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Environment
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Government
Conservation
Business' and industries' view
Property owners' view
Scientists' view
Preservationists' view
What’s The Concern?
"A human being is part of the whole, called by us the universe. A part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separate from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures."
--Albert Einstein
We live in the country where a gallon of bottled water costs more than a gallon of gasoline. That proves that we care about water. But is it possible to really care about the whole earth - all the time?
Generally, people share a priority list for survival beginning with food, water, air, and shelter. Following that list often is a list of material goods to make life more comfortable, including healthcare and jobs in a strong regional economy. With those elements in place, we feel secure.
Where the health of our planet Earth (which is, technically, our sole life system) connects with our personal priorities is for many Americans not even noticeable. We often take for granted the clean air, drinkable water, and plentiful food, all of which come directly from the Earth without thinking about the price tag. However, that price tag could be facing a huge price increase as our society continues on its consumption course, our jobs become increasingly global, and world population continues to rise exponentially.
There are often conflicting views about this general word "environment", depending upon whose situation is affected and whose values are at stake. All of us have specific interests: residents and consumers, property owners, preservationists, businesses and industries, scientists, and future generations. And government is supposed to represent us all. Therefore, there is often lack of political consensus when legislators are allocating tax dollars and drafting legislation and regulations with respect to the environment.
- Residents' and consumers' view of the environment?
- How do I know that my water is clean for drinking?
- How do I know that my air is clean enough for breathing?
- How safe is the food I am eating? (i.e., chemicals used for growing fruits and vegetables, bio-engineering, and hormones and antibiotics used for meat production)
- How can I decrease my family's exposure to pollutants?
- Where can I find more green space for my family's mental well-being?
- I have enough to do to manage my own family. How can I possibly think about or help future generations?
- Why should I care about the loss of species, such as wild animals, plants, and insects?
- What does recycling do for me?
- Global warming appears to be a massive problem, how could anything I could do make a difference?
- We have two children because that is all we could afford. Why do I have to be responsible for the overpopulation of the earth? How can I ensure that our environment is left in good condition for our future generations to thrive as we have?
Government
Governments develop public policies through laws, regulations, and tax dollars. They are often concerned with trade-offs between costs and benefits of various issues.
Questions that the government addresses regarding public decision-making on the environment:
- Who owns the water? Does it depend on the location of the water? What if the water is located on private land?
- Who should pay for the upkeep and replacement of our aging water pipes and infrastructure?
- Is the quality of water creating a public health issue?
- Should the threat of water system terrorism take priority over all other water issues?
- How does government regulate water quality on such a large scale?
- Should water supplies be managed by the private sector or the public sector?
- With private control, who guarantees that the less off will get affordable water, and who picks up the cost if the private company fails?
- Should the price of water include the environmental costs?
- Why should children have to suffer or pay for our abuse of Earth's resources and pollution of the environment?
- Are some locations of biodiversity more important than others? (i.e. rainforest, grasslands, wetlands, etc.)
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Conservation
- Policies for conservation are generally determined in conjunction with economic demands. How would you go about placing an economic value on biodiversity?
- Are the services that healthy ecosystems provide humans diminished with a loss of biodiversity? Why or why not? What implications will global climate changes have on our society?
- What management interventions will prove most effective in preventing and/or reversing the loss of biodiversity?
- What can be done regarding over-population?
- Why should our country care about decreasing the economic disparity that exists in the world?
- Should a price be placed on our natural resources? What should be done with the oceans? (i.e. continental shelves and shallow marine environments)
- Should religion play a role in the solution to the environmental crisis?
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Business' and industries' view of the environment
- Can a price be placed on our natural resources?
- What should be done with the proceeds generated by such a price once we've decided what it should be?
- Why should we have to pay for cleaning up the air?
- Of course we care about the communities that are located in our vicinity, but can we afford to foot the bill for more than our own operation?
- How can I make a profit by utilizing the environment? What are possible new technologies that I could invest in?
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Property owners' view of the environment:
- What are my rights to the natural resources located on my land?
- Why can government tell me what I can and can't do with my land?
- What can I do if someone else's pollution ends up on my land?
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Scientists' view of the environment:
- How can we create a safe technology that will purify water so that it is safe for drinking?
- How much are pollutants from other sources such as agriculture, gasoline, and landfills contaminating the water supply?
- Is the water safe to drink?
- How much water can be removed from aquifers in the country without jeopardizing our water supply?
- Can a technology to take the salt out (desalinize) of ocean water be developed?
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Preservationists' view of the environment:
- Who thinks about the cost of water coming out of their tap?
- What will happen to the quality of the rivers and the watersheds?
- Shouldn't we focus on using less water for consumption?
- Should people be allowed to water lawns and wash cars with drinkable water?
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