Environmental Science and Policy
Objectives
•Understand how adaptive and precautionary principles can help us make decisions where scientific evidence is incomplete
•Be aware of goals and opportunities in environmental education and environmental careers
•Follow the path of a bill through the legislature
Objectives
•Explore the differences between civil, criminal and administrative law
•Judge the effectiveness of litigation in environmental issues
•Consider the reasons that international treaties have or have not been successful
•Scrutinize collaborative, community based planning methods
•Compare environmental groups and the tactic they employ to bring about change
Adaptive management
•A solutions approach designed to test clearly formulated hypotheses about the actions being taken
–Learning by doing
–Polices are designed at the outset to utilize scientific principles to examine alternative and assess outcomes
–Broader and more holistic than other approaches
Wicked Problems
•Environmental problems tend to be intractable because they are nested within sets of interlocking issues
–Often poor match between bearers of costs and bearers of benefits
•No value-free objective answers
•Best approach is often consensus building
Precautionary Principle
•Four basic tenets:
–People have a duty to take anticipatory steps to prevent harm
–Burden of proof with new technologies lies with its proponents
–Full range of alternatives must be examined before using a new technology
–Decision must be open, informed, and democratic
Environmental education
•In 1990 Congress passed the National Education Act establishing two goals:
–Improve understanding among general public of the natural and built environment and the relationships between humans and their environment
–To encourage post-secondary students to pursue careers related to the environment
Environmental literacy
•Many have called for environmental literacy in which every citizen is fluent in the principles of ecology and has a working knowledge of the environment
Environmental careers
•Trained people in environmental professions at every level from support staff to managers to educators are essential, and those roles will only increase in importance
–U.S. federal government alone projects hiring 10,000 people a year in environmental disciplines
Citizen science
•Ordinary people join with established scientists to answer real scientific questions
–Audubon Christmas Bird Count
Environmental policy
•Official rules and regulations concerning the environment that are adopted, implemented, and enforced by a governmental agency
–Also incorporates public opinion
Types of political decision making
•Politics as power
–Politics is a struggle among competing interest groups as they strive to shape public policy to suit their own agendas
•Rational choice
–In choosing between policy alternatives, preference should be given to those with the greatest cumulative welfare and the least negative impacts
Arguments against rational choice
•Difficult to compare conflicting values and needs
•Few agreed-upon societal goals
•Policymakers maximize their own rewards
•Good alternatives foreclosed by previous decisions
•Uncertainty
•Policymakers don’t have sufficient relevant intelligence
•Large bureaucracies makes coordination difficult
NEPA
•National Environmental Policy Act (1970)
–Directs federal agencies to take environmental consequences into account during decision making
–EIS
EIS
•Every EIS must contain:
–Purpose and need for project.
–Alternative to proposed action.
–Statement of positive and negative impacts of the proposed activities.
Environmental law
•Environmental law - Body of rules, decisions, and actions concerning environmental quality, natural resources, and ecological sustainability
–Statute law - Formal documents enacted by legislative branch declaring, commanding, or prohibiting something
–Case law - Derived from court decisions in both civil and criminal cases
Environmental law
•Administrative Law - Rises from executive orders, administrative rules and regulations, and enforcement decisions in which statutes passed by the legislature are interpreted in specific applications and individual cases
Statutory law: The legislative branch
•Federal laws (statutes) are enacted by Congress and must be signed by the President
–After introduction, each bill is referred to a committee or sub-committee with jurisdiction over the issue for hearings and debate
–Language is modified, multiple bills may be combined, and then the overall bill is passed on to the full committee
Legislative branch
–A bill succeeding in full committee is reported to full House or Senate for a floor debate
•Amendments proposed at each stage
–House and Senate versions are often different, and must be sent to conference committee to meld differences
–Bill goes back to House and Senate for confirmation
–Passed on to President for signature
Legislative riders
•Legislators who cannot gain enough votes to pass projects through regular channels, will often try to add authorizing amendments (riders) into un-related funding bills
