The Effects of Society on Environmentalism

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The Effects of Environmentalism on Society American Government & Politics The Social, Political and Economic Relations to Environmentalism There has been a force that has been trying to silence Environmentalist—for the most part they have been successful. Conservatives in America are almost always against any significant form of Environmentalism. There are very few moral reasons that they can give and the reason they are opposed to laws that would benefit the environment and our health is supposedly because it would ‘hurt the economy and businesses’ by enforcing more rules than necessary. Capitalism is solely about business and economical gain; it is hard for those who are firm believers in this type of economy to be environmentally conscious as well. The Earth’s resources are finite; competing to out consume the other guy is one of the most destructive traits of most countries in the world. This shortsighted action is arrogant and would be incomprehensible from the standpoint of less powerful countries with resources and income to dispense of freely. Technological advances within the last century have also increased our impact on the environment—almost always in a negative sense. This has led to concerns about environmental matters such as pollution, climate change and resource depletion—all of which are being treated increasingly serious in the last few decades. Some governments are starting to suggest that the industrialized nations, such as the United States, the European Union and even emerging China, need to drastically change their current resource consumptions patterns, as this is depleting the available resources accessible to all nations more than the demands of large populations from developing countries. In the 1998 Human Development Report from the United Nations, the UN gave stern advice to industrialized nations: Today’s consumption is
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