Yet another paper I wrote on Environmental Politics. This is the story of how and why the concept of the Environment began and how global political concern for the the environment has evolved (or devolved) over the past half century.
The argument behind the need for a global political strategy is simple. As globalization rates increase so to do resource extraction, deforestation, species extinction and green house gas emission rates. Conversely, when globalization rates decrease the other activities decrease as well. Many prominent figures agree that globalization inherently creates environmental impacts and increases the ability of the impacts to become widespread (Christoff & Eckersley). Without a global response to the actions global solutions may be impossible, but for now we are still coming to terms with the need for any response, much less a global one. Let’s examine how the need for a global response became evident and then the significance of these changes.
At the end of World War II, the United States underwent rapid economic growth. Other nations’ economies soon followed as long overdue peace spread through Europe. The postwar growth was due to the mass consumption of all types of resources ranging from energy and detergents to plastics and pesticides. Material goods were created and marketed to provide convenience, and the ability to produce and supply the goods were growing. As distance between consumption and environmental consequences grew, the links between the two became less apparent. People had never had to worry how a drought in the United States would affect corn prices in Europe before, so why start now?
It would take several localized incidents to make apparent the dangers of concentrated pollution and even longer for responsive legislation as governments were willing to drag their feet on the issue while economies were booming. In 1943 smog engulfed Los Angeles in a cloud of air pollution. Then in 1948, Donora Pennsylvania was visited by a deadly smog cloud which left 6,000 people ill and 20 dead. Another historic case of toxic smog happened in London in 1952, when deadly fumes enveloped the city killing several thousand. It was becoming clear that the byproducts of mass production and consumption were not only economic gains.
Later that decade an antinuclear movement arose. Protest efforts in Great Britain in response to the aftermath of nuclear weapons testing on the Marshal Islands created widespread concern about radioactive fallout. Communities and organizations joined forces to pressure world leaders. Other nations followed suit shortly after and for the first time concern over environmental hazards had brought people together to demand action.
It must be noted “the Environment” did not exist as a concept in minds or policy until the 1960s. Piecemeal ideas of environmental protection, such as keeping rivers clear of pollution or animal carcasses, were concerns but the complexities of relationships between different regions wasn’t on anyone’s mind. In 1962 Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring brought discussions on the impacts of toxic chemicals on wildlife and the environment into public discourse. The National Resource Defense Council states that the book “eloquently questioned humanity's faith in technological progress and helped set the stage for the environmental movement,” and was responsible for bringing about revolutionary ways of thinking.
By the time 1963 rolled around citizens of the world had pressed the United States and the Soviet Union into signing the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Citizens were driving governments into action on environmental issues and soon they would add others, but more environmental concerns would have to arise to allow further environmental progress. In 1967 an oil tanker off of Great Britain ran aground, spilling more than 100,000 tons of oil onto British and French shores. Now pollution could be viewed as an international concern.
In the following year Paul Ehrlich's Population Bomb and Garrett Hardin's The Tragedy of the Commons were both published. Population Bomb warned about over-population of the human species and the environmental damage that would follow as Earth might not be able to meet our growing consumption demands. Tragedy of the Commons took a different approach and evaluated the environment as a common area that was subject to misuse without regulation. Literature and public pressure had stoked concerns and debate, leading to the Non-Proliferation Treaty which laid out a multilateral agreement to regulate and control the spread of nuclear weapons.
1969 was a year of environmental awaking for the United States. Over January and February an oil platform leaked more than 200,000 gallons of crude oil across forty miles of the United States Pacific coastline. Fewer than five months later, the Cuyahoga River in Ohio burst into flames as chemical and sewage pollution made the water capable of igniting.
The idea of the Earth as a finite planet with limited capacities to support human life gained much traction in the 1960s. The relationship between industries, communities, and the environment was tenuous, but communities around the world were making great progress in pressuring governments to regulate themselves and hazardous industrial practices. The decade wasn't all marches and intervention as a way to bring about reform. Communities found help spreading the idea that the Earth was something sacred and in need of protection in an unlikely place. The Space Race between the United States and Russia had been in full swing since the mid-1950s and the two governments’ space agencies were indirectly increasing awareness of the Earth’s fragile nature. It was by going into space that we realized how precious and rare our planet is (Riley).
On December 27, 1968, Apollo 8 astronauts returned from the first manned mission around the moon with the first photo humans had taken of the Earth. The image of the world rising above the gray and desolate lunar surface floating in the vast loneliness of space became known as Earthrise. It quickly became an iconic symbol and is widely credited with ushering in the idea of reverence for the environment. Humanity was in awe. The Sunday Denver Post wrote, “No man ever before has looked at the world in one piece and told us about it. Perhaps with the new understanding will come reverence for our planetary home and for the uniqueness of life.” Earthrise was a turning point for space exploration (Poole). Suddenly the race to explore space created opportunities to explore and protect the Earth. Many scientific communities would soon follow in focusing on the interconnectedness of human activities and the degradation of environments.
On January 1, 1970, President Nixon signed the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in response to a public demand for environmental protection of the Hudson River. A United States court ruling on the Storm King case set the precedence for a national government taking a stand to integrate public concerns into the national environmental agenda rather than economic growth at the expense of the environment. NEPA gave the United States government the responsibility to help eliminate environmental destruction and seek a balance between the needs of industry and the environment. The Council on Environmental Quality was created to help advance this cause.
