Environmental Sociology Edited

Environmental Sociology i

Table of Contents

Contents Pages

Table of Contents..............................................................................................................................iIntroduction............................................................................................................................iv

Chapter One: Meaning and Historical Development of Environmental Sociology......................................................................................................................................1

1.1. Introduction..................................................................................................................11.2. Meaning and Significance of Environmental Sociology.................................2

1.2.1. The meaning of Environment..........................................................21.2.2. The Meaning and Significance of Environmental Sociology............2

1.3. Subject matter of Environmental Sociology.....................................................61.3.1. Society- Environment interaction....................................................7

1.4. Historical Origin of Environmental Sociology....................................................71.5. Summary.......................................................................................................................121.6. Self – Test Questions...............................................................................................13

Chapter Two: Environmental Problems..........................................................................142.2. Nature of Environmental Problems.....................................................................142.3. Major Global and National Environmental Problems....................................18

2.3.1. Pollution.........................................................................................202.3.2. Global Warming.............................................................................212.3.3. Hazardous Wastes.........................................................................222.3.4. Stratospheric-ozone Depletion......................................................222.3.5. Land Degradation..........................................................................252.3.6. Loss of Biodiversity........................................................................252.3.7. Climate Change and Desertification..............................................262.3.8. World Population Growth...............................................................27

2.4. The roots Cause of Environmental problems..................................................282.5. Summary.......................................................................................................................322.6. Self Test Questions....................................................................................................32

Chapter Three: Human and Nature Interaction...........................................................333.1. Introduction..................................................................................................................333.2. Theoretical Explanation of Human and Nature Interaction........................34

3.2.1. Public versus Expert Perceptions of Risks.....................................423.3. Summary.......................................................................................................................433.4. Self-checking exercise..............................................................................................43

Chapter Four: Social Construction of Environmental Issues and Problems......444.1. Introduction..................................................................................................................444.2. Constructing Social Problems..............................................................................454.3. The social construction of Environment..........................................................464.4. Constructionism as an Analytic Tool...................................................................48

Environmental Sociology ii

4.5. Key Tasks/ Processes in the Social Construction of Environmental Problems.................................................................................................................................534.5. Summary.......................................................................................................................54

Chapter Five: Sociological Perspectives on Environmental Problems................555.1. Chapter Objectives....................................................................................................555.2. Introduction..................................................................................................................555.3. Structural Functionalist’s Perspective................................................................575.4. The Conflict Perspective..........................................................................................585.5. Ecofeminist Perspective...........................................................................................59

5.5.1. Cultural/Radical Ecofeminism........................................................615.5.2. Materialist social ecofeminism......................................................63

5.6. Symbolic Interactionist Perspective....................................................................635.7. Chapter Summary......................................................................................................645.7. Self-checking exercises:..........................................................................................65

Chapter Six: Sustainable Development, Principles and Controversies..............666.1. Chapter objectives.....................................................................................................666.2. Sustainable Development: the concept............................................................666.3. Controversies on Sustainable Development....................................................676.4. Discourses.....................................................................................................................69

6.4.1. The Contest Perspective................................................................696.4.2. The Astronaut’s Perspective..........................................................706.4.3. The Home Perspective...................................................................70

6.5. Areas of Sustainable Development.....................................................................716.6. Issues within Sustainable Development............................................................716.7. Principles of Sustainable Development.............................................................726.8. Environmental Sustainability.................................................................................726.9. World Summit on Sustainable Development...................................................73

6.9.1. Progress on Sustainability so far...................................................736.10. Chapter summary....................................................................................................756.11. Self-checking exercises.........................................................................................75

Chapter Seven: Environmental Governance and Environmentalism..................767.1. Chapter objectives.....................................................................................................767.2. Introduction..................................................................................................................767.3. Environmental Crime................................................................................................767.4. Categories of Environmental Harms...................................................................777.5. Environmental Injustice or Racism......................................................................787.6. Strategies for Environment Conservation.........................................................79

7.6.1. Environmental awareness.............................................................797.6.2. Environmental Pressure Groups....................................................81

7.7. Environmentalism......................................................................................................817.8. Environmental Organizations and Conferences................................84

7.9. Chapter summary......................................................................................................857.10. Self-check Exercise.................................................................................................85

Chapter Eight: Global Environmental Conventions and Treaties.........................868.1. Chapter objectives.....................................................................................................868.2. Introduction..................................................................................................................86

Environmental Sociology iii

8.3. Concise Summary of Global Conferences, Agreements and Convention on the Environment............................................................................................................888.4. Chapter Summary......................................................................................................918.5. Self-check Exercise....................................................................................................91

Chapter 9: Environmental Policy of Ethiopia................................................................929.1. Chapter objectives...................................................................................................929.2. Introduction................................................................................................................929.3. Ethiopian environmental policy............................................................................929.3. Chapter Summary..................................................................................................1109.4. Self-checking Exercises........................................................................................110

References...............................................................................................................................111

Environmental Sociology iv

Introduction

This module is concerned with the course environmental sociology, a two credit hour course, given to third year sociology students, as it is clearly mentioned in the curriculum the department. This module has nine chapters. The first chapter is all about the meaning and historical development of environmental sociology. It deals with how the course has been evolved out through the passage of time.

The second chapter of the module is concerned with some major environmental problems, such as pollution of different types, global warming, climate change and desertification, hazardous waste, ozone depletion, land degradation, and loss of biodiversity whereas the third chapter addresses the relationship between human and nature.

Chapter four focuses on the social construction of environmental problems; it explains how social problems and the concepts related with environment while chapter five is concentrated on sociological explanations on environmental problems including structural functionalism, conflict theory, ecofeminism, and symbolic intractionism.

Similarly, chapter six addresses the issue of sustainable development which tries to treat such topics as the concept sustainable development, discourses, areas of sustainable development, issues within sustainable development, principles of sustainable development, and some well-mentioned world submits on sustainable development whilst chapter seven attempts to concentrates on environmental governance and environmentalism that takes account of environmental crime and harms, environmental injustice, strategies for environment conservation, and environmentalism.

Dear learners, finally, chapter three of the module deals with sort summary of global conventions and treaties on environmental issues whereas the last chapter is all about the detail presentation of Ethiopian environmental policy.

At the end of each chapter, a summary is given followed by self-checking exercise. In addition, all the references are presented at the end of the module.

Environmental Sociology 1

Chapter One: Meaning and Historical Development of Environmental Sociology

1.1. Introduction

Dear learners, this chapter introduce you with the introduction of the course

environmental sociology, its meaning and definition, subject matter and

historical origin of the course will be examined in this chapter.

The course environmental sociology is designed to equip sociology students

with the necessary knowledge and skill on environmental issue. (1)

Environmental sociology studies environment-society interaction. Human

being interacts with environment in various ways because environment is

the sources of our basic needs and wellbeing. In their interaction with their

physical environment, human beings affect the environment and in turn the

environment also affects human being. In general, there is a reciprocal

relationship between our social institutions and the physical environment. (2)

The expression “environmental sociology” appeared for the first time in

North America in 1971, although the idea of sociology of environment has

been in the air for a long time. In 1976, American Sociological Association

finally created an Environmental Sociology section.

Chapter Objective:

After the completion of this chapter, you will able to:

Define the term environment and environmental sociology,

Discuss the origin and development of environmental sociology,

Describe the focus area of environmental sociology,

Explain the significance of taking the course for you


The relationship between ‘society’ and the ‘environment’ has generated

much in the way of both action and analysis over the last thirty years. As

local and global environments rapidly change, and as humans modify their

behavior in relation to how and where they live, the importance of studying

the interface between society and environment has likewise steadily grown.

1.2. Meaning and Significance of Environmental Sociology

1.2.1. The meaning of Environment

What is environment? Give your own definition?

The word environment is derived from an ancient French word environner

meaning to encircle. Environment is our surrounding. This includes the living

and the non-living things around us. The non-living components of

environment are land, air and water. The living components are germs,

plants, animals and people. Hence, environment is the physical, social,

economic, political and cultural surroundings.

All plants and animals adjust to the environment in which they are born and

live. A change in any components of the environment may cause discomfort

and affect normal life. That means different plants and animals are found in

different environments suitable to them. Hence, any change in that

environment may affect their living.

1.2.2. The Meaning and Significance of Environmental Sociology

Dear learners, what do you think the rational of taking this course?

Sociology is about understanding and dealing with social problems. It is

concerned with defining whether or not an issue is indeed a social problem,

rather than simply a personal trouble or a natural phenomenon, and why this

is the case. It is also concerned with devising social policies and/or

developing practical applied strategies that can be used to address social


problems. It means sociology is about putting things into context, about

challenging the status quo, and about making the world a better place. It is

essentially about three important tasks: see, judge, and act. Broadly

applying to surroundings, environment can include the aggregate of natural,

social and cultural conditions that influence the life of an individual or

community.

Environmental sociology is about translating these tasks into analysis and

action around environmental issues. To illustrate this, we can consider the

matter of drinking water. Sociologically, investigation of drinking water could

proceed by looking at how water is managed and distributed, historically and

in different cultural contexts. It could examine differences and similarities

between societies in which drinking water is freely provided, and those in

which it is sold for profit. It could compare the place of water in societies in

which it is scarce, with those in which it is abundant, from the point of view

of control, access and symbolic importance. Social differences in the use of

water may be apparent within a society. So too, water may represent

affluence for specific classes and castes, or for particular societies compared

to others. Water, therefore, is integrally linked to certain kinds of social

structures, social interactions and social processes of inclusion and

exclusion.

A distinction can also be made between a ‘problem’ (unsafe drinking water)

and a ‘sociological problem’ (why or why not unsafe drinking water is

considered a social problem). In some towns and cities, for example, poor-

quality drinking water is simply taken for granted, as no big deal. Residents

may respond to the potential ill effects of the water by boiling it. Over time,

they get so used to boiling their water that they don’t even think twice about

it. Thus they may never really challenge why it is that the water is so bad to

begin with. In other places, water provision means something else. It is taken

for granted by residents that water is, and ought to be, of good quality. Any


negative change to water quality will be met with outrage and concerted

public action to clean up the supply. In each of these cases, there may be

unsafe drinking water. Sociology can help us discern why different people

respond differently to what appears to be much the same problem.

Environmental sociology is typically defined as the sociological study of

societal-environmental interactions. It is the study of the reciprocal

interactions between the physical environment, social organization, and

social behavior. Within this approach, environment encompasses all physical

and material bases of life in a scale ranging from the most micro level to the

biosphere. Although the focus of the field is the relationship between society

and environment in general, environmental sociologists typically place

special emphasis on studying the social factors that cause environmental

problems, the societal impacts of those problems, and efforts to solve the

problems. In addition, considerable attention is paid to the social processes

by which certain environmental conditions become socially defined as

problems.

Social Ecology

Social ecology is associated with the ideas and works of Murray Bookchin,

who had written on such matters from the 1950s until his death, and, from

the 1960s, had combined these issues with revolutionary social anarchism.

Social ecology locates the roots of the ecological crisis firmly in relations of

domination between people. The domination of nature is seen as a product

of domination within society, but this domination only reaches crisis

proportions under capitalism. Owing to its inherently competitive nature,

bourgeois society not only pits humans against each other, it also pits the

mass of humanity against the natural world. Just as men are converted into

commodities, so every aspect of nature is converted into a commodity, a

resource to be manufactured and merchandised want only. In the words of

Bookchin: the notion that man must dominate nature emerges directly from


the domination of man by man. Social ecology claims that the environmental

crisis is a result of the hierarchical organization of power and the

authoritarian mentality rooted in the structures of our society. The Western

ideology of dominating the natural world arises from these social

relationships. “The domination of nature by man stems from the very real

domination of human by human".

The core principle of social ecology is that ecological problems arise from

deep-seated social problems. Ecological problems cannot be understood,

much less resolved, without facing social issues. Social hierarchy and class

legitimize our domination of the environment and underpin the consumer

system. “The root causes of environmental problems are such as trade for

profit, industrial expansion, and the identification of "progress" with

corporate self-interest."

The alternative solution to this problem is society based on ecological

principles; an organic unity in diversity, free of hierarchy and based on

mutual respect for the interrelationship of all aspects of life. If we change

human society, then our relationship with the rest of nature will become

transformed. We can only overcome the ideology of dominating nature by

creating of a society without hierarchical structures or economic classes.

In place of the existing hierarchical and class system social ecology proposes

an egalitarian society based on mutual aid, caring and communitarian

values. People in this new society would appreciate that the interests of the

collective are inseparable from those of each individual. Property would be

shared and, ideally, belong to the community as a whole. In this "commune

of communes" property would not belong to private producers or to a nation-

state.

This transformation is to be achieved through radical collective action and

co-operative social movements. The process of eliminating all domination


must begin: “not only in the factory but also in the family, not only in the

economy but also in the psyche, not only in the material conditions of life but

also in the spiritual ones."

Social ecology aims to replace our mentality of domination with an ethics of

complementarities. Such an ethics reflects our true role which is to create a

fuller, richer world for all beings. This ethics of complementarities has a

spiritual dimension that is sometimes described by social ecologists as the

"respiritization of the natural world" but is clearly not a call for a deistic

theology.

1.3. Subject matter of Environmental Sociology

Dear distance learners, what do you think the focus area of environmental

sociology? Explain.

Environmental Sociology is the sociological analysis of the interaction

between nature and social systems. This includes individual beliefs and

behaviors, technologies, systems and society. Likewise, the issues of

sustainability, social wellbeing and the relationship between society and

nature will be examined.

Environmental Sociology investigates how social systems interact with

ecosystems. The course emphasizes a critical social and ecological analysis

of society and global influences upon the earth. The current paradigm (set

of assumptions) regarding values, public policy and priorities in relationship

to the environment will be analyzed. They include human progress, growth,

no limits, scientific uncertainty, unrestricted consumption, corporate

production and scientific and technological fixes to both social and

environmental issues. Environmental Sociology draws on concepts and ways

of thinking from a number of different disciplines including ecology, public

health, history, philosophy and anthropology.


The environment as a sociological topic intensified in the late 1960’s and

1970’s (first Earth Day) when a significant number of Americans were

growing concerned about the environment, water quality, air quality, toxic

chemicals, war and nuclear power. Sociologists responded to this change in

public opinion by exploring the reasons why modern society has such

destructive impacts on the environment and the modern worldwide scale of

these impacts. The study of social and political movements that have arisen

in response to mounting environmental problems is another major focus.

Present concerns include the possible direction and compatibility or

incompatibility of nature, technology, humanity, politics and health/well

being.

1.3.1. Society- Environment interaction

Throughout history humans have both affected, and been affected by, the

natural world. While a good deal has been lost due to human actions, much

of what is valued about the environment has been preserved and protected

through human action. While many uncertainties remain, there is a

realization that environmental problems are becoming more and more

complex, especially as issues arise on a more global level, such as that of

atmospheric pollution or global warming.

Interactions between human society and the environment are constantly

changing. The environment, while highly valued by most, is used and altered

by a wide variety of people with many different interests and values.

Difficulties remain on how best to ensure the protection of our environment

and natural resources. There will always be tradeoffs and, many times,

unanticipated or unintended consequences. However, a well-managed

environment can provide goods and services that are both essential for our

well being as well as for continued economic prosperity.


The environment has become one of the most important issues of our time

and will continue to be well into the future. The challenge is to find

approaches to environmental management that give people the quality of

life they seek while protecting the environmental systems that are also the

foundations of our well being.

1.4. Historical Origin of Environmental Sociology

Dear learners, environmental sociology is a new discipline emerged recently.

What factors do you think are responsible for this? Explain..

Environmental sociology is a newly emerged discipline. Early sociologists pay

little attention to the issue of environment. Environmental sociology

emerged as a distinctive discipline in 1970s. In section one you learned

about the subject matter of environmental sociology. In this section, you will

learn about the origin and development of environmental sociology and the

major contributors to the development of the discipline.

The issue of environment in sociology is relatively a new phenomenon. It

started late 1970s. Sociologists paid little/no attention to environment

during the earlier emergence of sociology for the following reasons:

Earlier sociologists were influenced with the Durkheimian traditional

view of explaining social phenomena only in terms of other ‘social

facts’. That means the cause of social facts must be sought in other

social facts. However, what distinguishes environmental sociology from

the mainstream sociology is that the former recognizes that

biophysical as well as purely social variables affect social structure and

social change while the latter doesn’t.

An aversion to earlier excess of biological and geographical to earlier

‘determinism’, had led sociologists to ignore the physical world in

which humans live.


The other reason was the emergence of sociology during an era of

unprecedented growth and prosperity, fuelled by resource abundance

and technological progress.

Hence, the discipline had come to assume that the exceptional features of

homo sapiens- language, technology, science and culture more generally –

made industrialized societies ‘exempt’ from the constraints of nature.

However, changing circumstances such as the 1973-4 energy crisis that

faced the world necessitated shedding the ‘blinkers’ imposed by the

sectionalism and adopting an ecological paradigm or world view that

acknowledges the ecosystem –dependence of all human societies.

To start with the history of environmental sociology, it is important to look at

the original root of the discipline. Modern thought surrounding human-

environment relations is traced back to Charles Darwin. Darwin’s concept of

natural selection suggested that certain social characteristics played a key

role in the survivability of groups in the natural environment. Although

typically taken at the micro level, evolutionary principles, particularly

adaptability, serve as a microcosm of human ecology.

Sociology has traditionally made a distinction between humans and nature.

Classical sociology was concerned primarily with humans as a part of

systems. These systems were limited primarily to the social and economic

sectors of human society. The emphasis was on something akin to soul

searching; looking within for solutions that are available without. As Radcliff

and Benton point out in Social Theory and the Environment, "The classical

sociologies deriving from Weber and the German neo-Kantian tradition, and

from Durkheim and French structuralism, establish (albeit by different

theoretical moves) sharp nature/society dichotomies."(Radcliff & Micheal and

Woodgate, 1997). It seems that the traditional sociologists paid scant

attention to the range that the human habitat may take, and focused more


squarely on man. Let's explore the views classical sociologists held on

humans and their relation to their environment.

Emile Durkheim

Emile Durkheim was the pioneer of sociology. How he explained society and

environment?

Emile Durkheim was one of the founding fathers of sociology and was the

first French sociologist. To Durkheim, men were creatures whose desires

were unlimited. Unlike other animals, they are not satiated when their

biological needs are fulfilled. "The more one has, the more one wants, since

satisfactions received only stimulate instead of filling needs." It follows from

this natural insatiability of the human animal that his desires can only be

held in check by external controls, that is, by societal control. Society

imposes limits on human desires and constitutes "a regulative force [which]

must play the same role for moral needs which the organism plays for

physical needs." In well-regulated societies, social controls set limits on

individual propensities so that each individual knows the eventual limit to

his/her activity. Durkheim did distinguish the social realm from the psychic,

biological and mineral realms, yet he saw society as a phenomenon of

nature. This can be witnessed in many plant or animal settings, where

associations are formed which enable the species to survive or flourish. Of

the traditional approaches, Durkheim's does lend credence to the idea that

environmental problems can be understood within the context of cultural

production and reproduction. Durkheim's positivism and constructivism gave

us the legacy of examining environmental problems as a science with

observable consequences and socially constructed causes.

Although Durkheim formulated an organismic theory of society where each

organism must function in its own place and time in order for the whole to

remain healthy, he neglected to bring the environment in which that work is


being done into the picture. He did not however insist as his contemporaries

did that nature was "socially produced". Durkheim introduced the notions of

agency and structure to sociological theory; agency is defined as the power

that humans have to operate independently of the constraining social

structure. The structure itself is dependent on agency for its existence; it is

comprised of such things as laws, conventions, and taboos and so on. An

interesting result of Durkheim's theories of agency structure is that they can

be subversively used to undermine the traditional lack of attention paid to

environmental problems. Agency would seemingly allow us to either neglect

or care for the environment as we so choose, but the social structure could

dictate certain modes of action which can be oriented towards a

conservationist perspective. Further, if the environment itself were to be

seen as the governing structure within which humans must operate, with the

laws of nature guiding human agency, it seems against (human) nature to

destroy the very structure which supports our meager selves.

Max Weber

How Max Weber described environment-society interaction?

Max Weber would probably have rejected this idea of the environment as a

determining structure; he was concerned primarily with humans as a system

unto themselves, their being constituted the only social reality. He did not

believe that sociologists (or any one else) could discover some overarching

structure that was universal to humankind. Ironically, Weber devoted much

of his academic life to describing the alienation of the capitalist worker,

where human agency was largely overruled by the hierarchical structures of

instrumental rationality and bureaucracy. This disenchantment stems from

the separation of the workers not from their capabilities for the use of

agency, but from their implicit rejection of nature in favor of capitalist


business practices. The beauraucratic structure may stifle the workers, but

the true distance is between the surrounding environment and their desk

jobs. Some may posit that this separation of humans from their environment

is a product of the technology that is being employed in these workplaces, as

if technology were something alien or unnatural. We must remember

however, that humans are inherently both a part of and a product of nature;

how then can human constructs be unnatural? They are simply an extension

of our natural ability to use tools and to communicate with one another.

Weberian disenchantment is quite different, for it is the arbitrary

construction of limits, punishments and rewards that make up the

beauraucratic authority system. Is this really unlike the structure that we

deploy against nature? Both are arbitrary, both possess too narrow a scope

to assess all the complexities of a system and both impose control in a

manner that tends to be destructive to the subject of the control. The worker

becomes disenchanted; the environment becomes polluted.

Karl Marx

What is/are the cause(s) for environmental problems from Marxist

perspective?

The most "green" of the early social theories; Marxist thought usually sees

any society as a system of societal relations. This allows for an

understanding that social production of goods depends on relations between

individuals as well as between people and nature. Marx did make a

distinction between nature and society, nature was what provided the raw

materials with which the laborers made their living and fed their families.

