Politics, Environment, and Sustainability By: Claire Bejgrowicz, Emily Peters, Hina Afridi and Kristen Hegedus

A Woman Happily Rowing

Government’s Impact on the Environment  Prevent companies from getting involved in environmentally harmful activities  Excessive involvement can destroy business enterprise and innovation  Not enough involvement could lead to social injustices and environmental degradation

Free Enterprise  Free Enterprise : Change that leads to new technologies, products, and opportunities for profits  Pro: Leads to higher living standards  Con: Creates harmful impacts on other people and on the environment

“Government is the best mechanism for dealing with some of the broader economic and political issues”  Full-Cost Pricing : Governments can create subsidies and levy taxes to require inclusion of harmful environmental and health costs in the market prices of some goods and services  Market Failures : Government can create subsidies and levy taxes to ensure equality amongst all businesses  Tragedy of the Commons : Government controls the preservation of common access renewable resources

Policy Life Cycle  Recognition: Identify a problem  Formulation: Identify specific causes of the problem and develop a solution  Implementation: Put the solution into effect  Control: Monitor progress and make adaptations as needed  Evaluated according to feedback from market or environment

Environmental Policy Making Principles  Humanity Principle: Human impact on the environment is limited.  Reversibility Principle: Avoid irreversible actions.  Precautionary Principle: Precautionary measures should be taken with any potentially threatening factors.  Net Energy Principle: Avoid widespread use of energy alternatives with low net energy yields.  Prevention Principle: Make decisions that prevent a problem from becoming worse.

Environmental Policy Making Principles  Polluter-Pay Principle: Polluters should have to pay for the pollution and wastes they produce through taxes and regulations.  Public Access and Participation Principle: Citizens should have access to environmental data and be able to participate in environmental policies.  Human Rights Principle: All humans have the right to live in an environment that doesn't’t harm their health.  Environmental Justice Principle: Policies should be created in a way that no one has to be burdened by pollution or environmental degradation.

Environmental Leaders’ Influence  Lead by Example: Use our own values and practices as an example for others.  Work with the Current Economic and Political Systems: Vote for eco-friendly officials.  Local Office: Those running can introduce eco-friendly policies.  Solutions to Environmental Problems: Citizens can introduce eco-friendly ideas as well.

Environmental Policy  Statutory Laws : Those that are developed and passed by legislative bodies i.e. federal and state governments  Administrative Laws : Those that consist of administrative rules and regulations, executive orders, and enforcement decisions related to implementation and interpretation of statutory law  Common Law : Unwritten rules and principles based on widely accepted norms within a society

Environmental Policy  Most environmental lawsuits are civil suits  Plaintiff v. Defendant  Individuals settling a dispute between one another  Class Action Suits : Civil suits filed by groups on behalf of a large number of people who have experienced the same damages  Suits are often filed for nuisance or negligence  Nuisance: One’s property causes harm or annoyance to another  Negligence: Damage is caused purposefully, illegally, and unreasonably

Difficulties in Winning Environmental Lawsuits  Lawsuits are difficult to establish  Plaintiffs may struggle to come up with legal standing, which is necessary to proceed  Lawsuits can be very expensive, especially when they involve major environmental issues  In many cases, expenses for lawsuits (such as attorney fees) cannot be paid for by public interest law firms  Large companies can count legal fees as tax deductions, effectively gaining a subsidy for their lawsuit expenses  This makes it very difficult for ordinary people to file a claim against large corporations

Difficulties in Winning Environmental Lawsuits  Establishing evidence against the defendant can be difficult and expensive because of the research that may be required  Ex: Plaintiff claims a company dumps chemicals into the river where the plaintiff’s water comes from which caused them to get cancer  Statutes of Limitation limit plaintiff’s right to sue a particular amount of time after an event has occurred

Difficulties in Winning Environmental Lawsuits  Court decisions can take years to make a decision; in this time there can be continual damage unless the court is able to issue them an injunction to stop the action temporarily  SLAPPs

SLAPPs  Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation  Corporations can file SLAPPs against citizens who publicly criticize a business for some activity  Can range from $100,000 to $100 million and usually last for 3 years before they can be won or dismissed  Corporations use SLAPPs to intimidate individuals and activist groups  Often, groups will stop protests and avoid opposing the corporations in order to avoid SLAPPs

Reforming the Legal Field for Environmental Lawsuits  Pressure Congress to pass a law that allows judges and juries to award citizens their attorney fees to be paid by the defendants, in successful lawsuits  Establish rules and procedures for identifying frivolous SLAPP suits to allow cases without factual and legal merit to be dismissed quickly  Raise fines for violators of environmental laws and punish more violators with jail sentencing

Types of Environmental Laws in the United States  Standards for pollution levels  Clean Air Act, Federal Water Pollution Control Act  Screening new substances for safety  Toxic Substances Control Act  Encourage resource conservation  Research Conservation and Recovery Act, National Energy Act  Protect and conserve species, resources, and ecosystems  Endangered Species Act, Wilderness Act  Evaluate environmental impact of activities  National Environmental Policy Act

National Environmental Policy Act  Requires an environmental impact statement (EIS) to be made for every major federal project that is likely to affect the environment  EIS must describe:  Why the project is needed  Its short and long term beneficial and harmful environmental impacts  Ways to lessen the harmful impacts  Evaluation the alternatives to the project

Major Roles of Environmental Groups  Nonprofit Nongovernment Organizations (NGOs) have largest influence  Examples of NGOs WWF Greenpeace The Nature Conservancy  Role:  Expose corruption  Monitor government agencies  Collaborate with private sector

U.S. Environmental Groups  Mostly grassroots organizations  Emerging citizen based global sustainability movement  Work done with individual communities  Use of nonviolent tactics to get publicity Protest marches Tree sitting  College campuses are other large source of change

Global Outlook: Children in Turin, Italy, Protesting High Levels of Air Pollution

Improving Global Environmental Security  Correlation between scarcity of resources(cropland, water, food) and spread of civil violence  Civil war  Breading of terrorism  Warlords, chieftains, religious leaders gain control  Failing of state/government  Argument for environmental security first; military and economic security will follow

Influencing Global Environmental Policy Change  International conferences  UN  Private sector influence  Eco-efficiency Finding ways to create economic value with less environmental impact

Green Planning  Green Planning: The creation of long-term environmental management strategies with the ultimate goal of achieving greater environmental and economic sustainability and a high quality of life for a country’s citizens

Green Planning  Benefits  Often reduces costs and increases profits  By controlling investments, there’s less financial risk  Process  Identify areas for improvement  Form target group that develops a voluntary agreement on establishing targets and timetables for drastically reducing pollution

Themes for Target Groups  Implement life-cycle management  Improve energy efficiency  Invent more environmentally sustainable technologies  Improve public awareness

Michelle Pushes Environmental Education