Environment
Is Environment Getting Better or
Worse?
• Improvements in local and national air and
water quality in US and other developed
countries.
• But other problems worsening: over fishing,
deforestation, global warming, etc.
Global Warming
• CO2 and other gasses form “greenhouse
effect”
Consequences
- raising sea levels, causing droughts and storms, and
disrupting ecosystems, crop productivity, ocean
acidification
- self-sustaining processes:
-
melting polar ice-caps cool less and reflect less light/heat
thawing permafrost releases more g.h. gasses
Kyoto
• 1997 Kyoto Protocols, formally in effect
since 2004
- U.S. and other developed countries were to reduce g.h.
gasses below 1990 levels by 2012
• 1997-’01 Senate fails to ratify the treaty
• 2001 Bush dismisses Kyoto Protocols
• cites insufficient evidence, too great costs
• Developing countries, like China and India exempted
California jumps in
• “pavley law”
• 30% reduction of car GHG by 2016
• Detroit and Bush attack in court
•
•
http://www.pbs.org/now/science/caautoemissions2.html#
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/environment/jan-june05/california_3-28.html#
Efficiency: The Rise and Fall of CAFÉ
• Corporate Average Fuel Economy--passed
by Congress in 1975, after “oil crisis”
• Required manufacturers to double car fuel
efficiency to 27 mpg
• saved billions of gallons of gas
• Decreasing fuel efficiency since ‘87
- “Light truck loophole”
- Static CAFÉ standards
Should We Raise CAFÉ standards?
• Yes
• But, this is not the best solution--“rebound effects:”
- fuel efficiency creates incentive to drive more
- more expensive fuel efficient cars creates incentive to hold on to
older, less efficient and more polluting, cars longer
• Better answer: increase gas tax
- generates revenue, incentives to drive less, manufacturers to innovate,
compact development, etc.
• But politically unpopular/dangerous
Other landmark legislation
• Clean Water Act 1972
• EPA working with state and local bodies set limits on effluents and
wetlands destruction
• Bush admin—Congress can only regulate “navigable waterways”
• Endangered Species Act 1973
• Forbids hunting and habitat destruction for “endangered species”
• Pombo bill—compensating landowners for restricted development