Marx saw science and society in rational terms, believing that science was a

progressive and liberating force, one that would enable humankind to gain

control over nature and therefore to better control their chosen path in life.

According to Marx, the appropriations of natural resources in this manner

were only possible in a specific social setting. He theorized that in the


transformation of resources into goods for human consumption, humans

themselves were transformed. Despite this, he thought that relations

between humans and their environment was static, for they are both

essentially social and common to each step of social existence. Therefore,

the interactions between humans and their environment cannot provide a

source of change in society; this can only occur between groups of people.

Marxist ideology relies heavily on the idea that economic development under

capitalism involves the creation of value as resources are transformed into

commodities. The problem is, there cannot be creation without destruction.

In order to create value, we must destroy and sully valuable natural

resources; not valuable as commodities, but as a life sustaining matrix upon

which we all rely. The value of natural resources must always be weighed

against the long term consequences of their use.

1.5. Summary

Environmental sociology, the study of relationship between human and

nature undergone through three main stages in sociology, namely human

and urban ecology (developed in 1920s and 1930s), environmental sociology

(developed in 1970s and early 1980s) and ecosociology (since late 1980s).

Environmental sociology is emerged as a discipline in 1970s. Little attention

was given to the environment or the physical factors in the early emergence

of sociology. Much attention was given to the study of social events in

relation to other social events. However, this does not mean that classical

sociologists couldn’t offer due emphasis to environmental issues. Classical

sociologists see environment as part of a system and change in part of the

system result in change in the whole system.

The environment is where we live or our surrounding. With the emergence of

environmental sociology, environmental issues have got much emphasis in

sociology. In other words, the scope of sociology is more expanded to include


the interaction among physical factors and social events with emergence of

environmental sociology. The main reason for expanding the scope of

sociology to deal with the interaction between environment and society is

that most of the social events or social problems that sociology concerns

with are not only linked with other social factors but also they are directly or

indirectly linked to the physical environment. Environmental sociology came

into being to explore these issues. Environmental sociology is a branch of

sociology that deals with society-environment interactions. It studies how the

social forces (social institutions) affect the environment and how they are

affected by the environment (physical factors) in which they exist.

Environmental sociologists are also concerned with social factors that cause

environmental problems, effects and their solutions. The discipline

investigates how social factors cause environmental problems and how the

physical factors promote or limit the growth and development of society.

1.6. Self – Test Questions1. What is environmental sociology?

2. Identify and discuss the basic factors for the emergence of

environmental sociology?

3. Explain the rationale behind taking this course?

4. Discuss the classical ideas of Karl Marx and Emile Durkhiem on

environment?

Chapter Two: Environmental Problems

Dear learners, this chapter introduce you with the issue of national and

global environmental problems, its nature, causes and extent.

Objectives of the chapter:


Explain the nature of environmental problems

Identify the major global and national environmental problems

Identify the root causes of the problem


2.1. Introduction

It is obvious that an environmental problem is a global issue and it can be

found in all areas of the world. Some affect the water, others affect the air,

and still others affect the land and the animals. In this unit you will learn

various environmental problems and the causes of these problems at

national and international levels.

Water has been polluted and trees cut down in an endless quest for timber

or new pasture land. Precious topsoil that took millennia to make, blows

away in the wind and is replaced with poisons to which mankind should

never have been exposed. The crisp, clean air has been filled with dirt, filth

and danger. Plants and animals that have evolved in patient process have

been subjected to genetic engineering often across the species simply in the

name of profit. In short, mankind had sought total control over the

environment and with potentially disastrous results.

2.2. Nature of Environmental Problems

Dear learners, what do you think environmental problem is given a serious

attention than before?

The protection and improvement of the human environment is a major issue

which affects the well-being of people and their economic development

throughout the world. Thus, a point has been reached in history when we

must shape our actions throughout the world to maintain the natural cycle of

the environment.

This is because within the environment there is dynamic interrelationship

between the living form and physical environment. These relationships can


be expressed as a natural cycle which provides a continuous circulation of

the essential constituents necessary for life. This cycle mainly operates in a

balanced state in an undisturbed natural environment; and as a matter of

fact the balanced operation of this natural cycle is a fundamental condition

to the continued existence and development of life on earth. Human beings

should therefore maintain this balance with nature and act according to the

law of nature. Otherwise, man will suffer from the results of his interference.

It is this very condition that the World Charter for Nature reiterated. It states

that mankind is a part of nature and life depends on the Uninterrupted

functioning of natural system which ensures the supply of energy and

nutrients. That is, lasting benefits from nature depend upon the maintenance

of essential ecological processes and life support systems, and upon the

diversity of life forms, which have been placed at jeopardy through excessive

exploitation and habitat destruction by man.

At this juncture, it is important to take notice of the fact that the

environment, including the human competent, is complex and is not yet

completely understood. We are part of that system: our actions affect the

system and we are in turn affected by it. In spite of this, we do not have a

full understanding either of the system or our interactions with it . This calls

for putting in place an early warning system and a system of prioritizing

risks, since resources to address risks are always limited; and often the

damage to the environment are irreversible or even if reversible can be done

only at excessive costs . In other words, many of the damages done to the

environment may have long term effects or they may involve important

synergism in the environment or may not be effectively reversible such that,

the greatest danger is that human kind may set off unchecked degradation

that will pass a point of no return, making it impossible to restore a healthy

environment.


The basis of the emphasis on human acts in environmental protection is the

fact that, we are part of the environment and simultaneously we human

beings have a capacity and capability not only to improve but also to destroy

and destruct nature . For this reason, if we fail to safeguard the environment

from being affected by our activities, there is a fear that :

Large scale changes resulting from burgeoning human activity

will, in relatively near future, alter fundamentally the terms of

human existence and may even affect the possibility for human

survival.

From this stipulation, one can easily infer the fact that environmental danger

could possibly jeopardize the very existence of the present generation as

well as the future.

The preamble of Tokyo Declaration on Financing Global Environment has

succinctly put the inter-relationship and the danger posited in the following

manner :

Human future is at risk due to wasteful pattern of production and

consumption in industrialized countries and pervasive poverty

and population growth in developing countries which are

primarily leading to the destruction of the earth’s ecological

base.

By implication, the Tokyo Declaration reveals that the current environmental

problems are caused by factors related to unsustainable use of natural

resources, and unprecedented growth of population and the cumulative

effect of these environmental injuries would undoubtedly all living creatures

on earth in jeopardy . So that, environmentalists are warning the world

community that we have reached an alarming stage, thus we need to take

serious measures of rescuing the quality of our environment to make it last


long. In short, protecting and conserving the environment becomes a must

case for the purpose of sustaining life on earth successfully now and in the

future.

Having the above facts, the interaction can be a healthy one, with human

kind balancing what he takes from the natural environment with what the

environment can afford to provide . Since the dawn of the Industrial

Revolution, however, human demands placed upon the earth’s resource

have increased dramatically. Although the technological advancements have

improved the sustenance capacity of the earth, many of these technologies

have also placed added demands on the earth’s limited resources, thereby

bringing us closer to the threshold of the capacity of the earth.

Now-a-days, it is clear that the mad rat race among nations over the use of

natural sources for development is increasingly jeopardizing the quality of

the environment. The craze of these states resulted in over extraction of

every bit of natural resources, and this unchecked exploitation of natural

resource by man disturbed the delicate ecological balance between living

and non-living components of the environment . For this very fact, time has

reached when we are facing challenges to our intellect and wisdom for

saving the humanity from extinction.

To save humanity, therefore, everyone should notice that we human beings

are at the heart of the search for sustainable development as our very

survival depends on a very narrow range of environmental condition. And to

this effect resource withdrawal, processing and re-use of the products have

all to be synchronized with the ecological cycles in any development plan.

This approach unifies protection of the environment and development

programs by formulating the concept of sustainable development in the

following manner.


In order to achieve sustainable development environmental

protection shall constitute an integral part of the development

process and cannot be considered in isolation from it.

This concept underlies the need to develop a holistic understanding of the

relationship between the environment and the development process . If not,

any social and economic development endeavors’ cannot continue into the

future, at least, for two reasons . First, the malfunctioning of such

unregulated actions will result in destroying the environmental conditions

necessary for the continuation of the activity. And second, the adverse

environmental effects resulting from such malfunctioning will cause massive

or unacceptable damage to human health and life, and thereby disrupts the

normal way of social interaction, peace and regularity of human life.

2.3. Major Global and National Environmental Problems

Dear learners, list down the basic environmental problems that we faced at

local, national and global level?

To have a full picture of environmental problems, it is also noteworthy to

take notice of environmental problems arising apart from development

activities, which are deliberate actions aimed at destroying the human being

and the environment. One of such deliberate acts is the indiscriminate

bombardment of cities, towns and countryside areas in effect which renders

the civilian population to a military target of a new form of warfare-

environmental warfare . In such a situation the irreparable alteration to the

environment may threaten the entire population, and it is tantamount to a

crime against humanity, perhaps to a greater extent than genocide which

may be limited only to a given ethnic minority in a specified area .

To avert this situation, we should not postpone our decision to resolve

catastrophic disputes peacefully. If we wait too long, it would become


impossible to have any opportunity to reconsider our acts . That is, if we

cannot take immediate action, the facts will continue as :

We are experiencing diseases today for hazards we did not

control yesterday. What we do not take care of today will be

there for our children to handle tomorrow.

When we look at the scope of environmental damage, in the past, pollution

and environmental degradation have obtained largely on the local level and

hence their effects have been isolated in impact. Given the increasing global

scale of environmental degradation and ever increasing volume of pollutants

entering the environment, however, their effects are now being felt on

regional and global levels . For this very fact, the problems of environmental

degradation do concern all countries irrespective of their size, level of

development or ideology. This is true because the oceanic world is an

interconnected whole . So, no government or society can take the

environment for granted and since it is a global problem it can be tackled

only with the assistance and cooperation of all.

Today, environmental problems are serious and imminent threats, which

suggest a need for drastic or emergency action . This emanates from the

magnitude of man’s impact on his environment which necessitated a full

scale reconsideration of the relationship between the environment and

development programmes . In other words, the fact that human kind is now

at a crossroads, that is, either to overwhelm the planet’s support capabilities

or to return matters around and preserve its life giving qualities for future

generations, calls for the reorientation of man’s activities with a view not to

make the earth a desolate rooming planet.

To this effect, therefore, human beings are now being called upon to save

the future. The future, it is presumed, lies entirely in their hands; tomorrow

cannot take thought of itself; it is they, now who have to save tomorrow.


The above factual situation of environmental problems which reveal the

diffused right of human beings to live in a clean and healthy environment,

and the pressing need of public participation to save the environment before

it reaches no turning point, calls for the reorientation of the law to

accommodate public interest litigation. The need for the reorientation of the

law emanates from the fact that traditional litigation is designed in a way to

enforce the rights of an individual against another, and not to enforce the

diffused basic human rights of the public. In other words, the narrow ambit of

locus standi permitted entry only to an aggrieved person and not to any

member of public at large acting bonafidely. To have a full fledged justice,

therefore, the procedural law should be designed with a leeway to

accommodate public interest litigation to enable alert citizens and public

interest groups redress public wrongs which remained unremedial under the

traditional rules of locus standi.

2.3.1. Pollution

Dear learners, what is pollution?

Pollution can be defined as the accumulation and adverse effects of

contaminants or pollutants on human health and welfare, and/or the

environment. In order to understand pollution truly, it is important to define

the identity and nature of potential contaminants (Marquica K. 2004).

Contaminants can result from waste materials produced from the activity of

living organisms, especially humans. However, contamination can also occur

from natural process such as arsenic dissolution from bedrock to ground

water, or air pollution from smoke that results from natural fires. Pollutants

are also ubiquitous in that they can be in the solid, liquid, or gaseous state.

Many of the pollutants occur directly through the activities such as mining or

agriculture. In addition, pollution is produced as indirect result of human

activities. For example, fossil fuel burning increases atmospheric carbon

dioxide levels and increases global warming. Other classes of pollutants can


also occur due to poor waste management or disposal, which can lead the

presence of pathogenic micro-organisms in water.

Environmental pollution, can therefore, be defined as any undesirable

change in the physical, chemical or biological characteristics of any

component of the environment (air, water, soil) which can cause harmful

effects on various forms of life or property.

Environmental pollution is caused due to over-use of natural resources,

presence of a large number of people and livestock in congested

areas, use of agro- chemicals, setting up of factories, running of

automobiles, burning of fuel, etc.

2.3.2. Global Warming

Dear learners, what do you think global warming mean and its causes?

Global warming is defined as the observed and projected increases in the

average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans. The Earth's average

temperature rose about 0.6° Celsius (1.1° Fahrenheit) in the 20th century.

Climate change is nothing new. About 18 000 years ago, Earth was

experiencing the last of many ice ages, from which it only emerged about

10 000 years ago. More recently, between the years 1430 and 1850,

portions of the Earth passed through a little ice age. The role of greenhouse

gases, especially carbon dioxide and water vapor, in warming the Earth is

also ancient, and indeed has long served life on Earth well. Radiation from

the sun reaches and warms the Earth’s surface. In turn, Earth emits radiant

heat (infrared radiation) back toward space; part of this radiant heat is

captured by water vapor and greenhouse gases. Without this so-called

‘‘greenhouse effect” to trap the warmth, the Earth could be 35 ◦ C colder

than it actually is, and would not support life, causing worldwide temperature

to rise and shrinking even Greenland ice sheet. Our worldwide report warned


that the melting of Greenland’s ice sheet and melting of glaciers in Alaska

and Canada are increasing by contributing to a rise in the world’s sea level.

2.3.3. Hazardous Wastes

Since the majority of the world population concentrates in urban area which

increases disposal of waste products including hazardous wastes. Hazardous

wastes present immediate or long-term risks to humans, animals, plants, or

the environment. It poses greater risk to the environment and human health

than non-hazardous wastes. Hazardous waste is any discarded solid or liquid

waste. In this section you will learn about the degree of hazardous waste

disposal and its effect.

Hazardous waste is essentially waste that contains hazardous properties that

may render it harmful to human health or the Environment. Hazardous waste

poses substantial or potential threats to public health or the environment.

2.3.4. Stratospheric-ozone Depletion

Obviously the earth atmosphere has different layers. These are troposphere

(up to 10km), stratosphere (10—50km), Mesosphere (50—90km),

Thermosphere (90—500km), and Exosphere (>500km). Ozone concentrates

in the second layer, i.e., stratosphere or around an altitude of 25km. The

ozone molecules absorb dangerous kinds of sunlight, which heats the air

around them. In this section you will learn about stratospheric-ozone

depletion.

The layer closest to the surface is called the troposphere which extends

from the Earth's surface up to about 10 kilometers. It is the atmospheric

layer within which we live. The troposphere contains about 90% of all air

molecules. The stratosphere lies just above the troposphere, 10 to 50 km

above Earth.


The ozone layer is located above the troposphere in the stratosphere (10 km

to about 50 km high). Although stratosphere contains only 10% of the

atmosphere’s air molecules, it has 90% of its ozone. Only 10% of ozone is

in the troposphere.

Dear learners, what is the advantage of ozone layer for human beings?

Stratospheric ozone is Earth's natural protection for all life forms, shielding

our planet from harmful ultraviolet-B (UV-B) radiation. UV-B radiation is

harmful to humans, animals, and plant life. Stratospheric ozone absorbs

more than 95% of the sun’s UV radiation, which would otherwise reach and

damage human, animal, plant, and microbial life. In the stratosphere there is

an ongoing natural cycle in which ozone is formed, destroyed, and reformed.

The ozone layer is being destroyed by certain industrial chemicals including

ozone depleting refrigerants, halons, and methyl bromide, a deadly pesticide

used on crops.

Ozone depletion occurs when the natural balance between the production

and destruction of stratospheric ozone is tipped in favor of destruction.

Although natural phenomena can cause temporary ozone loss, chlorine and

bromine released from man-made compounds such as chlorofluorocarbon

(CFC) are now accepted as the main cause of this depletion.

The ozone in the ozone layer is being broken down by chlorine atoms from

chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) molecules and bromine atoms from halons. CFCs

and halons are produced by humans used in many applications such as

refrigerants, anaesthetics, aerosols, fire-fighting equipment and the

manufacture of materials such as Styrofoam. They were thought to be

completely safe, chemically inert, and environmentally neutral. However, it

was soon found that they were not so ideal when they reached the upper

atmosphere.


When CFCs reach the upper atmosphere they are first degraded by the very

high energy of UV (ultra-violet) radiation. Degradation of CFC leaves a free

chlorine atom. The basic cause of ozone layer depletion is that this chlorine

atom then breaks up ozone molecules. Ozone then disappears. The chlorine

atoms are recreated in subsequent reactions. One chlorine atom can destroy

100,000 ozone molecules.

Chlorofluorocarbon molecules in the stratosphere release chlorine atoms

which break up ozone molecules to form oxygen.

Degradation of halons leaves a free bromine atom that destroys ozone in the

same way as chlorine. CFCs and halons last a long time (100 years on

average). After it was confirmed that an environmentally disastrous side-

effect was taking place in the upper atmosphere, plans and agreements

were made to phase out CFCs and halons. However, at the moment CFCs

and halons are still being produced and are being put into the stratosphere

about 5 times as fast as they can be removed naturally.

Ozone is converted to oxygen, leaving the chlorine atom free to repeat the

process up to 100,000 times, resulting in a reduced level of ozone. Bromine

compounds, or halons, can also destroy stratospheric ozone. Compounds

containing chlorine and bromine from man-made compounds are known as

industrial halocarbons.

Emissions of CFCs have accounted for roughly 80% of total stratospheric

ozone depletion. Thankfully, the developed world has phased out the use of

CFCs in response to international agreements to protect the ozone layer.

However, because CFCs remain in the atmosphere so long, the ozone layer

will not fully repair itself until at least the middle of the 21st century.

Naturally occurring chlorine has the same effect on the ozone layer, but has

a shorter life span in the atmosphere.


Up to 60% of the ozone disappears over some parts of Antarctica. Ozone

thinning is seen in places other than Antarctica. Ozone losses measured by

ground-based and satellite instruments are also seen over middle-latitude

countries such as the United States, Canada, and Europe too.

In 1987, an international pact called Montreal protocol on substances that

deplete the ozone layer set specific targets for all nations to achieve in order

to reduce emissions of chemicals responsible for the destruction of the ozone

layer. In fact, in fall of 2000, the role in the ozone layer Antarctica was the

largest they recorded. Scientists believe the ozone layer over Antarctica may

not fully recover until 2065.

2.3.5. Land Degradation

Dear learners, what is land degradation?

Land degradation is a global problem and is the process in which biophysical

environment is affected by one or more combination of human induced

processes acting upon the land.

Land degradation is a composite term; it has no single readily-identifiable

feature, but instead describes how one or more of the land resources (soil,

water, vegetation, rocks, air, climate, relief) has changed for the worse.

Land degradation generally signifies the temporary or permanent decline in

the productive capacity of the land (UN/FAO definition). Another definition

describes it as, "the aggregate diminution of the productive potential of

the land, including its major uses (rain-fed, arable, irrigated, rangeland,

forest), its farming systems (e.g. small holder subsistence) and its value

as an economic resource." This link between degradation (which is often

caused by land use practices) and its effect on land use is central to nearly

all published definitions of land degradation. The emphasis on land, rather

than soil, broadens the focus to include natural resources, such as


climate, water, landforms and vegetation. The productivity of grassland

and forest resources, in addition to that of cropland, is embodied in this

definition.

2.3.6. Loss of Biodiversity

Dear learners, what is loss of biodiversity? Explain

Biodiversity is the degree of variation of life forms within a given ecosystem,

biome, or on an entire planet. The number of species of plants, animals, and

microorganisms, the enormous diversity of genes in these species, the

different ecosystems on the planet, such as deserts, rainforests and coral

reefs all are part of biodiversity. Human activity, despite increased efforts at

conservation, has been causing loss of biodiversity. Dear learner, in this

section you will learn about loss of biodiversity.

The Global Convention on Biological Diversity, signed in 1992 at the Earth

Summit, describes biodiversity as the "variability among all living organisms

from all sources, including terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems

and ecological complexes of which they are part, this includes diversity

within species, between species and of ecosystems."

2.3.7. Climate Change and Desertification

Climate change is already happening and represents one of the greatest

environmental, social and economic threats facing the planet. Emission of

carbon dioxide and other gases are rising temperature of our earth. In this

section you will learn about climate change, causes of climate change and

impacts of climate change.

Dear learners, what is Climate? What is the difference between climate and

weather?


Weather can change from hour-to-hour, day-to-day, and season-to-season.

It may rain for an hour and then become sunny and clear. Weather is what

we hear about on the television news every night. It includes wind,

temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, cloudiness, sunshine and

precipitation.

Climate is the average weather for a particular region over a long time

period. It is the average weather in a place over more than thirty years.

Climate describes the total of all weather occurring over a long period of

years in a given place. This includes average weather conditions, regular

weather seasons (winter, spring, summer, and fall), and special weather

events (like tornadoes and floods). Climate tells us what it's usually like in

the place where you live. Historically, San Diego is known to have a mild

climate, New Orleans a humid climate, Buffalo a snowy climate, and Seattle

a rainy climate.

The climate of a regional depends on many factors including the amount of

sunlight it receives, its height above sea level, the shape of the land, and

how close it is to oceans.

Scientists who study Earth's climate and climate change study the factors

that affect the climate of our whole planet.

