Despite the overwhelming scientific consensus about the crisis of climate change, the science and impacts of climate change continue to be questioned. Federal environmental policies help ensure that all Americans have the same protection. The whole point was to set a federal baseline. With a supportive administration, conservative Republicans are emboldened to dismantle much of the federal protection of the environment, claiming that states are better equipped to address environmental issues.
National environmental policies serve to create a level playing field for states. Rolling back national environmental policies in favor of making states the primary regulatory authorities fails to take into account the critical issues at the core of EPA and federal environmental policies. According to a recent study released by the Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics at Yale University , the key to understanding this paradox is regulation.
Using an economic model, Shapiro and Walker analyze several different factors that may affect U. Shapiro and Walker find that only one factor, environmental regulation, closely approximated the observed 60 percent decrease in manufacturing emissions from to , a period during which manufacturing output increased by 33 percent.
In addressing this apparent paradox, Shapiro and Walker focus on the Clean Air Act , which underwent significant amendment in Using data provided by the U. Census Bureau and the U. According to their paper , in order to comply with state and federal regulations, manufacturers must make expenditures to create or buy technology that reduces air pollution emissions.
By investing more capital in pollution control technology, Shapiro and Walker argue , businesses had the capacity to produce more output while emitting fewer pollutants. Accordingly, this observation explains most of the air pollution reduction observed from to In addition, CO 2 emissions did not noticeably change during this time period. Shapiro and Walker suggest that this finding, when compared to the observed emissions decreases for the six regulated air pollutants, strengthens the assertion that the presence of regulation has a meaningful impact on emissions reductions.
You should still be able to navigate through these materials but selftest questions will not work. Unit 1 Background, development and sources. A very summarised list of global environmental issues includes: air and water pollution climate change deforestation depletion of non-renewable energy sources environmental impacts of reservoirs and water abstraction impacts of mining invasive species land and soil degradation loss of biodiversity and habitat fragmentation and degradation non-sustainable depletion of natural resources nuclear risks and waste management ocean and freshwater deoxygenation ozone depletion persistent toxins population pressure waste management Many of these problems and issues traverse national and other administrative boundaries, and many of the natural resources affected are examples of a global commons.
Relate the discussion above to your personal experiences, and note down any examples you are aware of. Firstly, do you know of any examples in your region where government failed to implement environmental protection measures required by international environmental agreements because of local protest or objection?
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