1.1 Background In the first stages three stages of U.S. Environmental law, congress passed laws that were not intended to address environmental issues but did affect land, water, minerals, and living resources – and thereby had large effects on the environment. (Keller & Botkin, 2014). The Rio Declaration proclaimed in its first principle that; “Human beings are at the center of concern for sustainable development” and that “[i]n order to achieve sustainable development, environmental protection shall constitute an integral part of development process and cannot be considered in isolation from it”1. (Glazewski, 2004). “Many laws exist to protect our environment but research into the effectiveness of these laws is rare. The complexity of the …show more content…
The evidence show that offenders/violators repeat or remain in noncompliance state, despite enforcement action on them. • For environmental law to be more effective, officials have to be empowered through appropriate skill and training
1.4 Aims • To evaluate the effectiveness of environmental law in South Africa • Promote administrative penalties to South African environmental law, and also put in place criminal sanctions to environmental violators
1.5 Definition of OER (Open Educational Resources) “OER Africa is a ground-breaking initiative established by the South African Institute for Distance Education (Saide). We play a leading role in supporting higher education institutions across Africa in the development and use of Open Educational Resources (OER) to enhance teaching and learning”.22
“Open educational resources (OER) are freely accessible, openly licensed text, media, and other digital assets that are useful for teaching, learning, and assessing as well as for research purposes. It is the leading trend in distance education/open and distance learning domain as a consequence of the openness
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This will help understand the use of administrative penalties in two jurisdictions forming South Africa‟s legal system.
Chapter 4 This chapter will highlight effectiveness of administrative penalties in South Africa‟s environmental compliance and enforcement regime. Evaluation of the Section 24G administrative fine and the amendments made to it on 18 December 2013 by National Environmental Management Laws Second (Amendment Act)25.
Chapter 5 Conclusion South Africa‟s environmental resources are degrading even though the constitution has guaranteed us with environmental right, and laws aimed to protect our environment.26The introduction of criminal punishment is aided to enforce the environmental laws but still not much done reason being insufficient investigations and enforcement of environmental violators.27 The environmental offenders repeat to damage the environment although they get fined. This shows clearly that the violators do not recognize environmental
Thus, the Supreme Court recently noted, the jurisdictional “reach of the [CWA] is notoriously unclear.” Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency, 132 S.Ct. 1367, 1375 (2012) (observing that “[a]ny piece of land that is wet at least part of the year is in danger of being classified…as wetlands covered by the Act…”). As the Corps continuously expands definition of “waters of the United States,” and so does it expand its jurisdictional
In matters of environmental preservation, one has two options; extol the virtues of economic expansion, or shelter the wounded environment- an angel and devil perched upon shoulders situation of sorts. In building his argument, human rights activist and 39th president of the United States of America Jimmy Carter displays a commendable zeal for his cause whilst skillfully utilizing the element of persuasion to transcend the “devil”. No one is blind to the suffering caused by environmental abuse, but Carter draws a dagger of emotion, veiled by stylistic phrasing and subtle remarks, and plunges it into the heart of his opposers with this passage, ensuring no blind eye may be turned to the fate of his country. Changing the opinion of an opposer
One of my peers read this quote from the article “Landowners own the resource and have the right to pump water from beneath their land, as long as the water is being put to beneficial use,” and was confused at this because he had never heard of landowners being able to pump water on their land and that there was even a law for that. By examining this quote we learned something new instead of just reading it and continuing on. When I was reading this article I found this quote “In a drought, as the rivers run low, less fresh water reaches the ocean, causing an imbalance of salt water to fresh water in coastal estuaries,” and interpreted this fact that when that imbalance occurs it can have some damages to the ecosystem affecting the local vegetation and wildlife. The fisherman and farmers living near the water are also affected by this imbalance causing harm to their crops and animals. The other person I talked to had a personal experience with one of the quotes, “These farmers braved the elements; they were confronted with Mother Nature.”
Bill McKibben and Derrick Jensen were born in 1960 in the U.S.A., and both have accomplished successful academic backgrounds. McKibben graduated from Harvard University in 1982, and Derrick Jensen graduated from the Colorado School of Mines with a degree in Mineral engineering in 1983. Both are environmental activists and have written many articles and books. Two of their articles “Waste Not, Want Not” by Bill McKibben and “Forget Shorter Showers” by Jensen are published in the Bedford Reader book (557-567). When we analyze these articles both authors agree on consumers contribution to environmental pollution, but they have different points of views concerning whether individuals or industrialists cause more environmental pollution.
There are many instances of the EPA overstepping their abilities, and causing ordinary citizens undue harm. Take the story of Mr. and Mrs. Michael Sackett, of Priest Lake, Idaho. “The Sackett family sought to build a house on its half-acre of land, yet after construction broke ground, the EPA interfered, claiming the family violated the Clean Water Act by placing fill materials into “wetlands.” Their property was designated as a wetland, yet their neighbors have built houses on either side of their lot and their lot already has established sewage lines. Their lot does not harbor a lake, pond or stream, yet the EPA is requiring them to obtain a building permit that would cost more than the value of their land” (Paul).
