Environmental Studies Essay: Why is Environmentalism a Growing Factor in International Relations?

Environmentalism is an important issue that should be shared and solved by all the humanity. The question is how people go about implementing solutions. Environmental issues must be discussed and solved at the national and at the international levels.

Nowadays many politicians use environmentalism in order to promote their radical agendas, manipulating the truth to serve their liberal purposes. Some governments often follow only those international laws that suit their interests and ignore those that do not.

As human beings people have all responsibility toward the world they live: how they walk upon the earth and how they treat all living things. The main factor is an individual consciousness of this problem. The solution to many environmental problems lies with individual responsibility.

Over the past decades nations witness an endless chain of catastrophes concerning irreversible environmental damage and unavoidable scarcity of food, minerals, water and other natural resources, a coming shortage of world reserves of oil, natural gas, silver, tin, uranium, aluminum, copper, lead, zinc and many other resources. The majority of the countries have increasingly recognized the necessity of transnational environmental relations in global environmental politics.

The world population has a tendency to increase mostly in developing countries and food demand has risen very fast every year. As a result, food production has more than doubled. Although the greater increase of production is in the developed countries, but the population increases mainly in the underdeveloped ones. It is evident that the problem lies in redistribution of the resources and of protectionism measures adopted and strictly implemented by rich nations against poor ones.

A similar tendency can be traced for pollution. Acid rain, desertification, the decline of the forests, climate change, and biotechnology became important environmental problems. In many issues concerning acid rain and the greenhouse effect, environmental organizations have achieved positive results, forcing governments and institutions to address environmental problems.

One of the main problems many countries face today is the decline of public and political support for environmentalism and the main environmental organizations experience decreasing in membership. Consequently, there is a consistent reduction in their financial strength. However, there are numerous huge environmental problems such as limitations on air pollution, reductions in water pollution and water shortages. These problems need to be solved as they destroy the environment and kill thousands of people each year.

At the same time we can notice that today the air, the rivers and lakes, and the forests in the rich developed countries are much better off than they were a few decades ago. The problems of air pollution and lead levels in the air have been brought under control. Waters became cleaner, since wastes are now treated before release. Consequently, the environment has become cleaner and healthier in these countries.

In the poor undeveloped countries with very slow growth air and water pollution is increasing, deforestation remains a problem, and it is very difficult to cope with the immense problems connected with preservation and with environmental safety. Thus, we can conclude that poverty is the principal reason of the degradation of the environment all over the world.

Environmental degradation should be the business of environmentalists and environmental policy of all countries. The leaders of developed nations should not stay apart from the environmental problems in other undeveloped countries. The main objective for the richer countries is to provide developing countries with necessary assistance to avoid poverty and environmental catastrophes. Human rights, poverty, democracy, environment all are intertwined. Any organization cannot achieve own goals without the assistance and the cooperation of the other ones.

Bibliography:

• Princen, Thomas and Matthias Finger, eds. Environmental NGOs in World Politics: Linking the Local and Global. New York: Routledge, 1994
• Steinberg, Paul F. Environmental Leadership in Developing Countries: Transnational Relations and Biodiversity Policy in Costa Rica and Bolivia. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2001