Explain why the Environment is such a discursive subject

It is a fact that the planets weather is becoming more(prenominal) erratic, and lastly warmer. The causes of the changes to our weather system argon undeniable, entirely the real postulate is if they be entirely man made. Evidence of carbon emissions increasing is available, but there is no smoking gun that categorically proves that the two are linked (sceptical science website accessed 20/04/11). Until this can be proved beyond doubt one way or the other, people provide disaccord on mans affect on the earth.Since the Industrial Revolution of the 19th degree Celsius there has been a growing concern on the impact of economic development in nature (Moran, 2005, p338). Different individuals and different semipolitical parties go forth deplete differing views on the impact and relevance of environmental issues in the modern font political world. Despite the awareness of the issue, environmental issues would not enter mainstream government until the 1960s. Previously there w as little thought given to the natural resources consumed by man, but in the modern world their finite nature has been bring in (Bentley, 2006, p137).By the late 1980s all mainstream political parties would have adopted and demonstrable their own environmental ag stop overas (ibid, p138). Pressure groups such as unripenedpeace, the CND, Friends of the Earth and the population Wildlife Fund were campaigning in the UK and around the world during the 70s and 80s in rate to bring the environmental agenda to the political forefront. But it was not scantily drag groups bringing environmentalism to the political landscape, but also a livelong new political party.The Green party was started in 1985 with the arrest of miserable politics away from what it felt was the continued pursuit of economic ontogeny and focusing more on clean sustainable living (Moran, 2005, p338). The Green party has continued to rise since its inception. The party currently has 109 elected local anaesthe tic councillors, 2 European MPs and in the May 2010 election gained their first do-nothing in the Westminster when party leader Caroline Lucas won Brighton and Hove (Green Party Website accessed 20/04/2011).With the Green parties growing influence in British Politics, the real holy terror of global warming, a globalized economy and the existence of more and more drag groups, we can be assured that the environmental agenda impart run in British Politics for some years to come. There are many examples of environmental campaigns that have already been and gone and the results of which can console be guaranteen today. In 1982 and Englishman named Des Wilson began a campaign called eliminate, with the aim of reducing the impact of lead pollution from petrol.Lead pollution was known to have sound impact on the health of young children, as easily as the environment as a whole. Fortunately for the members of CLEAR, the campaign had already begun to reduce lead pollution in the UK. These campaigns had support in nigh very influential places. The Royal Commission on Environmental contamination had already stated its desires for lead free petrol, and the German government had been appealing to the rest of Europe over the danger to German and other European forests.A European Union directive shortly followed and the majority of western sandwich states installed lead-free petrol in their petrol situations by the end of 1983 (Leach, 2006, p423). In 1972 planetaryistic think tank the club of Rome produce a book called The Limits of Growth, and warned that the existing economic growth was putt a serious strain on Earths natural resources and warned of an impending calamity for mankind.Awareness of environmental issues was growing in Britain too, with the National Trust, the Council for Protection of domainfied England and the RSPB some of the long standing organisations joining the environmental campaign. Also, newer groups such as Transport 2000 and th e Centre for Alternative Technology sprung up and joined many UK abnormal and/or based campaigns (Leach, 2005, p424). There is little doubt that the campaigns of these pressure groups helped to bring the environmental agenda to the forefront of British Politics.Environmental issues will affect all other constitution areas of political parties and governments in a way that few other issues can. As stated previously with the CLEAR campaign, the effect of placing lead free petrol on the petrol station forecourt would of been non-existent had the lead-free petrol been twice the price of leaded fuel. As such, the British government encouraged the switch by placing reduced taxes on unleaded petrol, so the impact of making the environmentally conscious policy affected taxation in 1983 (ibid, p423).Any new development of roads, rail put over or real estate will need to go through with(predicate) certain environmental checks prior to any planning permission cosmos granted. An excellent example from recent times of environmental issues affecting a political decision relates to the planning permissions of the new Olympic Games site in Stratford. As part of the process for obtaining planning permission, the Olympic Delivery empowerment produced a 40 page Environment statement on how they plan to maintain the sites wildlife before, during and after the Olympic Games (London 2012 website accessed 20/04/11).Rather then by chance serving as a hindrance to the project, the environmental impact and sustainability became a key component of what the project wished to achieve. This is clears evidence that environmental issues are so ingrained in political thought that they are no semipermanent considered as an after thought. This is, in my opinion, a clear indication of how the archaeozoic environmental lobbyists were successful in their pursuit to bring environmentalism to the mainstream political agenda. International accordances on environmental issues will also af fect the thinking of a governing political organisation.In 1997 186 states agreed on limits to their carbon emissions. The aim was to reduce the carbon emissions of signed countries to 5% below 1990 levels by 2012. Although initially successful (the 2002 targets set out(a) by the agreement were met) the problems with the Kyoto began when the US withdrew from the agreement in 2001. Although President Clinton had agreed to the treaty in 97, there were serious issues getting it through the senate, and in 2001 President Bush pulled the US out of Kyoto declaring that it would gravely damage the US economy.The principal of the agreement on Kyoto would see states given a set quota of emissions each year, and these limits they would be allowed to trade send off against one another. This would see high emission nations such as the US buy unused credits off of less polluting countries such as The Netherlands. Nations could also earn extra credits by getting obscure in environmental conserv ation works in their own country or in a developing nation (BBC website accessed 19/04/2011).Kyoto would ultimately fail because the principal of trading emissions quotas would be unsustainable, and no significant reductions in emissions were achieved though the life of the treaty. The last attempt to broker an agreement in the international community was in December 2009 in Copenhagen, Denmark. As illusion Vidal wrote in the Guardian The so-called Copenhagen accord recognises the scientific case for safekeeping temperature rises to no more than 2C but does not contain commitments to emissions reductions to achieve that finishing.After the conference, G77 executive director Lumumba Di-Aping described the deal as having the worst level of ambition you can get, and John Sauven of Greenpeace UK described Copenhagen as a crime scene (Guardian Website, accessed 19/04/11). The simple truth is that environmental issues are here to stay. The early work of environmental pressure groups su ch as Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace has clearly had an effect on modern political thought. Every political party will have an environmental policy outlined in its pre-election manifesto as well as in the policy section of its website.As we saw with the Olympic Stadium, the environmental impact of the construction process and post games legacy was a major actor when the whole project was outlined. Environmentalism in politics is here to stay. Major international agreements may fail like Kyoto, or fail to even calculate as was the case with Copenhagen, but the pressure groups are growing is capacity and influence, and any move by the political system to remove environmentalism will be met with strong opposition and serious repercussions.