Corporations, governmental agencies, and civil society organizations all play different roles in either supporting or impeding our efforts to solve environmental concerns. These organizations have the ability to alter the way individuals, communities, and societies decide to respond to the environmental issues that influence our way of living. As corporations remain obscure on their true intentions and business models we are witnessing a lack of trust in our government agencies and a mass increase in grassroots organizations and social movements. All of these factors have an impact on the consumer and give cause to growing fear around safety. Although corporations and government agencies are a mere reflection of the consumer, too commonly the …show more content…
As the lack of transparency from corporations and government agencies continues to grow, and social movements head the importance of dealing with environmental issues, we see the consumer become increasingly worried about their safety. This concern leads to a theory called the inverted quarantine developed by Andrew Szasz in his book, Shopping our Way to Safety: how we Changed from protecting the environment to protecting ourselves. Szasz explains that an inverted quarantine is a societal response to fear of harming the environment. This fear takes the shape of protecting oneself through consuming “safe” items, rather than protecting oneself through creating change in the system that poses a threat (Szasz, 2007). A reason why we are driving ourselves towards a society that is so undesirable is there is a lack of political and moral responsibility in dealing with these environmental issues. If the government will no create policies towards protecting our society, we will begin to protect ourselves. To overcome this we must educate ourselves and begin to take action in a system that so desperately does not want us to. Developing our understanding of neoliberalism, natural capitalism, and the ecological modernization theory will allow our society to develop in a way that benefits both our economy and the environment. We can strengthen our action through knowledge of issues and action strategies. I believe a paradigm shift is possible if we become an active democracy that questions the true intentions of corporations and government agencies and participate in social movements that place a high demand on the health of our
The Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA is the result of a 1970 executive order by President Richard Nixon for the purpose of protecting the environment of the United States through regulation on business and citizens. Public opinion on the Environmental Protection Agency has been divided fairly evenly across the population of the United States as of recently, as compared to the widespread public concern of the 50’s and 60’s that led to the agency’s creation. Recently the agency has come under scrutiny for its contributions of millions of dollars in grants to researchers in order to hide the potential trade off of its actions in order to further the agency’s agenda. The EPA’s ever-expanding regulation could end up harming more than it actually
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.
The United States has earned the reputation of a rebellious country since its birth in the revolution against Britain. Over the course of history, Americans have repeatedly confronted oppression, both foreign and national, through various wars and rights movements. Unfortunately, when it comes to environmental issues the average American has grown increasingly complacent. With a renewed urgency, government is working to combat global warming, but lacks the necessary social backing. This social support could be supplied through a new environmental movement that differs from past efforts. Throughout American history there have been three categories of environmental movements: preservation, conservation, and modern reform, all of which have failed to bring a ubiquitous social change and substantial impact on the overall environmental health.
Whenever we fight for clean drinking water, or clean air, or a safe workplace, we are likely to find a corporation on the other side of the issue. The goal of a corporation is, first, to survive, and, second, to return a profit to its shareholders, not to mention for money and if the air has to be fouled to accomplish these goals, then the air will be fouled. Meaning, the corporations will do anything to keep these goals even if it means that they have to cause pollution or some issues. Pollution is one of the problems by the corporations that affect us. The Business Council for Sustainable Development thinks of this as ?gToday, for instance, the earth's atmosphere is providing the valuable service of acting as a dump for pollutants; those enjoying this service rarely pay a reasonable price for it,". This is an example of corporations ?gexternalizing?h their costs. By using the air as a free dump, corporations are able to get away with paying the costs for waste disposal to the people while they prof...
American consumers are buying “safety” products to keep threatening social and environmental hazards of the world away. This is an act of “inverted quarantine”, which the healthy and wealthy Americans have created to keep themselves safe, and far from the dangerous situations of the outside world. As we keep buying more “defense” from these hazards, society has less of an urgency to create change.
