The current system of environmental governance is a diffuse process, spread through many different treaty bodies and other U.N. institutions. At present UNEP, is the primary environmental organ in the system.

INTRODUCTION When the United Nations was founded in 1945, environmental issues were not yet on most national agendas, let alone on the international agenda. As a consequence, the U.N. Charter does not even mention the word "environment". In the years since, environmental degradation has emerged as a pressing international concern. Wind currents, rain patterns, rivers, and streams carry pollutants hundreds or even thousands of miles from their sources, violating national borders with impunity. On an even larger scale, the global environmental problems of ozone depletion, climate change, deforestation, and the loss of the Earth's biological diversity threaten all nations.1 Furthermore, recent research identifies population growth and natural resource scarcity as important factors in exacerbating social tensions and provoking conflict in many corners of the globe. As the problems have worsened, environmental issues have gradually moved onto the international political agenda. To date, governments have adopted more than 170 environmental treaties concerning subjects of shared concern: acid rain contamination, ocean pollution, endangered species depletion, hazardous waste exportation, and Antarctica preservation. More than two-thirds of these agreements have been reached since the landmark 1972 U.N. Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm. This conference created the

  • Word count: 9880
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Physical Sciences
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Greenback Bank: Environmental Policy Analysis. Greenback Bank: Environmental Policy Analysis

Greenback Bank: Environmental Policy Analysis Within corporations, nearly 1.5 pounds of paper are used per person per day.1 Based on a typical Fortune 500 company with 10,000 employees and a 255 workday year, this equates to over 3,825,000 pounds of paper per year. Our company, Greenback Bank, headquartered in Dallas, TX, has developed a progressive environmental policy to address this issue and many others. Greenback Bank has approximately 350 branches nationwide and it employs over 11,000 people. Greenback is a publicly traded company and is classified as a Fortune 500 company based on its revenues. Over the past five years, Greenback's financial performance has continued to increase. As a result of the recovering economy, Greenback has decided to implement a growth strategy to expand its branch network. This expansion has created a significant need to develop and implement an environmental policy. ENVIRONMENTAL MISSION STATEMENT We have benefited from the communities we serve and with our continued growth we want to ensure the customers, families, and entire communities that they will be served by an institution that is actively taking steps to be an environmentally friendly company. ENVIRONMENTAL VISION * Utilize energy efficient technologies and implement environmentally friendly designs for all new construction * Maximize the use of recycled materials and

  • Word count: 7519
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Physical Sciences
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Southeast Asia, a political treatment.

Southeast Asia, a political treatment. In the current state of global environmental activism it is arguable as to who are the key players. In Southeast Asia Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) have played a significant role in bringing forth issues that are presented as a conflict between personal opinions, economic progress and environmental concerns. There is a great divide mentioned by both authors between the state and the individual. The ideal role of the individual in a democratic state would be one governed not by subjection or coercion but by self-imposed governance. It is the internalization of state control by self-regulation that can insure citizens' exercising rights and responsibilities. That said, the roles of NGO in Southeast Asia have been to make apparent that which an individual may not be able to see or to act on, not even on a community level. The agenda of the organization is usually to get government concessions to fund projects that bare a mask of environmental conservation. However, what this means for the individual member and the community at large I believe is very significant. Leaving the agenda of the NGO as a price that comes with a gift that a lot of these marginal communities deserve, consider the good that comes from this new dynamic. In exposing environmental worries that threaten livelihood [excessive logging, fishing, environmental

  • Word count: 651
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Physical Sciences
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Drawing on a range of sources, discuss what might be the 'core' of modern geography and comment upon the forces that are contributing to, or working against, intellectual fragmentation.

