Why Environmental Politics Matter

[Laxman]

From Politics of the Environment

A discussion of the influence of corporate interests on environmental policies and why fighting for the environment is important.

Cross-posting from the Good Reads forum. Brought it over because I just found out there was an environmental group on DU. Glad to see that after 30 years my old college roommate still wants to change the world. Here's to hoping he can. Most of what he writes is pretty interesting. Always has been.

Environmental issues are barely registering in our collective political consciousness this election cycle. The environment, as a cause, is passe’. Relegated to the realm of aging hippies and out-of-touch tree huggers, environmental issues are for people who are disconnected from modern politics. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The current environmental issues facing our society are a bellwether for the larger political trends that are the product of what amounts to a hostile corporate take-over of America. If you follow the state of the relationship between politics and the environment, it will prove to be an excellent indicator of where the majority of our national policies are headed.

Why do environmental issues provide a window for us to view the state of our national politics? The answer is fairly simple. A large sector of our economy is made up of corporations that profit from exploiting our nation’s resources. Primarily these companies come from the oil, gas and coal industries and related derivative businesses. These same companies can increase their profitability greatly by limiting any restrictions on their profit-making activities. Environmental law is rooted in the concepts that our country’s natural resources are a shared public asset and that individual citizens have a right to be free from harm resulting from someone else’s actions. These concepts gave rise to laws designed to protect our air and waterways and to prevent pollution that was a threat to public health. Environmental regulations were created to promote these concepts and to provide societal protection through reasonable controls on industrial activities. However, to some powerful business interests they are seen as unwarranted restrictions on their operations. The struggle between the influence of powerful corporations and the rights of individual citizens is the political conflict of our generation.

Worth the read. The full article can be found here: http://enviropolitics.wordpress.com/2012/05/18/the-corporate-environment/

[RobertEarl]

1. We have had some success

The air pollution is tending better. Water pollution has been controlled.
Federal and state spending on projects faces greater scrutiny.

But at the same time population demands on the resources have grown. Several large problems like Nuclear have blown and will blow.
Species decline is rapid.

And industries have moved from the US into countries that have little or no controls.

But it has been a good fight.

[Laxman]

2. No Doubt...

that things like air and water quality have improved dramatically since the '70's. However,we're also in a period where candidates are running for president touting dismantling the EPA as a major policy goal. Add in that every environmental regulation now comes with the prefix-"job killing" and we aren't in a very good time for environmental protection. If you look at the ALEC position papers on the environment, they use the improvements in air and water quality as reasons to end the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts and allow polluting industries, especially in the energy sector, to "self-regulate". The fact that most people have come to take clean air and water for granted combined with the down economy and we have created the conditions for this type of thinking to gain a foothold.

We are in deep trouble.