Fortunately, over the years, we have all become far more cognizant of how humans are affecting the environment in numerous ways. This might be directly from our own actions or indirectly from supporting certain businesses that play hard and fast with suitability laws in order to turn a profit. This has meant that those who we elect have had to create the sorts of rules and regulations that are designed to protect the spaces we live in, not only from the obvious things like reducing air pollution but also those slightly less apparent like the dumping of waste into water systems, etc. Nonetheless, it can be tricky for the average person to understand what these laws are and how they work, which is the purpose of this article. We're exploring what environmental law actually is and how it relates to you in your regular lives.
What Is Environmental Law?
Before we go down the rabbit hole in terms of what these laws entail, it's worth taking time to explore what is meant when we bring up a topic like this. Environmental law is a broad topic covering rules, treaties, and common law intended to safeguard the environment and human health. It covers several spheres, including:
- Waste management
- Air and water quality
- Site remediation from contamination
- Natural resource management
- Endangered species preservation
While some of those issues will relate more to companies than the average Joe, they will all ultimately have an effect on regular people's lives. In fact, many of these laws are so stringent that numerous law firms have begun specializing in them due to their complex nature. According to Caveat Legal, this can help businesses comply with all relevant laws without needing to resort to costly in-house legal counsel (or having to retrain or rehire attorneys based on a need to get their environmental chops in order). Essentially, ecological law ultimately aims to stop damage and advance sustainability in order to guarantee a decent future for you and your children.
Key Legislation Shaping Environmental Policy
Environmental legislation will vary from country to country, but generally speaking, there are some laws that will remain similar regardless of where they're implemented (although enforcement is a different matter and something we'll cover later). But if we're purely to cover the laws implemented in the USA, then the following are the most pertinent and arguably most well-known:
- The Clean Air Act: As the name suggests, this act is aimed at ensuring air quality remains at safe levels for humans. If you want to see what happens when this law isn't enacted or enforced, you can take a look at which cities are regularly in the top ten worst polluted and give thanks that you live in a country that takes law seriously!
- The Clean Water Act: Just as with the preceding act, this aims to keep waterways clean to stop businesses from dumping toxic waste into the very systems that provide us with life.
- The Endangered Species Act: This isn't always the most commonly thought-of regulation, but ensuring that we don't overhunt certain species is all part and parcel of being good stewards of the Earth.
- The National Environmental Policy Act: This is a nationwide law that requires federal agencies to assess the environmental impacts of proposed actions, ensuring informed decision-making.
- The Paris Agreement: Although it looks like the USA will withdraw from this agreement, many other nations will remain in an attempt to reduce global warming.
Major Environmental Agencies Involved
In the USA, the primary agency tasked with keeping the nation clean and acceptable to its population is the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). There are usually also other agencies at the state level, but in most cases, the EPA has jurisdiction at the federal level. They are responsible for implementing and enforcing federal environmental laws, most of which we noted in the previous section.
Importance Of Compliance And Enforcement
Just because there are laws in place to protect our surroundings, they amount to naught if they aren't adequately enforced. While this enforcement can come across as undue interference in our lives or have a perceived effect of increasing red tape for businesses, these laws exist to protect everyone. If you want to see what happens when companies are allowed to run rampant and disregard the rules put in place, you only need to look to less-developed countries to see how they fare in terms of quality of life and health statistics.
Although environmental laws are usually much maligned by the population, they are in place to protect the health and longevity of the nation as a whole. As long as they are enforced correctly and the public is informed of why they need to be in place, we can ensure that the beauty of our natural areas remains intact.
