Читать книгу What is Environmental Politics? - Elizabeth R. DeSombre - Страница 8

Environmental issues have some unusual characteristics that have implications for our political efforts to address them. No one intends to create environmental problems, and the effects of these problems are often felt far away both in space and in time from where they are caused. Most environmental problems come from the combined actions of many people, which means that each person’s contribution to the problem feels small, and addressing the problem requires changing the behavior of a lot of people. So no one person can fix or prevent environmental problems alone, and, at the same time, those who don’t contribute to addressing these problems can undermine the ability of others to do so. While the environment isn’t the only issue area that has each of these characteristics, taken together they help explain why it’s fairly easy to create environmental problems and difficult to take successful action to prevent or fix them. These characteristics interact with the political structures and actors discussed in this book to help explain environmental action or inaction across different political jurisdictions.