While the weather can change in just a few hours, climate changes over

longer timeframes. Climate events, like El Nino, happen over several years,

small-scale fluctuations happen over decades, and larger climate changes

happen over hundreds and thousands of years. Today, climates are

changing. Our Earth is warming more quickly than it has in the past

according to the research of scientists. Hot summer days may be quite

typical of climates in many regions of the world, but global warming is

causing Earth's average global temperature to increase. The amount of solar


radiation, the chemistry of the atmosphere, clouds, and the biosphere all

affect Earth's climate.

2.3.8. World Population Growth

Dear learners, explain the relation between population growth and

environment?

The world population has grown tremendously over the past two thousand

years. Increase in population has an impact on the environment. It may

result in deforestation and waste accumulation. In this section you will learn

about trends in population growth, impacts of population growth or

overpopulation on the environment. In 1840, German chemist Justus Von

Liebig first proposed that population cannot grow indefinitely, a basic

principle known as the law of the minimum. Biotic and abiotic factors, singly

or in combination, ultimately limit the size that any populations may attain.

This size limit, known as population carrying capacity, occurs when needed

resources such as food, breeding sites and water are in short supply.

Population growth is increase in the number of people who inhabit a

territory or state over time. Population dynamics are one of the key factors

to consider when thinking about development. In the past 50 years the world

has experienced an unprecedented increase in population.

2.4. The roots Cause of Environmental problems

The roots causes of environmental problems are both natural and manmade

factors. In this section, you will learn the various causes of environmental

problems. This section introduces the major impacts that humans exert on

the earth’s natural system while also emphasizing our profound dependence

on the services provided by those systems.


Dear learners, List some of the factors that contributed to environmental

problem?

Much of the history of Western civilization has been characterized as

exploitation, destruction, and no caring for the environment. Why are such

destructive species? Various arguments have been advanced to explain the

root causes of our environmentally destructive tendencies, including our

religious, our social and economic structure, and our acceptance of

technology.

Religion: in the first chapter of Genesis, people are commanded by God to

subdue nature, to procreate and to have dominion over all living things. This

anthropocentric view of nature runs through the Judeo-Christian doctrine,

placing human at the pinnacle of development and encouraged humans to

use nature as we se fit.

In his essay, “The Historical roots of Our Ecological Crisis”, Lynn White

argues that those who embrace the Judeo-Christian religious are taught to

treat nature as an enemy and that natural resources are to be used to meet

the goals of human survival and propagation. From this dogma, (so goes the

argument) have developed technology and capitalist economy and

ultimately environmental degradation.

Because Judeo-Christians are most prominent in the United States, we often

forget that this is not a majority religious tradition in the world. Billions of

people embrace very different deities and dogmas, and yet they also live in

capitalistic economies with perhaps even greater destruction of

environmental quality. So it can not be just the Judeo-Christian religions that

are to be blamed.

We have to remember also that both Christianity and Islam both developed

at a time when there were a number of competing religions from which to


choose. For many the Christian ideas and ethics derived from the Judeo

traditions seemed to fit comfortably with their existing ethics and value

systems, while others choose Islam over other religions. It seems quite

obvious that Christianity was not the reason for the development of science,

capitalism and democracy, but simply provided an ethical environment in

which they flourished (at least in Europe). It seems farfetched, therefore, to

blame our environmental problem over our religions.

Social and Economic Structures: Perhaps it is our social structures that

are responsible for environmental degradation. Garret Hardin’s “The Tragedy

of the Commons” illustrates this proposition with the following history: A

village has a common green for the grazing of cattle, and the green is

surrounded by farmhouses. Initially, each farmer has one cow, and the green

can easily support the herd. Each farmer realizes, however, that if he or she

gets another cow, the cost of the additional cow to be negligible because the

cost of maintaining the green is shared, but the profits are the farmer’s

alone. So one farmer gets more cows and reaps more profits, until the

common green can no longer supports any one’s cows, and the system

collapses.

Hardin presents this as a parable for the overpopulation of the earth and

consequent resource depletion. The social structure in the parable is

capitalism –the individual ownership of wealth – and the use of that wealth to

serve selfish interests. Does that mean that non-capitalist economies (the

totally and partially planned economies) do a better job of environmental

protection, natural resource preservation and population control?

The collapse of Soviet Union in 1991 afforded the world a glimpse of the

almost total absence of environmental protection in the most prominent

socialist nations in the developed world. Environmental devastation in the

common wealth of Independent States (the former USSR) is substantially

more serious than in the West. In the highly structured and centrally


controlled communist system, production was the single goal and

environmental degradation became unimportant. Also there was no such

thing as “public opinion” of course, and hence nobody spoke up for the

environment. When production in a centrally controlled economy is the goal,

all life, including human life, is cheap and expendable.

The democratic societies of the developed world have in fact moved

consciously toward environmental and resource protection more rapidly than

either totally planned economies or the less developed nations. The United

States has the oldest national park system in the world, and pollution control

in the United States predates that of other developed nations, even Canada,

by about 15 years.

Science and technology: Perhaps the problem is with science and

technology. It has become fashionable to blame environmental ills on

increased knowledge of nature (science) and the ability to put that

knowledge to work (engineering). During the industrial revolution the Luddite

movement in England violently resisted the change from cottage industries

to centralized factories; in the 1970s a pseudo -Luddite “back to nature”

movement purported to reject technology altogether. However, the

adherents of this movement made considerable use of the fruits of the

technology they eschewed, like used vans and buses, synthetic fabrics, and,

for the matter jobs and money.

People who blame science and technology for environmental problems forget

that those who alerted us early to the environmental crisis sounding the

environmental alarm as a result of scientific observation. Had we not

observed and been able to quantify phenomena like species endangerment

and destruction, the effects of herbicides and pesticides on wild life, the

destruction of the stratospheric layer, fish kills due to water pollution, we

would not even have realized what was happening to the world. Our very


knowledge of nature is precisely what altered us to the threats posed by

environmental degradation.

If knowledge is value free, is technology to blame? If so, less technologically

advanced societies must have fewer environmental problems. But they do

not. The Maori in New Zealand exterminated the moa, a large flightless bird,

there is considerable overgrazing in Africa and on the tribal reservations in

the American Southwest; the ancient Greeks and Phoenicians destroyed

forests and created deserts by diverting water. Modern technology, however,

not only provides water and air treatment systems, but continues to develop

ways in which to use a dwindling natural resource base more conservatively.

For example, efficiency of thermal electric generation has doubled since

World War II, food preservation techniques stretch the world’s food supply,

and modern communications frequently obviate the need for energy-

consuming travel, and computer use has markedly decreased the use of

paper.

Technology by itself is not good or bad. On the balance, technology can be

used to both good and evil ends, depending on the ethics of the users. In

short the way we use it determines its effects.

Humans Activity

As described in an article in Science, Human domination of Earth’s

ecosystems, ‘‘Between one-third and one-half of the land surface has been

transformed by human action; the carbon dioxide concentration in the

atmosphere has increased by nearly 30% since the beginning of the

Industrial Revolution; more atmospheric nitrogen is now fixed by humanity

than by all natural terrestrial sources combined; more than half of all

accessible surface fresh water is put to use by humanity; and about one-

quarter of the bird species on Earth have been driven to extinction a trace

to a single cause, the growing scale of the human enterprise. The rates,


scales, kinds, and combinations of changes occurring now are fundamentally

different from those at any other time in history; we are changing Earth more

rapidly than we understand it. In a very real sense, the world is in our hands

and how we handle it will determine its composition and dynamics, and our

fate.”

2.5. Summary

Dear learner, you learned different types of environmental problems and the

factors that contributed to environmental problems in this unit. The severity

and coverage of environmental problems is increasing from time to time

particularly in the 21st century.

Human beings are suffering from water, air and soil pollution. In addition,

global warming/climate change as a result of mostly human activities, waste

accumulation and the resultant consequences and ozone depletion are

environmental problems challenging human society. Ecosystem was

disturbed in some areas and loss of biodiversity contributed a lot to the

aggravation of climate change and expansion of desertification. Population

growth observed after industrial revolution increased the service human

being need from ecosystem. This also created a problem to the environment.

Environmental problems can be caused through natural process and man

made factors. However, human intervention is more accelerating the process

that lead to environmental problems than natural process. Generally, the

root causes of environmental problems are rooted in social, technological

and economic factors.

2.6. Self Test Questions1. What do you think is the sociological significance of studying

environmental problems?

2. List down basic global and national environmental problems that we

faced?


3. Most of the time different individuals and scholars argued that

environmental problem is massively the result of human activities? Are

agreeing with this and explain?

4. Enumerate the major root causes of environmental problems?

Chapter Three: Human and Nature Interaction

Dear learners, this chapter will introduce you with the basic ideas of the

dualistic interaction between human and their environment and the

theoretical explanation of the interaction between the two.

3.1. Introduction

Throughout history humans have both affected, and been affected by, the

natural world. While a good deal has been lost due to human actions, much

of what is valued about the environment has been preserved and protected

through human action. While many uncertainties remain, there is a

realization that environmental problems are becoming more and more

complex, especially as issues arise on a more global level, such as that of

atmospheric pollution or global warming.

Interactions between human society and the environment are constantly

changing. The environment, while highly valued by most, is used and altered

Chapter Objectives


Identify the interdependence between nature and human beings

Explain the role of values in influencing the dualistic interaction between the two

Identify the theoretical explanation of between human and environment (nature)


by a wide variety of people with many different interests and values.

Difficulties remain on how best to ensure the protection of our environment

and natural resources. There will always be tradeoffs and, many times,

unanticipated or unintended consequences. However, a well-managed

environment can provide goods and services that are both essential for our

well being as well as for continued economic prosperity.

The environment has become one of the most important issues of our time

and will continue to be well into the future. The challenge is to find

approaches to environmental management that give people the quality of

life they seek while protecting the environmental systems that are also the

foundations of our well being.

Human beings are dependent on the natural environment for everything

from basic food, clothing and shelter to the materials and advanced sources

of energy. We humans take action consciously to remake the world

according to our own interests and desires. This action creates problems

such as waste accumulation, acid rain, global warming and loss of

biodiversity. These ecological issues are issues for social understanding.

Sociologists have the following roles in dealing with the environment. First,

sociologists can explain how human social patterns have caused mounting

stress on the natural environment. Sociologists explain how environmental

problems are linked to particular global, historical and cultural change.

Second, sociologists can demonstrate how environmental damages are

unequally distributed. Third, sociologists conduct research on public opinion

towards environmental issues. Finally, sociologists can explore what the

environment and nature mean to people of various culture and social

backgrounds.

Environmental degradation is not a new phenomenon. However, the

awareness of the problem grew in the latter years of the 20th century.

Today‘s understanding of the problem is global in scope. This is because the


planet constitutes a single ecosystem. This reveals that changes to any part

of the natural environment ripple through the entire ecosystem.

3.2. Theoretical Explanation of Human and Nature Interaction

Dear learners, sociologically, how can you explain the interaction between

we human beings and nature?

Most of the writers and scholars have written extensively on the human

environment in general and the human environment interaction in particular.

For instance, the social, economic, and political factors that result in people

having to protect themselves from a polluted environment, and the social,

economic, and political consequences of such pollution have attracted the

attention of scholars. Demographers in particular, have measured population

growth and have equally considered humans in their environment.

The effect of human population on the natural environment has been

considered by demographers while sociologists have shown interest in the

relationship between size, human organizations, environment and

technology. Ecologists and agricultural specialists have on their part focused

interest in the restoration of land altered by human activity. For instance,

restoration ecologists stress the importance of conservation biology, the

protection of existing ecosystems through national park and wildlife

programmes. Such conservation ensures that species are preserved and can

be used to decolonize reclaimed land in restoration projects.

One good example of human factors in environmental problems is the

management of fisheries. A major goal of fisheries is sustainability; that is, to

limit catches so that fish populations are never damaged or depleted. For

instance, over-fishing can result in the loss of jobs for those employed in

fisheries and loss of food for a nation’s population. Most of the writers and

commentators on human-environment interactions have failed to look


beyond outer appearances in order to encounter new levels of social reality.

This is what constitutes the core of the sociological perspectives.

The sociological perspective invites us to look beyond what we take for

granted about our social lives and to examine them in fresh and creative

ways (Berger, 1963). There are for instance, many layers of meaning in the

human experience; things are not always what they seem. Networks of

invisible rules and institutional arrangements guide our behavior. Many of

these understandings are below the usual threshold of our awareness.

The objective of sociologist to uncovers new levels of reality on human-

environment interactions. Specifically, three contemporary sociological

perspectives: the functionalists, the conflict, and the interactionist

perspectives to explain this relationship.

A theoretical perspective provides a set of assumptions, interrelated

concepts, and statements about how various social phenomena are related

to one another. Theoretical perspectives are tools – mental constructs – that

allow us to visualize something.

The Functionalist Perspective: An accepted premise of the functionalist

position is that no human custom, institution, or set of behavior exists in

vacuum; there must always be an interplay between, the component

elements of a social system (including the environment), and a continuing

interdependence between them is created on many different levels.

Structural – functionalism seeks to describe the social system in terms of

structures, mechanisms, processes, and functions and to explain why a given

structure rather than another contributes to the satisfaction of a given

functional requisite at a given time. The functionalist draws mainly upon the

ideas of the pioneer sociologists – Auguste Comte, Herbert Spencer, and

Emile Durkheim. And one of the features of a system stressed by


functionalists is its tendency toward equilibrium, or balance, among its parts

and among the forces operating on it.

The functionalist perspective though has the following draw backs: has

difficulty in dealing with history and processes of change, has the tendency

to exaggerate consensus, integration, and stability while disregarding

conflict, dissent and instability it is still a useful tool for describing society

and identifying its structural part and the functions of these parts.

Functionalism for instance, provides a “big picture” of the whole social life,

particularly as it finds expressions in patterned, recurrent behavior and

institutions.

The perspective can be used to analyze various aspects of the human-

environment interaction. The functionalists approach the ecological

environment by examining the inter-connections between the various parts

composing the ecosystem. Functionalists see the ecosystem as exhibiting a

tendency toward equilibrium; in which its components maintain a delicate

balanced relationship with one another. Functionalists stress that our

survival depends on our ability to maintain a precarious balance among the

living and nonliving component comprising the biosphere (Hughes, 1989).

The reciprocal ties that bind human beings and their physical environment in

the Sub-Sahara region of Africa present a good example of the human-

environment interaction. This region is facing the danger of the growing

desert causing starvation among its people and an increase in the death of

cattell’s. Much of the “desertification “is not attributable to basic climatic

change, but to the overworking of marginal lands for crops, grassing, and

firewood. The introduction of western techniques, such, as irrigation, deep

plowing, and the use of chemical fertilizers, has compounded the sub-African

region’s problems. The irrigated land became waterlogged, accumulated too

much salt, and became useless. The wells dug in the arid region led people

and cattle to congregate in the vicinity of the wells, with the herds


overgrazing the pastures and trampling the ground with their hoofs. The

most obvious impact of desertification in addition to widespread poverty is

the degradation of a large expanse of land. This generally leads to potential

for human and animal carrying capacity, and decline in soil fertility. Deserts

are known to be environmental extreme on their own; human-induced

desertification has the potential to counteract any ameliorating effect of

climatic change on most deserts unless appropriate management actions are

taken.

The Niger–Delta (oil-producing) Region of Nigeria presents another good

example of the human-environment interaction. The activities of the oil

companies- Shell, Chevron-Texaco, and British Petrol among others in this

region have caused lots of damages especially pollution.

Pollution causes environmental damage and human health problems. On the

economic side, pollution control and clean up in this area costs money. And

anything involving money is always affected by politics. The interwoven role

played by politics, the economy, human health, and the environment is fully

analyzed under the conflict and interactionist perspectives.

Expanding human activities on land and seas lead to a vicious cycle because

humans intensify their exploitation of the land in order to compensate for

desertification and pollution. This can cause a lot of damage, thereby

resulting in what Merton calls ‘dysfunction’ on the land. To avoid this

damage to the ecosystem, functionalists emphasis that human beings must

become more sensitive to both the manifest (those consequences that are

intended and recognized by the participant in a system), and latent (those

consequences that are neither intended nor recognized by the participants in

a system) consequences of their actions on the environment. Such

precaution will lead to a state of balance or equilibrium.


The Conflict Perspective: Like functionalists, conflict theorists, focus their

attention on society as a whole, studying their institutions and structural

arrangements. The main source of conflict in human societies is scarcity of

the resources people require, according to conflict perspective. Wealth,

prestige, and power are always in limited supply, so that gains for one

individual or group are often associated with losses for others. Power, the

ability to control the behavior of others, even against their will-determines

who will gain and who will lose. Conflict theorists are concerned with how it is

that some groups acquire power, dominate other groups, and affect their will

in human efforts.

Generally speaking, conflict perspective does not offer a unified point of view

on many issues. Issues relating to environmental matters are no exceptions.

Some conflict theorists have linked environmental problems to the

distribution of the world’s resources than to a limited amount of resources

available. That is, the main issue is not one of how much is available but one

of which individuals and groups will secure a disproportionate share of what

is available. Consequently, the critical decisions that affect the environment

are made not in the interests of present and future generations but in the

interests of those groups that can impose their will on others (Hughes,

1999). From a conflict perspective people are usually separated into two

camps on environmental matters. Those who favor economic development

and growth even if it results in some measure of environmental damage, and

those who see environmental protection over economic goals. Although

conflict theorists also see many of the same circumstances earlier discussed

in Africa in general and Nigeria in particular, they however, come to

somewhat different conclusions. For instance, desertification is not blamed

for Africa’s problems, but rather the growing indebtedness pressure exerted

on African governments to promote cash crops for export rather than for

food crops for their people. This phenomenon is concisely described in the

World Bank Report in the 1980s. The Report explained the situation in five


ways: one, from 1980 to 1987, African farmers increased their food output by

only 1.3 percent, less than half the rise in population; two, commodity prices

fell simultaneously on the world market, and this made it impossible for

African nations to repay their debts; three, much of the money provided by

Western aid agencies was diverted to highly visible projects such as roads,

port facilities, airports, and office buildings, thereby recycling the aid money

to Western corporations, to the neglect of the African farmers; four, even

when Western nations provided funds for African governments, they have

found an outlet for surplus food in need of market which has benefited the

United States of America and European farmers; finally, assistance is often

rendered to African governments that are friendly toward the donor nations,

thus guaranteeing the stability of such ‘cooperative’ African nations

(Johonnes, Gareth 2004).

The Niger-Delta Region of Nigeria also fits into the human-environment

interactions. The coastal area of Niger-Delta Region contains diverse and

productive habitats in addition to minerals that are important for

settlements, development and local subsistence. Coastal resources in

particular are vital for many local communities and indigenous people. But

what exists in the Niger-Delta Region points to the contrary. In addition to

the pollution resulting from gas flaring, degradation of the marine

environment has also resulted from a wide range of activities on land.

Human settlements, land use, construction of coastal infrastructure,

agriculture, are affecting the marine environment. Shipping also causes

marine pollution and sea based activities. In Nigeria, for instance, marine

pollution is basically caused by oil producing activities. The marine

environment including the oceans and all the seas and adjacent coastal

areas form an integrated whole that is an essential component of the global

life-support and a positive asset that presents opportunities for sustainable

development (Sumit, 1992). Also in Nigeria, in addition to desertification and

the hazards of oil producing activities, soil erosion, deforestation and


overgrazing are adversely affecting productivity in the farming; forestry and

livestock sectors, thereby slowing overall economic growth in a country that

is an agriculturally based economy.

According to conflict theorists, expanding human requirements and

economic activities are placing ever increasing pressures on land resources,

creating competition and conflicts and resulting in sub-optional use of both

land and land resources, and at times loss of lives and property as reported

above. If human requirements are to be met in a sustainable manner, it is

essential to resolve these conflicts and move towards more effective and

efficient use of land and its natural resources. Integrated physical and land-

use planning and management are an eminently practical way to achieve

this.

The Interactionist Perspective: While the functionalist and conflict

perspectives focused on the macro or larger scale structure of society, the

interactionist perspective has traditionally been more concerned with the

micro or smaller-scale aspect of social life. Interactionists emphasize that

humans are social beings who live group existence. Basically, symbolic

interaction focuses upon the ways in which meanings emerge through

interaction. Its prime concern is to analyse the meanings of everyday life, in

a close observational work and intimate familiarity, and from these develop

an understanding of the underlying forms of human interaction. Symbolic

interactionism has four key foci (Marshall, 1996). The first highlights the

ways in which human beings are distinctly always concerned to study the

ways in which people give meaning to their feelings, their actions, and to the

wider social worlds in which their lives exist.

The second highlights process and emergence. For the interactionist, the

social world is a dynamic and dialectal web, situations are always encounters

with unstable outcomes, and lives and biographies are always in the process


of shifting and becoming, never fixed, not upon rigid structures, but upon

streams of activity with their adjustments and outcomes.

The third focus highlights that the social world is – interactive. From this

point of view there is no such thing as solidarity individual; humans are

always connected to ‘others’. The most basic unit of interaction analysis is

that of the self, which stresses the ways in which people can come to view

themselves as objects, and assume the role of others through a process of

the role taking. The final focus is that interactionists look beneath the

symbols, processes, and interactions in order to determine the underlying

patterns or forms of social life.

From interactionism, we gain an image of human beings as active agents

who fashion their behavior, as opposed to an image of individuals who

simply respond passively in a manner prescribed by social rules and

institutional arrangements.

Symbolic integrationists focus their sociological eye upon “people

behaviors”. The two major points of focus here are: the difference between

people’s attitudes and their actions, and the difference between expert and

public perceptions of risk.

The difference between people’s attitudes and their actions. Specifically

considered here is the issue of whether people are ready to take action or

not. People are generally divided into two groups – those who believe that

action should be taken to preserve the environment, that is, environmental

protection should take priority over economic growth, and those who believe

that economic gains should take precedence over environmental protection.

