Questions tagged [environmental-policy]
Policy affecting the Environment, or the ability to sustain an Ecosystem.
54
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31
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4answers
6k views
What international laws might prohibit Brazil from cutting down the Amazon or using it as a natural resource of Brazil?
Brazil has been cutting down large swaths of the Amazon rainforest for development,agriculture and the use of natural resources from the rainforest. However, the Amazon is widely regarded as the lungs ...
3
votes
1answer
140 views
Is Japan's handling of its nuclear waste water conforming to international norms and historical precedents?
The United States on Monday (local time) extended support to Japan in
its decision to release contaminated water from the wrecked Fukushima
atomic power station into the sea, stating that Tokyo ...
24
votes
5answers
6k views
Is the U.S. military bound by the same environmental laws as the country being occupied?
Is the U.S. military bound by the same environmental laws as the country being occupied? Let's say that the United States is still occupying Afghanistan, to what extent does the U.S. military have to ...
0
votes
1answer
118 views
Is there any treaty or international law that tries to regulate how to handle sea waste?
Is there any treaty or international law that tries to regulate how to handle sea waste (most of it human feces)? It would be crazy if human waste was dumped onto the sea without treating it first to ...
4
votes
2answers
529 views
What interventions could decrease the price of Bitcoin? [closed]
The high value of some cryptocurrencies, in particular Bitcoin has had the effect of causing a significant increase in the demand for electricity leading to increases of carbon emissions. (See https:/...
6
votes
1answer
123 views
What (if any) are the legal consequences if the UK government fails to meet carbon budgets?
If the UK's carbon budgets are 'legally binding' as part of the Climate Change Act of 2008, what are the legal consequences for failing to meet them?
I'm confused as to what 'legally binding' means in ...
4
votes
0answers
167 views
Are there indications that the French government considered a carbon fee-and-dividend to assuage the yellow vests?
A key reason for the yellow vest protests was that poorer households would have been proportionally more impacted by the proposed fuel tax increases. Carbon taxes are generally regressive, i.e. impose ...
3
votes
1answer
137 views
Why did the proposal for a Common Assets Trust (CAT) not pass the Vermont legislature?
The idea of a common assets trust (CAT) is to hold and manage natural and collectively created assets and pay citizens a dividend from the proceeds. The proposal entered the Vermont legislature twice (...
5
votes
1answer
129 views
How is Massachusetts' requirement to sell only zero emissions vehicles by 2035 being implemented?
Several news outlets are reporting on this story this week:
The Hill: "Massachusetts to require 100 percent of car sales to be electric by 2035"
Car and Driver Magazine: "Massachusetts ...
-1
votes
1answer
165 views
Are Indian farm acts anti-environment?
My only focused question: Are Indian farm acts, which were and are in news, anti-environment?
For those willing to read why I am asking, read it below. It is incomplete research.
A. Environmentalists ...
3
votes
1answer
69 views
Which sources of CO2 emissions are currently considered for The European Union Emissions Trading System?
This article describes the Carbon emissions pricing used in the European Union. This is part of the European Union Emissions Trading System (ETS) which provided good results despite low prices:
(..) ...
3
votes
3answers
362 views
What powers, if any, does POTUS have to ban fracking on private or state owned property?
One of the flashpoints in the current presidential contest, especially in Pennsylvania, is the issue of fracking.
I have no doubt that the President and Federal government maintain jurisdiction over ...
2
votes
3answers
303 views
Can the EU Parliament's vote on terminology for plant-based meat and dairy substitutes lead to enforcing the new terminology upon the member states?
The EU Parliament should decide whether to ban the usage of ‘meatish’ and ‘dairyish’ names for plant-based products. This sounds rather strange since this seems to go against the EU environmental ...
10
votes
3answers
1k views
Can imports be banned according to method of production?
If an imported product is functionally indistinguishable from a domestically traded product, but is produced by a different process, are countries free to ban (or apply large tariffs to) that import?
...
-5
votes
1answer
224 views
Why does the law still require the usage of catalytic converters in cars? [closed]
Many countries have decided that cars need catalytic converters despite the fact that they lower efficiency and produce more carbon dioxide for the same mechanical power output.
The gases the ...
10
votes
2answers
423 views
Are any governments promoting work from home as an effective solution to decreasing pollution and CO2 emissions?