4. Geography is a discipline in which there is nothing but 'fragmentation around a defended core' (Johnston, 1998, 139). Drawing on a range of sources, discuss what might be the 'core' of modern geography and comment upon the forces that are contributing to, or working against, intellectual fragmentation. R. J. Johnston's article 'Fragmentation around a Defended Core' (1998) is a convincing contention of the belief that geography is a fragmented discipline. By fragmented, Johnston refers to the divide of geography into different specialist sections; this does not only occur in geography, all scholastic disciplines are fragmented to varying degrees (Johnston, 139). Johnston's main arguments concern the higher susceptibility of geography to fragmentation due to the subject having strong links to other branches of learning, the positive and negative impacts of this fragmentation, and the existence/creation of a 'core'. This core binds the fragments together so that they can be commonly referred to as separate branches of geography. Here geography is the parent discipline, if you will. Questions arising from this paper are numerous. Firstly, what is the 'core' that binds together the different fragments of geography? For this, scholars varying definitions of geography need to be consulted. The changing 'identity' of geography is also important and of use here. Secondly, does

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  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Physical Sciences
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A Study of a Hill In the new forest

A STUDY OF A HILL IN THE NEW FOREST. BY: CLAIRE CRUMP FOR: ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES ACCESS DATE: NOVEMBER 2002 WORD COUNT: A Study of a Hill in the New Forest. Objectives: The aim of the investigation was to study & identify the relationship between the changes in vegetation & soil over a hill in the New Forest. Background: The location of the hill was a site in the New Forest in Hampshire known as Dead Mans Hill. Please see map on page 3. It is understood that the site acquired its name during the Second World War, when it was used as a mass grave. The study was undertaken on a dry day in early October. Initially the sky was overcast with a breeze but during the latter part of the investigation the sun came out. At the top of the hill a clear view of surrounding countryside could be had. There was also a car-park and a well used road which ran along side it. The majority of the surrounding land was heathland. Which was covered with grassland, heather, bracken (which was starting to die off) & gorse (some of which was still flowering). There were also a few trees which punctuated the undulating heathland of Dead Mans Hill, including Scots Pine, Birch & Oak. Down the hill were several well used tracks & paths. A number of dogs with their owners & horse riders were around during the course of the investigation. There were several free roaming New Forest

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  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Physical Sciences
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Why is the 'triple bottom line' so important?

Why is the 'triple bottom line' so important? Growing community expectations of the corporate world to keep the environmental, social and economic dimensions of business in balance have led many organisations to adopt a triple bottom line approach. The Australian corporate world is slowly evolving towards sustainability. A whole raft of organisations including Amcor, BHP Billiton, Coles Myer, Ford Australia, Insurance Australia Group (IAG), Orica, Origin Energy, Sydney Water, Toyota and Westpac are pouring resources into producing annual sustainability reports, most along the lines of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). This is a common framework that provides a useful guideline for companies wanting to prepare a sustainability report. Other companies, like Billabong International, simply take social and environmental responsibility in the areas they operate in, seeing this as a normal part of business and not something they necessarily make a song and dance about. Billabong uses dramatic natural imagery to link its brand to the environment. In the common parlance of yesterday, the term 'sustainability' was linked with the financial viability of an enterprise, but today's world is much more demanding. Increasingly, consumers and shareholders alike want to know that the companies they buy their goods from and put their money into as shareholders are acting responsibly

  • Word count: 1064
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Physical Sciences
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Coastal and marine pollution in India. In India most contamination from land base sources industrial and domestic wastes and agriculture run-off. Other activities are also becoming more significant like shipping and related actions ship breaking,

COASTAL AND MARINE POLLUTION IN INDIA Word count: 3540 INTRODUCTION: The change in physical, chemical and biological characteristics of water and sediments is called coastal pollution. A coastal zone can be described variously. One possible definition is "the coastal zone represents that part of the land affected by its proximity to the sea, and that part of the ocean affected by its proximity to the land" (US commission of marine Science, Engineering and Resource). Other possible definition is "the coastal zone as extending from the coastal plains to the outer edge of the continental shelves, approximately matching the region that has been alternately flooded and exposed during the region that has been alternately flooded and exposed during the sea-level fluctuations of the late Quaternary period" (LOICZ). This second definition is of the coastal domain from 200 meters above to 200 meters below sea levels. It is known universally that coastal areas are among the most sensitive zones around the world with the innumerable fleet of oil tankers, fishing vessels, cargo ships and cruise ships that navigate through the ocean and fish in our fiscal zone, our coastal zone and marine world are continuously under the danger of pollution. It is not surprising therefore that the government would want to apply every attempt to try and prevent such disaster from occurrence. The

