Suchergebnisse

Examines how and why environmentalism gets onto political agendas. There is some evidence that as society moves away from Thatcherism, it may be willing to pay higher costs to give the environment priority. The environment must lose its distinctiveness as a single issue and become embedded in all others. (SJK)

Looks at the future of the nuclear industry with opinion polls showing that most people remain deeply divided over the merits of nuclear power although the environmental aspects of burning conventional fuels could far outweigh half a dozen Chernobyl scale accidents. Holds that the industry has to rethink its attitudes and policy to make a friendly technology if it is to dominate energy policy. (PFB)

Environmentalism is an elusive concept with many meanings. In this paper its changing character is examined together with an analysis of how it is likely to influence public policy across a broad front. The major environmental issues which OECD countries are likely to face nationally, regionally, and globally over the next twenty years are reviewed and the type of politics that may emerge within the new environmentalism is discussed. The overriding global issues will be the tragic interconnection between poverty and environmental damage in the underdeveloped countries. In the developed but deindustrialising economies of the 'North', greatest attention will be placed on devising means for creating jobs and providing satisfying occupations for people forced out of a job or never in employment. Environmental rehabilitation can create jobs, but it will involve the denial of resources otherwise available to create jobs elsewhere. It will therefore be necessary to consider the 'next job effectiveness' of environmental policies. Another policy area that requires new thinking is the management of environmental hazards, notably how to dispose of toxic wastes in a manner acceptable to a majority of people. Finally, serious efforts will have to be made, not only to infuse environmental principles within all policy arenas, but also to ensure that departmental responsibilities and budgets are properly linked. The principle that those who exploit environmental resources should, by means of transfer taxes and payments, subsidise those who use environmental resources frugally and benignly should also become established.

Resource management is a process of striking a balance between improving the well-being of people and causing undesirable environmental change. Politicians are responsible for making the appropriate decisions, but they are increasingly influenced by the advice of professionals, especially planners, ecologists, and administrators (budgeting officials, legal experts, personnel managers). This paper looks at the resource-management process as it operates in the Norfolk Broads region of England. It illustrates how different parties involved in using and managing the area disagree about what precisely are the causes of environmental deterioration and thus about suitable courses of action. Within this context the trained ecologist may find it difficult to maintain a stance of detached objectivity. The author recommends that ecologists become more familiar with the wider social and institutional aspects of resource management and that they play a more active role in informing people of the consequences of various courses of action.

Environmentalism as a social and political movement mirrors the dualities existing within mankind generally in failing to connect desired aims with daily deeds. This is partly because environmentalism has emerged from two contrasting schools of thought, the one nature-orientated, the other centred on technique and mode of organisation. But it is also due to the takeover of much of environmentalist philosophy by groups, both well-meaning and selfish, who either fail to recognise their own hypocrisies or simply shield narrow political aims with the armour of environmental morality. The potential for conflict is therefore great as new patterns of political and economic power emerge but cannot be accommodated by an existing order that finds compromise difficult.

WHILE NEITHER THE TORIES NOR THE LIBERALS PLACE THE ENVIRONMENT VERY HIGH ON THEIR LIST OF POLITICAL PRIORITIES, ENVIRONMENTALISM IS INFLUENCING AND IS BEING INFLUENCED BY THE BRITISH POLITY. THIS ARTICLE CONSIDERS IMPORTANT DEVELOPMENTS IN THE 1990'S INCLUDING THE "WHITE PAPER" EXERCISE ON BRITAIN'S ENVIRONMENTAL STRATEGY, NOW INTEGRATED INTO THE RIO-INSPIRED SERIES OF "ORANGE PAPER" REPORTS ON THE WIDER SUSTAINABILITY AGENDA; ATTEMPTS TO CREATE INTER-POLICY LINKAGES THROUGH ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT AND ECOLOGICAL-ECONOMIC APPRAISAL TECHNIQUES; THE "GREAT TRANSPORT DEBATE" INITIATED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION; AND THE GROWTH OF INTEREST AMONG LOCAL GOVERNMENT GENERALLY IN "LOCAL AGENDA 21" AND THE SPREAD OF VOLUNTARISTIC AND ANARCHISTIC DO-IT-YOURSELF COMMUNITY POLITICS THAT OPERATE AT THE "SUB-POLITICAL" LEVEL.

The creation of a new unified pollution inspectorate in England and Wales must be set in the context of a general transition in British pollution control and practice, where the incorporation of more formal procedures is taking place within a tradition of emitter self-policing, client-regulator mutual respect, and regulatory adaptability. Examines the circumstances that led to the formation of the new pollution inspectorate and considers the challenges that it faces. (Abstract amended)

DESPITE THE FACT THAT THE UK IS PROMPT IN DISCHARGING ITS DOCUMENTARY COMMITMENTS WITH REGARD TO AGENDA 21, REAL SIGNS OF LASTING COMMITMENT AND PROGRESS, OR THEIR LACK, CAN ONLY BE SEEN WITH REGARD TO INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE. THERE ARE INSTITUTIONAL MECHANISMS AND TOOLS EMERGING IN MANY POLICY AREAS. THOSE HIGHLIGHTED ARE POLICY INTEGRATION, PERFORMANCE INDICATORS AND MONITORING MECHANISMS, AND ECO-TAXATION. HOWEVER, THESE REPRESENT ONLY THE BEGINNINGS OF THE INSTITUTIONAL ADJUSTMENT NECESSARY FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT TO BE IMPLEMENTED. IN SHORT, ALTHOUGH IT IS POSSIBLE TO POINT TO MATERIAL CHANGE IN LINE WITH INTERNATIONAL COMMITMENTS, THE CURRENT RESPONSE HAS PRODUCED LITTLE IN THE WAY OF POLICY REALIGNMENT AND NEW ADMINISTRATIVE CULTURES. IT IS SUGGESTED THAT THIS IS BECAUSE OF A NUMBER OF REASONS. FIRST, THERE IS NO CLEAR CONSENSUS ON THE DEFINITION OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT. SECONDLY, ADMINISTRATIVE AND REGULATORY CULTURES ARE OPERATING CONSERVATIVELY AND INCREMENTAL. THIRDLY, MEDDLING WITH THE TAX REGIME, IS PRACTICALLY DIFFICULT AND POLITICALLY CONTENTIOUS. FOURTHLY, THE PATTERN OF RESPONSES IS CURRENTLY LACKING THE COHERENCE THAT EFFECTIVE POLITICAL LEADERSHIP COULD BRING. AND FINALLY, MECHANISMS FOR TRANSPARENCY, ACCOUNTABILITY AND PUBLIC PARTICIPATION ARE STILL NOT FORTHCOMING.