While we, homo sapiens, are the only species ever
to have gained appreciable control over Earth’s environment, we are
far from being its masters. Quite to the contrary, recent natural
disasters such as the Indian Ocean tsunami and Hurricane Katrina remind
us that, when confronted with such cataclysms, we become unable to
adequately influence the artificial environments we have created for
ourselves, let alone the forces of Nature. We prefer to think of
ourselves as being able to bend the environment to our will, but in
reality humanity acts as a destabilizing agent within the environment and
a disruptor of ecosystems.
As recognition has grown that steps must be taken to
control and monitor our modification of the environment and ecosystems,
environmental agencies and organizations have been created by
governments, business and industry, educational institutions, consumer
groups, concerned citizens and combinations thereof to promote,
coordinate and oversee safe environmental practices and preservation of
ecosystems and to educate the public, governing bodies and corporate
entities regarding the benefits, drawbacks and proper use of and care for
the environment in which we all must live. (Numerous organizations
such as natural history museums and research institutions, while not
principally engaged in environmental activities, sponsor programs
designed to heighten environmental consciousness and aid in ecosystem
preservation.) Some environmental agencies and organizations are tied
directly to the founding bodies, some are adjuncts, and others are
entirely autonomous. Environmental agencies and organizations have a
variety of mandates, usually defined in a mission statement and
often further expanded upon in a goals or vision
statement. Specific mandates and objectives may include:
- Promotion of education, research, development and commerce in
environmentally-friendly technologies and in new technologies for
environmental rehabilitation and pollution control;
- Encouraging conservation of natural resources, programs such as
recycling, and use of alternate fuels and discouraging practices such
as hunting and collecting of endangered species or exploitation of
of fragile ecosystems;
- Funding of environmental science research and development
efforts;
- Encouraging development of career opportunities in environmental
engineering, environmental science and ecosystem preservation and
facilitation of job placement within these and related
disciplines;
- Raising public awareness of environmental issues and challenges and
environment and ecosystem hazards or bringing a particular aspect of
environmental change, threat to ecosystems, or environmental science
or technology to the forefront of the public consciousness;
- Serving as a watchdog or monitor for the environment and for
those industries and practices that cause harm or destruction to the
environment and to ecosystems to insure compliance with existing
environmental regulations and to encourage better methods of resource
utilization;
- Lobbying lawmaking bodies for enactment of laws favorable to the
environment and environmentally-friendly industries and technologies
and restrictive to uncontrolled environmental exploitation.
Environmental agencies and organizations in the private sector are
most often non-profit entities, but may also be for-profit companies such
as think tanks engaged in furthering specific environmental
industries and research segments or in tackling environmental and
ecosystem challenges and issues in general. Environmental agencies
and organizations may be local, regional, national or international in
scope and influence.
It must be noted that some environmental groups and organizations take upon
themselves the goal of protecting the environment without regard to the
impact their efforts may have upon the lives and livelihoods of those
people who, either directly or incidentally, come into conflict with
their philosophies or their actions. I propose to you that these
environmental groups are little different than the government or corporate
entities that they despise who may act or claim to act “for the good
of the nation and its people” or ”for the good of the company
and its employees” without regard for environmental and ecosystem
consequences; while they differ diametrically in philosophy, they
employ the same brute force strategy to accomplish their goals.
Environmental groups that act without regard for the public interest serve
to alienate the very populace they require to properly secure the
environmental and ecosystem protection they seek. It is a hard, cold
fact that, barring a global extinction event, humankind is here to stay.
We will of necessity continue to interact with our environment; the
nature of that interaction is reshaped beneficially only through public
education, a philosophy that espouses a balance between the needs of
Man and Nature, and recognition that we must preserve rather than remake
our environment to continue our existence as a species.
Authored by Kenneth L. Anderson.
Original article published 6 September 2005.
Follow links to the right to learn more about environmental agencies and organizations,
the functions each performs and the benefits that derive from their
existence.
At the left margin, Related Links address topics of interest
pertaining to environmental issues and earth changes. View the
Technology & Science SiteMap
for a complete list of technology and science-related topics.
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