Environmental Problems, Their Causes, and Sustainability 1

■ The prevention principle: Whenever possible, makedecisions that help prevent a problem from occurringor becoming worse.■ The polluter pays principle: Develop regulations anduse economic tools such as full-cost pricing to insurethat polluters bear the cost of the pollutants andwastes they produce.■ The integrative principle: Make decisions that involveintegrated solutions to environmental and otherproblems.■ The public participation principle: Citizens shouldhave open access to environmental data and informationand the right to participate in developing, criticizing,and modifying environmental policies.■ The human rights principle: All people have a rightto an environment that does not harm their health andwell-being.■ The environmental justice principle: Establish environmentalpolicy so that no group of people bears anunfair share of the harmful environmental risks fromindustrial, municipal, and commercial operations orfrom the execution of environmental laws, regulations,and policies. Environmental justice, as discussedin Chapter 26, means that every person isentitled to protection from environmental hazards regardlessof race, gender, age, national origin, income,social class, or any other factor. See the Guest Essay onthis subject by Robert D. Bullard in the website for thischapter.How Can Individuals Affect EnvironmentalPolicy? All Politics Is LocalMost improvements in environmental qualityare the result of millions of citizens putting pressureon elected officials and of individuals developinginnovative solutions to environmental problems.A major theme of this book is that individuals matter.History shows that significant social change usuallycomes from the bottom up when individuals join withothers to bring about change. Without grassroots politicalaction by millions of individual citizens and organizedgroups, the air you breathe and the water youdrink today would be much more polluted, and muchmore of the earth’s biodiversity would have disappeared.Figure 27-2 lists ways you can influence andchange government policies in constitutional democracies.Which, if any, of these things do you do?In developed countries many people devote muchof their lives to acquiring more things instead of participatingin building more just and sustainable communities.In the United States, only a small percentageof people vote or participate in political campaignsand elections.Influencing Environmental Policy• Become informed on issues• Run for office (especially at local level)• Make your views known at public hearings• Make your views known to elected representatives• Contribute money and time to candidates for office• VoteWhat Can You Do?• Form or join nongovernment organizations (NGOs)seeking change• Support reform of election campaign financingFigure 27-2 What can you do? Ways you can influence environmentalpolicy.In addition, an increasing number of Americansand citizens of some other countries are too busy, tired,distracted, or cynical to participate in helping maketheir communities better places to live. Instead of becominginvolved in their communities and helping developenvironmental policies, many believe they canperform their environmental duty by recycling, buyingenvironmentally friendly products, planting a tree,composting, eating organic food, buying shade-growncoffee, driving a fuel-efficient vehicle, and perhapsmailing a check to an environmental organization.These are important and responsible activities thathelp the environment But in order to influence environmentalpolicy people need to actively work togetherto improve communities and neighborhoods, asthe citizens of Chattanooga, Tennessee (p. 581) andCuritiba, Brazil (p. 563) have done These and othercases have demonstrated the validity of the insight ofAldo Leopold: “All ethics rest upon a single premise:that the individual is a member of a community of interdependentparts.” Thus what we do at the locallevel has global implications—much like dropping apebble in a lake and watching the resulting ripplesspread outward. This is the meaning of the slogan,“Think globally and act locally.”Case Study: What Is EnvironmentalLeadership? An Option for Each of UsEnvironmental leaders provide vision, focus,resources, and other types of support to peoplewho want to make changes to environmental policies,and each of us can play a leadership role.608 CHAPTER 27 Politics, Environment, and Sustainability