Environmental Politics and Policy in the 1980s: a changing challenge

Abstract

Over the past two decades a roll-call of cities across the world have become synonymous with environmental disasters. Minamata (Japan), Flixborough (UK), Seveso (Italy), Cubatao (Brazil), Bhopal (India) were among the most dramatic in a litany of incidents which took a toll of life and health as catastrophe struck unsuspecting communities. More generally apprehension was growing across the world at the damage to ecosystems and the accumulating risks being imposed on future generations by contemporary systems of agriculture, industry and energy production. Environmental issues which had already achieved political prominence in many advanced industrial nations were, by the 1980s, commanding international attention. The papers in this volume illustrate the new dimension of politics that has emerged in response to the problem of environmental pollution. Environmental pollution varies in scale and impact and can be remediable or irreversible but all forms of pollution have three common features. First, pollution represents socially induced changes in natural processes that would not otherwise occur. Social action is the cause of environmental changes that are destructive. Conversely, there can be positive changes brought about by social intervention through reclamation, conservation and careful management of ecosystems.