Module #66

Regulations and Equity

Module Introduction:

​

• We have looked at the economic system and the roles of natural capital and human capital.
• This understanding provides us with the tools we need to evaluate different options for monitoring and managing human systems in a way that will result in the least amount of harm to the natural environment.
• Regulatory tools are also used to bring about the least environmental harm.
• Ultimately, the goal is freedom from exposure to environmental harm for all the people in the world.
• This is the final topic of the book and one of our 2 environmental themes: environmental equity.

Module 66: Regulations and Equity

Essential Knowledge

5.12 Introduction to Sustainability (Modules 1, 2, 29, 33, 37, 66)

• Sustainability refers to humans living on Earth and their use of resources without depletion of the resources for future generations. Environmental indicators that can guide humans to sustainability include biological diversity, food production, average global surface temperatures and CO₂ concentrations, human population, and resource depletion.
• Sustainable yield is the amount of a renewable resource that can be taken without reducing the available supply.

​

How People Look at the World Influences Policy Making

​

Environmental worldview: A worldview that encompasses how one thinks the world works; how one views one’s role in the world; and what one believes to be proper environmental behavior. These include:

• Anthropocentric worldview: A worldview that focuses on human welfare and well-being.
• Biocentric worldview: A worldview that holds that humans are just one of many species on Earth, all of which have equal intrinsic value.
• Ecocentric worldview: A worldview that places equal value on all biotic and abiotic elements (e.g. the entire ecosystems rather than just living things).

​

Stewardship: The careful and responsible management and care for Earth and its resources.

World Agencies

• United Nations (UN): A global institution dedicated to promoting dialogue among countries with the goal of maintaining world peace.
• United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP): A program of the United Nations responsible for gathering environmental information, conducting research, and assessing environmental problems.
• World Bank: A global institution that provides technical and financial assistance to developing countries with the objectives of reducing poverty and promoting growth, especially in the poorest countries.
• World Health Organization (WHO): A global institution dedicated to the improvement of human health by monitoring and assessing health trends and providing medical advice to countries.
• United Nations Development Programme (UNDP): An international program that works in 166 countries around the world to advocate change that will help people obtain a better life through development.

Measuring Sustainability

There are several approaches to measuring and achieving sustainability:

• Human development index (HDI): A measurement index that combines three basic measures of human status:
• Life expectancy
• Knowledge
• Standard of living
• Human poverty index (HPI): A measurement index developed by the United Nations to investigate the proportion of a population suffering from deprivation in a country with a high HDI.

​

The Human Development Index

• The Human Development Index (HDI) is an index of well-being proposed by some as an alternative to GDP.
• Higher values indicate greater development.
• Note that developed nations (e.g. North America and Europe) tend to score better than developing ones (e.g. Africa)

U.S. Agencies

• Environmental Protection Agency (EPA): The U.S. organization that oversees all governmental efforts related to the environment, including science, research, assessment, and education.
• Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA): An agency of the U.S. Department of Labor, responsible for the enforcement of health and safety regulations.
• Department of Energy (DOE): The U.S. organization that advances the energy and economic security of the United States.

APES Exam Environmental Legislation: EPA (1970)

• The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was established in December 1970 by the executive order of President Richard Nixon.
• It is an agency of the United States federal government whose mission is to protect human and environmental health. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the EPA is responsible for creating standards and laws promoting the health of individuals and the environment.
• The EPA regulates the manufacturing, processing, distribution, and use of chemicals and other pollutants.
• In addition, the EPA is charged with determining safe tolerance levels for chemicals and other pollutants in food, animal feed, and water.

The Policy Process in the United States

• After an environmental problem is identified, environmental policy is formulated or modified.
• After a policy is adopted and implemented, it is evaluated and, if necessary, adjustments to the policy are made.

​

Philosophies of Risk Management�

• Risk management balances potential harm against other factors.
• The innocent-until-proven-guilty principle requires that researchers prove harm before the chemical is restricted or banned.
• The precautionary principle requires that when there is scientific evidence that demonstrates a plausible risk, the chemical must then be further tested to demonstrate it is safe before it can continue to be used.

​

• Innocent-until-proven-guilty principle: A principle based on the belief that a potential hazard should not be considered an actual hazard until the scientific data definitively demonstrates that it actually causes harm.
• Precautionary principle: A principle based on the belief that action should be taken against a plausible environmental hazard.

Legislative Approaches to Encourage Sustainability

• Command-and-control approach: A strategy for pollution control that involves regulations and enforcement mechanisms (top-down).
• Incentive-based approach: A strategy for pollution control that constructs financial and other incentives for lowering emissions based on profits and benefits (bottom-up).
• Green tax: A tax placed on environmentally harmful activities or emissions in an attempt to internalize some of the externalities that may be involved in the life cycle of those activities or products.
• Triple bottom line: An approach to sustainability that considers three factors—economic, environmental, and social—when making decisions about business, the economy, and development.

Incentive-based approaches are the proverbial “carrot” to the “stick” that are command-and-control approaches.

The Triple Bottom Line

• Sustainability is believed to be achievable at the intersection of the social, economic, and environmental factors that influence most development endeavors.

​

U.S. Policies Promoting Sustainability

Millennium Development Goals:

• Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.
• Achieve universal primary education.
• Promote gender equality and empower women.
• Reduce child mortality.
• Improve maternal health.
• Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases.
• Ensure environmental sustainability.
• Develop a global partnership for development.

Environmental Justice

• Two major challenges of achieving environmental equity in our time are reducing poverty and stewarding the environment.

Environmental justice seeks to overcome this challenges and acknowledges...

• The inequitable distribution of pollution and of environmental degradation with their adverse effects on humans and ecosystems.
• People that are of lower incomes and minorities that have a disproportionate exposure to environmental hazards.

Module Review:

​

​

• In this module, we have seen that a series of worldviews can be used to approach environmental protection and regulation.
• A variety of world agencies such as the United Nations, the World Bank, and the World Health Organization have numerous environmental programs.
• In the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy are two of a number of environmental agencies.
• A variety of measures are used to assess sustainability and environmental well-being, including the human development index and the human poverty index, The triple bottom line maintains that sustainability can be achieved at the intersection of the three factors-economic, environmental, and social--that influence most development endeavors.
• Reducing poverty and taking sound care of the environment are two challenges that are essential for sustainability. Achieving these goals involves addressing poverty and inequality, environmental justice, and individual and community action.