3.2.1. Public versus Expert Perceptions of Risks

A gap exists between public and expert perceptions of risk. Two examples

can be used to explain this difference: oil spillage, gas flaring, and global


warming. In Nigeria, reports from Newspapers and general public discussions

show that oil spillage and gas flaring are not only hazardous waste, they also

release radioactive materials. Up-to-date, the Nigerian government has not

found a solution to how the daily flaring of gas that causes air pollution can

be converted to economic advantage. This is not only hazardous to human

health; it is also an economic waste. Although the federal government had in

the past established Federal Environmental Protection Agency (FEPA), the

political wrangling, dissolution and reestablishment that had marred the

agency does not show that the government and/or the agency realize much

about the magnitude of the risks in these problems. By contrast, if Nigerians

in general and Delta Region people of Nigeria in particular, are asked about

global warming, and alteration of natural habitats, the general opinion will

rank relatively low in public concerns, but the Nigerian scientists, who know

much about the destructive nature of global warming will place it among the

top risks because their long-term potential consequences are known to be

damaging. Also their effects can be so widespread and difficult to reverse.

One is not saying outright that the Nigerian government does not realize the

“risk hazards”, of oil spillage or gas flaring, but the economic gains more

often override ethical considerations. For instance, the Federal Government

established the Oil Mineral Producing Area Development Commission

(OMPADEC) through Decree Number 23 of December, 1992. The basic

objectives of OMPADEC were the physical and human development of the oil

producing communities (Mitchel, Bruce 1997).

From the symbolic interactionist perspective, one can conclude that

environmental issues qualify for the adjective “social” because of two

reasons. One, they involve human judgements, decisions, and choices. Two,

they entail an exercise of power. For instance, the poor and minorities of the

Niger-Delta Region are much more exposed than other Nigerian citizens to

the dangers of environmental hazards. But political skirmishes, “settlement


syndrome”, and division among the Niger-Delta people have prevented all

efforts to find solutions to these environmental problems.

3.3. Summary

Dear distance learners, in this chapter we have seen the dualistic interaction between human

beings and the natural environment as an inevitable process that has both positive and negative

implications for environmental sustainability . This is because we human beings are dependent

on the natural environment to access our basic needs and wants in which we perform different

activities to realize those needs. Those actions directly or indirectly affect the physical, social,

economic and cultural aspect of the environment.

Hence, such inextricable linkage between human beings and the environment is sociologically

explained with structural functionalism, conflict and interactionism theories.

3.4. Self-checking exercise

1. What makes the interaction between environment and human beings is inevitable?

2. What is the difference between the common sense explanation of environmental societal

interaction and sociological explanation?

3. Compare and contrast the three major sociological theories in explaining nature and

human interaction?


Chapter Four: Social Construction of Environmental Issues and Problems

Dear learners, this chapter will enables you with the basic rational behind the

inclusion of environmental issues as the area of sociological investigation

and specifically, it will introduce you with how environmental issues and

problems are socially constructed .

4.1. Introduction

Central to the social construction of environmental issues and problems is

the idea that these do not rise and fall according to some fixed, asocial, self-

evident set of criteria. Rather, their progress varies in direct response to

successful ‘claims-making’ by a cast of social actors that includes scientists,

industrialists, politicians, civil servants, journalists and environmental

activists.

Environmental problems are similar in many ways to social problems in

general. There are, however, a few notable differences. While social

problems frequently cross over from a medical discourse to the arenas of

public discourse and action (Rittenhouse, 1991), they nevertheless derive

much of their rhetorical power from moral rather than factual argument. By

contrast, environmental problems such as pesticide poisoning or global

Chapter Objectives


Define the concept of social constructivism

Explain how environmental issues become socially constructed

Identify constructivism theory as the basic instrument of claim

Identify the major tasks used in social constructivism


warming are tied more directly to scientific findings and claims (Yearley,

1992). This is true even in the case of environmental justice claims, which

are among the most morally charged indictments of corporate and state

polluters. Furthermore, although they are traceable to human agents,

environmental problems have a more imposing physical basis than social

problems, which are more rooted in personal troubles that become

converted into public issues. The constructionist interpretation has one

primary set of roots in a paradigm shift that transformed the ‘sociology of

social problems’ in the early 1970s.

4.2. Constructing Social Problems

Dear learners, what do think social construction of realities mean?

Nearly a quarter of a century ago, the sociology of social problems first

began to experience a major conflict with the appearance of a seminal article

by Malcolm Spector and John Kitsuse (1973) entitled ‘Social problems: a

reformulation’. Spector and Kitsuse challenged the ‘structural functional’

approach to social problems that had theretofore dominated the field.

Functionalism, as exemplified by the work of Merton and Nisbet (1971),

assumed the existence of social problems (crime, divorce, mental illness)

which were the direct products of readily identifiable, distinctive and visible

objective conditions (Pettenger E., Mary 2007).

Sociologists were regarded as experts who employ scientific methods to

locate and analyze these moral violations and advise policy-makers on how

best to cope. In addition, the sociologist’s role was to bring to lay audiences

an awareness and understanding of worrisome conditions, especially where

these were not readily evident. Spector and Kitsuse argued that social

problems are not static conditions but rather ‘sequences of events’ that

develop on the basis of collective definitions. Accordingly, they defined social

problems as ‘the activities of groups making assertions of grievances and


claims to organizations, agencies and institutions about some putative

conditions. From this point of view, the process of claims-making is treated

as more important than the task of assessing whether these claims are truly

valid or not. For example, rather than document a rising crime rate, the

social problems analyst is urged to focus on how this problem is ‘generated

and sustained by the activities of complaining groups and institutional

responses to them. Since 1973, social constructionism has increasingly

moved towards the core of social theorizing, generating a critical mass of

theoretical and empirical contributions both within the social problems area

and across sociology as a whole.

4.3. The social construction of Environment

Dear learners, how do you think we human beings can construct the

environment?

One of the core concepts of sociology is the “social construction of reality”-

the idea that we shape our understanding of reality through our interaction

with each other. Sociologists promote the view that our ideas about nature

are necessarily embedded in our personal experience, sociopolitical history

and cultural context.

In this section we examine different ways in which humans construct

“nature”. In doing so, we emphasize how different social actors may have

more power to impose on others their own stories or understandings about

the natural world. The differences in the way groups define nature has to do

with the collective identities of those groups; and the question of who gets to

do with the defining has to do with the groups relative access to political,

financial, and other resources.

Humans reside in a natural world that is there. But this world is meaningless

by itself. Meanings are not inherent in the nature of things. Each culture

constructs its own world out of the infinite variety of nature. Nature is


socialized, recognized and made into a material manifestation of social

structure.

Why does the social construction of environment matter?

Reification, according to Berger and Luckmann, “implies that man is capable

of forgetting his own authorship of the human world. Human meanings are

no longer understood as world-producing but as being, in their turn, products

of the nature of things.” It is not an environmental change per se, but the

meanings of that change that are negotiated within and between groups of

people, that result in socio-cultural outcomes. For example, socio-cultural

changes resulting from the environmental change we called Hurricane

Katrina.

Individuals perceive and categorize that which is given- the social and

natural environment in terms of subjective, taken for granted symbols and

meanings and thereby define the situations in which they are located. These

definitions of the situation constitute reality for those who share these

meanings. As the context changes- as environmental change occurs, for

example, there is no inherent meaning to the change. In stead, people

negotiate the meaning of the environmental change as a reflection of their

changing definitions of themselves. In this sense, then nature and the

environment are socially and culturally constructed through these social

processes and become landscapes through social interaction and

negotiation.

When society addresses diverse environmental questions, knowledge of the

groups with vested interests in that particular physical environment by

having incorporated it into their landscapes becomes a factor in

understanding subsequent events. This knowledge enables us to consider

who influences the definition of the situation and how these influence is

accomplished, as well as how the definitions of the situation reflects the


groups’ definitions of themselves. The sociological framework of landscapes

provides a vehicle for understanding the use of power and political conflicts

that emerge around the issue of global environmental change.

Lamont and Wuthnow (1990) define power as the capacity to impose a

specific definition of reality which is disadvantageous to others or as the

capacity to structure the situation of others so as to limit their autonomy and

life chances.

In the context of landscapes, power is the capacity to impose a specific

definition of the physical environment, one that reflects the symbols and

meanings of a particular group of people. The particular landscape that

comes to dominate and thereby influence social actions and the allocation of

social resources is the one that represents the group exercising the greatest

degree of power.

Dear learners why is understanding power is important?

Differential access to the media through which the landscape are maintained

or changed affects the degree to which one landscape is likely to prevail over

others. Access to those media is affected by the power relationships in local,

national and global arenas. The power of some groups to access and control

the increasingly global media has direct consequences on whose symbolic

definitions of nature and the environment get imposed, some times through

the use of force, on others with less power.

It is suggested that the idea of global environmental change is another

landscape and that groups of people are calling for social and political

actions on the basis of this definition of the situation. As such the role of

sociologists in this global struggle should be expanded to focus more

attention on classic sociological questions. What are the classes, ideological,

institutional and organizational bases for the struggle over the landscape of


global environmental change and how does this struggle illustrate the

changing nature of power in global context?

Biophysical changes in the environment are meaningful or socio-culturally

significant only insofar as cultural groups come to acknowledge them

through a redefinition of themselves.

4.4. Constructionism as an Analytic Tool

Best (1989) has noted that constructionism is not only helpful as a

theoretical stance but also that it can be useful as an analytic tool. In this

regard, he suggests three primary foci for studying social problems from a

social constructionist perspective: the claims themselves; the claims-makers;

and the claims-making process which can be explained as initially

conceptualized by Spector and Kitsuse, claims were complaints about social

conditions which members of a group perceived to be offensive and

undesirable. According to Best, there are several key questions to be

considered when analyzing the content of a claim: What is being said about

the problem? How is the problem being typified? What is the rhetoric of

claims-making? How are claims presented so as to persuade their

audiences?

Of these, it is the third question that has generated the most interest among

contemporary social problems analysts. Using the example of the ‘missing

children’, e.g. runaways, child-snatched abductions by strangers, Best (1987)

analyses the content of social problems claims by focusing on the ‘rhetoric’

of claims-making. Rhetoric involves the deliberate use of language in order

to persuade. Rhetorical statements contain three principal components or

categories of statements: grounds, warrants and conclusions.

Grounds or data furnish the basic facts that shape the ensuing policy-making

discourse. There are three main types of grounds statements: definitions,

examples and numeric estimates. Definitions set the boundaries or domain


of the problem and give it an orientation, that is, a guide to how we interpret

it. Examples make it easier for public bodies to identify with the people

affected by the problem, especially where they are seen as helpless victims.

Atrocity tales are one especially effective type of example. By estimating the

magnitude of the problem, claims-makers establish its importance, its

potential for growth and its range (often of epidemic proportions).

Warrants are justifications for demanding that action be taken. These can

include presenting the victim as blameless or innocent, emphasizing links

with the historical past or linking the claims to basic rights and freedoms. For

example, in analyzing the professional literature on ‘elder abuse’, Baumann

(1989) identified six primary warrants: (1) the elderly are dependent; (2) the

elderly are vulnerable; (3) abuse is life-threatening; (4) the elderly are

incompetent; (5) ageing stresses families; (6) elder abuse often indicates

other family problems.

Conclusions spell out the action that is needed to alleviate or eradicate a

social problem. This frequently entails the formulation of new social control

policies by existing bureaucratic institutions or the creation of new agencies

to carry out these policies. Best further proposes two rhetorical themes or

tactics which vary according to the nature of the target audience. The

rhetoric of rectitude (values or morality require that a problem receive

attention) is most effective early on in a claims-making campaign when

audiences are more polarized, activists are less experienced and the primary

demand is for a problem to be viewed in a new way. By contrast, the rhetoric

of rationality (ratifying a claim will earn the audience some type of concrete

benefits) works best at the later stages of social problems construction when

claims-makers are more sophisticated, the primary demand is for detailed

policy agendas and audiences are more persuadable. Rafter (1992) has

added another rhetorical tactic to Best’s list: that of archetype formation.

Archetypes are the templates from which stereotypes are minted and


therefore possess considerable persuasive power as part of a claims-making

campaign. A further set of rhetorical strategies in claims-making has been

proposed by Ibarra and Kitsuse (1993) who outline a variety of rhetorical

idioms, motifs and claims-making styles. (Hannigan, 2006).

Rhetorical idioms are image clusters that endow claims with moral

significance. They include a ‘rhetoric of loss’ (of innocence, nature, culture,

etc.); a ‘rhetoric of unreason’ that invokes images of manipulation and

conspiracy; a ‘rhetoric of calamity’ (in a world full of deteriorating conditions,

epidemic proportions are claimed for a few; for example, AIDS or the

greenhouse effect); a ‘rhetoric of entitlement’ (justice and fair play demand

that the condition, or as Ibarra and Kitsuse term it, the ‘condition-category’,

be redressed), and the ‘rhetoric of endangerment’ (condition-categories pose

intolerable risks to one’s health or safety).

Rhetorical motifs are recurrent metaphors and other figures of speech (AIDS

as a ‘plague’, the depletion of the ozone layer as a ‘ticking time bomb’) that

highlight some aspect of a social problem and imbue it with a moral

significance. Some motifs refer to moral agents, others to practices and still

others to magnitudes (Ibarra and Kitsuse 1993 cited in Hannigan, 2006).

Claims-making styles refer to the fashioning of a claim so that it is

synchronous with the intended audience (public bodies, bureaucrats, etc.).

Examples of claims-making styles include a scientific style, a comic style, a

theatrical style, a civic style, a legalistic style and a subculture style. Claims-

makers must match the right style to the situation and audience.

Claims-makers

In looking at the identity of claims-makers, Best (1989) advises that we pose

a number of questions. Are claims-makers affiliated to specific organizations,

social movements, professions or interest groups? Do they represent their


own interests or those of third parties? Are they experienced or novices? (As

we have seen, this can influence the choice of rhetorical tactics.)

Many studies that have been undertaken in the social constructionist mode

have pointed to the important role played by medical professionals and

scientists in constructing social problems claims. Others have noted the

importance of policy or issue entrepreneurs –politicians, public interest law

firms, civil servants – whose careers are dependent upon creating new

opportunities, programmes and sources of funding. Claims-makers may also

reside in the mass media, especially since the manufacture of news depends

upon journalists, editors and producers constantly finding new trends,

fashions and issues.

The cast of claims-makers who combine to promote a social problem can be

quite diverse. For example, Kitsuse et al. (1984) identify three main

categories of claims-makers in the identification of the kikokushijo problem

in Japan, that is, the educational disadvantage of Japanese schoolchildren

whose parents have taken them abroad as part of a corporate or diplomatic

posting: officials in prestigious and influential government agencies;

informally organized groups of diplomatic and corporate wives; and the

‘meta’ – a support group of young adults who have been victims of the

kikokushijo experience. (Hannigan, 2006).

It is also important to keep in mind that not all claims-makers are to be found

among the grassroots or civil society. For example, it has been suggested

that the contemporary ‘obesity crisis’ has been captained by ‘a relatively

small group of scientists and doctors, many directly funded by the weight-

loss industry, [who] have created an arbitrary and unscientific definition of

overweight and obesity’.

The Process of Claims-making


Wiener (1981) has depicted the collective definition of social problems as a

continually ricocheting interaction among three sub-processes: animating

the problem (establishing turf rights, developing constituencies, funneling

advice and imparting skills and information); legitimating the problem

(borrowing expertise and prestige, redefining its scope, e.g. from a moral to

a legal question, building respectability, maintaining a separate identity);

and demonstrating the problem (competing for attention, combining for

strength, i.e. forging alliances with other claims-makers, selecting supportive

data, convincing opposing ideologists, enlarging the bounds of

responsibility). These are overlapping rather than sequential processes which

together result in a public arena being built around a social problem

(Hannigan, 2006).

Hilgartner and Bosk (1988 cited in Hannigan, 2006) have identified these

arenas of public discourse as the prime location for the evaluation of social

problem definitions. However, rather than examining the stages of problem

development, they propose a model which stresses the competition among

potential social problems for attention, legitimacy and societal resources.

Claims makers or ‘operatives’ are said to deliberately adapt their social

problem claims to fit their target environments; for instance, by packaging

their claims in a novel, dramatic and succinct form or by framing claims in

politically acceptable rhetoric.

4.5. Key Tasks/ Processes in the Social Construction of Environmental Problems

In defining environmental problems, bringing them to society’s attention and

provoking action, claims-makers must engage in a variety of activities which

includes; assembling, presenting and contesting claims that is summarized

below in the table:

Table 1; Key tasks in constructing environmental problems


Tasks

Primary activities

Assembling Presenting Contesting-discovering the problem-naming the problem-determining the basis of the claim-establishing parameters

-commanding attention-legitimating the claim

-invoking action-mobilizing support-defending ownership

Central forum Science mass media PoliticsPredominant layerof proof

Scientific Moral Legal

Predominantscientific role(s)

trend spotter Communicator Applied policy analyst

Potential pitfalls Lack of clarityambiguityconflicting scientificevidence

low visibilitydeclining novelty

co-optationissue fatiguecountervailing claims

Strategies for success

creating an experientialfocusstreamlining knowledgeclaimsscientific division of labor

linkage to popularissues and causesuse of dramatic verbaland visual imageryrhetorical tactics and strategies

networkingdeveloping technicalexpertiseopening policy windows

Source: modified from Hannigan, 2006

4.4. Summary

Dear distance learners, this chapter explains the social construction of social reality and

environmental issues and problems. Hence, social constructivism as the basic advocacy of

sociologists explains every reality that exists in this world is the result of societal labeling and

naming through social interaction.

More specifically, social construction of environmental issues and social problems are the

cumulative result of the claim, claim maker and claim making process through performing the

three major tasks of assessing, presenting and contesting.

4.6. Self-Checking Exercise


1. Why do you think the social construction of social reality becomes the basic point of

sociological inquiry?

2. What is the difference between the conceptualization of environmental problems and social

problems?

3. Enumerate and explain the basic components of constructing social realities?

Chapter Five: Sociological Perspectives on Environmental Problems

5.1. Chapter Objectives

Dear students, upon the accomplishment of this chapter, you are expected

to become able to:

1. Identify the possible relationship between the social and natural realms

of the world;

2. Apprehend the main intentions of different social explanations about

environmental problems on earth; and

3. Understand the main tenets of ecofeminism.

Questions for discussion1. What is the relationship between the social and

environmental dimensions of the planet?2. What do you think about the intention of sociological

explanations in addressing environmental problems?3. What are the prominent sociological perspectives for the

explanation of environmental problems?4. What is the subject matter of sociological theories of

environmental problems?


5.2. Introduction

Sociological theories can be understood as the main school of thought within

the discipline of sociology. Theoretical perspectives within sociology provides

researchers and students with guidance as to what sorts of problems and

questions may be in need of investigation, the concepts and hypotheses that

might guide that investigation or explain its outcomes, and the methods

appropriate to undertake it. While there are diverse theoretical perspectives

within sociology, they have in common an assumption that the root cause of

all social phenomena is social relationships (White, 2004). Here, we can see

that environmental problems are the outcomes of social relationships of

people in different parts of the world.

In other ways, out values, ideologies, norms, customs and traditions all act

upon our immediate natural and social environment. The behaviors and

conducts of members of a given society towards the natural as well as social

environments are guided by the elements culture. All social behaviors like

becoming economically advanced or less advanced are related with our

sociocultural settings which are mostly formed by the type of social

interaction we have one another (Redckuft & Benton, 1994).

Until 1970, sociologists found themselves without any prior body of theory or

research to guide them towards a distinctive understanding of the

relationship between society and environment. However, each of the three

prominent classical sociological pioneers (Emile Durkheim, Karl Marx and

Max Weber) questionably had as implied environmental realms to their


works. Eventually, isolated works regarding natural resources and the

environment had appeared particularly within the area of rural sociology

though this had never combined into a cumulative body of work (Hannigan,

1995).

Dear students, as you know from your lesson on the courses introduction of

sociology and sociological theories, both biological and geographical theories

of social development and social change lost their predominance when the

discipline sociology came to the scene as a unique discipline in the early 20th

century. Thus, it is appropriate to address the issue how both geographical

and biological theories failed when sociology emerged.

Environmental sociology has gone through two distinct stages since its

emergence in the 1970s as a discrete disciplinary area: (1) to identify a key

factor that created and enduring crisis of environmental degradation and

destruction; and (2) to discover the most effective mechanism of

environmental reform of improvement which will help chart the way forward

to more socially secure and environmentally friendly arrangements

(Hannigan, 1995). Sociological theories on environmental problems are

explanations of social causes and responses of environmental problems.

5.3. Structural Functionalist’s Perspective

For structural functionalist perspective environmental sociology deals with

the interaction between the natural environment and people. It underlines a

stable relationship between the two. Hence, structural functionalists

emphasize on the interdependence between human beings and the natural

Dear learners, please think over these things before reading functionalists point of view on environment. Functionalism and Functionalist Equilibrium and Stability Consensus and Pathology


environment because they are taken as parts of the social system. As to this

perspective, human actions, social patterns and cultural values affect the

environment, and, in turn, the environment affects social life. Environmental

problems, for functionalists, are therefore pathological that should be solved

for the stability of the human lives on earth (Mooney, 2005).

It focuses on how change in one aspect of the asocial system affects other in

a society. For example, after the national election of May, 2004 in Ethiopian,

public concerns about most of environmental problems declined sharply,

most likely due to the increasing concern about the political issues over the

same period, or the environment has been squeezed out of media headlines

or both.