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  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Physical Sciences
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Disposal of Toxic and Radioactive Materials with Special Focus on the Philippines

Disposal of Toxic and Radioactive Materials ________________ Abstract: Toxic and Radioactive waste materials has been brought to life by humans being a by-product of numerous undertaking efforts ever since the breakthrough discovery of radioactivity in 1896 by Antoine Henri Becquerel. Since World War II, toxic, as well as radioactive waste materials have been produced by army weaponry manufacturing and screening; exploration; electrical energy generation; healthcare analysis and therapy; biological and chemical research; along with other commercial uses. Because of the hazardus and fatal biological effects of radiation and toxins to humans, the governments of different countries have developed ways on managing these waste products in order to avoid contamination. The four types of toxic wastes (very-low level waste, low-level waste, intermediate level waste, and high-level waste) all have specific techniques for proper disposal - the methods increasing in level in proportion to the radiation degree or severity of effects. There are also secure solutions to the disposal of used fuel and those from nuclear power plants. These methods include burying them underground or placing them in a waste storage pond. This research will focus on the Philippine conditions regarding the issue on toxic wastes as well as provide an international overview on the process and procedures

  • Word count: 4132
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Physical Sciences
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Critically evaluate the role and effectiveness of Environmental Impact Assessment in ensuring environmentally sound and sustainable development in the UK

Critically evaluate the role and effectiveness of Environmental Impact Assessment in ensuring environmentally sound and sustainable development in the UK The World Conservation Strategy (WCS) demonstrated in 1980 that development can only be sustained by the integration of development and conservation policies to conserve the resources on which that development depends on (Gilpin, 2000). In 1987, The Brundtland Commission, in its report to the Governing Council of UNEP (Our Common Future), defined sustainable development as: ‘development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’ (WCED, 1987). In recent times, this definition only forms the basic framework for the concept of sustainable development (Buytaert et al., 2011).The malleability of the concept of sustainable development is a major reason why it has been embraced internationally (O’Riordan, 1993), but paradoxically, that same reason is its greatest challenge. The malleable nature of the concept gives rise to significant conceptual difficulties in operationalizing the concept and evaluating the contribution of decision-aiding tools to sustainable development (Cashmore, 2004). Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is simply defined as “a systematic process to identify, predict and evaluate the environmental effects of proposed

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  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Physical Sciences
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Environmental Management. The London smog of 1952 is one of history's most important air pollution episodes in terms of its impact on science, public perception of air pollution, and government regulation.

ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT Theme: The great smog of 1952 Table of contents The Great Smog of 1952 3 The Early 1900s 4 Introduction 4 Estimates of Influenza-Related Mortality 6 Sensitivity Analysis 7 The relationship between the Great Smog and the Sulphur Dioxide 8 Air Pollution During The Great London Smog, 1952 9 The Clean Air Acts, 1956 & 1968 10 Tall Chimneys 10 Urban Air Quality After The Clean Air Acts 10 Conclusion 12 The Great Smog of 1952 The Early 1900s Fog and smog frequencies began to reduce in UK urban areas during the early 1900s, compared with the latter half of the nineteenth century. Air pollution was still a severe problem but the number of major smogs began to decrease. Several changes helped to contribute to this situation, including: * changing social conditions; * tighter industrial controls; * declining importance of coal as a domestic fuel; * changes in fuel type - gas and electricity became alternatives to coal. Introduction The London smog of 1952 is one of history's most important air pollution episodes in terms of its impact on science, public perception of air pollution, and government regulation. The association between health and air pollution during the episode was evident as a strong rise in air pollution levels was immediately followed by sharp increases in mortality and morbidity. However, mortality in the months after

  • Word count: 2833
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Physical Sciences
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