There's much talk about work from home: efficiency, people who like it, people who don't, but I didn't see any policy talk, by governments, about its impact on the environment and whether it should be ...
8
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1answer
1k views
Is it possible to purchase emission allowances with the goal of reducing the amount in circulation?
Can any company purchase emission allowances under the EU Emission Trading System and then not end up using them? My reasoning behind it would be to keep on increasing this commodity's price in order ...
1
vote
1answer
103 views
Is there a government that considers investing in artificial meat in order to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions related to meat production?
This Wikipedia section argues about the greenhouse gas emissions related to meat production (~ 14 - 15% of of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions).
Clearly reducing greenhouse gas emissions should ...
5
votes
3answers
248 views
How does a hereditary chief differ from the elected officials in North America's First Nations?
In Canada there have been protests against the building of a gas pipeline. From what I can tell, most protests started when the hereditary leaders of the Weet'suwet'en opposed it and called for allies ...
4
votes
1answer
350 views
Have there been any attempts to get the US government to revert to pre-2007 requirements for gas cans?
In 2007, the EPA mandated that all gas cans made from 2009 onward conform to a set of regulations that, combined with the requirements of the Children's Gasoline Burn Prevention Act of 2008, resulted ...
27
votes
5answers
4k views
Why aren't we seeing carbon taxes in practice?
(I originally posed this question under economics -- https://economics.stackexchange.com/questions/33267/why-arent-we-seeing-carbon-taxes-in-practice -- where the consensus seems to be that in ...
10
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2answers
328 views
How do the "save the bees" popular initiatives in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg differ?
A popular initiative for biodiversity in Bavaria was signed by 18.3% of the eligible population. The minister-president from the conservative CSU supported the proposal and accepted it in its ...
15
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1answer
525 views
Trump is revoking California's Clean Air Act exemption. Does this automatically affect the 13 other states that use California's standards?
President Trump is reported to be revoking California's Clean Air Act exemption. Trump tweeted on September 18, 2019 that he was doing so. Since 1970, California has restricted automobile emissions ...
5
votes
1answer
276 views
Why would China restrict the imports of plastics for recycling?
In the past couple of years, China has triggered a crisis in recycling programs worldwide by changing their import laws:
Historically, the U.S. has shipped about half of its scrap plastic and ...
8
votes
1answer
400 views
What's the difference between AOC's Green New Deal and Sanders' Green New Deal?
Both Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Bernie Sanders have revealed a sweeping plan to inact environmental policies that would, among other things, attempt to slow the progress of ...
5
votes
1answer
534 views
Why is neither methane nor fracking mentioned in the Green New Deal?
Background
The Green New Deal cites the Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 ºC in the first paragraph establishing the issues and effects of the current, and likely future, of global warming. ...
-12
votes
1answer
395 views
Why are governments spending so much resources on fighting forest fires? [closed]
It has been recently reported that:
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday (July 31) called in the military to fight forest fires that have been raging across vast expanses of Siberia for ...
-1
votes
1answer
220 views
Why can we have human rights declared by ECHR but no environmental "rights"?
I have recently read that in the European Union where I live, plastic in biowaste is a huge concern because when supermarkets get rid of fruits and vegetables which are packed in plastic it is "...
45
votes
8answers
13k views
What is the fundamental difference between catching whales and hunting other animals?
I read this article and it seems like activists from cultures without a long history of whaling are inconsistent in their criticism of Japan for its whaling.
Many cultural cuisines like rabbits, cows,...
12
votes
2answers
820 views
How does the EU Emissions Trading Scheme account for increased emissions outside the EU?
If a third country (say China) is not beholden to the same emissions trading scheme, market forces should push steel production into the countries where costly emissions credits are not needed and ...
2
votes
1answer
124 views
Carbon offsets mentioned in governmental emission reduction targets?
Multiple states within the United States and other countries have emissions reduction targets. This morning, I listened to a story where the university of California San Francisco achieved their ...
0
votes
2answers
95 views
Comparative Environmental Policy/ Executive Orders
For a paper, I am currently trying to compare Executive Orders by Trump within the first year of his presidency and Bush's first year of his first presidency concerning environmental issues.
My ...
4
votes
0answers
215 views
Are farmers in the Great Plains aware of the Dust Bowl? [closed]
I'm curious if farmers in the Great Plains are aware today of the history of the Dust Bowl, including its causes. Are there any surveys or polls on the matter among farmers, like there are (also among ...