This perspective is concerned with the latent functions-consequences of

social actions that are unintended and not widely recognized. For example,

more than 840,000 dams worldwide provide water to irrigate farmlands and

supply 17% of world’s electricity (Mooney, 2005). Yet, dam building has had

unintended negative consequences for the environment including the loss of

water lands and wildlife habitats, the emission of methane from rotting

vegetations trapped in reservoirs, and the altering of river flows downstream

kills plant and animal lives. Being mindful of latent functions means paying

attention to the unintended and often hidden environmental consequences

of human activities.

5.4. The Conflict Perspective

The conflict perspective, in general focuses on how wealth, power and the

pursuit of profit underlie many environmental problems. Wealth is related to

consumption patterns that cause environmental problems. Wealthy nations

have highest per capita consumption of petroleum, wood, metal, cements,

and generate large volume of waste. Our capitalist economic system has

been identified as a primary source of conflict over polluting (or conserving)

What is the central thing for conflict theory in relation to the environment?


our national world. Competing political and economic interests ensure that

this conflict will continue. As to environmental scholars, the capitalist system

encourages pollution, simply because air and water are treated as infinite

and free resource. Polluters do not really consider who or what is being

affected by environmental problems.

According to Hannigan (1995), of the three main sociological traditions, it is

associated with Karl Marx (the founding father of conflict theory) has

provoked the most intensive response from present-day environmental

interpreters. It was Marx’s analysis of social structure and social change that

has become the starting point for several formidable contemporary theories

of the environment. Marx and his followers believed that social conflict

between the two antagonistic classes in a society – the capitalists and the

proletariats – alienates ordinary people from their jobs and leads to their

estrangement form nature itself (Mooney, 2005). As to Marx and his

colleagues, when the industrial revolution proceeded through the 18th and

19th centuries, rural workers were removed from the land and driven into

crowded, polluted cities while the soil itself was drained of its vitality. Thus,

according to Karl Marx and his colleagues, capitalism was taken as the single

factor that produces a wide range of social ills from overpopulation and

resource depletion to the alienation of people from the natural world with

which they were once united. Therefore, for Marx and his followers, the

solution for environmental problems of the world is the overthrow of the

dominant system of production, capitalism, and to establish in its place of a

rationale, humane, environmentally unalienated social order (Hannigan,

1995).

Subsequently, the establishment of a new relationship between nature and

people becomes the panacea of environmental problems. But, Marx did not

put clear about the form of the relationship between the natural setting and


the people even though he argued that a distinctly anthropocentric direction

depicting humans as achieving mastery over nature. Contemporary Marxist

theory emphasizes not only the roles of capitalists but also that of the state

in fostering ecological destructions (Gross & Heinrichs, 2010).

According to the conflict theories in the contemporary world, resource

distribution is the main factor for the destruction of the natural environment.

This condition can be seen in the argument that states: the wealthiest 20%

of the world’s population are responsible for 86% of total private

consumption of natural resources (Mooney, 2005). The capitalist pursuit of

profit encourages making money from industry regardless of the damage

done to the environment since profit motives are the main driving forces for

the capitalists which make them blind of the hazardous depletion of

environment. Besides, to minimize sales, manufacturers design products to

become obsolete. As a result of this planned obsolescence, consumers

continually throw away used products and purchase replacements. Industries

profit at the expense of environment which must sustain the constant

production and absorb ever-increasing amount of waste. They also use their

wealth and power to politicians’ environmental policies.

5.5. Ecofeminist Perspective

According to ecofeminists respect for nature generally promotes humans’

welfare and genuine respect for all human beings tends to protect nature.

Ecofeminism, according to Pepper (1996), is a perspective within

environmentalism which is influenced by the general development of

feminism. Ecofeminists unite in a central belief in the essential convergence

between women and nature since, as to the proponents, women’s biological

make-up inevitably associates with the natural functions of reproduction and

Dear learners, you may female or if you are male, please assume that you are a female, and

think about the relationship of being a female with the natural environment. In what ways a

female can be seen as someone who is nearer than male? Or, is there anything in the

natural environment that related women with a hard glue?


nurturing. The other reason for the convergence between women and nature

is, according to Pepper (1996), that women and nature have in common that

they are exploited by men, both economically and in being objectified and

politically marginalized. Here, the argument is that (1) men/humans are

different from women/nature; (2) men/humans are superior to

women/nature, and therefore justified in dominating them. Ecofeminism

denies that differences imply superiority of justify domination.

Hence Ecofeminism, as one strand of the feminist perspective, began in

1974 to call attention to women’s potential to realize an ecological

revolution. This perspective view environmental problems as resulting from

human domination of the environment and see connection between the

domination of women, people of colors, children and the poor and the

domination of the nature (King & McCarthy, 2009). Throughout the world and

developing countries in particular, men are dominant in deciding on how

natural resources are used. Men are dominant in positions of government

and corporate leadership and own most of the land. By some estimates,

women around the world hold little to less than 2% of the land that is owned.

Ecofeminists often use a spiritual approach to addressing environmental

problems drawn on pagan Native American, New Age Eastern religions that

emphasize the close connection between women and the nature.

Ecofeminists argue the reality that many third world nations are facing in the

new future is one with half of their populations under the age of 18, roaming

shanty towns in overcrowded cities looking for food and work while the

ecosystem die around them (Hannigan, 1995). An ecosystem response to

this suffering would involve: (1) the health of the biosphere demands that

the rate of population growth level off everywhere and then decline (with the

exception of tribal peoples in danger of extinction); (2) Third World women

have made clear that they are not interested in contraception unless the

health and economic conditions are improved (studies have shown that when


the death rate of children goes down, the birth rate goes down); (3) women

at the regional level must be involved with the planning of population control

programs, healthcare, education, and small-scale economic opportunities;

(4) governments and institutions must address the patriarchal attitudes that

condition men to demand a large number of offspring in order to prove one's

virility --as well as the patriarchal attitudes that bring such misery, and

sometimes death, to young mothers who give birth to a female under

China's"successful" one-child-only policy (Hannigan, 1995).

Pepper (1996), argued that during and since the 1970s, debates within

ecofeminism have concentrated on two leading schools of thought:

cultural/radical ecofeminism and social ecofeminism (socialist/anarchist

ecofeminism).

5.5.1. Cultural/Radical Ecofeminism

This school of ecofeminism depends on the ‘the problems of our mother

could be solved by a women culture.’ This culture would draw on ancient

myths combining women and nature, mother and earth, in a cooperative

relationship: caring, nurturing, mutually giving and receiving. the idea is that

since the menstrual cycles follow phases of the moon, and fertility the

rhythm of the seasons, then women feel themselves as part of the eternal

cycle of birth, growth, maturation, and death, which follows through them,

not outside them (Pepper, 1996, p. 106). Similarly, ecofeminism celebrates

feminine closeness to nature.

cultural/radical ecofeminism contends, then, that ‘female culture’ is

concerned with the body, the flesh, the material, natural processes,

emotions and subjective feelings and private life, while ‘male culture’

emphasizes the mind, intellect, reason, culture, objectivity, economics and

public life. This school constantly seeks to transcend natural constraints on

what humans can do: men constantly fight to conquer, exploit and mould


nature, leaving their mark behind and thus achieving a form of immorality

and transcendence (Pepper, 1996). According to the writer, cultural

ecofeminism means liberating nature from the repressive male ethos so that

is will be suspected as a sustainer of life (Buttel, 2003).

However, this school of ecofeminist though is not free from problems. First, if

it claims that women have a special relationship with nature by virtue of

their biological roles (birth, nurturing) then men might stand permanently

condemned because of their biology to an inferior sort of relationship with

nature. In fact, men increasingly involve themselves in nurturing the young

thus departing from the male cultural stereotype.

Secondly, if the special relationship is claimed on the grounds of common

opposition by men, this is also problematic, for women are not the only

oppressed group in a society. Indeed, it could be argued that men are

oppressed in capitalism. Patriarchy may not, either, explain racism or class

oppression (Buttel, 2003).

Thirdly, it is difficult to prove that patriarchy is responsible for exploiting both

women and nature. As Pepper (1996) argued, it is a vague and loose

argument to suggest that merely because both men and nature are

dominated they are so for the same reason. Emancipating women may not,

therefore, automatically emancipate nature, and vice versa.

Fourthly, any cultural/radical feminism that wishes to elevate a female

stereotype rather than a male stereotype is problematic since both

stereotypes are deficient.

5.5.2. Materialist social ecofeminism


Pepper (1996) combined different works and considered that social (socialist-

anarchist) ecofeminism picks up many traditions in non-mainstream

European socialism: utopian socialism, classical anarchism, early Marx,

Engels’ dialects of nature, Morris’ News from nowhere and the critical theory

of Frankfurt school of neo-Marxism. They all insist that exploitation of nature

relates to exploitation in society, emphasizing social and political rather than

personal aspects of the domination of women and nature. Social

ecofeminism resists essentialism in general and biological determinism in

particular. A woman’s exploitation is interwoven with class, race, and species

oppression. It also rejects the crude economic class reductionism of some

Marxism; is does not accept that women’s oppression is merely a special

case of exploitation of the proletariat, or that to establish socialism would

mean automatically ending women’s or nature’s oppression.

People also argue that there is a need to construct a social feminism often

introduce more idealism that materialist analysis. some of the idealist social

ecofeminism proponents consider that there can be no liberation for women

in a society whose fundamental model of relationships is hierarchical, so

women must unite with the environmental movement to reshape the

underlying values of this society, that is its prevailing ideas, from which

hierarchical organization and domination are held to stem.

5.6. Symbolic Interactionist Perspective

This perspective focuses on how meanings, labels and definitions learned

through interaction and through the media affect the environment. Whether

an individual recycles, car-pools, or joins an environmental activist group is

influenced by the meanings and definitions of these behaviours that the

individual learns through interactions with others.

Large corporations and industries commonly utilize marketing and public

relation strategies to construct favourable meanings of their corporations or


industries (Mooney, 2005). There are several examples related with this idea.

The term green-washing refers to the way environmentally antisocially

damaging companies portray their corporation image and products as being

environmentally friendly or socially responsible. Philip Morris, the infamous

cigarette and food producer, donated $6 million to charity in 1999, but spent

$108 million in advertising to tell the world about their generosity. DuPont,

the biggest private generator of toxic waste in the US, attempt to project a

green image by producing a TV and showing seals clapping, whales and

dolphins jumping and flamingos flying. A logging company facing opposition

from environmentalist in New Zealand, describe their activities as

“sustainable harvesting indigenous production forests”- a phrase that sounds

more environmentally friendly than “logging of old growth forest” (Mooney,

2005).

5.7. Chapter Summary

Although there are several sociological theories that can explain the possible

relationships between human beings with the natural environment, this

chapter attempted to discuss only some general perspectives. The chapter

tried to show the interactions between the natural and social environments.

In elaborating the relationship between the two is vital in the development of

the knowledge-base. Different sociological theories of global, regional, and

national environmental problems have been addressed under this chapter.

Structural functionalists often observe the stabled and patterned ways of

relationships between the environment and people’s life.

It believes that there is interconnectedness between the two while conflict

perspective deals with the conflicting relationship between people and

natural environments. Similarly symbolic interactionists are interested in

understanding how people define the existing environmental problems and

their consequences. Finally, the chapter addressed the ecofeminist

perspective on the relationship between the natural environment and


people’s ways of life which centered on belief in the essential convergence

between women and nature since women’s biological make-up inevitably

associates with the natural functions of reproduction and nurturing.

5.7. Self-checking exercises:

1. What is the main reason for concentrating on the relationship between

the social and natural environment?

2. Do you think that functionalists believe in the idea of interconnection

between the natural and social environments? Why?

3. What is the cause for the prevalence of conflict between the social and

natural environments for conflict theorists?

4. Discuss the subject matters to ecofeminism.

5. What are the differences between cultural and material ecofeminists?

6. What makes ecofeminism different and similar with other feminist

theories?

7. How do people make meanings about the consequences environmental

problems on earth?


Chapter Six: Sustainable Development, Principles and Controversies

6.1. Chapter objectives

A dear learner, the main intentions of this chapter is, at the end, to make you

capable of:

understanding the concept sustainable development;

becoming aware of the controversies on sustainable development;

identifying various discourses of sustainable development;

familiarizing yourself with the focusing areas of sustainable

development;

understanding several issues raised within sustainable development;

apprehending what environmentally sustainability is meant; and

being aware of the issues raised at different world summit of

sustainable development and their importance.

6.2. Sustainable Development: the concept

The definition of sustainable development is difficult since it embodies a

number of ideas imported from different disciplines like economics, ecology,

sociology and environmental studies. Sustainable development involves

meeting the needs of the present world without endangering the ability of

the future generations in meeting their own needs (Mawhinney, 2002). The

aim, here, is for those alive today to meet their own needs without making it

impossible for future generations to meet their needs. This, in turn, calls for

an economic structure within which we consume only as much as the natural

Questions for Discussion1. What is sustainable development?2. Do you think that sustainability and development are

compatible?


environment can produce and make only as much waste as the environment

can absorb (Mawhinney, 2002).

The central objective of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit was to establish the need

to replace the existing exploitative and environmentally damaging forms of

economic development with more sustainable and environmentally friendly

form of development. It relates to the capacity of a system to maintain a

continuous flow of whatever each part of that system needs for its healthy

existence (Hancey & Danny, 2000).

Conservativists and ecologists have long been aware of the significance of

sustainability within the natural environment system. However, it was not

until the late 1980s that the broader concept of sustainable development

was first introduced by the world commission on environment and

development (Hannigan, 1995).

Generally, we can say that development involves more than economic

growth; it involves sustainability-the long term environmental, social, and

economic health of societies. Sustainable development is not a matter of

conserving the natural environment.

6.3. Controversies on Sustainable Development

The issue of sustainable development has several controversial matters

among several scholars and politicians around the world. One possible

confusion on the issue is related with “needs.” It is obvious that ‘needs’

themselves change. So it is unlikely that those of future generations will be

the same as of the present generation (White, 2004; White 2008).

Think over the following question: Why the concept sustainable development is controversial? What measures can be taken to mitigate environmental problems

having controversies on sustainable development?


The other area of confusion is related with the definitions of needs

themselves. How needs are defined in different situations and cultures? Most

of the consensus surrounding sustainable development has involved a

syllogism. Sustainable development is necessary for all of us, but it may be

defined differently in different sociocultural settings (White, 2004).

Still there are also considerable confusions surrounding what is to be

sustained. One of the reasons that there are so many contradictory

approaches to sustainable development is that different people identify the

objects of sustainability differently: economic, social, environmental, cultural,

or ecological? (Barrow, 2006).

For those whose primary interest is in ecological systems and the

conservation of natural resources, it is the natural resource base which

needs to be sustained. However, there are several key questions posed to

this conception: how can development activities be designed which help to

maintain ecological processes, such as soil fertility, the assimilation of

wastes, and water and nutrient recycling? Another related issue is the

conservation of genetic materials, both in themselves and (perhaps more

importantly) as part of complex and vulnerable systems of biodiversity

(Strange & Bayley, 2008). The natural resource base needs to be conserved

because of its intrinsic value.

There are other approaches, too. Some environmental economists argue that

the natural stock of resources, or ‘critical natural capital’, needs to be given

priority over the flows of income which depends upon it. They make the point

that manmade capital cannot be an effective substitute for natural capital. If

our objective is the sustainable yield of renewable resources, sustainable

development implies the management of these resources in the interest of

that natural stock (Pepper, 1996). This raises a number of issues which are

both political and distributive: who owns and controls genetic materials and

manages the environment? At what points does the conservation of natural


capital unnecessarily inhibit the sustainable flows of resources? Second,

according to what principles are the social institutions governing the use of

resources organized? What systems of tenure dictate the ownership and

management of the natural resource base? What institutions do we

bequeath, together with the environment, to future generation? (Strange &

Bayley, 2008). Several discourses are, therefore, have been developed in

relation to the concept sustainable development. These discourses are

briefly addressed in the next subtopic.

6.4. Discourses

Statements of ‘sustainable development’ implicitly or explicitly position

themselves in terms of the crisis of justice and the crisis of nature. Different

social actors generate different types of knowledge; they highlight certain

issues and underplay others. Where attention gets focused, how the problem

is defined, where solutions are sought, which agents are privileged – all

depend on how the debate on sustainability is framed (Radclift & Woodgate,

2010). There is, however, one assumption that is common to all

sustainability discourses: it is the hunch that the era of infinite development

hope has passed, giving way to an era in which the finiteness of

development becomes and accepted truth. Yet these discourses differ

drastically in the way they understand finiteness; they read the limits to

development either more in terms of space or mote in terms of time.

6.4.1. The Contest Perspective

With the most recent waves of economic transnationalization,

competitiveness has become the urgent imperative for economic and

political actors around the world. The contest perspective depends on this

competitiveness. For this perspective, environmental concern emerges as a

force propelling economic growth. Shifting consumer demand spurs

innovation, trimming down resource use lowers production costs, and

environmental technology opens up new markers. Ecology and economics


appear to be compatible; the pursuit of both promises to be, as the magic

formula goes, a positive-sum game (Radclift & Woodgate, 2010). Growth is

regarded as part of the solution, not as part of the problem. Indeed, it is

perhaps this conceptual innovation which has done most to propel

environmentalism into mainstream thought.

The search for competitive strength can live with the concept of the

finiteness of development in space, but cannot concur with the notion of

finiteness of development in time. According to Radclift and Woodgate

(2010), for the contest perspective is, therefore, the growth of civilization,

and its further diffusion through ‘free trade’ remained unquestioned in terms

of time, while their limitations in geographical space is secretly accepted.

6.4.2. The Astronaut’s Perspective

Many environmentalists claim to be saving nothing less than the planet. For

them, the blue earth, that suggestive globe, suspended in the dark universe,

delicately furnished with clouds, oceans and continents, has become the

reality that ultimately matters, Radclift and Woodgate (2010) argued. Since

the 1970s, the world has been increasingly perceived as a physical body

sustained by a variety of biogeochemical processes rather than as a

collection of states and cultures. Sustainability is, thus, increasingly

conceived as a challenge for global management. Experts set out to identify

on a planetary scale the balance between human extractions/emissions, on

the one hand, and the regenerative capacities of nature, on the other,

mapping and monitoring, measuring and calculating resource flows and

biogeographical cycles around the globe. “This is essential if a more accurate

estimate is to be provided of the carrying capacity of the planet Earth and of

its resilience under the many stresses placed upon it by human

activities.’(Agenda 21, ch. 5.1).


Fundamental to this perspective, is, because the effects of industrial

civilization spread globally, the range of responsibility of the North should

also embrace the entire globe. As a consequence, the globe is considered

the proper arena for environmental adjustment, and not chiefly the South, as

in the contest perspective. Scarcity against global threats is sought primarily

in the rational planning of planetary conditions, not in the defence of the

empires of wealth. The fragility of the biosphere put under stress by human

action is the story line of this approach (Radclift & Woodgate, 2010).

6.4.3. The Home Perspective

Sustainable development in this perspective is neither about economic

excellence not about biospherical stability, but about local livelihoods. From

this point of view, the number one cause of environment degradation is

overdevelopment and not an inefficient allocation of resources or the

proliferation of the human species. Under this perspective, the focus is the

goal and the structure of development which is seen in the North as one

diminishing well-being, and in both instances as environmentally disruptive

(Radclift & Woodgate, 2010). Sustainable development is suspected of being

an oxymoron; in one way or the other, practical and theoretical efforts

therefore aim at alternative to economic development. Moreover, it is in this

perspective that the crisis of justice figures prominently in the debate.

6.5. Areas of Sustainable Development

The United Nations Division for Sustainable Development listed such areas

as, education and awareness, international law, science, atmosphere,

capacity building, land management, international cooperation for enabling

environment, institutional arrangements, demographics, chemicals,

desertification and drought, national sustainable development strategies and

settlement (Mooney, 2005).


Often times, sustainable development is an ambiguous concept, as wide

array of views fall under its umbrella. As it has been tried to address above,

the concept sustainable development has included the notions of weak

sustainability, string sustainability, and deep ecology. Different conceptions

also reveal a strong tension between econcentrism and

anthropocentrism (Pepper, 1995). Thus, the concept remains weakly

defined and contains a large amount of debate as to its precise definitions.

During the last ten years, different organizations have tried to measure and

monitor the proximity to what they consider sustainability by implementing

what has been called sustainability metric and indices.

6.6. Issues within Sustainable Development

There are three key issues that are taken seriously in sustainable

development:

1. Intergenerational implication of resource use – how effectively do

decisions about the use of natural resources preserve an

environmental heritage or estate for the benefit of future generation?

2. Equal concern – who has access to resources? How fairly are

available resources allocating between the competing claimants?

3. Time horizon – how much are resource allocation decisions oriented

towards short-term economic gain or long-term environmental

stability.

6.7. Principles of Sustainable Development

Respect and care for the community life,

Improve the quality of life,

Conserve the earth’s utility and diversity,

Minimize the depletion of nonrenewable resources,

Keep with the earth’s carrying capacity,

Change personal attitudes and practices,


Enable communities the care for their own environment,

Provide the national framework for integrating development and

environment, and

Create a global alliance.

6.8. Environmental Sustainability

Environmental sustainability is defined as the ability of the environment to

continue to function properly indefinitely. This involves meeting the present

needs of humans without endangering the welfare of future generations. The

goal of environmental sustainability is to minimize environmental

degradation, and to halt and reverse the processes they lead to (Ukaga,

Maser & Reichenbach, 2010).

An”unsustainable situation” occurs when natural capital (the sum total of

nature’s resources) is used up faster than it can be replenished (Mawhinney,

2002). Sustainability requires that human activity only uses nature’s

resources at a rate at which they can be replenished naturally, as it is

presented in the following table.

