Environmental Problems, Their Causes, and Sustainability 1

issue as the key to making government more responsiveto ordinary people on environmental and othermatters.One suggestion for reducing the excessive influenceof powerful special interests is to let the people(taxpayers) alone finance election campaigns, with lowspending limits. Candidates could use their ownmoney, but could not accept direct or indirect donationsfrom any other individuals, groups, or parties.With such a reform, elected officials could spendtheir time governing instead of raising money andcatering to powerful special interests. Office seekerswould not need to be wealthy. Special-interest groupswould be heard because of the validity of their ideas,not the size of their pocketbooks.Some steps have been taken to reform election financing.Thanks to the work of many citizens, candidatesrunning for office in four states—Arizona,Maine, Massachusetts, and Vermont—have the optionof rejecting all private campaign contributions andqualifying for full public financing of their campaignswithin certain spending limits.xHOW WOULD YOU VOTE? Do you support financingfederal, state, and local election campaigns with taxpayerfunds only? Cast your vote online at http://biology.brookscole.com/miller14.How Can Organizations Change toFoster Better Policy Making? Be Nimble,Flexible, and Adaptive in a RapidlyWorldTo achieve more sustainable environmentalpolicies, most organizations will be more effectiveif they shift from hierarchical to networkmodels.Businesses, governments, and all organizations are enteringa new era in which to thrive and survive, mostmust shift from rigid, slow-acting, top-down hierarchicalorganizations to something more flexible thatcan adapt quickly to changing conditions. This new organizationalmodel is that of a network instead of thatof a hierarchy.In a hierarchy consisting of a pyramid of increasinglypowerful layers of decision makers, informationtakes a long route to the top, and decisions take timeto filter down. People in such organizations are usedmore as information transmitters than as innovatorsof new ideas. The result is a lack of good informationat the top, a rigid set of controls and rules, and too littleinnovation. In today’s rapidly changing and increasinglyglobalized and interconnected world, suchhierarchical structures are rapidly going the way ofdinosaurs.Hierarchies are necessary for the stable functioningof some parts of governments and for some businesses.But many organizations are shifting to a flatter,leaner, and more adaptable network structure withoutas many middle- and senior managers. In such organizations,information flows rapidly to all members ofthe network, not unlike the way energy and matterflow through food webs in ecosystems. It is one way ofachieving more organizational sustainability by copyingnature. More open and democratic informationflow makes it much easier to adapt to changing conditions,and it promotes cooperation and innovation.Some analysts say that the European Union is slowlyemerging as an example of a new and more flexiblenetwork form of government.In the network model, leaders still have a vital role.Their job is to develop vision, values, and objectives fortheir organizations. Then they must promote feedbackfrom employees, encourage innovation and adaptation,and establish employee performance goals.An important aspect of emerging network organizationsis their use of adaptive management strategies(Figure 11-23, p. 218) to cope with new informationand changing conditions, to learn from experience,and to modify plans quickly as needed. This approachuses the basic techniques of science (Figure 3-2, p. 33)and systems analysis (Figure 4-36, p. 85) to developcomputer models for examining alternative plans andprojecting possible outcomes or scenarios. The primarygoal is to anticipate problems rather than simplyreact to them.Plans should be flexible and easy to change in responseto new information, unexpected developments,and changing conditions. Progress toward goals is regularlymonitored and evaluated, and this informationis used as feedback to adapt the plan as needed. Anygroup seeking to influence environmental or otherpolicies will need to adopt such organizational structuresand strategies.Case Study: How Is Environmental PolicyMade in the United States? A Complicatedand Thorny ProcessFormulating, legislating, and executing environmentalpolicy in the United States is a complex,difficult, and controversial process.The federal government consists of three separate butinterconnected branches: legislative, executive, and judicial.The legislative branch, called the Congress andcomposed of the House of Representatives and theSenate, has two main duties. One is to approve andoversee government policy by passing laws that establisha government agency or instruct an existingagency to take on new tasks or programs. The other ishttp://biology.brookscole.com/miller14611