Unit II Discussion - Environmental Legislation

10/27/2017

Belden, Roy S., Clean Air Act, American Bar Association: Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources, 2001 (Pgs. 5-21)

Question 1 (Florida Environmental Justice): What is the value of programs, like the Legal Environmental Assistance Foundation, in addressing environmental and social issues? What is the connection between environmental degradation and social equality, explain using examples from the article, and an outside example.

Question 2 (Environmental Legislation): Russell Train, former administrator of the Environmentall Protection Agency (EPA) wrote in 1973 that, "the average is citizen... beginning to recognize that there were difficult choices to be made,that some cherished patterns of behavior may have to be modified."
- What does he mean by both statements? (difficult choices, and behavioral changes) Use examples from the article for each statement, and make a connection to present debates going on about the environment.

Honors Question (San Francisco Bay): Walk through the process the BCDC legislation went through in order to get passed. What were some of the particular challenges it faced at each step? In your opinion, and using examples from the article, is the process of forming new legislation too complicated or is it proper in order to determine appropriate input?

Florida Environmental Justice
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San Francisco Bay
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Environmental Legislation
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41 Comments

slayer

10/4/2017 08:08:21 am

the Legal Environmental Assistance Foundation, addresses issues by getting the people point of view.

Karoline

10/4/2017 05:02:37 pm

Question 1:
The value of programs like LEAF is that they allow people living in poverty to have access to the health programs they need because of the problems caused by the environment. According to Roger Highfield, a Science Editor for The Telegraph, "The environmental damage caused by rich nations disproportionately impacts poor nations " (Highfield 1). Even though LEAF is a program that just impacts the United States, the concept is still the same: Rich people disproportionally pollute the environment that the poor have to live in. Taxes (that rich people pay more of) go to programs like LEAF, which help the poor. If there are more programs like LEAF, then the money from the rich will go to the poor to help improve their quality of life. This is very fair, because the rich are the ones causing the majority of the environmental damage (Highfield 1). " According to B. Suzi Ruhl, LEAF President and author of the legislation, "The recognition of environmental injustice must be translated into direct relief for the people suffering the injustice" (Ruhl 1). It is important to create more government programs to aid low-income families affected by the environmental damages created by the upper class.

Do you guys agree?

Karoline

10/4/2017 05:03:40 pm

Sorry I forgot to put my additional source in there. Here it is:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/3322505/Environment-damage-of-rich-countries-on-poor.html

Mackenzee Holloway

10/6/2017 11:59:07 pm

yes i do agree with you, poorer countries shouldn't be the ones paying the price for richer countries choice to damage the environment. Unlike richer countries poorer countries can't pay the price for the mis use of the environment and get away with it and pretend nothing is happening by throwng more money at the cause instead to the solving the issue.

Chloe

10/10/2017 11:38:06 am

I agree because if the poorer countries have to pay more than the richer ones, the poorer countries are going to be corrupt and we will slowly lose countries

Rylee

10/10/2017 10:48:41 pm

I agree because it's not fair if the poorer countries have to pay more then the other countries when it comes to damaging the environment, its easier for the bigger countries to just throw money at an issuer instead of solving the real problem

Lauryn

10/12/2017 07:15:57 pm

I agree to what Karoline is saying. If poorer countries pay more than the wealthier countries then that's unfair and it'll cause the poorer countries more damage and if they are a poor country that means most likely if they lose a lot of money they wont be able to pay that money off and it'll take many years for them to get back to where it was originally. Unlike the wealthier country's that could be paying just as much or even more and be fine and not be as damaged about it like the poorer countries.

Kristianna

10/4/2017 05:29:06 pm

Question 1: Programs like LEAF give a voice and opportunities to low income or less able people. LEAF gives these people health care opportunities for issues caused by the degradation of the environment. They also makes standards so these issues hopefully won't happen in the first place. According to one article, marginalized people are impacted significantly more by climate change than people who have access to easy food and clean water. They do not have to means to fight back against negative side effects from climate change, like the spread of diseases, droughts, and food shortages. "A U.N. report on climate change stated that it is the poor who will suffer the most as the effects of climate change continue" (Hansel 1). The environment is causing these already bad off people to be even worse off, because they cannot get access to needed help. Programs like LEAF help them do that.