During the 1970s in the United States, the face of environmentalism had shifted to civil action as the Reagan Administration (partnered with British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher) proved wholly disinterested in putting the well being of the environment over the desire for economic gains and stomping out their communist Cold War adversary, the Soviet Union. The environmental movement which was largely started in the United States would soon find more support from the international community than it would in its birthplace.
Soon many countries would join together to curb environmental degradation. At the 1972 U.N. Conference on the Human Environment, Swedish scientists reveled connections between common air pollutants such as sulfur and nitrogen dioxides and high levels of acidity in waters and a decline in biological diversity. Acid rain had just been uncovered as an international concern. Pollution was now a transnational concern rather than just a local problem. By 1979 thirty-five countries signed onto the first ever international air-pollution agreement, the Geneva Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution.
In 1978 more than 150 countries signed onto the Montreal Protocol International; an agreement to limit the production of substances harmful to the stratospheric layer of oxygen molecules known as ozone. It was shown that compounds such as Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) could break apart the O3 bond of the ozone oxygen molecules which are necessary for blocking the Sun’s ultraviolet rays from reechoing the Earth’s surface. International movements are much more time consuming and more complex endeavors than movements that happen within one country’s borders. Different governments may disagree on the best course of action for a specific topic or find that some proposals may limit their economic growth, especially when not every nation is willing or capable of participation. This being the case international involvement has been faster in recognizing problems than forming solutions, leaving international agreement to develop at much slower pace over the decades since the 1960s and 1970s.
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was adopted at Rio de Janeiro’s “Earth Summit” in 1992 as an international agreement for dealing with climate change. The UNFCCC entered into force in 1994 and today, it has near-universal membership as 195 countries have ratified the convention. The Earth Summit also produced Agenda 21, a non-binding, voluntarily implemented action plan of the United Nations pertaining to sustainable development. Agenda 21 argues that global environmental problems have arisen mainly as a result of the promiscuous consumption and production of the richer countries, but also recommends more economic growth for all to finance a solution. However, voluntary and non-binding agreements are no match for powerful economic pacts that promote economic growth with legal recourse for those that seek to promote their sustainable development over international trade agreements such as the World Trade Organization (WTO). The United States has filed a WTO complaint against India over the country’s domestic content rather than international requirements for solar systems. China has initiated WTO proceedings to seek a ruling on the premise that European Union nations violated global commerce rules through their green energy programs (REW). These types of legal actions are a small fraction of the numerous complaints which impede voluntary sustainable agreements such as Agenda 21.
The last major piece of international agreement on environmental issues has been the Kyoto Protocol, which extends the UNFCCC, was adopted in Kyoto Japan in December 1997. The agreement commits nations to reduce greenhouse gases emissions, based on the premises that global warming exists and man-made greenhouse gas emissions have caused it. Binding limits on emissions of greenhouse gases from industrialized countries were set, but again participation is voluntary (UN). I would remised if I did not point out that nearly every signing country cited the United States as the reason for the ultimate failure of the protocol. The United States government signed onto the treaty but refused to ratify it in the Senate. The protocol would limit the United States’ economic growth under their current model as the nation was the highest emitter of GHG’s, relied heavily on foreign oil, and was staring down a possible recession. The protocol entered into force in 2005 with the goal of curbing emissions by 5% by the time the legislation expired at the end of 2012, but instead emissions rose by 58% (Mistrick).
The impacts of human activity are having profound effects on the planet we call home. Some are obvious and others are still being uncovered. A steady increase in globalization and industrial practices have degraded environments in the name of economic gains and wanton consumerism, but ironically also provided humanity’s best hope for combating the changes they have caused (Christoff & Eckersley). Comprehensive reforms are improbable without a global community pressuring governments into regulating industrial methods and personal consumption patterns. Resistance is structured into many established government and corporate powers that seek short-term gains over long-term survivability. Today many countries have incorporated environmental legislation and established government departments with environmental missions where none existed 50 years ago, but much of the necessary work still remains to be done.
Work Cited
Christoff, P., Eckersley, R. 2013 “Globalization and the Environment”. USA: Rowman & Littlefield
Dryzec, J. 2005. “The Politics of the Earth: Environmental Discourses”. USA: Oxford University Press.
Mistrick, J. 2013. “Kyoto Protocol: Good Intentions, Failed Legislation?” Pensive Thoughts and Frivolous Musings http://sites.psu.edu/... (March 14, 2015)
National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) “Environmental Laws & Treaties” http://www.nrdc.org/... (March 14, 2015)
Pollution Issues “Environmental Movement” http://www.pollutionissues.com/... (March 14, 2015)
Poole, R. 2008 “Earthrise: How Man First Saw the Earth” Yale University Press.
Renewable Energy World (REW) “World Trade Organization” http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/... (March 14, 2015)
Riley, C. 2012 “Apollo 40 Years On: How the Moon Missions Changed the World for Ever” The Guardian. http://www.theguardian.com/... (March 14, 2015)
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UN) “Kyoto Protocol” http://unfccc.int/... (March 14, 2015)