Environmental Activism in China

Although global actors can sometimes have considerable power over states, the extent of this power ultimately depends on the relative power and influence of the state in question. Large developed states, such as the US, are extremely powerful compared to most other global actors and are not often influenced by their actions. However, small and undeveloped states are not always completely powerless. To determine whether states are indeed the most powerful global actors, we must look at the relative powers of trans-national corporations (TNCs), non-government organisations (NGOs) and some of the institutions of global governance.

They say history repeats itself and perhaps in some ways it does; however, in terms of environmental history, the sources and implications of the pollution humans create is ever-changing. For the past two centuries, humans have created a plethora of issues such as increased climate change, rising sea levels, soil degradation, and loss of biodiversity. Two major ways in which humans have altered the natural environment is by means of atmospheric and plastic pollution. This paper will serve as a response to two articles, one of which encapsulates the impact of air pollution, and the other the impact of plastic pollution. These two articles allow for a comparison of the pollution problems, relative to the century they were most prevalent in, and

The action of the environment was ethical because even though the ecological activists did not mean for anyone to get hurt. The ecological activists were being reckless and did not care or think about consequences of their action. Ethical teach people different between right and wrong. Ethical also teach people the of freedom, choice and think about the choice we make The ecological activist should have been more careful. The ecological should take responsibility for their action. Also, the ecological activist should learn and try to be better so people and living things do get hurt.

Environmental sociology began to emerge in conjunction with the environmental justice movement. Environmental sociology can be defined as the study of how human societies interact with their environment. One important individual, Dr. Robert Bullard, acted as a key person throughout the environmental justice movement. He served as a technical advisor on civil right lawsuits and is now a professor at Texas Southern University. Because of his research dedicated to environmental issues pertaining the African American community, he is known as the father of environmental justice. Under the umbrella of environmental sociology it discusses concepts such as environmental justice and environmental inequalities. When racial and socially marginalized

After several labor rising in China, the Chinese authorities have initiated a widespread shutdown on organized labor. Ever since they appeared over 20 years ago, nongovernmental organizations, NGOs, have gone through a lot through lots of repression and harassment. With organized labor starting to emerge as a potential problem, the Chinese governments wants organized labor gone for good. Organized labor in China has been growing at a rapid place making road blockades and riots a regular occurrence due to labor laws not being enforced. Chinese employers and NGOs have tried to ignore them and send police to “rough them up”, a regular tactic that is used, but an NGO called Lid Footwear Factory started to listen to demands and eventually agree

In every civilization throughout history, wealth has been shown to be synonymous with power and influence. Not alienated by this natural law, China’s richest individuals hold the authoritative power in advocating for the regulation of their nation’s air pollution. Similar to the donations given from an institution in New York, composed of the state’s wealthiest individuals, to fund 75% of the state’s annual park budget; China can form an institution almost indistinguishable to this model, having it organized by wealthy individuals that could work with the government in order to provide proper funding for air pollution reform for their nation. An advantage to this is a human face or many human faces will easily be distinguishable and humanitarian deeds will shine as a greater influence to the nation’s people. Individuals will take notice of that human face if it is well known, specifically if the person owns a popular business owner, is a political figurehead, or Youtube sensation. The more publicity the message transcends, the more China’s citizens will be willing to protest the worsening air pollution that infiltrates the gray skies.

In our great nation, nonprofit organizations have played a critical role in helping people in need by providing education, training, residences, counseling, and in‑kind and cash support. Our nations has called upon nonprofit agencies, to take the leading role in American society in addressing social problems. Their belief in the efficacy of nonprofits combined with the current political and financial constraints on government spending, suggests an even larger service role for nonprofit organizations. We know that politics is complexed in its operating environment. There is a real danger when we choose to ignore the complexity of government and how it

Although the government appears to exact control in the social organizations, their relationships are said to be symbiotic. The social organizations always find ways to negotiate with the government on how to meet the interests of their members (“Negotiating the state: The development of social organizations in China”, p. 125). The government is making efforts to involve the society in the developments through the social organizations.

In Brian Tilt’s book, The Struggle for Sustainability in Rural China: Environmental Values and Civil Society, he addresses the topic of attitudes and issues associated with sustainable development in China. Based on the contents of this work, sustainable development refers to preserving nature, people’s way of life and their community. The majority of this book is focused on the effects of pollution on the environment and how to affects people’s ability to live a sustainable lifestyle by these standards. This book addresses two main assumptions that tend to be made when considering why China has had difficulties with reducing their level of pollution. The first assumption is that people in China do not care about pollution because they are too focused on the need for economic development. The second assumption is that even if Chinese citizens did care about pollution, they would not be able to prevent it due to powerful central government that makes economic growth its top priority.This work disproves parts of these assumptions by showing that people do care about pollution and that they have taken some actions to try and change the current situation.

The last form of democracy, agonistic democracy, sees in the dialogue the source to transform antagonistic relations into agonistic relations. In this perspective the governance networks should moderate and canalize the conflicts, by integrating the citizens in the political life. If we adopted this theory, the relations between governments and NGOs would be described in term of democracy without taking into consideration the efficiency. Increasing democracy does not affect efficiency in positive terms, it is not possible to indicate whether the influence could be negative.

For the economic development, the reason for NGOs of China are growing fast in past three decades is obvious. China has reformed its economy from Planned to a market Economy in which the government launched open door policy in 1978. From the economic reform, China improve its productivity, people’s

A non-governmental organization is a non-profit, citizen-based group that functions independently of government. NGOs, sometimes called civil societies, are organized on community, national and international levels to serve specific social or political purposes, and are cooperative, rather than commercial, in nature. (3) Today there are multiple NGOs registered around the world, heavily in developing countries. NOGs no matter where they exist they seem to have a nullifying role in the politics of the host country. In one way they criticize dictatorships and human rights violations. Then in another way they compete with the radical socio-political and religious groups. (8) Their aims range from providing relief services, conserving the environment, contributing to development projects or simply battling with governments over human rights issues. While some governments welcome NGOs, others find them a nuisance or even a threat to their interests. (1)

‘Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and advocates have become a significant part of political landscape in a growing number of countries’ (Donnelly, 1998:15). The number of NGOs has increased dramatically in the past 20-30 years and these organisations are increasingly participating in global environmental politics (Betsill and Corell, 2001; Andresen and Gulbrandsen, 2003; Stafford et al, 2000). An environmental NGO is an organisation that is non-governmental and non-profitmaking and engaged with an environmental problem or problems. An NGO is an organisation in the sense that it has at least several full-time people involved, some sort of hierarchy, a budget, and an office (Potter, 1996). Holsti (1998; 141) defines power as the

NGOs perform a variety of services and functions: Humanitarian information to governments on the concerns of their citizens to monitor government policies and promoting political participation at the community level. They provide analysis and expertise, serve as early warning and help monitor and implement international agreements. Some are organized around specific issues such as human rights, the environment or health.”

Although many indicators are available to NGOs, their agenda still determines their preferred indicators. For example, a donor-driven NGO will pay more attention to the efficiency of its project. It can check for their fundraising efficiency, financial transparency, programs/projects financial efficiency. This internal indicator functions by following a logical framework. A log frame comprises inputs, activities, outputs, immediate outcomes, intermediate outcomes, and impact. A transformative-driven NGO will focus on indicators of effectiveness and applies an input impact framework that assesses inputs, activities, outputs, outcomes, and impacts. A mandate-driven NGO will focus on an indicator of effectiveness. In doing so, it applies a common outcome framework that considers program-based measures (satisfaction and participation), community-based measures (community