Why Environmental Politics Matters
From Politics of the Enviornment
A discussion of the influence of corporate interests on environmental policies and why fighting for the environment is important.
Why do environmental issues provide a window for us to view the state of our national politics? The answer is fairly simple. A large sector of our economy is made up of corporations that profit from exploiting our nations resources. Primarily these companies come from the oil, gas and coal industries and related derivative businesses. These same companies can increase their profitability greatly by limiting any restrictions on their profit-making activities. Environmental law is rooted in the concepts that our countrys natural resources are a shared public asset and that individual citizens have a right to be free from harm resulting from someone elses actions. These concepts gave rise to laws designed to protect our air and waterways and to prevent pollution that was a threat to public health. Environmental regulations were created to promote these concepts and to provide societal protection through reasonable controls on industrial activities. However, to some powerful business interests they are seen as unwarranted restrictions on their operations. The struggle between the influence of powerful corporations and the rights of individual citizens is the political conflict of our generation.
Worth the read. The full article can be found here: http://enviropolitics.wordpress.com/2012/05/18/the-corporate-environment/
Jacki7680
(15 posts)That's an interesting way to approach the influence of corporations. What about what companies like Monsanto are doing to our agriculture and food supply. I think that's related too.
That part just struck me as an important statement.
cheapdate
(3,811 posts)connected, and well financed. The messages they create are widely disseminated, subtle, and insidious. The tactics they use are under-handed, disingenuous, and dishonorable. Their free-market "think-tanks" create messages to cast doubt on solid science and cast smears on environmental advocates. They use misdirection to frame the issue as liberty vs. communism, godliness vs. heathenism, etc. They feed their stories to the top of the media chain and they have the ear of the top of our political leadership.
Their plan has been very effective with a large part of the American public, who are convinced that concern for the environment is tantamount to a rejection of liberty and an embrace of socialism.
Jacki7680
(15 posts)That tall blonde woman who keeps telling us "fracking is good" Hear & obey.