The EPA: Can It, Will It Save Our Environment?
Pollution of our environment is an issue that concerns each and every one of us. "The threat of environmental degradation now looms greater than the threat of nuclear war." Patrick Henry said, "I know no way of judging the future but by the past." In the past man has trampled on the environment. "The word 'ecology' means 'a study of home.'" It means discovering what damage man has done, then finding ways to fix it.The Environmental Protection
Agency is trying to fix our home, the planet Earth. Destruction of forests, land degradation, atmosperic contamination, and water scarcity are some of the major environmental problems. In 1970, the EPA was created by President Nixon to
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The highest-risk problems to human health are air pollution, exposure to toxic chemicals, and pollution of drinking water. In '91, $25 million in fines was given by Exxon
Corporation and Exxon Shipping and the U.S. and Alaskan governments received
$100 million. They also estimated a $900 million redemption fund. In '93, the
EPA announced that secondhand smoke can cause cancer, which the tobacco industry representatives said were inconclusive. The Clinton administration then doubled the list of chemicals that must be publicly reported under community right-to- know laws in 1994. There was then a proposal to cut their budget by $1 billion from a Republican controlled Congress, to the level it was 15 years ago. "The Environmental Protection Agency has made the country a better place for people to live," according to EPA Administrator Carol Browner. But notice other comments that have been made about them. "The federal EPA is enmeshed in political controversy and a struggle for its very existence
." When it was created in December 1970, they have been embroiled in one drama after another- both environmental and political. "Congress distrusts it, businesses hate it, and even its friends criticize it. The EPA has made a commendable effort
The environmental protection agency has been stepping up its mandate of ensuring safer and better environment for not only the business operators, buts also the society as a whole. In order to achieve this goal of environmental protection, there has been the creation of environmental protection agency that has ensured that all the businesses, irrespective of their size and type, strive to ensure that the environment is protected for the benefit of current and future generations.
The citizen suit provision of the Clean Water Act is an important tool to protect and improve rivers, creeks, streams, and wetlands especially as state agencies may not have the resources to conduct regular water quality monitoring on every water body. Citizen involvement in monitoring and reporting pollution problems is key to watershed protection; hereby helping the government enforce the laws.
Environmental scanning can be viewed as a way of acquiring information about outside events that can aid organizations in first identifying potential trends, then interpreting them
Someone once told me, nothing is impossible so long as you have determination and motivation by your side. California State University Northridge has prepared me to study and excel in a demanding academic environment. My most challenging time was when I had to balance three group projects, four finals, two clinical internships and work. With all these obligations, I managed to create an effective outlook on the situation while managing not to cut corners in any of my anticipated responsibilities. I planned my schedule accordingly to provide myself with enough time for each task at hand, as well as unexpected circumstances.
Philip, R. B. (2013). Ecosystems and human health: Toxicology and environmental hazards (3rd ed.). Boca Raton, FL: Taylor & Francis Group.
The only thing stopping the human population from an event of mass extinction is the federal, state, and other international governments. Climate change is a current, and very real threat, in fact, it is even considered a national security threat to Pentagon officials. Global temperatures, sea levels, and CO2 levels are all rising at an exponential rate. If action isn 't taken by such levels of government, planet earth is destined for doom. The question, however, is if the government should be responsible for regulating the environment, and then that sparks the question of which level of government should regulate the environment. Although I agree that the federal government has the upperhand in influencing states to enact laws upon specific environmental policies, and while power not granted to the government belongs to the state and people, I still insist that environmental regulations should be set in the hands of both state and federal government in order to assure adequate environmental protection over localized areas upon which the U.S. government has limited jurisdiction.
