Cities and the environment

http://www.textbookx.com/scholarship/winners.php

Cities and the Environment: New approaches for eco-societies

National governments are local, not global, representing their own national populations, not all humanity. Their environmental responsibilities therefore arise in practice from the interests of their national populations, not those of all mankind. Moreover, unique national political systems have their own ways of aggregating the needs and desires of diverse interest group to articulate the "national interest" with regard to the environment. Unfortunately, national policies can responsibly serve the global welfare only when political institutions aggregate the desires of sub-national interest groups in such a way as to require global environmental responsibility in the national interest. We who think it a moral imperative to save the global environment must accept a responsibility to make environmentalist consistent with locally defined national interests.

Cities and the Environment (Takashi Inoguchi, Edward Newman and Glen Paoletto, eds.) points out that the dynamic of preventing environmental damage are different in different countries. In developing countries economic priorities often compete with environmental value while in developed countries a lack of political will" often obstructs environmental progress. i still remember when as a little girl in Indonesia I watched my mother collect glass bottles we had used, and sell them to a local garbage picker who in turn resold them at a profit to a bigger dealer. I didn't think of that as recycling though it was clearly good for the environment; to us it was merely a monetary transaction. Recycling per se is not really a priority for many people in developing countries but income is, and that priority can encourage recycling. In developed countries, the authors tell us, "political will" is lacking. What the authors call "political will" result from the aggregation of interests including the oil, auto, coal and other industries whose local interests often are not consistent with global environmental welfare. Given that we live for better or worse in a nation-state system, it behooves global environmental advocates to formulate policy proposal rendering global environmentalism more consistent with these local interests.

Policy approaches to the environment need to be country-specific. The most effective environmental approach in a country like Indonesia will be different from that in developed country such as the United States. Unlike the US, Indonesia is a developing country with abundant rainforests where illegal logging is rampant, generating large revenues at the cost of floods in the rainy season, droughts and fire in the dry season, air pollution (from fire) that spreads to neighboring countries Singapore and Malaysia. there are laws regulating logging but they are not well enforced. Cities and the Environment notes the urgency of logging regulation enforcement because "regulation" means nothing without government enforcement. it also cites the more general need to develop and implement a coherent policy and practice framework and put it in action together with a comprehensive educational program to elevate people's awareness of the local consequences of environmental problems. Doing so would create an eco-friendly society. This 'eco-societies" concept addresses the global environment by encouraging global thinking and local action.

The "eco-societies" concept views every individual as responsible for environmental damage. each individual can make difference by using energy efficiently: using green products, recycling, and being willing to change his or her lifestyle by sacrificing some habitual comfort and conveniences. To encourage such sacrifice is the challenge government must address by educating and raising people awareness  of their local interests in global ecology. Implementation of this 'eco-societies" concept requires participations of all societal actors and institutions; local & national governments, universities, researchers, NGOs and international organizations, because the "eco-societies" approach addresses not only environmental issues but also economic, social, and political interests. For example, achieving a "low-energy society" requires not just societal attitudes conducive to energy conservation but also local and international political promotion of technological innovation and emission controls. Countries can work together to find affordable yet locally palatable alternative energy solutions consistent with international environmental agreements. The conduct of one nation could produce global ecological destruction, and because we share the same earth we do have moral obligations to one another, but those obligations will be met only in conjunction with each nation's fulfillment of its own self-defined national interests. It is the responsibility of national governments to find policies that satisfy both global and local interests. This doubtless harder than meeting only one of of theses sets of obligations, but it is reality. While all of us must meet our local needs, in the words of Benjamin Franklin, "We must hang together, gentlemen... else, we shall most assuredly hang separetely".

How far do we care about our environment? Happy Earth Day - Yanti