–Ideally, riders are added onto strongly-supported legislation
•Lobbying
–President now has line-item veto
Case law: the judicial branch
•Establishes environmental law by ruling on constitutionality of statutes and interpreting their meaning
•First judge to hear a case arising from a particular situation has the greatest latitude to interpret the law and set a precedent
The judicial branch
•Criminal law - Derives from federal and state statutes that prohibit wrongs against the state or society
–Charges always initiated by a government prosecutor
The judicial branch
•Civil law - Defined by a body of laws regulating relations between individuals or corporations
–Common law - Customs and previous court decisions establish precedent
–Tort law - Civil action seeking damage compensation
–Purpose of civil suit may be an injunction from the actions of an individual or corporation
Administrative law: the executive branch
•More than 100 federal agencies have environmental oversight
–Federal agencies often delegate power to a matching state agency to decentralize authority
–Executive orders
Regulatory agencies
•EPA - Primary agency with responsibility for protecting environmental quality
–Cabinet-level department
•Department of Interior (Natural Resources)
–National Park Service
–Bureau of Land Management
–U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Regulatory agencies
•Department of Agriculture
–U.S.Forest Service
•Department of Labor
–Occupational Health and Safety Agency (OSHA)
•Revolving door with workers moving back and forth between industry and government
Administrative courts
•Hear challenges to agency rules and regulations
–Administrative judge can consider both the validity and the rule, and its application to a specific case
•Parties can appeal to district cour.
–Also hear enforcement cases
International treaties and conventions
•Over past 25 years, more than 170 environmental treaties and conventions have been negotiated
–Unfortunately many of these are vague
•Most nations unwilling to give up sovereignty
•International court has no enforcement powers
–Accords and sanctions
–World opinion
Dispute resolution
•Arbitration is a formal dispute resolution, based in a trial-like setting
–Arbitrator takes a more active role than a judge, and is not constrained by precedent
•Useful when winning an entire case might be difficult
•Does not create legally-binding precedent
•Less opportunity to appeal
Mediation
•Mediation is a process in which disputants are encouraged to come up with a solution on their own
–Useful in complex issues with multiple stakeholders with different interests
Collaborative approaches to planning
•Community-Based Planning - Incorporates holistic, adaptive, pluralistic approaches
–Collaborative Approaches - Working with local communities to gain traditional knowledge and gain local acceptance of management plans
•Especially important in nonlinear, nonequilibrium problems
Collective actions
•Student environmental groups
–Elementary and secondary schools
•Kids Saving the Earth
•Eco-Kids Corp
–College
•Student Environmental Action Coalition
Mainstream environmental groups
•National Wildlife Federation
•World Wildlife Fund
•Audubon Society
•Sierra Club
•Izaak Walton League
•Friends of the Earth
•Greenpeace
•Ducks Unlimited
•Wilderness Society
•The Nature Conservancy
Mainstream environmental groups
•Mass membership, large professional staffs, and long history provide these groups a degree of respectability and influence not found in newer, smaller groups
–Mainstream environmental organizations are often criticized by radical environmentalists for their tendency to compromise and cooperate with the establishment
Broadening the environmental agenda
•Environmental movement in the U.S. tends to be overwhelmingly white, middle-class, and suburban
Radical environmental groups
•Direct Action Groups
–Earth First!
–Sea Shepherd
•Strongest concerns of these militant activists tend to be animal rights and protection of wild nature
–Main tactics are civil disobedience and attention-grabbing actions
•Monkey wrenching
Individual accountability
•How much is enough?
–Average American now consumes twice as many goods and services as in 1950
•Average house is now more than twice as big as 50 years ago, even though the typical family has half the number of people
How much is enough ?
•Growing number of people find themselves stuck in a vicious cycle:
–Work frantically at a job they hate, to buy things they don’t really need, so they can save time to work longer hours
Lohas
•Marketers have noticed that there are increasing numbers of people in affluent countries concerned about pollution and social inequity
–Lohas - Lifestyles of health and sustainability
–Represent $230 billion annually
Green consumerism
•As consumers demand environmentally friendly products, manufacturers, food producers, and merchants are moving to safer, more humane, and more sustainable consumer items
Confusing choices
•Many terms used in advertising are vague and have little meaning:
–Nontoxic
–Biodegradable
–Natural
–Organic
–Environmentally Friendly