https://www.pachamama.org/blog/how-social-justice-and-environmental-justice-are-intrinsically-interconnected

dalen

10/5/2017 12:21:12 pm

The value of LEAF is like a double bladed sword. LEAF addresses unhealthy environmental contamination in Florida communities, and then provides cheap health care for the people in the community near the contaminated area. The connection between social equality and environmental protecting is found in the consequences of environmental pollution. For example a community that has been contaminated by petroleum in their water is a victim of environmental pollution. If that family is not wealthy enough to have proper health care, there is not much they can do. So LEAF is there to BOTH clean up that contaminated area, and to also provide healthcare for that person. In 1997 LEAF prepared legislation that prepared a Florida Birth Defects Registration within the department of Health

http://www.mrtredinnick.com/uploads/7/2/1/5/7215292/florida.pdf

Regan

10/5/2017 12:23:26 pm

Question 1:
Programs like LEAF are used to help less fortunate people. It is used to use more of the tax money to go to helping poor people in the society. I think is is a useful program because it helps poor people which is definitely needed in the society. It helps to provide health care and better living conditions for them as well. The article explains how they created an act which will help with the health standards of less privileged people saying " The act establishes a Community Environmental Health Program within the Florida Department of Health to ensure that public health services are available to low-income community residents whose health may be harmed by contaminated sites located in or near the community" This is very useful to people who are not able to afford health care or other related services. I think LEAF is a good program and there should be more programs similar to it. Another advantage to LEAF is that as a program they continue to try new ways to stop pollution to better the environment, which will help the overall heath of people and not just the underclass citizens.
https://www.mott.org/grants/legal-environmental-assistance-foundation-alabama-rivers-ecosystem-project-199900236-02/

Teagan

10/5/2017 12:56:03 pm

Question 1:
In addressing environmental and social issues, programs like LEAF value letting people have a voice and helping others that are less fortunate. It gives cheaper health care and helps the people in communities that have been damaged by environmental problems have better living conditions. Environmental degradation is the destruction of ecosystems and the extinction of wildlife. Connecting to social equality is showed as this article states, "People pollute, and too many people living in an area can degrade that area irrevocably. Immigration at high levels exacerbates our resource and environmental problems. It will leave a poorer, more crowded, more divided country for our children "(Lamm and Imhoff, 1985). The richer people buy and use a lot of things that will pollute the air that the poorer people also have to live in, and it will keep getting worse if we don't try to stop polluting our air and water. Programs like LEAF are trying to stop the pollution and help the environment and everyone living in it, not only the rich, but also the poor.

Teagan

10/5/2017 12:57:18 pm

My other article relating to the question answered above. https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/ACF1493.pdf

Lauryn

10/5/2017 08:54:47 pm

The importance and value of programs like LEAF is that it ensured public health care for low income community service for those who may have health issues from contaminated located in or near the city. “The recognization of environmental justice must be translated into direct belief for the people suffering the injustice” LEAF is focused on giving justice to those who are suffering from the environment and aren’t able to do anything. If they help the environment then they can help the community. “Due to lack of sufficient resources and improper knowledge poverty stricken people tend to overuse every resource available to them when their survival is at stake.” If you help the community as well before helping the environment you’ll also see a huge change. It’s not just the environment hurting the community it can be the people as well. If you are low I’m poverty and using everything you can that means they’ll be using natural resources to help make ends which leads to many people stop caring for nature and taking care of it and seeing it just as something to help them survive.

http://www.voicesofyouth.org/en/posts/the-relationship-between-poverty-and-the-environment

Eliza

10/5/2017 09:44:45 pm

Question #1
The values of programs like LEAF is that they want to make it possible for everyone to have affordable health care. The reason that LEAF hoped to do is because of contamination in the environment around those people. Everything seems to relate back to the people, if the environment is healthy so are the people living there and sometimes vice versa. to B. Suzi Ruhl said that "The recognition of environmental injustice must be translated into direct relief for the people suffering the injustice. As the state grapples with economic issues associated with contamination, it must also respond to human health needs" This quote explains that an environment can not be destroyed and people still expect to have social equality. There must be strength in both sides because they both rely on each other. An outside example is global warming. People want a healthy environment but are very unwilling to change how they are living to help slow global warming themselves.

http://www.rff.org/research/publications/inequality-and-environmental-policy

Sierra McMains

10/5/2017 10:14:45 pm

The importance of programs like LEAF is that it ensures aid to low income people who are suffering from environmental problems that they cannot control. They help regulate environmental situations so that the health problems will not arise. Social equality and environmental issues are connected through many ways. One website said, "the affluent can more easily harm the poor in cases where great economic inequalities prevail." Which means it is easier for the poor to be harmed by environmental problems because the rich can get out of them. Overall, environmental issues play a role in the differences between the two classes, rich and poor.
My additional source was: https://www.populationmatters.org/documents/inequality_and_environmental_sustainability.pdf

Ally

10/6/2017 07:21:36 pm

LEAF is a program that allows poor people living in poverty to have access to health care at little to no cost. "Each and every country of the world is looking forward to eradicate poverty so that even the poor and vulnerable people also enjoy equal rights to economic resources, healthy living conditions as well as access to basic infrastructure and technology" (http://www.voicesofyouth.org/en/posts/the-relationship-between-poverty-and-the-environment) LEAF not only focuses on environmental issues, but also focuses on social equality. People living in poverty do not have the same opportunities that wealthier people have and LEAF is trying to change that. People living in poverty do not have the proper way to dispose of their waste, which is harmful to the environment. With the help of LEAF this can be solved.