Table 1: Sustainability of the environment

Consumption of renewable

resources

State of

environmentSustainability

More than nature's ability to

replenish

Environmental

degradationNot sustainable

Equal to nature's ability to

replenish

Environmental

equilibrium

Steady-state

Sustainability

Less than nature's ability to

replenish

Environmental

renewal

Sustainable

development


Theoretically, the long-term result of environmental degradation would be

local environments that are no longer able to sustain human populations to

any degree. Such degradation on a global scale could imply extinction for

humanity.

6.9. World Summit on Sustainable Development

The United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), also

known as Earth Summit II or Rio +10, took place in Johannesburg, South

Africa between August 26th and September 4th 2002. This was some 10

years after the Rio Earth Summit.

6.9.1. Progress on Sustainability so far

As highlighted in the introduction page, the record on moving towards

sustainability so far appears to have been quite poor and the vast majority of

humanity still lack access to basics such as clean water, adequate sanitation,

electricity and so on. And this is in the backdrop of an increasing amount of

wealth in fewer hands.

Given that previous international meetings on sustainable development

seem to have had little effect on the world's majority, the Johannesburg

Summit was considered by some to appear quite ambitious to say the least

and many were skeptical as to whether anything of importance would even

come of this summit (Hancey & Dann, 2000).

A broader agenda than the Rio Summit in 1992, the summit in Johannesburg

also included a huge number of delegates representing nations, business

interests and non-profit environmental and development/citizen/social justice

groups. Various key issues were addressed, including:

Poverty

Water quality and availability

Cleaner energy


Health

Good governance

Technology

Production and Consumption

Oceans and Fisheries

Tourism

These are just a sample and were all discussed in varying degrees among

different stakeholders and other responsible bodies. Other related issues

such as globalization, women's rights were also discussed.

Some understandably criticized the summit as over-ambitious to try and talk

about so many issues. Yet, true or not, it shows that there is at least an

apparent growing recognition that sustainable development (admittedly a

somewhat overused word) means a myriad of inter-related issues, not

something solely in the realms of environmentalism, but also deep into

economics (which governs how resources are used), and a variety of

sociopolitical issues (Hancey & Danny, 2000).

6.10. Chapter summary

This chapter has addressed the concept sustainable development that refers

to development process which involves meeting the needs of the present

generation without endangering the ability of the future generation in

meeting their own needs. However, it is also mentioned that the concept

sustainability does not gain the same definitions among different people –

there are controversies. Hence, the chapter dealt with such discoursing

perspective as the contest, the astronaut and the home perspectives.

Besides, the areas of sustainable development have also been treated along

with those issues within its nature. Finally, such topics as principles of

sustainable development, environmental sustainability and the summary of


world summits on sustainable development were also addressed in the

chapter.

6.11. Self-checking exercises1. This chapter from the very beginning defined sustainable development as the

effort to meet the needs of present generation without compromising the ability

of future generation to meet their need. Is it possible? What about the rationality

of human beings within their immediate environments?

2. Please discuss the controversial issues within sustainable development.

3. What about the focus of the three discoursing perspective?

4. List down the possible principles of sustainable development.

5. What areas of focus are identified for sustainable development?

6. Which state of the natural environment is considered as

environmental sustainability? At what point the economic

development is seen as environmentally sustainable?

7. Is there any possibility for all parts of the world to deal with

sustainable development so as to preserve the environment?

8. Is sustainable development a panacea for the degradation of natural

environment?

Chapter Seven: Environmental Governance and Environmentalism


Upon the accomplishment of this chapter, students will become able to:

1. understand the nature of environmental crimes around the world;

2. categorize different environmental crimes in the world;

3. deal with different strategies of environmental conservation;

4. see the importance of environmental awareness raising efforts in

conserving the natural environment;

5. become familiar with the idea of environmentalism; and

6. identify various environmental organizations and conferences.


7.2. Introduction

The first part of the chapter concentrates on crimes related with the natural

environment with the special attention to their categories. Injustice in terms

of environment is also seriously addressed under this chapter. Likewise,

some important strategies so far implemented were also the subject matters

of the chapter. The concept environmentalism was also addressed in the

chapter with other matters as environmental education, organizationa, and

conferences.

7.3. Environmental Crime

Environmental criminology, as a recent formulated branch of criminology,

tries to address several types of crimes or harms committed against the

natural environment. Drawing upon a wide range of ideas and empirical

investigations, recent work dealing with environmental harm has ventured

across many different areas of concern regarding the environment (White,

2008). Some of the areas of concern are:

1. exploitation of biotechnology and the corporate colonization of nature,

particularly in regards to the development and marketing of genetically

modified food;

2. the transborder movement and dumping of waste products;

3. the problem of illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and how

best to intervene in preventing overexploitation of ocean resources;

4. under globalized systems of production, the generation of toxic waste

in less developed countries by companies based in advanced

industrialized nations;

Dear learners, please list down some possible environmental crimes based on your own personal experiences, before reading this subsection.


5. the diminishing in the quantity and quality of drinking water worldwide

and the influence of transnational corporations in controlling water

resources;

6. Environmental degradation on indigenous people’s lands perpetrated

by governments and companies.

7. inequalities in the distribution of environmental risk, especially as this

related to poor and minority population;

8. the one-on-one and the systematic institutionalized abuse of animals,

as well as how changing environments affect the lives and well-being

of nonhuman animals; and

9. The environmental and social damage caused by enforced pursuit of

structural adjustment policies generated by the World Bank.

7.4. Categories of Environmental Harms

Environmental crimes are also called green crimes which are broadly defined

simply as crimes against the environment (White, 2008). These crimes can

be classified as primary and secondary or symbolic green crimes. Dear

students, please refer to the following textbox.

Primary green crimes:

1. crimes of air pollution (e.g. burning of corporate waste)

2. crimes of deforestation (e.g. destruction of rainforest)

3. crimes of species decline and against animal rights (e.g. traffic in

animals and animal parts)

4. Crimes of water pollution (e.g. lack of drinking water).

Secondary green crimes:

1. State violence against oppositional groups (e.g. French bombing

of Rainbow), and

2. Hazardous waste and organized crime (e.g. toxic and general

waste dumping not both legal and illegal).

Source: White, 2008: p. 93.

How do you categorize the above mentioned lists of environmental harms into different groups?


Primary crimes are those crimes that result directly from the destruction and

degradation of the earth’s resources, through human actions, while secondary or

symbiotic green crime is that crime arising out of the flouting of rules that seek or generate

environmental disasters (White, 2008).

Although environmental problems are global in nature, the effects of them

are not one and the same across different parts of the world. The extent of

the problem varies in terms of social group, racial group, society, and

geographic location. This situation is known as environmental injustice which

is addressed below.

7.5. Environmental Injustice or Racism

Even though environmental pollution and degradation and depletion of

natural resources affect us all, some groups, as mentioned above, are more

affected than others. This is environmental injustice which refers to

environmental racism that is the tendency for socially and politically

marginalized groups to bear the burnt of environmental ills as Kiss and

Shelton (2007) mentioned. In most industrialized countries, polluting

industries, industrial wastes, and transporting facilities are often located in

minority, powerless communities who are the most disadvangous in terms of

What is environmental injustice?

What are the elements of environmental injustice?


power, wealth and prestige distributions which are the bases for social

stratification in modern societies.

Environmental injustice affects marginalized populations in the world,

including minority groups, indigenous peoples, and other vulnerable and

impoverished communities such as peasants and nomadic people. These

groups are often powerless to fight against government and corporate power

that sustain environmentally damaging industries (Champan, Kumar, Fraser

& Gaber, 1997).

7.6. Strategies for Environment Conservation

Several efforts have so far been done by different concerned bodies in the

world so as to conserve the natural environment. Some of such efforts

include environmental education, establishment of environmental pressure

group, environmental movement and development of environmental

organizations and international conferences. These issues are addressed

below in a brief manner.

7.6.1. Environmental awareness

Environmental awareness can be seen as environmental education which

refers to efforts organized to teach about how the natural environments

function. It also concerns with human beings’ management of their

behaviour and their immediate environments (ecosystem) so as to live in a

sustainable manner. Environmental education is not only imply some forms

of education delivered within the formal school level but also includes other

broad dimensions that includes all the commitments done for educating

public and other spectators using printing materials, websites, media

campaigns, and so on (William, 1996).

Environmental education is one of those mechanism by which we can

alleviate environmental problems. These mechanisms may include low


fertility rate, slow population growth, energy conservation, innovation,

environmental activisms, government regulations and legislations,

sustainable development, and international cooperation and assistance. All

these mechanisms for the realization of environmental education can bring

about changes on the natural environmental directly or indirectly.

One of those vital goals organizations and acrivists established for

environmental awareness is to educate the public about environmental

issues and the seriousness of environmental problems. As per the idea of

Sandler and Pezzullo (2007), they seriously address the extents and types of

environmental problems, and the negative consequences and mitigation

measures of these problems with the presupposition that lack of accurate

information about the environment can make individuals to remain less

serious towards environmental problems.

Therefore, it is believed that an increased knowledge is the key to bring

about change in attitude and behavior regarding the natural environment.

The media is the vital sources of environmental information for most people

in the world. Here, dear students, we can mention the nuclear liking occurred

in Japan due to natural hazard last time. Where did you get the information

about this environmental information? It is obvious that you were informed

that several people were seriously harmed by the phenomenon which was

aggravated by the problem occurred in those nuclear plants of the country

via different mass media like television, radio, newspapers and others.

However, because media are owned by corporations and wealthy individuals,

in the case of western industrialized nations, with corporate ties, unbiased

information about environmental impacts of corporate activities may not

readily be found in the mainstream media channels.


7.6.2. Environmental Pressure Groups

Environmental pressure groups have existed since the 1970s although for

about the first 100 years they were not labeled as pressure groups (Mooney,

2005). However, progress was greatest in the new world and the passing of

the Conservation Act by the US congress in 1872 was the first to allow to be

set aside for the exclusive benefit and employment (Williams, 1996).

However, the first modern environmental pressure group appeared at the

beginning of the 1970s. Even though the ranges of the issues covered by

environmental pressure group have been remarkably diverse; they have the

common aim of successfully influencing public attitudes towards

environmental issues at the local, national, and international levels (Durant,

2004).

Several different categories of environmental pressure group now exist,

ranging from the small local group that tries to prevent local development on

the Greenfield, to the global operation of organization.

7.7. Environmentalism

Q: What do you think about the concept environmentalism?

Dunlap and Marshall (2006) stated that modern environmental movement in

the world, particularly in the West, evolved out of the older conservation

movement and the social activism of the 1960s for which sociologists

contributed to documenting its evolution. Environmentalism is concerned

with the improvement or preservation of the natural environment through

such schemes as natural resource conservation, pollution prevention, and

some land use actions and techniques. Early sociological studies of

environmental movements focused heavily on the characteristics of people

who joined environmental organizations as well as the nature of the

organizations themselves. Environmentalism mostly works for the

achievement of the efforts done by indigenous people against the expansion


of globalization to their culture. Understanding of an applied

environmentalism is divided into two: the mainstream anthropocentric or

hierarchic and the more radical ecocentric or egalitarian. In the other words,

environmentalism deals with two points of views: (1) to focus on human kind,

or (2) to emphasize on the well-being of the econsystem. Buttel (2003), on

the other hand, mentioned that over the past 35 years, there have been four

major types of environmental movements emerged in Western world. These

new types of environmental movement discourses include the ecocentric,

political ecology, deep ecology, and ecofeminist discourses.

According to Buttel (2003) ecocentric environmental groups adhere to the

view that natural systems are the basis of humanity, that humans’ survival is

linked to the ecosystem survival, and that human ethics should be guided by

ecological responsibility.

The political ecology discourse, as to the writer, is guided by the view that

the domination of humans by other humans leads to the domination of

nature and that politics and economic power creates major environmental

problems. Solutions to environmental problems, according to Buttel, required

fundamental social change based on empowering subordinate groups such

as the local communities and the poor people within these communities.

Deep ecology groups’ discourses are based on the fundamental principles

that the richness and diversity of all life, including nonhuman life forms, have

value and should be protected and that human life should be privileged only

on the extent required to satisfy human’s vital needs (Buttel, 2003). Several

ecology groups have been appeared in the world. Some of them include the

Militant Group Earth First, Rainforest Action Network, and Wild Earth.

Finally, ecofeminism is based primarily on the notion that ecosystem

destruction is based on androcentric or patriarchical concepts and

institutions and that eradication of androcentric institution is the lynchpin of


solving environmental and other social problems, for example, World Women

in Defense of the Environment and Women and Development are typical

ecofeminist groups (Buttel, 2003; Grendstad, Selle, Bortne & Stromsnes,

2006).

Buttel further argued that the past decade has witness the rise of other new,

and often highly provocative, environmental movement organizations and

movements like the environmental justice movement, the grassroots

environmental movement, and the radical ecological resistance movement in

the developing world.

Environmentalism, as one subject matter of the sociology of social

movement, can be defined in a descriptive manner sine the descriptive

definition of social movement can incorporate much of the elements of

environmentalism (Yearley, 2005). According to the writer, although there

are many similarities between environmentalism and other social

movements, there are three ways in which the ecological movement stands

out: (1) its intimate relationship to science, (2) its practical claims to

international solidarity, and (3) its ability to offer a concerted critique of, and

alternative to, capitalist industrialism. Yearley further explained that the

three factors mentioned earlier should be addressed in a careful manner for

the clear understanding of the difference between environmentalism and

other forms of social movements.

Generally, environmentalism as the social movement includes all forms of

movements focusing on the conversation, prevention and improvement of

the natural environment. An environmental movement, which includes such

terms as the conservation and green movements, is a varied empirical,

political and social movement. it subject matter is mostly concerned with

advocating the management of resources sustainably, and the protection on

natural environments through the intervention of public policy and individual

behaviour changes. The movement is centered on such issues as ecology,


health, and human rights since it recognizes humanity as a participant in

ecosystem. a range of organizations represent the movement, from the large

to grassroots. However, due to the persistence of large membership, varying

and strong beliefs the movement is not entirely united.

7.8. Environmental Organizations and Conferences

The nature and types of environmental organizations vary based on different

things. In terms of their coverage, they can be global, regional, national or

local while they can be categorized into governmental or nongovernmental

organizations on the basis of the actor of the intervention. These

organizations work in the areas of information dissemination, participation in

public hearings, lobby, stage demonstration, and purchase land for

preservation. There are also other smaller groups involved in conducting

research on the ecosystem and endangered species. Still, there are some

more radical organizations that directly opposed behaviours they regard as

environmentally harmful (Redclif & Woodgate, 2010).

Although it is addressed under chapter eight, it is worthwhile to briefly deal

with environmental conferences here simply to relate is the issue we have

already discussing. Globally, attention for the environment was the subject of

a United Nations conference held in 1972 in Stockholm which was attended

by 114 nations. Participants of this conference were responsible to develop

the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) and the follow-up UN

conference on Environment and development in 1992. Organizations like

Commission for Environmental Cooperation (NAFTA), the European

Environment Agency (EEA), and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate

Change (IPCC) were some other bodies in support of environmental policies

development (Pezzullo, 2007; Durant, Florino & O’leary, 2004).


7.9. Chapter summary

The main focusing area of chapter seven is environmental movements that

can be manifested in different forms of social movement at the global level.

It addresses the issue of environmental crimes with their different varieties

as well as the injustice occurred within the natural environment, the

strategies for the conservation of the environment, environmentalism, and

different organizations and conferences. Generally, the chapter deals with

the environmental harms in the form of crime and those organized an

environmental movement which uses different strategies of combating the

problem of global environment.

7.10. Self-check Exercise

Dear learners, please address the following questions that help you to

summarize the main contents of the chapter.

1. What are environmental crimes? What are the differences of

environmental crimes from other forms of crimes like crimes against

properties, crimes against person, and white collar crimes?

2. List down all the possible environmental harms and discuss with your

colleague.

3. What is environmental injustice? What about it uniqueness?

4. Mention two important strategies for global environmental

conversation. Discuss each of them?

5. What is the difference between social movement and

environmentalism?

6. What do you think the benefits of international environmental

organizations and conferences?


Chapter Eight: Global Environmental Conventions and Treaties


Dear learners, after you have covered this chapter, you will be able to:

Familiar with different international conventions and treaties pertaining

to environmental problems; and

Understand the need for an international effort in combating

environmental problems.

8.2. Introduction

Several environmentalists found that all economies are supported by natural

resources; and many environmental problems do not recognize political

boundaries. They call for all countries to make environmental conservation

their major focus of diplomacy and governmental policy at all levels.

Since 1972 UN Conference on Human Environment in Stockholm Sweden,

some progress has been made in addressing environmental issues at the

global level. Today, 115 nations have environmental protection agencies,

though nominal they are, and nearly 240 international environment treaties

and agreements among various countries have been signed. They address

issues such as endangered species, ozone depletion, ocean pollution, air

pollution, climate change, loss of biodiversity, and hazardous waste

exporting.

The 1972 conference also created the UN Environmental Program (UNEP) to

negotiate environmental treaties and to help, monitor, and implement them.

In June 1992, the second UN environmental conference- “Rio Earth Summit”-

was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. More than 100 heads of states, 1000


officials, and more than 1600 accredited NGOs from 178 nations met to

develop plans to address environmental issues.

The major results of the 1992 conference include the following:

1. An Earth Charter: a nonbinding statement of broad principles for

environmental guiding environmental policy that commits countries,

those sign it, to pursue sustainable development and work towards

poverty eradication.

2. Agenda 21: a nonbinding detail action plan to guide counties towards

sustainable development and protection of the global environment

during the 21st century.

3. A forestry agreement: a broad nonbinding statement of principles of

forest management and protection.

4. A convention on climate change: this convention requires countries

to use their best effort to reduce their emission of green house gases.

5. A convention on protecting biodiversity: calls for countries to

develop strategies for the conservation and sustainable use of

biodiversity. This was not signed by bush.

6. The UN commission for sustainable development established:

this was composed of a high level of government representative

charged with carrying out and overseeing the implementation of the

agreements.

However, most environmentalists around the world were disappointed at the

Rio earth summit as those accomplishments consisted only of nonbinding

agreements without sufficient incentives or funding for their implementation.

Costs for agenda 21(contained 40 chapters)

Items Costs($billions)Protecting the atmosphere 21.00 Mountains and deserts 21.70 Rivers and seas 31.20


Forest 67.90 Biodiversity 23.50 Population growth 7.10 Land use and agriculture 31.85 Human settlements 218.00 Poverty and consumption 30.00 Health 51.00 Waste 28.10 Government and UNs 20.70 Major groups 0.37 Trade and money 8.90 Total 561.32

Funding

$460000 million or 77% of the above amount is from local sources.

$140000 million or 23% of the above amount is from international sources-

WB, Foreign aid.

Even though some aims were not achieved at Rio, it was nonetheless an

important step on the long-term path towards environmentally sustainable

development. Whilst agenda 21 was not legally binding, it is based on

political and moral commitments from those who signed it. And much more

work need to be done at the national level by integrating environmental

consideration into policies, programs and development projects.

8.3. Concise Summary of Global Conferences, Agreements and

Convention on the Environment

In 1972, the declaration of the UN conference on human environment

in Stockholm Sweden.

The 1985 Vienna convention and the 1987 Montréal protocol on

substances that deplete the ozone layer-they are major examples of

international agreements done to protect the atmosphere.

Two revisions on the 1987 protocol have been made, the latest being

made in 1992.


The Toronto conference of 1988 called for the resolution of

carbondioxide emissions by 20% of the 1988 level by 2005.

In 1988 International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was established

by UNEP and the world meteorological organization.

In 1992 the UN conference on environment and development (UNCED)

was held in Rio de Janeiro. There were a number of statements

including the framework convention on climate change (FCCC). This

came into force in March 1994. Joint implementation (JI) was outlined in

the FCCC. Countries active in implemented jointly (AIJ) include

Australia, Canada, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and the USA.

A range of AIJ projects are now operating, include forestry schemes,

fuel switching, wind power, hydroelectric power, geothermal power and

hand-fill gas.

In 1997, governments established the Kyoto protocol, ratification of

which would set up targets for reduction of greenhouse gas emission.

The Hague conference of 2000 was described as a make-or-break

gathering at which countries accepted or refused the terms of the

Kyoto protocol. This protocol was ratified by 55 developed industrial

countries which account for 55%of the carbondioxide emissions.

However, there were pro0blems with the Kyoto protocol: many

pressure groups were concerned about a technical detail in the

protocol which allows a participating country meeting its emissions

reduction target through trading any surplus reduction with another

country. This means richer countries could ‘buy’ such reductions and

avoid making significant cuts to their emissions. The USA Canada,

Japan, New Zealand and Australia want most of their emission targets

to be fulfilled by these emission trading mechanisms. The EU has been

keener to make real cuts in emission, but many EU governments

including Britain want the USA to ratify the Kyoto protocol.


The Kyoto protocol according to Nagle (200), there are many ways for

countries to keep the protocol target without cutting domestic emissions.

These are:

Plant forests to absorb carbondioxide or change agricultural practices,

e.g. keeping fewer cattle.

Install clean technology in other countries and claim carbondioxide

reduction credits for themselves.

Buy carbondioxide credits from other countries such as Russia where

traditional heavy industries have declined and the national

carbondioxide limits are underused.

Even if greenhouse gas in the atmosphere is cut by 60-80 percent, there is

still enough greenhouse gas in the atmosphere to raise temperature by 5%.

Thus the Kyoto agreement was only meant to be the beginning of the large-

term process, not the end of the one. The guidelines for measuring and

cutting greenhouse gases, as to Nagle (2000), were not finished into Kyoto. It

was not decided to what extent the planting of forests and carbondioxide

trading could be raised upon.

