Governing the airshed: The structural paradox of pollution in a sovereign world

“ As the century closes, not only do vastly increased human numbers and their activities have that power, but major unintended changes are occurring in the atmosphere. in soils, in waters, among plants and animals, and in the relationships among all of these. The rate of change is outstripping the capability of scientific disciplines and our current capabilities to assess and advise. It is frustrating the attempts of political and economic institutions, which evolved in a different, more fragmented world, to adapt and cope. ”

“ National boundaries have become so porous that traditional distinctions between matters of local, national, and international significance have become blurred. Ecosystems do not respect national boundaries. Water pollution moves through shared rivers, lakes, and seas. The atmosphere carries air pollution over vast distances. ”

“ A single source may pollute the air with smoke and chemicals, the land with solid wastes, and a river or lake with chemical and other wastes. Control of the air pollution may produce more solid wastes, which then pollute the land or water. Control of the water-polluting effluent may convert it into solid wastes, which must be disposed of on land.
Similarly, some pollutants—chemicals, radiation, pesticides—appear in all media. Successful control of them at present requires the coordinated efforts of a variety of separate agencies and departments. The results are not always successful. ”

“ Our national government today is not structured to make a coordinated attack on the pollutants which debase the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the land that grows our food. Indeed, the present governmental structure for dealing with environmental pollution often defies effective and concerted action.
Despite its complexity, for pollution control purposes the environment must be perceived as a single, interrelated system. ”

“ Each area of change represents a formidable challenge in its own right, but the fundamental challenge stems from their systemic character. They lock together environment and development, once thought eparate: they lock together 'sectors' such as industry and agriculture: and they lock countries together as the effects of national policies and actions spill over national borders. Separate policies and institutions can no longer code effectively with these interlocked issues. Nor can nations, acting unilaterally. ”

“ But I felt at the same time that the subject of air pollution in manufacturing towns really deserved more attention than it has generally received; for the evil is a growing one, and I believe we shall realize one day, as the result of a very costly experience, the same necessity for breathing an untainted atmosphere as we now do for drinking unpolluted drinking water, or for consuming unadulterated food. ”

“ Reducing Urban-Industrial Air Pollution 30. The past three decades of generally rapid growth worldwide have seen dramatic increases in fuel consumption for heating and cooling, automobile transport, industrial activities, and electricity generation. Concern over the effects of increasing air pollution in the late 1960s resulted in the development of curative measures, including air-quality criteria, standards, and add-on control technologies that can remove pollutants cost-effectively. All these greatly reduced emissions of some of the principal pollutants and cleaned air over many cities. ”

“ In the light of this and the growth trends projected through the next century, it is evident that measures to reduce, control, and prevent industrial pollution will need to be greatly strengthened. If they are not, Pollution damage to human health could become intolerable in certain cities and threats to property and ecosystems will continue to grow. Fortunately, the past two decades of environmental action have provided governments and industry with the policy experience and the technological means to achieve more sustainable patterns of industrial development. ”

“ The Secretary may, after consultation with State officials of all affected States, also call such a conference whenever, on the basis of reports, surveys, or studies, he has reason to believe that any pollution referred to in subsection (a) is occurring and is endangering the health and welfare of persons in a State other than that in which the discharge or discharges originate. ”

“ The EPA argues that the literal language of sections 126 (b) and 110 (a) (2) (E) , 42 U.S.C. §§ 7426 (b) , 7410 (a) (2) (E) , indicates that interstate pollution is prohibited only insofar as it prevents another state from attaining or maintaining [p1088] "any such national primary or secondary ambient air quality standard." ”

“ Critics claim that the state-oriented structure of the Act ignores the realities of air pollution. Since any state's air at a given moment is at best transient, or in bureaucratic terms, "ambient," air pollution in one state inevitably affects the quality of air in surrounding states. Congress acknowledged that the 1970 version of the Act had proved "an inadequate answer to the problem of interstate air pollution" and in 1977 amended the Act to deal specifically with interstate pollution abatement. ”

“ In researching effects on health, EPA must assess whether pollutants are hazardous to health. Researching whether pollutants are hazardous to health necessarily entails assessing the risk such pollutants pose to health. Thus, researching health effects is indistinguishable from assessing risk to health. Congress' directives to research the effects of indoor air pollution on human health and disseminate the findings encompass risk assessment as defined by NRC and explained by EPA's Risk Assessment Guidelines. ”