While implementing environmental regulations may seem like an ethical choice, these standards could slow economic growth and hinder competition in society. In an article written by Craig Loehle and Erik B. Schilling titled “Beyond the low-hanging fruit: how should policymakers judge environmental regulations when marginal costs are rising and marginal benefits are falling?” Loehle and Schilling report the findings of a study conducted on the EPA’s current regulations. As Loehle and Schilling explain, the study shows the effects of the EPA’s regulations that attack obvious pollution issues. In the first 30 years after the EPA’s debut, these regulations negatively affected competitiveness and industrial profitability. Some of the EPA’s recent regulations have even higher costs (2). In other words, Loehle and Schilling are maintaining that many of EPA’s most basic regulations impede economic progress. This is not to say that all environmental regulations impair the economy, but rather to say that the most obvious solutions to ecological problems may be a drag on society’s progress. Nevertheless, the data shows that the enactment of stricter
The first topic I’m going to discuss is the global competition in this industry. The American Auto
Environmental agencies focus on fossil fuels as the big bad baddy of greenhouse gas emissions leading to global warming, suggesting alternative energy, carpooling, hybrid cars, and biking, but animal agriculture accounts for more carbon dioxide per year than all transportation methods combined.
“Pollution is nothing but the resources we are not harvesting. We allow them to be dispersed because we have been ignorant of their value.” - R. Buckminster Fuller. A bus company in Great Britain has taken this quote into full effect. The Bath Bus Company has created a first ever “Bio-Bus” and will transfer its passengers between the Bath and Bristol Airport. This 40-seat bus runs completely on biomethane gas which is generated through food waste and human waste. This bus fills two needs: transporting passengers and improving air quality. By recycling an undesirable product, this bus company has created something that improves their society (Pollution Control). There are many more examples of countries and communities developing a product or plan to improve the quality of their life. In fact, environmental protection has dated back to the beginning of ancient civilizations and has continued to be an important concept in today’s society.
life. This does not place the effects that it has on our natural environment as
As we look back upon history, we have considered our planet to have a never ending supply of resources that humans need in order to satisfy their needs and wants. However, if you look at the world recently, humans have started to realize that these resources aren’t unlimited and have started thinking about sustainability, protection and the preservation of the environment. Looking at the limited supply of natural resources and the increasing utilization due to the growing population and consumption, if we do not come up with a solution to this global environmental crisis, the over depletion of resources will be ongoing which will jeopardize the standard of living for future generations. Natural calamities, droughts, decreasing clean water supply, air pollution, and increasing global temperatures will all continue unless we start taking action immediately. For example, smog that was caused by air pollution in China led to water contamination for natives in China which led to wild life disruption with oil spills (Black,2007). According to theorists in the readings, development and underdevelopment are both caused by environmental situations. Economic development and environment issues are interrelated issues that need to be looked at together and that development processes degrade the environment which eventually can undermine economic development (WCED, 1987:3). Sustainability stipulates the situations under which individuals and environment can survive efficiently as a
For the past few many people have wonder, or become more aware of our planet’s changes and the way it has been affecting us all along. Some people take this very serious, but others are not taking the warnings that our Earth, our home, has given us. There has been a lot of research over the past couple of decades to determine the effect of the many unusual patterns of some natural “disasters”. There has been a lot of confusion based on the results of the many scientists that have tried to work out this ongoing process. This confusion is due to the different data results of each investigation. Some scientist have predicted that the worst is coming just around the corner. That it is a fact that catastrophes will
Environmental problems are something which belongs to nature or known as “Mother Earth” [13]. Nature was created to help people survive from gathering foods until build a house. This phenomenon happens continuously without thinking how much damage that nature has because human’s fault. Nature gradually becomes worse and animal’s life in danger. People who are aware of the importance of nature react. Those people do several ways to save the environment. Although these efforts can return back the environment, these efforts only can be hold temporarily. This problem happens because those people who are aware of the environment only slightly; for remaining, there are people either do not know or do not care about the nature. People’s efforts
According to Mintzberg, the environmental school of thought is a strategy dealing with the forces outside the organization. Unlike the other schools in his book, Strategy Safari, the environment plays a central role in the strategy formation process alongside leadership and the organization where the organization becomes subordinate to the external environment. The environmental school assumptions are that during the formative period of the organization the company shapes itself in response to the environment, but after that period is increasingly unable to respond to the environment. Moreover, the organization long term survival depends on the early choices made during its formative period. Over time, Mintzberg states, leadership becomes