25 Apr 2022

371

Difficult Environmental Cases and the Role of the Government

Format: APA

Academic level: College

Paper type: Research Paper

Words: 1391

Pages: 5

Downloads: 0

Introduction and Objective

There are many environmental difficulties and issues that the modern world is facing today. Various individuals and governments have also tried to come with solutions to help control these issues coming up. The earth has undergone many transformations in the recent centuries particularly because of changes brought about by the agrarian and industrial revolutions. These worldwide phenomena have drastically changed how humans live and undertake their various activities in a bid to satisfy their ever recurring human needs. Over the years, cases of pollution have increased rapidly due to a number of factors. Efforts to restore a clean and sustainable environment have also been on the rise after the realization that the environment may be polluted beyond recovery thus affecting plant, animal and even human life. Environmental cases not only include pollution, but also the use, maintenance and its general state. This paper aims to investigate the various environmental difficulties the world experiences and the role of the governments in curbing these problems.

Analysis

One of the reasons why environmental cases of pollution have been so rampant is due to the fact that nobody in particular owns or is accountable for the general environment such as the air and sea bodies. Because of this, people are not particularly responsible in taking good care of the environment. Efforts have been put in taking care of one’s own property such as firms, buildings, plants, industries and vehicles. People are employed to clean and maintain these properties but nobody in particular is solely accountable for the larger environment ( Ghai & Vivian, 2014) . This being the case, companies, firms, industries and production plants endeavor to achieve their production targets without putting into consideration the effects of their activities on the environment. Toxic smoke will be emitted, waste will be dumped in public water bodies and noise will be produced all because there is nobody in charge of the components of the environment such as air and water. 

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Another factor that makes it difficult for environmental cases to be put into serious consideration and issues such as pollution to be minimized is the fact that these are byproducts of production. The human species is constituted by a continuous will to consume brought about by the never ending human wants and needs that always crave to be satisfied. In order to satisfy most of these wants and needs, production must be undertaken in order to provide the necessary goods and services to satisfy humans. Continuous production means continuity in emission of toxins into the environment thus causing more and more harm to the already harmed environment. Scholars have come up with ways in which they can describe this phenomenon to people across the world in order to understand the adverse effects their actions on the environment. 

Additionally, how humans use the available natural resources is of concern to environmentalists around the world. There are various resources that are quite difficult to obtain from its natural setting leading to a vast depletion of the environment in order to acquire them. For instance, cement and building stones are found in widespread pieces of land and thus, in order to mine them, there has to be a lot of digging and destruction of the environment. Another example is, for people to obtain timber, there is the need to undertake bulky deforestation and thus a negative implication to the environment and the weather patterns in the future ( Ghai & Vivian, 2014) . However, the needs of the human race are quite high and need to be satisfied by all means and thus, difficult to say, that destruction of the environment can be completely avoided.

Another reason as to why it may be difficult for the complete reduction in environmental degradation is the fact that it also trickles down to individual perspectives. People own vehicles which are a major contributor to the world’s pollution and environmental degradation. There are also so many people who own land individually and practice activities that harm the soil such as excessive use of fertilizers and private deforestation. All these show that every human being has a personal responsibility in taking care of the environment and ensuring that the world we live in improves and does not degrade. However, it is difficult to follow up on individual people and how they carry out their various activities in relation to the environment. Also, transport is a very important aspect when it comes to the economy and thus people have to move from one location to another. All means of transport emit gases such as carbon dioxide into the atmosphere which promote global warming. Therefore, the methods which people and companies should come up with, are those which can ensure that the environment is harmed less but economic activities such as transport and production continue. 

The government plays a very important role in solving these environmental cases being experienced in the world. To begin with, since there is no particular individual who is solely accountable for the environment, all governments across the world are encouraged to take this responsibility in their respective countries. The government also has an upper hand since it has the power to inflict laws and enforce them to be followed by everyone ( Tietenberg & Lewis, 2016) . Therefore, it is correct to state that the government can help solve these difficult environmental cases by establishing strict laws aimed at taking care of the environment even as other important activities are being carried out. Regulations need to be spearheaded by laws formed by the government, failure to which, these problems facing the state of the environment will only worsen leading to bad environmental effects in the future generations such as extreme high temperatures and widespread deserts ( Ghai & Vivian, 2014) . The cost of reclaiming lost environmental beauty and stature is quite expensive. An environment that is quite polluted poses great health risks to the people living there and once affected, will result to a lot of money being used for health facilitation and recovery. It is therefore important that the government steps in to control these difficult cases in question and ensure that the environment is safe for all in the present and in the future.

Literature Review

There are two major ways in which any one government, through enacting laws, can ensure that people take responsibility of the environment according to the works of Armitage, de Loe & Plummer . The first is enforcing pollution charges and taxes on companies and individuals. People with production companies and firms need to be charged a tax that will ensure that emission of smoke and other environmentally harmful pollutants is reduced. The more pollutants produced the higher the tax should be. This will ensure that the firms and plants have reduced pollution as possible. The funds raised from this should also go towards correcting the negative implications of the pollutants such as afforestation and spreading awareness on the need of taking care of the environment. However, this method has not been used a lot worldwide. The country where this rule is used the most is in the United States only. In other countries, this approach is only sparingly used.

They also say that the other method which is more common to other countries is the setting of emission standards. Governments around the world have come up with authorities and institutions whose main role is to assess the various emissions across their respective countries. These organizations act on behalf of the government and are in charge of ensuring that all firms, plants and companies in various economic industries do not pollute the environment beyond a particular acceptable level ( Armitage, de Loe & Plummer, 2012) . This is to regulate the amount of pollutants being set in the environment. There are many other environmental difficulties that are associated with economic activities and satisfaction of human wants such as mining. This also has to be regulated in order to ensure that the natural beauty that is destroyed during such practices is corrected by the companies after they have completed their activities. These bodies also have the responsibility of ensuring that only companies that have particular set standards are given practicing certificates, which is awarded to them after they have complied with various standards and it can be confirmed that they will operate under the restrictions set to them. This is an effective way in which the government ensures that the environment is still taken care of and that economic activities are still carried out without much degradation of the environment. 

Environmental cases are quite sensitive even though majority of the people involved in them may not be aware. Even though the natural environment is self-sustaining and renewable in most cases, too much depletion and pollution that exceeds the rate at which it rejuvenates itself may lead to permanent problems in the future generations. In order to protect these future generations, these difficulties in environmental cases must be solved at the present time and more so, regulated.

References

Armitage, D., de Loe, R., & Plummer, R. (2012). Environmental governance and its implications for conservation practice.  Conservation Letters 5 (4), 245-255.

Ghai, D., & Vivian, J. M. (2014).  Grassroots environmental action: people's participation in sustainable development . Routledge.

Tietenberg, T. H., & Lewis, L. (2016).  Environmental and natural resource economics . Routledge.

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StudyBounty. (2023, September 14). Difficult Environmental Cases and the Role of the Government.
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