Whatever it is, without agreement the world poor will suffer a lot. Flooding,

drought and famine will continue. But, if we can cut fuel use, emission of

greenhouse gases and use more renewable resources of energy, conditions

might not deteriorate as much.

Generally, it is very clear that achieving global cooperation on environmental

issues is difficult, in part, because developed countries, primarily in the

northern hemisphere, have different economic agenda from those

developing countries, primarily in the southern hemisphere. The northern

agenda emphasizes preserving wealth and affluent lifestyles whereas the

southern agenda focuses on overcoming mass poverty and achieving a

higher quality of life. Southern countries are concerned the northern


countries, having already achieved economic wealth, will impose

international environmental policies that restrict the economic growth of

developing countries just as they are beginning to industrialize. Global

strategies to preserve the environment must address both wasteful lifestyles

in some nations and the need to overcome overpopulation and widespread

poverty in others. And this is the need for sustainable economic

development in the world which is the issue to be addressed in the next

topic.

8.4. Chapter SummaryChapter eight has briefly dealt with some important global interventions for

environmental problems that can be manifested in terms of international

conventions and trearies. Generally, it was intended to show students the

importance of having global level actions, in the forms of rules and

regulations, policies, and programmes, for addressing environmental

problems.

8.5. Self-check Exercise

1. Discuss some of the important global meetings held in different

countries with their attentions.

2. Why several environmentalists of the world criticized the 1992

conference?

3. What was the subject matter of the 1987 Montreal Protocol?

4. Mention the amount of carbondioxide to be reduced by the year 2005

as to the Kyoto protocol.

5. Discuss the Kyoto Protocol in detail.

6. What about the Hague conference?


7. According to the Kyoto Protocol, what are the different ways for

countries to keep the protocol target without domestic emission?

Chapter 9: Environmental Policy of Ethiopia

9.1.Chapter objectives

1. to know the subject matter of Ethiopian environmental policy;

2. to understand the rationale of the policy;

3. to apprehend the main intention of the nation in terms of the natural

and human environment;

4. to see the interdisciplinary nature of environmental policies; and

5. to become able to analyze Ethiopian environmental policy against that

of other countries.

9.2.Introduction

Dear students, here below, we have directly copied and presented the

national environmental policy of Ethiopia to show you the intention of our

country towards the natural environment. This policy is consisted of five

topics: (1) the rationales of the policy, (2) the policy goal, objectives and guiding

principles, (3) sectoral environmental policies, (4) cross-sectoral environment

policies, and (5) policy implementation. Please read the detail of the policy below

and evaluate it based on the principles and points of view of environmental

sociology. Before you read the whole document, we would like to advise you to keep

the following questions in your mind.

1. Do the policy rationales address social elements, in what degree?

2. What about the policy goals, objectives and guiding principles?

3. Is it a policy that targets to solve a real problem or a policy

developed for the sake of having a policy document?

4. What are the methods and methodologies of policy

implementation?


9.3. Ethiopian environmental policy

I. The Resource Base and the Need for a Policy

1.1 The Natural Resource Base and the Rural Environment

Natural resources are the foundation of the economy. Smallholder peasant agriculture, in some areas including forestry, is the dominant sector accounting for about 45 per cent of the GDP, 85 per cent of exports and 80 per cent of total employment. Agriculture has also been the main source of the stagnation and variability in GDP growth caused in the main by policy failures and exacerbated by recurrent drought, civil war, natural resource degradation, and poor infrastructure.

Renewable natural resources, i.e. land, water, forests and trees as well as other forms of Biodiversity, which meet the basic needs for food, water, clothing and shelter have now deteriorated to a low level of productivity. In many areas of highland Ethiopia, the present consumption of wood is in excess of unaided natural sustainable production. Estimates of deforestation, which is mainly for expansion of rainfed agriculture, vary from 80,000 to 200,000 hectares per annum.

The burning of dung as fuel instead of using it as a soil conditioner is considered to cause a reduction in grain production by some 550,000 tonnes annually. In 1990, accelerated soil erosion caused a progressive annual loss in grain production estimated at about 40,000 tonnes, which unless arrested, will reach about 170,000 tonnes by 2010. Livestock play a number of vital roles in the rural and national economy but according to one estimate some 2 million hectares of pasture land will have been destroyed by soil erosion between 1985 and 1995. Land degradation is estimated to have resulted in a loss of livestock production in 1990 equivalent to 1.1 million tropical livestock units (TLUs), and, unless arrested, will rise to 2.0 million TLUs or to 10 per cent of the current national cattle herd by 2010.

In economic terms, soil erosion in 1990 was estimated to have cost (in 1985 prices) nearly Birr 40 million in lost agricultural production (i.e. crop and livestock) while the cost of burning dung and crop residues as fuel was nearly Birr 650 million. Thus in 1990 approximately 17 per cent of the potential agricultural GDP was lost because of physical and biological soil degradation.

The permanent loss in value of the country's soil resources caused by soil erosion in 1990 was estimated to be Birr 59 million. This is the amount by which the country's soil "capital"


should be depreciated in the National Accounts or which should be deducted (as capital depreciation) from the country's Net National Income (NNI).

The Ethiopian Forestry Action Program (EFAP) estimated the full value of forest depletion in 1990 to have been about Birr 138 million or some 25 per cent of the potential forestry GDP of Birr 544 million.

Despite the presence of mineral resources in quantities and qualities suitable for exploitation, they currently contribute only about 2 per cent of the GDP. Only 1 per cent of the potential of Ethiopia's vast water resources for irrigated agriculture and hydropower generation have been developed. The energy sector is one of the least developed in the world with 90 per cent of needs being met from biomass fuels, particularly wood, charcoal and animal dung. The genetic diversity of Ethiopia's domesticated plants and its unique flora and fauna is increasingly being eroded because the long history of disruptive interventions by the state and the weakening of local management in the face of an expanding population and the increasing needs of agriculture.

1.2. The Urban Environment

The current urban proportion of the population is relatively low at only 15 per cent although the annual rate of growth is 5.4 per cent and this rate is likely to rise to 30 per cent by the year 2020.

The current stock of urban housing is both insufficient and of very poor quality. About 31 per cent of households in Addis Ababa have no sanitation facilities, while in other urban areas the proportion is about 48 per cent. The serious deficiencies in sanitation services and the inadequacy of sewerage infrastructure and random defecation in urban areas have created dangerous health and environmental problems. Rivers and streams in the vicinity of Addis Ababa and other large urban centres have become open sewers and are one of the main sources of infections resulting in diarrhoea and other diseases. Privacy is almost impossible as many latrines are shared among many people and even simple doors are often absent.

1.3. Natural and Cultural Heritage

Ethiopia's rich natural and cultural heritage permeates every facet of daily life and provides a powerful and socially cohesive force in the national consciousness. It can also provide a major attraction for tourists and is an important element in the development of a tourist industry. However, much of this heritage and culture is under threat through neglect, decay, removal or destruction as well as through the less visible and tangible impacts of changing socio-cultural values, foreign ideas and imported technologies.

1.4. The Need for a Policy on Natural Resource and the Environment

The Government of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (FDRE) has established a macroeconomic policy and strategy framework. Sectoral development policies and strategies have been, or are currently being, formulated. Environmental sustainability is


recognized in the constitution and in the national economic policy and strategy as a key prerequisite for lasting success. However, there is as yet no overall comprehensive formulation of cross-sectoral and sectoral issues into a policy framework on natural resources and the environment to harmonize these broad directions and guide the sustainable development, use and management of the natural resources and the environment. Therefore, given the current stage of the country's political and policy development, the time is opportune for developing a comprehensive environmental policy on natural resources and the environment.

II. The Policy Goal, Objectives and Guiding Principles

2.1 The Overall Policy Goal

The overall policy goal is to improve and enhance the health and quality of life of all Ethiopians and to promote sustainable social and economic development through the sound management and use of natural, human-made and cultural resources and the environment as a whole so as to meet the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

2.2 Specific Policy Objectives

The Policy seeks to:

a. Ensure that essential ecological processes and life support systems are sustained, biological diversity is preserved and renewable natural resources are used in such a way that their regenerative and productive capabilities are maintained and where possible enhanced so that the satisfaction of the needs of future generations is not compromised; where this capability is already impaired to seek through appropriate interventions a restoration of that capability;

b. Ensure that the benefits from the exploitation of non-renewable resources are extended as far into the future as can be managed, and minimize the negative impacts of their exploitation on the use and management of other natural resources and the environment;

c. Identify and develop natural resources that are currently underutilized by finding new technologies, and/or intensifying existing uses which are not widely applied;

d. Incorporate the full economic, social and environmental costs and benefits of natural resource development into the planning, implementation and accounting processes by a comprehensive valuation of the environment and the services it provides, and by considering the social and environmental costs and benefits which cannot currently be measured in monetary terms;


e. Improve the environment of human settlements to satisfy the physical, social, economic, cultural and other needs of their inhabitants on a sustainable basis;

f. Prevent the pollution of land, air and water in the most cost-effective way so that the cost of effective preventive intervention would not exceed the benefits;

g. Conserve, develop, sustainably manage and support Ethiopia's rich and diverse cultural heritage;

h. Ensure the empowerment and participation of the people and their organizations at all levels in environmental management activities; and

i. Raise public awareness and promote understanding of the essential linkages between environment and development.

2.3. The Key Guiding Principles

Underlying these broad policy objectives are a number of key principles. Establishing and clearly defining these guiding principles is very important as they will shape all subsequent policy, strategy and programme formulations and their implementation. Sectoral and cross-sectoral policies and environmental elements of other macro policies will be checked against these principles to ensure consistency.

The Key Guiding Principles are:

a. Every person has the right to live in a healthy environment; b. Sustainable environmental conditions and economic production systems are

impossible in the absence of peace and personal security. This shall be assured through the acquisition of power by communities to make their own decisions on matters that affect their life and environment;

c. The development, use and management of renewable resources shall be based on sustainability;

d. The use of non-renewable resources shall be minimized and where possible their availability extended (e.g. through recycling);

e. Appropriate and affordable technologies which use renewable and non-renewable resources efficiently shall be adopted, adapted, developed and disseminated;

f. When a compromise between short-term economic growth and long-term environmental protection is necessary, then development activities shall minimize degrading and polluting impacts on ecological and life support systems. When working out a compromise, it is better to err on the side of caution to the extent possible as rehabilitating a degraded environment is very expensive, and bringing back a species that has gone extinct is impossible;

g. Full environmental and social costs (or benefits foregone or lost) that may result through damage to resources or the environment as a result of degradation or pollution shall be incorporated into public and private sector planning and accounting, and decisions shall be based on minimizing and covering these costs;


h. Market failures with regard to the pricing of natural, human-made and cultural resources, and failures in regulatory measures shall be corrected through the assessment and establishment of user fees, taxes, tax reductions or incentives;

i. Conditions shall be created that will support community and individual resource users to sustainably manage their own environment and resources;

j. As key actors in natural resource use and management, women shall be treated equally with men and empowered to be totally involved in policy, programme and project design, decision making and implementation;

k. The existence of a system which ensures uninterrupted continuing access to the same piece(s) of land and resource creates conducive conditions for sustainable natural resource management;

l. Social equity shall be assured particularly in resource use; m. Regular and accurate assessment and monitoring of environmental conditions shall

be undertaken and the information widely disseminated within the population; n. Increased awareness and understanding of environmental and resource issues shall

be promoted by policy makers, by government officials and by the population, and the adoption of a "conservation culture" in environmental matters among all levels of society shall be encouraged;

o. Local, regional and international environmental interdependence shall be recognized; p. Natural resource and environmental management activities shall be integrated

laterally across all sectors and vertically among all levels of organization; q. Species and their variants have the right to continue existing, and are, or may be,

useful now and/or for generations to come; r. The wealth of crop and domestic animal as well as micro-organism and wild plant and

animal germplasm is an invaluable and inalienable asset that shall be cared for; and s. The integrated implementation of cross-sectoral and sectoral federal, regional and

local policies and strategies shall be seen as a prerequisite to achieving the objectives of this Policy on the Environment.

III. Sectoral Environmental Policies

3.1 Soil Husbandry and Sustainable Agriculture

The Policies are:

a. To foster a feeling of assured, uninterrupted and continuing access to the same land and natural resources on the part of farmers and pastoralists so as to remove the existing artificial constraints to the widespread adoption of, and investment in, sustainable land management technologies;

b. To base, where possible, increased agricultural production on sustainably improving and intensifying existing farming systems by developing and disseminating technologies which are biologically stable, appropriate under the prevailing environmental and socio-cultural conditions for farmers, economically viable and environmen-tally beneficial;


c. To promote the use of appropriate organic matter and nutrient management for improving soil structure, nutrient status and microbiology in improving soil conservation and land husbandry;

d. To safeguard the integrity of the soil and to protect its physical and biological properties, through management practices for the production of crops and livestock which pay particular attention to the proper balance in amounts of chemical and organic fertilizers, including green manures, farm yard manures and compost;

e. To promote effective ground cover as one of the most important factors in soil erosion control, taking advantage of the wide range of sustainable agronomic, pastoral and silvicultural approaches used in various areas of Ethiopia as potentially flexible alternatives to mechan-ical soil conservation systems;

f. To promote in drought-prone and low rainfall areas water conservation which is as important as physical soil conservation for more secure and increased biomass production, including crop production;

g. To ensure that, for reasons of cost and acceptability, improvements in land husbandry are made with an appreciation of existing husbandry systems, technologies and knowledge;

h. To ensure that, given the heterogeneous environment of the Ethiopian highlands, agricultural research and extension have a stronger focus on farming and land use systems and support an immediate streng-thening of effective traditional land management systems;

i. To promote, for the relatively more environmentally uniform Ethiopian lowlands, a long-term approach to agricultural research programmes to develop appropriate farming and land management systems that yield high outputs;

j. To ensure that planning for agricultural development incorporates in its economic cost-benefit analysis the potential costs of soil degra-dation through erosion and salinization as well as soil and water pollution;

k. To ensure that inputs shall be as diverse and complementing as the physical, chemical and biological components of the soil require, and shall not focus solely on a quick and transitory increase in plant nutrients to the long-term detriment of soil structure and microbiology;

l. To institute the stall feeding of domesticated animals through a combination of providing agricultural residues, on-farm produced forage and fodder as well as the cutting and carrying of grass and browse from meadows and hillsides in order to encourage revegetation of grazing lands and the reduction of soil erosion;

m. To develop forestry on the farm, around the homestead and on eroding and/or eroded hillsides in order to increase the stock of trees for fuelwood, construction material, implements and crafts, for forage and for other tree products ;

n. To shift the emphasis in crop breeding from single line plant varieties and animal breeds to multiple lines involving as many different but adapted lines as possible in order to increase both plasticity in adapting to environmental variations, and resistance to pests and diseases;

o. To use biological and cultural methods as well as resistant or tolerant varieties or breeds, pheromones or sterile male techniques in an integrated manner as a pest and disease management method in preference to chemical controls;

p. To safeguard human and environmental health by producing adequate regulation of agricultural (crop and livestock) chemicals;


q. To use the precautionary principle in assessing potentially damaging impacts when taking decisions that affect social and ecnomic conditions, natural resources and the environment, especially in the pastoral areas, which are perhaps the least studied in the country;

r. To ensure that new technical recommendations are compatible with existing pastoral and agricultural systems, agro-ecological conditions and the prevailing socio-economic environment; and

s. To undertake full environmental, social and economic impact as-sessments of all existing irrigation schemes in the rangelands and wherever needed establish programmes of correcting their negative environmental, social and economic impacts.

3.2. Forest, Woodland and Tree Resources

The Policies are:

a. To recognize the complementary roles of communities, private entrepreneurs and the state in forestry development;

b. To encourage all concerned individuals and communities as well as the government to actively involve in the planning and implementation of forestry programmes to ensure sustainability, minimize cost, and forestall conflict;

c. To ensure that forestry development strategies integrate the development, management and conservation of forest resources with those of land and water resources, energy resources, ecosystems and genetic resources, as well as with crop and livestock production;

d. To ensure that afforestation with exotic species be restricted to backyard woodlots, to peri-urban plantations and to plantations for specific industrial and other projects; otherwise until reliable information and knowledge on exotic species are available afforestation shall use local species as these are in tune with the environment and thus ensure its well-being;

e. To assist the natural process of afforestation of uncultivable areas by controlling felling and grazing and by planting judiciously selected local species, as well as by other affordable interventions.

f. To adhere to the principle that "sustainable forest management" is achieved when social acceptability and economic viability have been achieved and the volume of wood harvested in a given period is about equal to the net growth that the forest is capable of generating;

g. To pursue agricultural and other policies and programmes that will reduce pressure on fragile woodland resources and ecosystems; and

h. To promote changes in agricultural and natural resource management systems which will limit the need for free grazing of animals in protected forest areas.

i. To find substitutes for construction and fuel wood whenever capabilities and other conditions allow, in order to reduce pressure on forests.


3.3. Genetic, Species and Ecosystem Biodiversity

The Policies are:

a. To promote in situ systems (i.e. conservation in a nature reserve, farmer's fields, etc.) as the primary target for conserving both wild and domesticated biological diversity; but also promote ex situ systems (i.e. conservation outside the original or natural habitat) in gene banks, farms, botanical gardens, ranches and zoos as supplementary to in situ conservation;

b. To promote in situ conservation of crop and domestic animal biological diversity as well as other human made and managed ecosystems through the conscious conservation of samples of such ecosystems, even when change as a whole is taking place;

c. To ensure that the importation, exportation and exchange of genetic and species resources is subject to legislation, e.g. to ensure the safeguarding of community and national interests, the fulfilling of international obligations, quarantine, etc. Above all biological material which is self-regenerative and impossible to control once allowed to get out of control may result in the most insidious and damaging form of pollution which is biological pollution, thus the importation and use of biological material including those genetically engineered should be under stringent regulations;

d. To ensure that factors such as the level of vulnerability, uniqueness, importance and economic and environmental potential of the genome be taken into account in determining priorities in conservation;

e. To ensure that the conservation of genetic resources in situ maintains a dynamic system of genetic variability in an environment of constant selection pressure that is normally present in the natural or human made ecosystem as the case may be;

f. To promote the involvement of local communities inside and outside protected areas in the planning and management of such areas;

g. To ensure that the conservation of biological diversity outside the protected area system be integrated with strategic land use plans, local level plans and sustainable agricultural and pastoral production strategies;

h. To include in protected areas as wide a range of ecosystems and habitats as possible and where appropriate to link them by corridors of suitable habitats along which species can migrate;

i. To ensure that pricing policies and instruments support conservation of biological diversity;

j. To ensure that park, forest and wildlife conservation and management programmes which conserve biological diversity on behalf of the country allow for a major part of any economic benefits deriving therefrom to be channelled to local communities affected by such programmes; and

k. To recognize that certain animal and plant species are vermin or pests or may be a reservoir of disease to humans, crops and livestock, and to control them.

3.4. Water Resources

The Policies are:


a. To ensure that the control of environmental health hazards be a necessary condition in the design, construction and use of dams and irrigation systems;

b. To recognize that natural ecosystems, particularly wetlands and upstream forests, are fundamental in regulating water quality and quantity and to integrate their rehabilitation and protection into the conservation, development and management of water resources;

c. To ensure that any proposed introduction of exotic species into water ecosystems be subject to detailed ecological studies and environmental impact assessment;

d. To promote the protection of the interface between water bodies and land (e.g. lake shores, river banks and wetlands);

e. As most large and medium scale irrigation potential is located in the rangelands of the lowlands occupied by pastoralists, to consider the opportunity costs of irrigating important dry season grazing areas of the pastoralists for crop production in any cost benefit analysis of such irrigation projects;

f. To involve water resource users, particularly women and animal herders, in the planning, design, implementation and follow up in their localities of water policies, programmes and projects so as to carry them out without affecting the ecological balance;

g. To subject all major water conservation, development and manage-ment projects to the environmental impact assessment process and to include the costs and benefits of protecting watershed forests, wetlands and other relevant key ecosystems in the economic analysis of such water projects; and

h. To promote, through on-site training, effective water management techniques at the farm level for improved performance of medium to large-scale irrigation schemes.

i. To promote, to the extent possible, viable measures to artificially recharge ground and surface water resources.

j. To recycle waste water when it has been found to be safe for health and the environment or when it has been made safe without entailing high cost.

3.5. Energy Resource

The Policies are:

a. To adopt an inter-sectoral process of planning and development which integrates energy development with energy conservation, environmental protection and sustainable utilization of renewable resources;

b. To promote the development of renewable energy sources and reduce the use of fossil energy resources both for ensuring sustainability and for protecting the environment, as well as for their continuation into the future;

c. To make institutions and industries which consume large amounts of wood fuel establish their own plantations or make contractual arrangements with plantations to meet their wood requirements;

d. To encourage Government leases for private entrepreneurs to plant fuel woodlots in peri-urban areas;

e. To ensure that feasibility studies for hydroelectricity facilities and other significant generating facilities include rigorous environmental impact assessments to allow informed decision-making that maximizes benefits to the community and to the


country at large and eliminates or at least minimizes damage to the natural resources base and/or to environmental well-being;

f. To review current institutional, pricing and regulatory arrangements in the energy sector to suggest reforms that will better meet community energy needs and maximize the opportunities for private commercial and community sector initiatives to develop and market environmentally sound energy sources;

g. To recognize that water resources play an important role to meet Ethiopia's energy demand and that, by generating power cause no pollution on the environment;

h. To focus extension programmes on farm and homestead tree planting to ensure that each homestead grows enough trees to satisfy its wood requirements; and

i. To locate, develop, adopt or adapt energy sources and technologies to replace biomass fuels.

