Bush’s Environment Policy Essay

The bush’s environmental policy basically concentrates mainly on first improving the economic and military condition of the country and then tackling the problem of pollution and environment degradation. The United States of America under bush’s administration is a realist state. For a realist state, international security is one of the main aims. Therefore, his policies are more towards removing hurdles for military development. Plus, resources are scarce, and this is nothing hidden from anyone, and since America largely depends on these resources, Bush’s administrative polices are always up for projects for production of energy. I would not say that his policies are against the environment, they are just not for it. I, being an environmentalist at heart, strongly disagree with the current Bush’s administration policy. If the level of pollution emitted by industries does not go down, we have every reason to worry about our coming generations and our natural habitat. At the international level, environmental issues are what matter the most because if a country like America does not change its policies, it will become the strongest nation of the weakest world. The United States of America is one of the most influential countries globally and its decisions affect almost every other country in the world. The only solution for environmental protection is global governance. This means that a single individual or a single state cannot do anything about this issue if it wanted to. Because it is a universal problem and it affects the entire globe, every state must come together and do something about it. Economic growth and environment protection cannot go hand in hand and often are two aims that have conflicts. This is why every country must make a choice. If the most significant and dominant country does not make the ‘right’ choice of giving priority to environment over economic growth, we cannot expect any other country to cut down on its growth economically. A study carried out recently came to a conclusion, that at present, the United States of America is responsible for most of the pollution caused in the world today. According to a BBC report, it constitutes for 4 percent of the total world population and at the same time, it is responsible for 24 percent of the carbon dioxide emissions given out in the environment. (BBC News, 2002) Hence, it is no surprise to why the majority of opinions are against the bush’s administrative policies. As mentioned in the article, according to polls carried out in 2001 and 2002, even the majority of the American public does not want economic, resource and military growth if that means that their environment has to suffer. America also had to face large criticism for not being a part of Kyoto Protocol which could have been the closest solution to the problem of global warming. In conclusion, I would like to state, that Bush’s policies are not for people because the long term result of them is loss of environment that surrounds those people. It must realize the importance of the strong need for strict environment policies before it is too late. References BBC News, (2002) Q&A: The US and climate change from BBC News. Website: http://news. bbc. co. uk/2/hi/americas/1820523. stm