“ In the Radon Research Act, Congress directed EPA to gather information on all aspects of indoor air quality, research indoor pollutants' effects on health, characterize sources of pollution, and disseminate the findings. Determining whether Congress authorized risk assessments requires defining risk assessment. "Risk assessment is the use of the factual base to define the health effects of exposure of individuals or populations to hazardous materials and situations." ”

“ When the Administrator makes a judgment whether to regulate greenhouse gases, that judgment must relate to whether they are air pollutants that "cause, or contribute to, air pollution which may reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health or welfare." ”

“ Moreover, it is significant that Congress has recently acknowledged that more often than not the "margins of safety" that are incorporated into air quality standards turn out to be very modest or nonexistent, as new information reveals adverse health effects at pollution levels once thought to be harmless. See H.R.Rep.No.95-294, supra, at 103-117. ”

“ This 'greenhouse effect' may by early next century have increased average global temperatures enough to shift agricultural production areas, raise sea levels to flood coastal cities, and disrupt national economies. Other industrial gases threaten to deplete the planet's protective ozone shield to such an extent that the number of human and animal cancers would rise sharply and the oceans' food chain would be disrupted, industry and agriculture put toxic substances into the human food chain and into underground water tables beyond reach of cleansing. ”

“ Convinced that transboundary air pollution can cause significant harm to natural resources of vital environmental, cultural and economic importance, and to human health in both countries;
Desiring that emissions of air pollutants from sources within their countries not result in significant transboundary air pollution ”

“ The Parties agree to cooperate and exchange information with respect to:
(a) their monitoring of the effects of changes in air pollutant concentrations and deposition with respect to changes in various effects categories, e.g. aquatic ecosystems, visibility, and forests;
(b) their determination of any effects of atmospheric pollution on human health and ecosystems, e.g. research on health effects of acid aerosols, research on the long-term effects of low concentrations of air pollutants on ecosystems, possibly in a critical loads framework ”

“ For example, regional air pollution may come from power plants, factories, buildings, trucks, and cars. Emissions from cars alone can involve millions of drivers, each having a minor effect on the health of millions of people, including each other. No practical way exists for each inhabitant to bargain with each driver over the minor effect that that driver has on him or her. ”

“ We will take strong measures against air and water pollution. This year, we will ensure that chemical oxygen demand and ammonia nitrogen emissions are both reduced by 2%, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions are cut by 3%, and the density of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in key areas continues to fall. We will focus on promoting the reduction of emissions from the burning of coal and motor vehicles. ”

“ China has invested a major effort in seven landmark campaigns to keep the skies blue, control pollution caused by diesel trucks, protect and restore the Yangtze River ecosystem, improve the water environment of the Bohai Sea region, improve black and fetid water bodies in cities, protect water sources, and control pollution in agriculture and rural areas. With action plans and concrete targets and measures, these campaigns serve to drive the overall progress and bring notable improvements to the eco-environment. ”

“ We will coordinate efforts to prevent and control air pollution in regions where it presents a problem. We will press ahead with the nationwide development and upgrading of urban sewage treatment facilities, and strengthen comprehensive efforts aimed at controlling agricultural pollution from non-point sources and at improving the water environment in river basin areas. We will step · up efforts to deal with industrial pollution at the source and conduct online monitoring of all polluting enterprises. ”

“ Today I'm announcing new actions we're taking to protect our air, our water, and some of our most precious lands.
One of the simplest but most potent tools in our fight against pollution is public information. By requiring industries to tell communities how much they pollute the air and water, we empower citizens to fight back and create a powerful incentive for industry to pollute less. Remarkably, in the decades since the public's right-to-know about chemical releases became the law of the land, industry's toxic pollution has fallen nearly 50 percent. ”

“ Such steps are not just environmental priorities, they are critical to our security. America must take decisive action in order to more plausibly demand the same effort from others. We should push for binding and enforceable commitments to reduce emissions by the nations which pollute the most – the United States, the European Union, Russia, China, and India together account for nearly two-thirds of current emissions. ”

“ On a planet which currently hosts 140 sovereign states this policy of putting the interests of the part before the interests of the whole results in controversy, conflict, and may result in collective self-destruction. ”

“ Consequently, wisdom, foresight, and the acceptance of change as a major factor in all social relationships seem to justify our assumption that sooner or later man's survival on the planet will depend on a degree of worldist thinking, association and institutionalism that will guarantee the preservation of order and decency at the planetary level. ”