Hannah

10/22/2017 11:37:59 pm

I completely agree with you when you suggest that LEAF not only focuses on environmental issues, but social equality too and that people living in poverty do not have the same opportunities that wealthier people have. I agree because people who are wealthier have more access to what they can do with their waste, whereas people in poverty don't. However, wealthy people can also harm the environment when they get careless about their waste and decide to not worry where it goes just as long as they get rid of it. This then leaves poor people with their leftovers and the amount of waste continues to build up. With this being said, I think people tend to forget how much they affect our atmosphere, which is why groups like LEAF are developed, so that they can bring awareness to everybody.

Isabel

10/6/2017 09:44:50 pm

Question 1: The value of having LEAF is to provide a community environmental health program. This helps with environmental and social issues because, it helps by watching over the environment and provides legal to support for courts to protect the environment. The connection between social degradation and social equality is finding the balance between destroying the natural resources and using what we need to use to live. For example is says in the article “The recognition of environmental injustice must be translated into direct relief for the people suffering the injustice”. (Florida Adopts1 ). This is means is referring to the fact that their needs to be a balance between the environment and social injustice. Another example is from the source Science direct “ Societies are now beginning to have serious discussions about sustainable development.”(Environmental management 1). Here they are talking about how to also find the balance between what to do about preserving our environment and what to do socially.

Hannah

10/6/2017 10:34:04 pm

Question 1: The value of programs like LEAF is to ensure that public health care is accessible to people with low-incomes whose health may be affected by contamination. "Environmental degradation is everyone's problem, but it's especially a problem for the poor, and for obvious reasons. Their position is more precarious, so when things go wrong, whether it's pollution in a neighborhood or rising sea levels swallowing a country, they are less able to respond effectively. In this sense, inequality ought to be fundamental consideration when fashioning environmental policies." This quote is explaining that the poor are always going to have a larger struggle with environmental degradation than the rich. The rich people purchase and use items that cause pollution, which leaves the poor having to deal with these consequences. LEAF is program that is trying to prevent pollution to improve the environment and health of the people.
http://www.rff.org/research/publications/inequality-and-environmental-policy

aleyse evers

10/15/2017 10:06:58 pm

I like how you brought up the point that the poor have less of an opportunity to change the situation they are faced with when comparing the impacts of how pollution affects people in a low-income neighborhood to people in a high- income neighborhood. I completely agree because people will always sway in favor in which the money falls. For example if the idea of a large factory that causes much pollution to the environment is being proposed and gets the support of the rich folk then the lower-income families most likely won't get a say in deciding whether or not that factory will be built in their their neighborhood.

Teagan

10/17/2017 10:30:54 pm

I agree, i also like your statements about how the lower income families and the poor. I think that many people that have higher incomes and are rich do not think about how their actions and products they use are effecting the environment. I don't think that they are aware that they are polluting the environment with the majority of things they buy and others suffer from this, and have to live in it also. I think we need to spread awareness to the rich and higher income families about how they effect the atmosphere that everyone else is also living in.

holly

10/10/2017 08:06:51 pm

LEAF is to provide a community environmental health program and to allow public health. it is affordable and is accessible to everyday people. even thought LEAF is a organization that helps poor people get health it is also hurting the environment. rich people are the ones that pollute the most because they have more things. so the poor people shouldn't have to suffer because the rich people don't know how to recycle.

Seth

10/11/2017 10:46:08 pm

Leaf is important because it helps family's that don't have as much income get affordable health Care one of the main reasons is that people with lower incomes can't afford to live in a place that can clean up and move the pollution elsewhere so their forced to live in it degrading their health which is what leaf intends to help fix their health and how to keep their health up and not just go back down into the same problem. Also leaf is trying to help fix the economic opportunity difference between the poor and the rich.