76
votes
13answers
21k views
Why does the Green New Deal push for green energy but not for nuclear energy?
It seems strange to me that that the new green deal wants clean and renewable power from solar and wind energy yet oppose nuclear energy. I have been googling experts’ consensus on nuclear energy and ...
2
votes
2answers
180 views
Government collects environmental protection charges. Why?
I am reading up on Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs). I have learned that for every project an EIA is to be done after a careful assessment which includes screening, scoping, impact prediction, ...
29
votes
4answers
4k views
How would a libertarian model address widely spread negative externalities (such as CFCs)?
I understand the concept in libertarianism that if corporation A dumps toxic waste in a river and downstream of this river corporation B bottles this water for consumption, that corporation B has had ...
1
vote
2answers
166 views
Public policy for air pollution in India
Pollution in New Delhi is constantly on national headlines.
The last piece of legislation done relating to air pollution, as far as I could tell was in 1980. If I am not wrong, the ministry ...
4
votes
1answer
149 views
Does the U.S. House of Representatives have the power to block drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR)?
In December 2017, a U.S. federal law opened part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in Alaska to oil and gas mining (see article by Randy Showstack, 27 November 2018, EOS). This decision ...
8
votes
5answers
818 views
Reasons given by free market advocates against a carbon tax?
I see people who like free markets have two main reasons why: one due to the efficiency, the other due to the freedom, or a combination of both. For the people who value efficiency, why not support a ...
9
votes
1answer
131 views
Who has pressed for the "2020 global sulphur limit"
In 2020 the maximum allowable sulfur limit in marine fuels will be only 0.5 %, compared to 3.5 % now. This will probably lead to pains in the industry, because the world's refineries haven't extended ...
2
votes
4answers
428 views
How would a privatized society deal with disputes over flows of air and water? [closed]
In a society based around private property rights, original appropriation, with no state, are there any proposed methods for dealing with disputes that involve flows of air and water? (So "Muh EPA!" ...
38
votes
12answers
16k views
Why is there so much focus on producing less CO₂ rather than investing in technology to recycle it?
There are endless debates about climate change and CO2 reduction. The US decided to withdraw from the Paris agreement, although there are no legally binding requirements.
Also, this article argues ...
7
votes
1answer
118 views
Is there a US national plan for increasing renewable energy sources?
According to Wikipedia, there was a plan called New Energy for America:
New Energy for America was a plan led by Barack Obama and Joe Biden to
invest in renewable energy sources, reduce reliance ...
6
votes
1answer
216 views
Why was Grand Staircase-Escalante never upgraded from a Monument to a Park?
Historically many U.S. national monuments were upgraded to national parks after a few years, e.g. Grand Canyon (monument 1908, park 1919), Jackson Hole (monument 1943, park 1950) or Glacier Bay (...
-2
votes
1answer
123 views
Are electric cars powered by coal-based electricity any benefit? [closed]
Are there any viable alternative fuel sources other than (dirty) coal, that would make electric cars really that much cleaner?
Heard a report that countries around the world are setting deadlines ...
4
votes
1answer
183 views
Was Germany's decision about Glyphosat in November 2017 relevant?
I see in the news that Germany's Minister of Food and Agriculture Christian Schmidt voted with yes for Glyphosat, although he should have abstained, because of a dissent in the grand coalition.
My ...
2
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0answers
159 views
What is the Swachh Bharat Mission doing to reduce pollution in India? [closed]
Does the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (Clean India Mission) have any solution to India's problem of pollution?
The primary focus seems to be on building isolated toilet complexes or units in rural areas. ...
5
votes
4answers
593 views
Is there a global agreement for plastic pollution reduction?
According to this article ocean plastic pollution is rising quite fast and the estimated mass will reach total fish biomass, if current trend sustains. Also, plastic pollution seems to be more subtle, ...
1
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0answers
105 views
Government policy to incentivise third party investment
What reasonable policies could governments implement to incentivise NGOs and economic consulting firms to invest in national reserve conservation?
More specifically I want to know about how mining ...
31
votes
8answers
11k views
Why is the U.S. still dependent on fossil fuels?
There is a finite amount of fossil fuels in the earth, and yet the U.S. is still highly dependent on them. At some point, things will have to change.
Renewable energy technologies are getting more ...
