In Ch 64, it spoke about the various transnational enviromental groups making changes in politics. It specifically makes the claim that these groups bring change to the enviroment by bringing awareness to global concerns about the enviroment. It also talks about how certain people think the government needs to change first for improvements while others think that people need to make the change first for the government to make the improvements. The chapter specifically mentions Greenpeace, an international agency that oversees various enviromental issues. Members are from all over the world which helps bring light to different issues. One of their main goals is bringing these issues to light, from media to protests, they all show these problems to the common person. I think this is the best strategy, get enough eyes on something, its hard to hide it away an longer. Political pressure is the strongest pressure, and if enough people in an area are against a certain thing hurting their enviroment, a lot of people in power will try to satisfy them.
The Washington Post article talks about graphite mining in China. This mining is hurting the villages and causing damage to the area. However, the government doesn't listen to the locals, and intimidates these small villages through various means to try and silence them. The reason is the large amount of money these graphite mines are generating for China.
The NYT article talks about Barbados and the finacial problems its facing. Part of this is global warming, which is causing droughts, hurricanes, and various other issues. The prime minister is trying to fight against organizations that are preventing Barbados from recovering from these finacial problems in healtier ways. These organizations are trying to invest in Barbados while giving demands that hurt Barbados in the long run. These companies are doing whatever they can to make a profit, even if it ends up ruining an entire company to do so.
2 comments:
in ch 64 I heavily agreed that in order to make changes in the policy /politically first there needs to be a social change. Politicians won't go to the trouble of fixing policies for the better unless someone is making them and in this instance that someone is public opinion. we also saw this play out in the documentary we saw this week where the people stood up to the government over climate change and that was the only way to make the government enact better policies
I agree that Greenpeace's strategy of drawing people's attention towards various environmental issues is a great way to create political pressure. Not only do they make a big display of the atrocities by pulling stunts such as flying a hot air balloon into a nuclear testing site, they also prevent, or at least temporarily prevent these companies from continuing their operations, and causing further harm.
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