Environmental Protection

826 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Polarization in US politics

The situation about environmental protection began to change in the early 1980s, as the Reagan administration labeled environmental regulations a burden on the economy and tried to weaken them and reduce their enforcement (Dunlap and McCright, 2008). The anti-environmental orientation of the Republican Party became important yet again following the Newt Gingrich led Republican takeover of Congress in 1994, sparking a modest negative reaction from the public (Dunlap,2002), and has been greatly amplified during the George W. Bush administration (Pope and Rauber, 2004). According to Dunlap and McCright (2008) the divide has been most obvious among political elites, such as members of Congress, who tend to be more ideologically concentrated on contrasting positions than the general public. The latest research from Gallop (2009) shows a currently very large gap between Republicans and Democrats in terms of believing that facts about global warming.

Eagan and Mulllin (2009) believe to a large extent, people’s perceptions are likely to be guided by the contradictory discourse of elites, with the consequence that more partisan and politically sophisticated citizens will express more consistent beliefs. Americans’ beliefs about the existence of global warming are unstable (Eagan and Mullin, 2009). The belief level in 2009 represents an eight point drop from a year earlier, when 61% of respondents surveyed by Gallup agreed that global warming effects had already begun (Saad, 2009). This instability in opinion reflects the low public salience of the climate change issue and the sharp disagreement among policy elites about the problem and potential solutions. Regardless of the media’s culpability, currently the media is not a trusted so...

... middle of paper ...

...vating a moral orientation through which to address climate change and the broader challenges facing America and the world. (Goldstein and Wapner, 2006)

The Republican presidential contenders consider global warming as a hoax or, at best, make light of its importance. The most vocal denier is Rick Perry, the Texas governor and longtime friend of the oil industry, who claim that climate change is an unproven theory created by "a substantial number of scientists who have manipulated data so that they will have dollars rolling into their projects." Unfortunately, because of the economic downturn, addressing climate change has become less urgent for voters but that doesn’t mean that the issue is going away. The nation badly needs a candidate with a logical, disciplined national strategy. We have yet to find a Republican who fits that description. (NY Times, 2011)

Show More
Related

  • Summary Of Motivated Rejection Of Science

    1285 Words  | 3 Pages

    Many people’s opinions are influenced by political leaders and their beliefs, which can have a negative effect on science’s efforts. Mere word changes have shown to make a difference in people’s willingness to pay for taxes that they don’t necessarily support or are even aware of. The use of storytelling has shown to be a powerful means in communicating science to the public as well. Although education and science understanding are not directly correlated with the acceptance of climate science, there is evidence that shows that a brief explanation of greenhouse effects “enhance acceptance across the political spectrum”. Researching source credibility has also boosted the political acceptance of certain scientific information.

    Read More

  • Roy Scberg's Learning How To Die In The Anthropocene?

    1252 Words  | 3 Pages

    He includes references from scientists with different backgrounds and public statements from government officials to support the claims that he made. Not only that, Scranton is a doctoral candidate in English at Princeton University, and he has written for The New York Times, Boston Review, and Theory & Event. Also, Scranton has published a novel about the Iraq war. His achievements and academic background certainly increase his credibility. His scientific and political sources add to his credibility even more so. The examples included in the logos paragraph is only a representation of the evidence featured in his article hence the use of the plural version of scientists and government officials in this essay. Even though Dr. Scranton has credible sources, he does fail to consider a portion of UTA readers. He mentions that the “question is no longer whether global warming exists” but instead questions how we are going to deal with it (par. 9). As a result, Scranton ignores the readers that might not believe in global warming; he does not recognize this small audience in his article, and as a consequence, readers might find Scranton to be slightly arrogant. Despite the failure to acknowledge this alternate view, Scranton does have the public’s interests at heart. The purpose of the article is to convince readers to take action and help save humanity

    Read More

  • The Heritage Foundation

    1073 Words  | 3 Pages

    Ehrlich, P. R., & Ehrlich, A. H. (1996). Betrayal of science and reason: How anti-environmental rhetoric threatens our future. Washington, D.C: Island Press.

    Read More

  • The Environmental Issue From Hell Rhetorical Analysis

    573 Words  | 2 Pages

    Bill McKibben's "The Environmental Issue from Hell" argues that climate change is a real and dire concern for humanity. His essay deals with the methods and persuasive arguments needed to spur American citizens and the government on to change to more eco-friendly choices. The arguments he proposes are based largely upon emotional appeals calling for empathy and shame, and examples of what in our daily lives is adding to the changes we're seeing in the climate.

    Read More

  • Climate Change: A Rhetorical Analysis

    1412 Words  | 3 Pages

    Climate Change has become an incredibly controversial topic because of the bid to win votes. As with any successful political party, capital and supporters are needed to fund and support campaigns and activities to secure votes. The Democratic and Republican parties have taken opposite sides of the ring regardless of scientific proof. In relation to global warming, the Democrats represent the environmentalists in the green corner and the Republicans represent the current energy tycoons in the red corner. The two opposing parties are simply trying to one up each other with each rhetorical combination thrown. The more irrational or misconstrued the rhetoric, the more the crowd rooting for each fighter reacts and the more independents rally to

    Read More

  • EPA Protecting the Planet

    708 Words  | 2 Pages

    The environment and the health of the surrounding population go hand in hand. The Environmental Protection Agency takes on this ever so important mission of protecting them both. The mission statement of the EPA states, “The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Small Business Programs is to support the protection of human health and the environment by advocating and advancing the business, regulatory, and environmental compliance concerns of small and socio-economically disadvantaged businesses, and minority academic institutions (US Enviromental Protection Agency, 2010).” The impact of its mission can be defined clearly as it examines the impact of contamination in the air, the water, and the land on human health.

