CONTROVERSY IN ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION

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With the ascension of Donald Trump into office, the United States has sent an application

to withdraw from the Paris Agreement on climate changes. Sadly, the worrying climate change

effects such as rising sea levels, droughts, evident fast-melting glaciers, powerful and frequent

storms, the debate on environment protection has continued to grow unabated. Whereas activists,

scientists, and photographers have tried to collect evidence on the negative environment change

through research, industrialists are trying to paint the climate change as a hoax and a natural

phenomenon that is not resultant from human activities. Nevertheless, one thing is clear; the

environmental conditions are fast changing and this needs an aggressive response or else a vast

array of flora and fauna, and other natural physical features will disappear from the face of the

earth. There are many organizations and individuals who have sought to address this issue,

whether as opponents or proponents of the need for environmental protection. This paper is a

discussion and analysis of the environment’s protection effort as a controversial issue in the

world today.

One of the controversial issues in the environment protection is that such efforts like

limiting the use of carbon materials are counterproductive in that they kill jobs, hinder the oil,

gas, coal, and manufacturing industries, and cost nations trillions of dollars.1 This is according to

the President of the U.S. and his industrial allies who are opposed to global efforts of containing

the climate change. On the other hand, countries like France, China, and the entire European

Union believe that the current environment protection efforts can go on with industrial

development as alternative sources of energy that are green and environmentally friendly are

being adopted.2 According to Donald Trump, in his official communication of his intended

1
Smith, Belfair. The Environment and Global Politics (New York NY: McMillan, 2016), 208.

2
Jonathan, The Conservative Record on Environmental Policy, 56-81
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withdrawal from Paris Climate Agreement, America was willing to renegotiate the deal to

identify terms that were more favorable to its workers, businesses, and ordinary taxpayers. The

controversy is on the economic impact of the environmental protection efforts. However, while

the United States affirms its commitment to environmental protection, it does not demonstrate

how it should do that while it withdraws from global efforts meant to contain the global warming

while it is the second largest emitter of greenhouse gases globally after China.3

Another controversial issue surrounding the environmental protection efforts is the trade-

off between the regulatory constraints on industries, and the need for a safer and cleaner

environment. In the United States, this issue has become bi-partisan. While the Democrats

believe that there is an urgent need to reign on factories to regulate their impact on the

environmental degradation, the Republicans have a conservative coalition that is determined to

free business of the regulatory constraints that are meant to protect the environment. There has

been an anti-regulatory conservatism in the Republican Party that seeks to block the efforts of

passing new legislation on the environment meant to make the existing laws stringent.4

According to conservatisms, the legislation and increased stringency do not come at the

good for America because the environmental protection is not a reserve for America only but

should be a global effort aimed at protecting the environment. However, the proponents believe

that the effort by the United States could be a starting place for other countries to follow suit. A

majority of the Democrats have adopted this storyline for a long time. This happened especially

when President Barrack Obama took office and started to champion for the global effort in

environmental protection culminating with the Paris Climate Agreement.5

3
Farmer, Andrew. Managing Environmental Pollution (Washington DC: Routledge, 2013) 34
4
Ibid, 56-81
5
Zhang, Hai-Bin, et al. "U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Agreement: Reasons, impacts, and China's response."
Advances in Climate Change Research 21, no. 32 (2017): 220
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In order to try to sell their idea of opposition to the conservation and to persuade policy-

makers to ignore the class of regulations and stringent laws, the opposition created alternative

storylines. The rate at which the government regulatory interventions were going caused an

alarm on the side of conservatives. Many social and economic quarters have also raised concerns

on how the Trump administration downplay the ecological concerns in response to the

environmentalists view that the wanton population increase and rapid industrial expansion are

dangerous to the environment.6 The opponents claimed that the top-down environmental

regulations were overly prescriptive and inefficient to yield any meaningful results in the

environment protection.

In addition to advocating for the status quo and deregulation of environmental protection

laws die to the threats of job losses, a possible economic meltdown and loss of property rights,

the opponents have disguised themselves as being believers of balance in the legislation. 7 Such

discussion continued to dominate the issue of environmental protection and added on the

controversy surrounding the environment protection. The public opinion is still divided as no one

has provided the balance between the need for protection, individual liberty, economic interests,

and the cost involved.8 The opinions are as divided as the interests are divided raging from

economic, political, and civil among others.

As the debate over environmental protection continues to rage, it might be expected that

as people become more educated on science, they will appreciate the overwhelming evidence of

global warming that is currently available. This can be explained by the cultural cognition theory

that suggests that people will form perceptions that are in conformity with their values that they

6
Farmer, Andrew. Managing Environmental Pollution (Washington DC: Routledge, 2013) 34
7
Ibid.
8
Burns, Steven. "Enviornmental Policy and Politics: Trends in Public Debate." Natural Resources and Enviornment
12, no.7 (2012): 17- 31
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share with others.9 The basic conflict between groups with different cultural outlooks is the

reason behind the environment protection controversy. For instance, the people whose values are

based on individualistic and hierarchical principles will tend to be skeptical of the need for

environmental protection. However, the communitarian and egalitarian people support the need

for the environmental protection for the purposes of ensuring that the posterity should be equated

to a clean and pollution free environment.10 The opinions of these people on issues that cut across

the environment protection including carbon emission, use of nuclear energy, and alternative

sources of energy also differ and sometimes are informed by mistaken beliefs.

In conclusion, the objective of this paper was to discuss and analyze the environment

protection as an area of controversy and of public debate. This activity has analyzed the various

reasons and reasoning of people and organizations that hold differing opinions on the issue. The

main factor here is the economic interests while others include the political factors, social

interests, and the cultural values and the principles that inform them. Ultimately, environmental

protection politics will be here for a long time to come.

Bibliography

Adler, Jonathan H. "The Conservative Record on Environmental Policy ." The New Atlantis: A

Journal of Technology & Society 2, no.1 (2013): 56-81

9
Jonathan, The Conservative Record on Environmental Policy, 56-81
10
Farmer, Andrew. Managing Environmental Pollution (Washington DC: Routledge, 2013) 34
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Belfair, Smith. The Environment and Global Politics. New York NY: McMillan, 2016.

Burns, Steven. "Enviornmental Policy and Politics: Trends in Public Debate." Natural Resources

and Enviornment 12, no.7 (2012): 17- 31

Farmer, Andrew. Managing Environmental Pollution: Washington DC: Routledge, 2013.

Zhang, Hai-Bin, Han-Cheng Dai, Hua-Xia Lai, and Wen-Tao Wang. "U.S. withdrawal from the

Paris Agreement: Reasons, impacts, and China's response." Advances in Climate Change

Research 21, no. 32 (2017): 220-225.