When looking at consumerism and the intake of the average person, Klein writes, “Free market capitalism of the past three decades has put the emphasis particularly on consumption and trade. But as we remake our economies to stay within our global carbon budget, we need to see less consumption (except among the poor), less trade (as we relocalize our economies), and less private investment in producing for excessive consumption”. Klein brings up a great point to not only blame the big companies for seeking profit, but the public for rewarding those businesses for their terrible practices. We cannot expect the big businesses to change until we force them into a change. The product are all made to last a very small amount of time, and force you into buying a new product, which is further polluting the environment with the emissions from its manufacture. Consumerism is the fuel of the fire that profit-seeking businesses began, and without consumerism the fire will die out after time, as no fuel is added to the fire. We must think of climate change as a global problem, it isn’t only the consumer’s fault or the businesses’ fault or the poverty-stricken people’s fault, but it is all their responsibility to contribute to the recovery of the Earth. Without monumental levels of change, the may die out due to our neglect, but with societal change on a global level we can help take steps toward healing the
In 1989, seventy five percent of Americans identified themselves as environmentalists, and the number has continued to grow since then (Walls 1). Environmentalism is now the most popular social movement in the United States, with over five million American families donating regularly to environmental organizations (Walls 1). Environmentalists today focus on what kind of world they hope to see in the future, and largely deal with limiting pollution and changing consumption rates (Kent 1 and 9). Modern environmentalists also have much different issues than those Carson’s America faced. With climate change becoming more threatening each year, protection of the natural world is needed more than ever. Pollution has caused the warmest decade in history, the deterioration of the ozone layer, and species extinction in extreme numbers (Hunter 2). It not only threatens nature, but also human populations, who already suffer from lack of clean water and poisoning from toxic chemicals (Hunter 16). Unlike environmental actions in the 1960’s, which were mostly focused on protection, a massive increase in pollution has caused efforts to be focused on environmental restoration (Hunter 16). Like in the time of Silent Spring, environmentalists are not only concerned with one country. Protecting the environment remains a global issue, and every nation is threatened by the
In modern society, humans constantly pollute the environment by using cars, technology, food packaging, and a countless amount of other products. Despite understanding how causing mass amounts of pollution can harm, often there are minimal attempts to correct polluting behaviors, at least until it poses an immediate threat to humans. The idea that the environment is suffering due to our mass consumption through instances of climate change and pollution, is not nearly enough motivation to stop the use of things that may be harmful. In order to address pollution in any respect, there must be an immediate threat to the health and well-being of humanity. Rachel Carson highlights this idea in her
Boggs, Grace Lee, and Scott Kurashige. The next American revolution: Sustainable activism for the twenty-first century. University of California Pr, 2012. Print.
Corporations that place an importance on corporate social responsibility usually have an easier experience when dealing with politicians and government regulators. In compare, businesses that present an irresponsible disregard for social responsibility tend to find themselves fending off various reviews and probes, often brought on at the assertion of public service organizations. The more positive the public insight is that a corporation takes social responsibility seriously; the less likely it is that innovative groups will launch public campaigns and claim government inquiries against it.
As human beings we have a responsibility to protect ourselves, each other and our environment. The term environment refers to a complex set of social/cultural conditions that affect an individual or community. However, there are events and processes that occur in the environment that human beings have no control over. Environmental science, the systematic study of processes and materials in our environment, identifies temperature, precipitation and humidity as a few natural conditions. Natural conditions force us to be reactive, while things that we can control, such as consumption and waste, allow us to be proactive.
The protection of the environment through law is unsuccessful; as the protection of the environment has just recently begun to take affect. The protection and conservation of the environment has been a concern since the 1880’s; when European settlers came to Canada, and discovered its wealth of natural resources.
A few years ago, Time magazine published a special issue entitled "The Century's Greatest Minds." It was the fourth in a Time series on the 100 most influential people of the century, this particular issue focusing on "Scientists and Thinkers." On the cover, Albert Einstein is pictured on a psychiatrist's couch, hands crossed over his chest, a depressed look cloaking his face. Dr. Sigmund Freud, seated in a chair near the couch, pen and pad in hand, is leaning in toward Einstein, excitedly waiting to perform some bit of psychoanalysis on the saddened scientist. A framed picture of Jonas Salk rests on the side table; a portrait of John Maynard Keynes hangs from a nail in the wall. In the background, resting atop a bookshelf, is a stone bust of Rachel Carson, author of Silent Spring. She finds herself in quite excellent company not only on the cover, but in the interior of the magazine as well.
Environmental law is a broad form of law developed to regulate how human activities affect the physical and biological environment (Doremus et al 2008, 2). Environmental law can be large scale or small scale, global or local; but it takes the cooperation of many different agencies to be successful. Overall, environmental law has contributed to a healthier environment in many ways. Since the beginning of environmental law and regulation, society has seen advancements in sanitation, pollution, air and water quality disease control and prevention, and ultimately in quality of life.
Is it right that future generations, who have committed no crimes, be forced to live in a contaminated environment with freshwater depletion, polluted air, global warming and biodiversity reduction just because our present generation has caused the damage? Should our future children be ensured an ecologically healthy environment? I think they should. I strongly believe that protecting the environment is extremely important. We are all part of the environment; Earth is what we all share in common. It is our home and we are obliged to preserve it. As someone who is aware, who cares and who is concerned, I’d like to help you understand why protecting our environment is vital. I believe that protecting the environment is essential for healthy living, in creating a healthful environment for our future generation and last but not least, the Earth is our one and only home.