Lauryn

10/12/2017 10:02:13 pm

Russell said, "the average is citizen... beginning to recognize that there were difficult choices to be made,that some cherished patterns of behavior may have to be modified." Russell means when he says that quote is, when it comes to a big situation that affects you or people you love then it changes your personality a little and your actions on things you do to make it go away and have the majority of the people satisfied with what you do. How big problems effect the way people and their decisions change happen all the time. "...regions with common air-pollution problems. How-ever, problems in state implementation of the standards, plus other difficulties, resulted in the enactment of more comprehensive legislation, the Clean Air Act Amendments. This provides stronger federal involvement on the limit of things. It is also a more strict law on what you can and can't do and has higher standers as well as more requirements. Because of people complaining and wanting better air-quality the legislative branch stepped in a made a new law for those complaining about even if others don't agree with the law. An example of that happening today is gay marriage law. I found a website that I will link below but it gives me the percentages of people for and against gay marriage. 62% support same-sex marriage, while 32% oppose it. The government still passed the same marriage act even though they knew others didn't like it but that is because the majority wanted it passed. They had a big situation to handle and they made the decision on to pass the law.

http://www.pewforum.org/fact-sheet/changing-attitudes-on-gay-marriage/

Aleyse Evers

10/15/2017 09:53:12 pm

The value in programs such as LEAF is that overall they address anything and everything that would ultimately hurt the environment or affect peoples health in a negative manner. Specifically LEAF is doing many things to protect the peoples’ health who live in areas of high pollution. They prepared a bill entitled “Environmental Equity and Justice Act” that the Florida legislature eventually adopted. This act establishes that “a Community Environmental Health Program within the Florida Department of Health to ensure that public health services are available to low-income community residents whose health may be harmed by contaminates sites located in or near the community (Florida Adopts Environmental Justice).” Furthermore, not only do they provide health services to low-income families in areas of heavy pollution but they also provide the clean up of these areas too. As this article (How poverty lead to environmental degradation) explains “Poverty and Environmental degradation are inter-link to an extent that they enforce each other.” In many ways social equality such as poverty in the U.S. affects how the environment is treated and used and vice versa. People who are in a low-income family are affected by environmental degradation because the cost of living in a clean pollution free town is much higher than living in a polluted town.

https://visionaryfoundation.wordpress.com/2014/11/11/how-poverty-lead-to-environmental-degradation-common-rural-and-urban-environmental-problems/

Chloe link

10/15/2017 11:18:04 pm

Programs like LEAF are important because they keep people updated on important issues in the US that impact them based off of their decisions. Environmental degradation is a result of social equality.

Dunavan

10/23/2017 05:43:06 pm

What all programs fall into this catagories? Can they reach people of the lower income areas.

Chloe

10/15/2017 11:36:50 pm

'The average citizen',is saying that the big decisions that people make on a daily basis don't only effect them but also effect everyone around them and then once those decisions are made people have to adjust to those decisions and change their lifestyle.

Dunavan

10/23/2017 05:39:07 pm

Chloe is right in her statement. Even if to you it seems like such a small thought like Alddias wants you to put in a quter to use their carts its something large to someone else who has not been there or dose not understand why they have this safety proction to keep their carts at their stores.

hol

10/17/2017 02:15:07 pm

(difficult choices, and behavioral changes)
difficult choices that are choices that can be mad or good that you are torn between. its usually between family and friends or ones self and a other person. difficult choices are when one has to many choices and one choice will benefit you and the other will benefit other people. one will need to choose weather the choice is worth hurting someone or building someone up. examples from the article are Russell said, "the average is citizen... beginning to recognize that there were difficult choices. this means that everyone has difficult choices. every decision will always effect something around it or even across the world.

Riley A

10/18/2017 09:12:58 am

Question 1: The value of having programs like this is as stated an education purpose for students and basically anyone who wants to learn. Non-profit services are always a help to the community and environment in this case. Social equality is key to the environment, like as of now we are having problems in a sort of way and known that we can all work together and learn about the environment and that'll propel us to help our world around us in many ways and all the ways we can do.

holly

10/18/2017 09:15:51 am

i agree with Lauryn because i too believe that the value of programs like LEAF is that it ensured public health care for low income community service for those who may have health issues from contaminated located in or near the city.

Riley A

10/18/2017 09:19:42 am

To me he means that everyone has an impact on the environment whether it be big or small. He states that we all are beginning to recognize difficult choices at hand and we may have to modify them. I feel that he was talking about how decisions we make today about our environment and the choices we make that sort of hurt the environment, makes it seem like we need to improve our choices on how we impact the environment around us as shown with the water resources in an article on CA.gov.