The concept of environmental justice was first introduced in South Africa at the Earthlife 1992 conference (Cock 2004, p.6). Defined as the ‘fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies’ (U.S Environment Protection Agency, 2012), environmental justice aims to shift the world towards environmentally friendly development and eradicate exploitation of natural resources and indigenous communities. Most importantly, it deals mainly with the environmental injustices of these relationships, and the ways and means of rectifying these wrongs and/or avoiding them in the future
Crime is a blemish in almost every society. Criminals and law breakers have been around since biblical times and still haunt societies today. The American Criminal Justice System is in place to attempt to help control criminals. The idea is not to create a perfect society where no crime will be committed, but to contain the crime. Predicting crime is not an easy task, criminal justice officials take many steps to prevent crime from happening.
Our environment had been endangered of becoming unsafe, threatening, and even deadly. “The water we drink, the food we eat, the very air that we breathe, are threatened with pollution. Our parks are overcrowded, our seashores overburdened. Green fields and dense forests are disappearing.” Johnson stresses that the health of people and environment is at risk because Americans have allowed for the destruction of nature to get out of hand, and causing both the Earth and human health at risk of becoming an ugly America, due to –as Johnson references- the “Ugly American” (“Great Society”).
These are some for the barriers and competitiveness issues which environmental regulation, taxes and policies encounter with the respective stakeholders during policy making and during policy implementation. Therefore, a balanced approach has to be achieved; and not to focus on avoiding environment damage only, while destroying industries and forgoing the opportunity of economic growth which creates tax base for government’s revenues. The policy or package will also have to guarantee that the polluter is charged or taxed accordingly and not the affected society at large to be bore the environmental damaging costs. According to Green Fiscal Commission 2009, there are two criteria’s which can be used to assess the effectiveness of environment taxes.
Pollution is the introduction or release of substances or energy that decrease the quality of the marine environment. Many pollutants are toxic of harmful to marine life (Castro and Huber, 2010). South Africa is known around the world for being one of the most diverse marine environment in the world, with 83% of the known fish families residing in South Africa (Van der Elst, 2007). There are also many marine species that are endemic to South Africa, which means they are only found in South Africa. Almost 30% of the South African population lives on the coastline (Taljaard et al. 2006), which has led to the urbanization of the coastlines and which then led to the industrialization of these areas.
Ever since Garrett Hardin’s publishing of the Tragedy of Commons in 1968, it has been used extensively to understand environmental problems. The tragedy of the commons can be defined as when individuals acting in rational self interest seek to maximize the benefit of Earth’s resources as fast as they can and in doing so, lack an incentive to conserve and regulate these resources (Olive, 2016). This concept can be seen in the 2014 film Damnation by Travis Rummel and Ben Knight. Below, it is shown how the dams in the movie exemplify key characteristics of a commons, why problems of the dams are hard to overcome and how these problems can be solved. By examining the dams shown in the film, it is evident that the problem of the dams is an accurate example of the tragedy of the commons.
Review of Literature Environmental issues began to be discussed and debated only towards the end of the 20th century. Since then significant amount of literature has been penned down raising awareness about issues of pollution, deforestation, animal rights and several others however it has failed to result in major changes, ideas or even actions to save the environment. Several species of animals have become extinct; pollution level is at an all-time high, global warming is leading to severe climate changes all across the globe but these problems do not seem to alarm the decision makers. Leydier & Martin (2013) also states that, “despite the increasing expression of concern in political and media debates about issues such as climate change, pollution and threats to biodiversity, “political ecology” (operating at the confluence of scientific developments, political engagement and ethical debates) is still trying to find its bearings” (p.7). It is quite evident that environmental issues are not treated in equivalence to political, economic, social or even religious issues.
The criminal justice system is that subsystem of the national legal system which determines the circumstances in which and the procedure according to which individuals may be punished by the state for conduct that is defined as a crime. For the sake of convenience, a distinction is normally drawn between the substantive aspects of the criminal justice system and its procedural aspects. The study of criminal law generally focuses on substantive law; namely, the principles of law according to which criminal liability (guilt) is determined, whilst the law of criminal procedure, together with the law of evidence, focuses on the manner in which this is done, together with the way in which offenders and suspected offenders are to be treated by the
One of the foundations of sustainable development is efficient environmental management (UNEP 2002). However, balancing the needs of current generations without compromising the environment for future generations poses to be quite problematic. A number of environmental decision-making instruments have been developed in an attempt to ensure that development is sustainable. One of the most popular of these is environmental impact assessment (EIA). This essay will be based on the strengths and limitations of an Environmental Impact Assessment.