    Read More

  • Overview of Climate Change in the United States

    4960 Words  | 10 Pages

    The perhaps surprising answer is that in the U.S. policy process, climate change is not now a scientific issue. Although much of the controversy appears to revolve around scientific principles, political and economic forces actually dominate. In a sense, this is not surprising: in dealing with possible climate change, policymakers, stakeholders, and the public have to confront competing economic interests, significant political change, and such difficult issues as intergenerational equity, international competition, national sovereignty, and the role (and competence) of international institutions. What are the primary factors that determine policy outcomes on this complex subject? Detailing them vividly demonstrates how scientific knowledge interacts with the formulation of policy on a significant issue in the United States.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Big Heat By Elizabeth Morbert

    588 Words  | 2 Pages

    Just because it is not happening here, it does not mean it is not happening. That is what reporter Elizabeth Kolbert would have said to the entire American population on climate change if she could go back in time. Kolbert, in her New Yorker article “The Big Heat”, argues that Americans have been extremely busy handling insignificant situations happening in their regional level that they have forgotten to deal with the most atrocious social issue of all: global warming.

    Read More

  • The Media's Misrepresentation of Environmental Issues

    1989 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...nd by our position. However, the battle against global warming, GMOs and DDT alarmism is unfortunately far from the end. The alarmist environmental movements have been endorsing these swindles for many years that include some influential groups in the government, science, business and liberal media. Up to this point, the majority of the debates were based on predictions and now we are at the point where the actual facts are showing that the predictions are incorrect. The real picture of these debatable topics are becoming more clear and unless something major occurs in the near future it is going to be difficult for the environmental groups to continue to support their untruthful stories. Solomon’s article proves that today’s governments that used to support the idea of global warming are reconsidering their position and aiming to steer in a different direction.

    Read More

  • Media Coverage of Climate Change

    1742 Words  | 4 Pages

    The mass media plays an enormous role in influencing the public. In the age of globalization many technologies like Internet, television, newspapers, magazines, radio and so on, make news available and accessible for everyone around the world. The media can easily get any information out there to the public regarding any subject such as political views, health issues, entertainment, education, human tragedies…and those information do have an impact on our everyday life decisions, opinions and raise our awareness on a subject. The media is most of the time the only way people can get information on subject that they cannot fully understand such as science. Because “science is an encoded form of knowledge that requires translation in order to be understood” (Ungar 2000), many studies have shown that the media plays a very crucial role in raising people understanding of the scientific world and the environmental issues, especially the climate change and global warming. Climate change has become an important issue today and people need to understand how serious it is in order to take actions to prevent it from getting worse; and the only way the information can get to the public is via the mass media. Today global warming is raising many concerns and the media coverage is increasing but yet many scientists complain about the limited coverage of the subject because it seems that it is not enough compared to the gravity of the situation. Because of the lack of information, many people are still very skeptical and some are just very confused about the global warming and how it affect our atmosphere.

    Read More

  • The National Environmental Policy Act

    765 Words  | 2 Pages

    Our Congress created the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in 1969 in order to establish an environmental foundation for mankind. This policy endorses harmony between humans and the vast ecosystems surrounding them. To obtain this goal and provide our future with resources as well, NEPA is separated into two titles. The first title declares the policy in detail while the second title focuses on the Council on Environmental Quality. The CEQ oversees the effectiveness of current methods, the reactions of the environment to those methods, and implements revisions as necessary.

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay On Climate Change

    2319 Words  | 5 Pages

    The Earth is currently locked in perpetuating spiral of climate change. While the global climate has unarguably been changing since the dawn of it's manifestation, the once steadied ebb and flow of climate change has become increasingly more unpredictable.The risk of rising sea levels, and drought plaguing the fresh water supply, during the time that flooding and sporadic storm conditions turn once fully inhabited regions into uninhabitable death traps. Climate change catalyzed by human's increased production of carbon dioxide, is more noticeable than ever in our recorded history (United States, 2014 National Climate Assessment). Thankfully however, with the changing weather conditions due to carbon related emissions, the change in public opinion about their personalized influence on climate change is also increasing. Kevin Liptak Jethro Mullen, and Tom Cohen note that In reaction to the most recent governmental report on climate change, even the U.S. government believes that a stronger approach needs to be taken to correct our self-generated cataclysm.

    Read More

  • Global Speech: An Informative Speech On Climate Change

    635 Words  | 2 Pages

    Subpoint A: Not long ago, a documentary film called “An Inconvenient truth” came out in 2006. This film raised international public awareness of climate change and reenergizing the environmental movement. A former U.S Vice president Al Gore campaigned to educate citizens about global warming through a simp...

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay On Climate Change

    1701 Words  | 4 Pages

    Spotts, Pete. "Global warming? Public attitudes often at mercy of the weather, study finds." Christian Science Monitor 13 Jan. 2014: N.PAG. Academic Search Complete. Web. 30 June 2014.

    Read More

  • ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION

    1653 Words  | 4 Pages

    Efforts to improve the standard of living for humans--through the control of nature and the development of new products--have also resulted in the pollution, or contamination, of the environment. Much of the world's air, water, and land is now partially poisoned by chemical wastes. Some places have become uninhabitable. This pollution exposes people all around the globe to new risks from disease. Many species of plants and animals have become endangered or are now extinct. As a result of these developments, governments have passed laws to limit or reverse the threat of environmental pollution.

    Read More

More about Environmental Protection

Open Document