Student: Jack Kamysz
Graduation date: May 2020
Type: Concentration (single major)
Date approved: November 2017
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Summary
Whether if it’s on a local or global level of discussion, there is a means to regulate the impact of humans on our natural surroundings. More and more every day, there is a growing want and need to preserve and protect our natural world. How can this be achieved? One answer is to create laws to protect and regulate. Environmental law “has emerged as a center of interdisciplinary work that integrates research from a range of fields.” (Cass, 2015) These activities affect air, water, land, and all biotic and abiotic factors on our planet. Some general functions of most environmental laws include setting offenses and penalties for causing harm to the environment, assessing, controlling or stopping certain activities (such as land use and development) before they are carried out, setting policies and standards for how activities will be controlled and how environmental decisions and approvals will be made, and enabling members of the public to take part in environmental decision-making. Many agencies have been formed from the passing of such laws. These agencies are trying their best to enforce and carry out the laws, co-working with the governments who passed them in the first place. “Without the right institutions in place, no human society can tackle environmental problems successfully.” (Berardo, Hanlon 2015) When discussing environmental law, it is almost impossible not to mention how we can conserve energy and resources on the international level
International policy, also known as individual states’ foreign policies, consists of many strategies that benefit and safeguard the national interests of the certain nations who are involved. “The key protagonists in the environmental treaty-making system include governmental leaders and special-interest groups (such as environmental organizations, industry associations, and scientific organizations)” (Ali and Pincus 2015). Countries must interact with each other if they wish to make more of a global impact. Since this is an environmental studies course, we look at non-state actors such as climate change, global warming, and their effects on nations. These international policies are designed and passed by the governments of the correlating nations. Many national interests can be accomplished through policymaking with other countries, either with peaceful cooperation or exploitation. National interests are ever constant. Interest will always change based on factors that can change individual nations’ perceptions of rising global issues. International policy is a tricky topic. It is incredibly hard to bring aboard many nations that can possibly have different interests. More questions arise than questions answered. When we discuss international law, we tend to discuss how we can regulate on a local and international level. With international policy, one of the categories of concern is how we can protect our natural world as a global force.
When looking at conservation through the environmental studies lens, it is defined as an ethic of resource use, allocation, and protection, focusing on maintaining the health of the natural world. The natural world includes habitats, biological diversity, etc. There is also the material and resource side of conservation. Today, this mainly focuses on the conservation of nonrenewable resources. Metals, minerals, fossil fuels, and energy conservation. These resources are necessary to our natural world. When we speak about conservation, we also include the word preservation as well. Simply put, conservation seeks the proper use of nature, while preservation seeks the protection of nature from us. In what ways can we conserve and preserve our natural world? And how can we get others to be involved and to understand why it is necessary? Many environmentalists argue that we have an obligation to future generations to conserve our natural resources the best we can and find ways of adapting (Weiss, 2010). So that we can continue to strive and succeed as a species working with one another to attain our goals.
When weaving these three topics together and looking at them through more of a situated context lens, there are many discussions to be had. If we take a look at how some countries or bodies of government are progressive in their regulations about energy conservation, we can ask why and how these individual countries are able to obtain these goals while others can’t. Such countries exist in northern Europe, for example. We can also look at countries who aren’t faring well in their effort to pass laws that preserve and conserve resources, such as China, we can see what not to do and discuss ways in which globally we can avoid such situations. This discussion about examining my topic with situated context, “examines the importance of spatial and institutional scales to environmental governance, focusing especially on emerging hybrid forms.” (Agrawal, 2006) This is my focus and my concentration that I wish to pursue and further develop. Even if this global governance idea is near impossible, it does not hurt to try and understand it more and maybe even be able to figure out a way to bring our global nations together to really try and figure out what needs to be done.
Citations
Hägel, Peter. 2011. “Global Governance.” Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/obo/9780199743292-0015.
Lemos, Maria Carmen, and Arun Agrawal. 2006. “Environmental Governance.” Annual Review of Environment and Resources 31 (1):297–325. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.energy.31.042605.135621.
Ali, Saleem, and Rebecca Pincus. n.d. “Environmental Treaties – Environmental Science – Oxford Bibliographies – Obo.” Accessed November 13, 2017. http://www.oxfordbibliographiesonline.com/view/document/obo-9780199363445/obo-9780199363445-0030.xml.
Cass, Lauren. n.d. “Global Environmental Politics – International Relations – Oxford Bibliographies – Obo.” Accessed September 25, 2017. http://www.oxfordbibliographiesonline.com/view/document/obo-9780199743292/obo-9780199743292-0014.xml.
Berardo, Ramiro, and Jeffrey Hanlon. n.d. “Institutions – Environmental Science – Oxford Bibliographies – Obo.” Accessed September 25, 2017. http://www.oxfordbibliographiesonline.com/view/document/obo-9780199363445/obo-9780199363445-0040.xml.
Weiss, Edith. 1992. “In Fairness To Future Generations and Sustainable Development.” American University International Law Review 8 (1). http://digitalcommons.wcl.american.edu/auilr/vol8/iss1/2.
Questions
- Descriptive: What policies and regulations are already in place in the U.S. that are considered environmental laws? What countries are enforcing energy conservation on their own society? In what ways can nations enforce laws on each other, if possible?
- Explanatory: How should environmental law in the U.S. adapt and change with new discoveries in science? How should environmental science be used in the global treaty-making process? How does scale effect resource conservation?
- Evaluative: To what extent can institutions be regulated under the law? To what extent can we conserve energy on an international level? How should intergenerational equity be considered when discussing future policies?
- Instrumental: Should environmental laws be understood and regulated based on a moral code or through a governing body? Should there be global climate services that serve to enforce and regulate countries? Should environmental law have more of a presence in national or local jurisdiction?
Concentration courses
- ENVS 460 (Environmental Law and Policy, 4 credits) fall 2018. Student engagement in the law and policy aspect of environmental studies.
- POLS 102 (Intro to Comparative Politics 4 credits) Spring 2018. The goal of this course is to introduce students to the key theoretical frameworks and analytical methods in the field of comparative politics.
- IA 333 (International Law, 4 credits) Fall 220. The political setting of international law, its changing content, its influence on the foreign policies of states, the special problems of regulating war, and developing and implementing human rights.
- IA 211 ( International Organization, 4 credits) Fall 2018. Examines governance in the international system, including United Nations.
- SOAN 325 (Social Life of Policy, 4 credits) Fall 2019. examines policy as a sociocultural and historical phenomenon. Considers how policy develops new forms of governance, conceptualizes and shapes social boundaries and subjectivity, and regulates relationships of power.
Arts and humanities courses
- HIST 261 (Global Environmental History, 4 credits). Pre-approved A&H course; no justification required.
- PHIL 215 (Philosophy and the Environment, 4 credits). Pre-approved A&H course; no justification required.