involved in all decisions:**

Government: the set of institutions we normally associate with political authority Governance: is about decisions and how people make them
 * Economic
 * Environmental
 * Social [[image:http://theintelhub.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/epa-logo-1.gif width="240" height="240" align="right" caption="Spend some time at the EPA enforcement page to learn about enforcement of environmental laws" link="@http://www.epa.gov/"]]
 * look at how natural resources are exploited or conserved
 * embedded within laws and mandates
 * operate both nationally & internationally
 * who is responsible
 * how they wield their power

Connections between terrorism & the environment =[|Terrorism]= = = [|**Eco-terrorism**]

= [|Earth Day : 25 Facts About Earth] =

Answer the following questions: 1. What are the major responsibilities of each of the three branches of the U.S. goverment?

2. What are some of the enforcement options in U.S. environmental policy?

3. What are some of the criticisms of U.S. environmental policy?

4. In the past 10 years, how has public opinion in the United States concerning the protection of the environment

5. Why is environmentalism a growing factor in international reactions?

6. The authors of our text say that "we are progressing from an environmental paradigm based on clean up and control to one including assessment, anticipation, and avoidance." Do you agree with this assessment? Are there environmental problems that are harder to be proactive about than others?

7. How is it best, as a global society with many political demarcations, to preserve the resources that are held in common? What special problems does this kind of preservation entail?

8. New treaties regulating free trade might enable some nations to argue that other nation's environmental legislation is too restrictive, there by imposing a barrier to trade that is subject to sanction. What special problems and possibilities might the new global economy present for environmental preservation? What do you think about that?