3.6. Mineral Resources

The Policies are:

a. To adopt as mineral resources are depleted sooner or later, that the long-term usability of the land be safeguarded from the outset so that with due care during and following the mining activities, it can still be used for agriculture and/or other economic activities;

b. To encourage and support artisanal and small-scale miners to practice mining which is organized and responsible so as to be consistent with environmental laws, rules and regulations to safeguard the well-being of the land and its other natural resources;

c. To advise and train mining communities in methods of environmental protection and reclamation of abandoned mining areas;

d. To strengthen the capacity of the state sector mining agencies to regulate and administer environmental protection in view of the increased role of the private sector and of possible foreign investment in large-scale mining;

e. To implement continuous programmes of education for the public and industry, environmental monitoring, and the provision of technical advice and assistance in environmental management during mining operations;

f. To provide technical and material assistance to artisanal miners to improve environmental protection and output efficiency;

g. To use conditions of contract to ensure that licensed mining operations prepare pre-development environmental impact studies, adopt sound environmental management practices during operations, and undertake appropriate mitigation and reclamation measures both during and after operations;

h. To prepare and enact specific mining environmental protection legislation; and i. To establish a guarantee system for enforcing measures that should be taken by the

licensee for the restoration of the land to its previous conditions or to the best improved level that the prevailing ecological conditions allow.

3.7 Human Settlement, Urban Environment and Environmental Health


The Policies are:

a. To incorporate ruralΒurban migration, human settlement and environmental health concerns which arise from urbanization created by social and economic development into regional, wereda and local level planning and development activities;

b. To integrate harmoniously, human-produced and natural elements in the development and management of urban areas in order to maintain the natural ecosystems;

c. To ensure that improved environmental sanitation be placed highest on the federal and regional agendas for achieving sustainable urban development;

d. To promote the construction by individual families of their own houses and create conducive conditions for communities and individual families to make improvements to their immediate habitats as well as to provide human and domestic waste disposal facilities;

e. To recognize the importance of and help bring about behavioural change through education and public awareness of environmental sanitation problems in trying to achieve demand-driven community led programmes of improved urban environments as well as the sustainable use and maintenance of sanitation facilities;

f. To bring about a sound partnership between the government and communities in the development of an integrated sanitation delivery system, and to foster the supplementary role of NGOs;

g. To ensure that housing and sanitation technologies and regulatory standards are set at a level and cost that are within reach of the users and flexible enough to be adaptable to the very varied socio-economic, epidemiological, climatic and physical site conditions which are found in urban areas;

h. To give priority to waste collection services and to its safe disposal; i. On the one hand to recognize the importance of adequate water supply as an

important component in achieving a sustainable and healthy urban environment, and on the other hand to recognize the minimization of the need for water as an important factor in the choice of sanitation technologies;

j. To construct shared VIP latrines in the low income and very high density housing areas of Addis Ababa and the older towns with frequent emptying by tankers integrated with programmes on user education, health and hygiene, with follow up maintenance and cleaning, all implemented as a component of a broader urban environmental upgrading programme including storm water drainage;

k. To ensure the construction of family latrines in lower density urban and peri-urban areas as a conditionality of the house plot lease and to integrate this with health and hygiene awareness programmes;

l. To create conducive conditions for families, housing groups and communities to construct latrines and for private entrepreneurs to undertake latrine emptying as well as waste collection and disposal services;

m. To undertake studies which identify suitable sanitary landfill sites in the major cites and towns of Ethiopia;

n. To plan and create green spaces within urban areas, including com-munity forests and woodlands for fuelwood as well as for recrea-tional amenity, providing habitats for plants and animals and ameliorating urban micro climates;

o. To promote the development of sewerage systems and sewage treatment facilities in urban centers; and


p. To the extent possible to recycle liquid and solid wastes from homesteads and establishments for the production of energy, fertilizer and for other uses.

3.8. Control of Hazardous Materials and Pollution From Industrial Waste

The Policies are:

a. To adhere to the precautionary principle of minimizing and where possible preventing discharges of substances, biological materials or their fragments from industrial plants and personal or communal appliances or any other external sources that could be harmful, and to disallow the discharge when they are likely to be hazardous;

b. To adopt the "polluter pays" principle while endorsing the precautionary principle since pollution is likely to occur, and ensure that polluting enterprises and municipalities and wereda councils provide their own appropriate pollution control facilities;

c. To establish clear linkages between the control of pollution and other policy areas including water resources, agriculture, human settlements, health and disaster prevention and preparedness;

d. To provide adequate regulation of agricultural (crop and livestock) chemicals and micro-organisms;

e. To ensure that pollution control is commensurate with the potency, longevity and potential to increase or reproduce of the pollutant;

f. To establish safe limits for the location of sanitary landfill sites in the vicinity of wells, bore holes and dams, and issue regulations to enforce them;

g. To review and develop guidelines for waste disposal, public and industrial hygiene and techniques to enable the cost-effective implementation of defined standards of control, and to issue regula-tions to enforce them;

h. To formulate and implement a country-wide strategy and guidelines on the management of wastes from the medical, agriculture and other sectors that may use potentially hazardous biological organisms, their fragments or chemicals, and to issue the necessary regulations to enforce them;

i. To establish a system for monitoring compliance with land, air and water pollution control standards and regulations, the handling and storage of hazardous and dangerous materials, mining operations, public and industrial hygiene, waste disposal, and water quality;

j. To maintain an up-to-date register of toxic, hazardous and radioactive substances, and to make the information available on request;

k. To maintain regular environmental audits to ensure the adoption of environmentally sound practices in all public and private development activities including industrial and mining operations;

l. To enforce the exhaustive labelling and detailing of the contents usage and expiry date of foods, drugs, cosmetics, other chemicals, and when any of the contents are poisonous or dangerous in any other way, the fixing of strikingly visible labels to that effect;

m. To promote waste minimization processes, including the efficient recycling of materials wherever possible;


n. To create by law an effective system of control, distribution, utilization and disposal after use or expiry of chemicals, biological organisms or fragments of organisms that could be hazardous but are required for use;

o. To prohibit from importation to and from transit through Ethiopia hazardous materials, organisms or fragments of organisms as agreed by African states in Bamako;

p. To hold as legally liable an employer who deploys employees in using or handling hazardous materials without adequately training them on how to deal with the hazard and without adequate equipment to protect each one of them for physical harm or disease that is caused by working conditions whether the harm or disease starts in the place of work or away from it; and

q. To foster better understanding of the dangerous effects of chemicals and organisms and their fragments through the provision of information in a form understandable to users, and provide or enforce the provision of information on the appropriate methods and technologies for the treatment and disposal of wastes.

3.9. Atmospheric Pollution and Climate Change

The Policies are:

a. To promote a climate monitoring programme as the country is highly sensitive to climatic variability;

b. To recognize that even at an insignificant level of contribution to atmospheric greenhouse gases, a firm and visible commitment to the principle of containing climate change is essential and to take the appropriate control measures for a moral position from which to deal with the rest of the world in a struggle to bring about its containment by those countries which produce large quantities of greenhouse gases;

c. To recognize that Ethiopia's environmental and long-term economic interests and its energy prospect coincide with the need to minimize atmospheric inputs of greenhouse gases as it has a large potential for harnessing hydro-, geothermal and solar energy, none of which produce pollutant gases in significant amounts and to develop its energy sector accordingly;

d. To actively participate in protecting the ozone layer since, as the highlands of Ethiopia already have a thin protective atmosphere and are liable to suffer agricultural losses and adverse health effects from exposure to ultraviolet rays;

e. To recognize that the continued use of biomass for energy production makes no net contribution to atmospheric pollution as long as at least equal amounts of biomass are produced annually to compensate this and to maximize the standing biomass in the country through a com-bination of reforestation, agroforestry, the rehabilitation of degraded areas, a general revegetation of the land and the control of free range grazing in the highlands and to seek financial support for this from industrialized countries for offsetting their carbon dioxide emission;

3.10. Cultural and Natural Heritage

The Policies are:


a. To promote the perception of heritage conservation as part of, and integrated with, Ethiopia's general social and economic development;

b. To recognize that the country's heritage conservation should not be seen as the responsibility of government alone and to encourage communities to play a leading role in assessing and nominating places or items of heritage significance and in conserving them;

c. To promote a sustainable heritage conservation and management programme that seek to understand all the elements of the system, their interrelationships and the ways in which each contributes to social and economic development; and

d. To ensure that the environment of heritage sites is so managed as to protect the landscape, the monuments, and the artifacts or the fossils as the case may be.

IV. Cross-Sectoral Environment Policies

4.1. Population and the Environment

The Policies are:

a. To integrate population planning, resources management and the rehabilitation of and care for the environment to achieve a sustainability of life styles;

b. To give attention to the education and care of children, especially in the context of development and the sustainable use of natural resources since virtually all values and the discipline of work are established during childhood;

c. To tackle simultaneously the issues of poverty, health, education and empowerment as these are interlinked with those of population growth, availability and access to resources and the well-being of the environment;

d. To undertake a comprehensive and country-wide assessment of the human carrying capacity of the natural resources and the environment to identify potential areas for voluntary resettlement;

e. To ensure a complete empowerment of women especially to enable their full participation in population and environmental decision making, resource ownership and management; and

f. To promote off-farm and on-farm income generating programmes which aim at the alleviation of poverty, especially, among women whether they have access to land or not and among men who have no access to land.

4.2. Community Participation and the Environment

The Policies are:

a. To ensure that all phases of environmental and resource development and management, from project conception to planning and implementation to monitoring


and evaluation are undertaken based on the decisions of the resource users and managers;

b. To reorient management professionals employed in natural resource and environmental extension programmes to embrace participatory development, and to strengthen their communication skills so as to more effectively disseminate both the results of scientific research and the practical experience of local farmers;

c. To develop effective methods of popular participation in the planning and implementation of environmental and resource use and management projects and programmes;

d. To develop the necessary legislation, training and financial support to empower local communities so that they may acquire the ability to prevent the manipulated imposition of external decisions in the name of participation, and to ensure genuine grassroots decisions in resources and environmental management;

e. To authorize all levels of organization to raise funds locally from the use of natural resources to fund the development, management and sustainable use of those resources;

f. To greatly increase the number of women extension agents in the field of natural resource and environmental management; and

g. To ensure information flow among all levels of organization including the Federal and Regional States and the people at the grassroots level by developing a two way mechanism for data collection and dissemination.

4.3. Tenure and Access Rights to Land and Natural Resources

The Polices are:

a. When taking decisions to recognize that the constitution now ensures that the user of land has the right to a secure and uninterrupted access to it and to renewable natural resources on it (e.g. trees, water, wildlife and grazing);

b. To recognize and protect wherever possible the customary rights of access to and use of land and natural resource which are constitutionally acceptable, socially equitable and are preferred by local communities.

4.4. Land Use Plan

The Policy is:

To ensure that Federal, Regional and Community Strategic Land Use Plans (SLUP) define broad land use and land user categories together with generalized resource management recommendations which can then be used to guide the formulation of detailed local resource use and management plans by individuals or communities as the case may be.

4.5. Social and Gender Issues


The Policies are:

a. To ensure that formal and informal training in environmental and resource management include methodologies and tools for analysis and elimination of inequities;

b. To make environmental awareness and public education programmes include both men and women in all social, economic and cultural groupings of society;

c. To subject all policies, programmes and projects to impact assessments in order to maximize equity for economic, ethnic, social, cultural, gender and age groups, especially the socially disadvantaged; and

d. To facilitate the participation of women across all sections of society in training, public awareness campaigns, formal and informal education and decision making in environment and resource management.

4.6. Environmental Economics

The Policies are:

a. To ensure that environmental costs and benefits, used in the develop-ment planning process including programme and project preparation consider environmental gains and losses include the values of benefits foregone which are thus costs;

b. To recognize that estimating environmental costs and benefits is often imprecise both because of the lack of accurate information and because of the lack of standardized methodologies, and to account for these costs using the best available information and methodologies;

c. To recognize that environmental impacts have long time spans, usually to be reckoned in decades, and to lengthen the time frame in economic analysis accordingly;

d. To initiate a pilot project on the application of environmental accoun-ting in Ethiopia; e. To explicitly consider in 5-, 10-, 50- and 100-year time perspectives the economic

costs and benefits to the environment in the planning of all major development programmes, projects and activities;

f. To assess and charge the appropriate level of user and access fees and performance bonds, for example, to parks, for use of closed grazing areas, for water use and consumption, and for logging in order to sustainably maintain the resource or the environment, and identify the appropriate target groups and assess and provide subsidies, taxes or tax concessions to achieve the sustainability of the use of natural resources and the environment (e.g. soil conservation works, installing pollution treatment facilities); and

g. To develop the capacity of government agencies to analyze the impact of user fees and incentives and to monitor contracts, leases, concessions and performance bonds used for achieving sustainable resource management and environmental protection.

4.7. Environmental Information System

The Policies are:


a. To adhere to the principle that the right to live in a clean and healthy environment carries with it the right to be informed about environmental issues and to develop an appropriate information system;

b. To create by law a system for the protection of community intellectual property rights.

c. To make available environmental information as a legal right to all interested parties except where the release of such information would compromise national security, community intellectual property rights or individual intellectual property rights;

d. To base information generation on an identification of user needs, i.e. it be demand-driven;

e. To ensure that all environmental data collection and analysis as well as information dissemination are coordinated and as far as possible standardized but not centralized;

f. To ensure that there be a central point or agency at which it is possible to have access to widely used information and to ascertain the type and location of any specialized data and information.

g. To provide clear legislation and guidelines on environmental data and information generation, collection and dissemination specifying the nature of restrictions required;

4.8. Environmental Research

The Policies are:

a. To develop strategic environmental research which aims at identifying the social, economic and technical factors which influence resource management;

b. To promote the training and the improvement of the working conditions of researchers so that they become technically competent and familiar with the agro-ecological and socio-economic conditions of the potential end users;

c. To put in place an appropriate information exchange system and institutional structure which facilitate closer interaction among farmers, pastoralists, government professionals, development NGO's, and researchers;

d. To support research on appropriate technologies for environmental management and sustainable development through a partnership between scientists and potential end users so as to benefit from the universal knowledge of the former in science and technology and the unique knowledge of the latter in the very often site specific conditions under which the technology is to be used;

e. To coopt existing traditional systems of research and learning into a new system which incorporates both modern and traditional components;

f. To allocate funds to support strategic, applied and adaptive research programmes and projects; and

g. To establish Science and Technology Associations in all communities to identify and support their traditional systems of research and development and provide a channel for feedback of information concerning the suitability or otherwise of research outputs;

4.9. Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)


The Policies are:

a. To ensure that environmental impact assessments consider not only physical and biological impacts but also address social, socio-economic, political and cultural conditions;

b. To ensure that public and private sector development programmes and projects recognize any environmental impacts early and incorporate their containment into the development design process;

c. To recognize that public consultation is an integral part of EIA and ensure that EIA procedures make provision for both an independent review and public comment before consideration by decision makers;

d. To ensure that an environmental impact statement always includes mitigation plans for environmental management problems and contin-gency plans in case of accidents;

e. To ensure that, at specified intervals during project implementation, environmental audits regarding monitoring, inspection and record keeping take place for activities where these have been required by the Environmental Impact Statement;

f. To ensure that preliminary and full EIA's are undertaken by the relevant sectoral ministries or departments, if in the public sector, and by the developer, if in the private sector;

g. To create by law an EIA process which requires appropriate environmental impact statments and environmental audits for private and state development projects;

h. To establish the necessary institutional framework and determine the linkages of its parts for undertaking, coordinating and approving EIAs and the subsequent system of environmental audits required to ensure compliance with conditionalities;

i. To develop detailed sectoral technical guidelines in EIAs and environ-mental audits; j. To ensure that social, socio-economic, political and cultural conditions are considered

in environmental impact assessment procedures and included in sectoral guidelines; and

k. To develop EIA and environmental audit capacity and capability in the Environmental Protection Authority, sectoral ministries and agencies as well as in the regions.

4.10. Environmental Education and Awareness

The Policies are:

a. To promote the teaching of environmental education on a multi-disciplinary basis and to integrate it into the ongoing curricula of schools and colleges and not treat it as a separate or additional subject, though this should also be done at the tertiary level;

b. To target the public, particularly those involved in public and private sector activities that have significant environmental impacts, for environmental education and awareness programmes;

c. To formulate environmental awareness programmes in such a way as to make them address specific environmental problems of particular localities in view of the extreme variability of environmental conditions and problems in Ethiopia;

d. To recognize the important role the mass media play and to effectively use them in creating and promoting environmental awareness in view of the physical problems of access and communications in Ethiopia;


e. To strengthen existing higher level training and education institutions so that they can offer programmes and courses in sustainable resource and environmental management for economists, planners, lawyers, engineers, sociologists and medical practitioners as well as for natural resource and environmental scientists;

f. To provide in-service training in such specialized subjects as environ-mental economics, environmental law, environmental monitoring, geographical information systems (GIS), pollution monitoring and control, and hazardous waste management;

g. To encourage the local development of environmental awareness associations and programmes specific to particular agro-ecological zones and support them with scientific inputs;

h. To develop environmental awareness programmes for urban environ-ments for dissemination by the mass media and foster the develop-ment of urban environmental awareness associations; and

i. To initiate, encourage and support the involvement of local community and religious leaders in programmes to promote environmental awareness.

V. Policy Implementation

5.1. Institutional Framework, Responsibilities and Mandates

The Policies are:

a. To give political and popular support to the sustainable use of natural, human-made and cultural resources and environmental management for effectiveness at the federal, regional, zonal, wereda and community levels;

b. To ensure that legally established coordination and management bodies from the federal down to the community level handle the sectoral and cross sectoral planning and implementation issues identified as the responsibilities of concerned line ministries commissions, authorities and bureaus, as applicable to the level of organizations, including those of the relevant federal executive organs as well as regional and municipal governments, elected councillors, non-governmental organizations, community representatives, representatives of professional or other environmental associations and the private sector;

c. To use to the maximum, whenever possible, existing institutional structures; d. To determine institutional arrangements for the formulation of conservation and

natural resource development and management strategies, legislation, regulation, monitoring and enforcement using the following criteria:

(i) conformity with the Constitution, especially with respect to the decentralization of power;

(ii) harmonization of sectoral interests; (iii) integration of environmental planning with development planning; (iv) minimization of incremental financial requirements;

e. To avoid conflicts of interest by assigning responsibilities to separate organisations for environmental and natural resource development and management activities on the one hand, and environmental protection, regulation and monitoring on the other;


f. To ensure that enforcement of government laws and regulations with respect to environmental protection remain the responsibility of federal and regional courts and administrations; nevertheless, where government's own development activities are controlled by laws and regulations, the monitoring of such laws and regulations to ensure compliance of specific ministries and other government entities should be carried out by the government organization responsible for environmental protection and regulation.

5.2. Legislative Framework

The Policies are that the Law should:

a. To provide a framework for encouraging participation by the people of Ethiopia in the development of federal and regional policies, laws and plans for the sustainable use and management of the natural, human-made and cultural resources and the environment;

b. To enable the creation of programmes that motivate the peoples of Ethiopia into restoring, protecting, managing and sustainably using the natural, human-made and cultural resources and the environment of the country;

c. To ensure agreement with the constitution and the prevailing, political, social, cultural and economic policies, laws and practices and to harmonize these with the principle of sustainable development;

d. To be consistent with Article 44 of the Constitution and assure all people living in the country of their fundamental right to an environment adequate for their health and well-measures.

5.3. Monitoring, Evaluation and Policy Review

The Policies are:

a. To ensure that individual programme and project monitoring becomes the responsibility of the appropriate federal and/or regional implementing and/or mandated agencies;

b. To ensure that the monitoring of the overall impacts of the implementation of the Federal Environmental Policy on the country's renewable natural resources and environmental support systems, and that the compilation of recommendations for any modification that is required, should be consistent with the institutional arrangement specified in the CSE and also be responsive to popular opinion;

c. To ensure that the Environmental Protection Authority carries the overall monitoring of the Policy implementation and is responsible for proposing modifications, in consultation with the mandated line ministries and/or the opinion of stakeholder communities and groups, and for having them approved by the Inter-Ministerial Environmental Protection Council;

d. To ensure that line ministries and regional and lower level bureaus and branches of bureaus monitor the overall impact of the implementation of this Federal Environmental Policy on those sectors and elements for which they have the legal mandate;


e. To ensure that, starting with the Community Environmental Coordinating Committee and aggregating upwards through the appropriate level offices of Water Resources, Mines and Energy, Agriculture, and Economic Development and Cooperation, reviews of the status of natural resources and the environment, including evaluation of the implementation of this Federal Environmental Policy, are completed annually at the appropriate levels; and to ensure that the Environmental Protection Authority will be responsible for prompting the compilation of the reports and for reporting on the process;

f. To ensure that, at least annually, meetings held by communities at the village level with their Community Environmental Coordinating Committees then successively from the Wereda and the Regional Environmental Coordinating Committees through to the Environmental Protection Council, evaluate these reviews and make their recommendations; the Environmental Protection Authority will be being;

e. To create the conditions for formulating, reviewing and updating sectoral regulations on, and procedures for, the restoration, protection, management and sustainable use of the natural, human-made and cultural resources and the environment; and

f. To provide a broad framework for both punitive and incentive responsible for prompting that the evaluation takes place and for reporting on the process.

9.3. Chapter Summary

The chapter has addressed the detail presentation of Ethiopian

environmental policy. It presents its rationales, general and specific

objectives as well as the cross-sectoral and sectoral issues of the policy.

9.4. Self-checking Exercises

What are the rationales of the policy? What about their relevance?1. List down all the reasons that inspire the government of Ethiopia

to develop this policy?

2. evaluate the policy against different international environmental

documents

3. Is the policy feasible? How?

4. What is your point of view about the successfulness of the

policy?


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