Mr. Tredinnick

10/18/2017 09:46:34 am

Question 2 (Environmental Legislation): Russell Train, former administrator of the Environmentall Protection Agency (EPA) wrote in 1973 that, "the average is citizen... beginning to recognize that there were difficult choices to be made,that some cherished patterns of behavior may have to be modified."
- What does he mean by both statements? (difficult choices, and behavioral changes) Use examples from the article for each statement, and make a connection to present debates going on about the environment.

Teagan V

10/22/2017 09:45:37 pm

When Russell Train states this, he is saying that the citizens were seeing that they have to make some decisions, and in doing that, they are going have to change the things that they regularly do. When he talks about making serious choices, he is referring to most choices focused on the environmental impact of the production, transportation, and utilization of energy. (Beard 230). Their routines that they need to change is not polluting the air and water and working on their land-use management. (Beard 230). This relates to debates about pollution that are going on today. Recently, "Simon Fraser University health sciences professor Bruce Lanphear is a Commissioner and author of The Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health that has released a report detailing the adverse effects of pollution on global health" (Simon Fraser University).

Rylee

10/23/2017 12:58:45 pm

When Russell Train states this he is saying that the citizens need to make decisions that can change what they daily but that they need to sometimes make serious choices about your environment like how pollution impacts us or how we use to much energy.

Dunavan

10/23/2017 05:29:10 pm

Russell was trying to state how society is as a whole. The difficult choices is telling the human group to stop something or say that we put money or energy into this instead of this. Behavioral changes are hard because you have to make a concis effort to change how you are responding to these areas. An human behavior that falls into this is rembering to take your cloth bag instead of using the plastic ones provided.

Mr. Tredinnick

10/18/2017 09:47:23 am

Honors Question (San Francisco Bay): Walk through the process the BCDC legislation went through in order to get passed. What were some of the particular challenges it faced at each step? In your opinion, and using examples from the article, is the process of forming new legislation too complicated or is it proper in order to determine appropriate input?

Rylee

10/23/2017 12:45:16 pm

(Honors Question)
The BCDC legislation went through, three women's main goal was to prevent the city of Berkeley from pursuing fill projects in the Bay. They began informing the public about the dangers of filling the bay. They then began introducing bills in the California Assembly calling for a moratorium on bay fill. Both bills died in committee. In 1963 a study examined ownership of the Bay, economic and recreational values of the Bay, pollution of the Bay, and past and pro posed encroachments by fill and diking of the waters and tidelands of the Bay. J Eugene McAteer sponsored a bill creating a commission to study the problems of the bay. Then in 1965, McAteer in the Senate and Petris in the Assembly successfully sponsored a bill establishing the Bay Conservation and Development Com mission as a temporary agency. The administration bill left out the BCDC termination provision, bill said nothing about official adoption of the bay plan nor its expansion of jurisdiction saltponds and managed wetlands. Mateo County,'8 introduced a bill that would have established an entirely new agency to redo the work of the BCDC by preparing a new master plan over a five-year period, by scrapping the years of work that had gone into preparing the BCDC's Bay Plan, but also by stalling effort to implement a permanent, enforceable plan for the development and conservation of the Bay. In my opinion I think the process for forming a new legislation is good the way it is because if its easy to from one then a lot of people would try to get bills passed weather those bills actually benefited anyone , but because we make it hard then people who actually wanted to make a change and make our society a better place can then be heard instead of people who are just doing it for there own gain.

Rylee

10/23/2017 12:50:17 pm

Sorry, What o you think?^

Gracia Rojas

10/23/2017 05:16:21 pm

Question #1:
The value of non-profit organizations like LEAF are very impactful because programs like this act as a "watch dog" and gives legal support for court actions to protect the environment. We need programs like this to make sure any environment isn't being degraded, or Environmental Degradation is avoided. Social equality is the state of affairs which all people within a specific society have same status, and certain respects. An example of Environmental Degradation and Social equality is in the Florida Environmental Justice article. In this article LEAF has adopted a "Environmental Equity and Justice Act" which focused on the Community's health of Florida in the Florida Health Department to ensure public health services are available to the low- income community class. This is an example of how social equality can be seen, with the care of low-income residents. And connecting with environmental degradation, natural disasters can cause large numbers of injured people and a devastated state. So the act connects these two terms by balancing each other out, the well-being of the people v.s. natural causes and disasters. An example outside from this would be a non-profit organization very much like this named HEAR. (Health and Environment Assistance Resources database) which is a program of Boston University students and others that increase and diversify the legal, scientific, medical, and technical expertise available to the community groups. They focus on Environmental and Public concerns. For example, there latest projects were cleaning up lead contamination in Williston, Vermont.
http://www.hear-db.org/

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Unit II Discussion - Environmental Legislation

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