Activity 4.2- Environmental Policy Frameworks

 Intro-

      In the process of creating policies, all policy makers use their own personal perspectives, or points of view, on the subject that they are creating policies for. These perspectives are called "frameworks", and they make up how one sees the world. Not everyone is going to agree on what should make up a framework, because we are all different in many ways. When it comes to environmental policy making, policy makers use perspectives called "environmental frameworks" to guide the ways they view the conflict or issue at hand. These frameworks are very important to consider in policy making in order to fully define the issue, provide contextual dimension (Bryan, 2003), shape the actions that should or shouldn't be made by individuals, protect us, justify one's stance on a conflict, and motivate people to actively make changes (Davis, Lewicki. 2003). 

       Below in table one we can find the environmental policy framework from three different sources. The colored plus signs in every box connect the frames from each of the three sources based on similarities. 

     The table is followed by a second table containing my own environmental policy framework, then a short justification for each frame I created:

   

Davis, C.B., & Lewicki, R.J. (2003)	Bryan, T. (2003)	Kurrer, C. (2020)
Identity- Analyzes “who am I?” (job-wise; where do they live; where do they belong socially; what are their values, morals and ethics.) +	Legal environment- Pays attention to existing laws, regulations, legal procedures, and the values of legal institutions and the general public in order to frame legal context +   +   +   +   +	Environmental action programs- EAP’s come up with legislative proposals and environmental goals for the European Union, as well as stresses the need for better integration and implementation of policies +   +
Characterization- Analyzes “who are they?” (what makes up the identities and beliefs of the others involved in the conflict) +	Political environment- Considers political processes, societal institutions (like the federal government), current political atmosphere, agenda’s of political parties and outcomes of potential political races +    +    +   +   +   +	Horizontal strategies- Composed of the “Sustainable Development Strategy”, which seeks constant improvement in quality of life, environmental protection, social cohesion, and a shift towards sustainable growth, resource efficiency, and a low-carbon economy +   +   +
Conflict management- Focuses on how each party in dispute wants problem resolved, as well as dynamics of situation that created the issue at hand to minimize further conflict +	Economic environment- Focuses on societal rates of wealthy v. poor, inflation, interest and tax rate, and characteristics of labor and economic markets    +   +   +   +   +   +	International environmental cooperation- Pays attention to other cultures and societies regarding environmental issues and their unique dynamics with the conflict. This helps to better understand how problems develop, and what kind of actions and goals need to be put into place +   +   +   +
Fact-finding- Shows how technical experts view issue, as well as how general public views issue, and how people trust facts given. +	Cultural environment- Composed of the dominating societal attitudes, beliefs, and customs surrounding:     -sex roles -family structure -work orientation -religion -political practices +   +   +	Environmental impact assessment and public participation- Negates the need for either environmental impact studies or strategic environmental assessments in construction and development projects to determine if the project will have major consequences on the environment and biodiversity.  +   +   +
Social control- Represents how individuals think social issues should be resolved, ranging from experts to non-experts +	Demographic environment- Analyzes demographic characteristics of a population, including population migrations, to give context to the creation and unique dynamics of environmental conflicts +   +   +	Implementation, enforcement, monitoring- Recognizes the facts that further, and more detailed regulations will have to be implemented at national, state, and local levels to ensure the enforcement of the policies being introduced +   +   +
Power- Explores how one party could gain leverage over others involved in conflict      +	Technological environment- Is characterized by advancements in science, engineering, medicine, transportation, capacity for communication, agricultural production, manufacturing processes, etc. +   +	X
Risk- Assesses: -Potential benefits and costs -Gains or loses -Advantages or disadvantages   For the involved parties in policy creation/use, even the environment. +	Ecological environment- Makes considerations into the physical environment, such as: natural resources’ abundance and scarcity, climatological systems, density of organized populations, geological systems, etc.   +   +   +   +   +	X

My Environmental Policy Framework
Frames	Frame description
Identity	-Considers “who am I?” and “who are they?”, or the identities, of all those involved. -Probes values, beliefs, morals, motives, and ethics of myself, and other individuals or businesses involved, whether directly or indirectly. -Includes gathering and utilizing demographic information, or “identities” of involved entities to provide context for every frame of reference included in conflict
Conflict management	Seeks to minimize/mitigate conflict by: -Utilizing scientific facts/data for evidence to arguments - Seeks to make compromises between parties involved, if possible -Attempts to minimize any negative impacts to all involved, whether directly or indirectly -Outlines compensation fees in the event of damage, destruction, direct detrimental impacts made to human and environmental health, and death
Risk assessment	Assesses risks to analyze the:   -benefits -cost projections -potential gains and loses -potential to discover any advantages or disadvantages that exist for all parties involved in the conflict. -Ecological, Environmental, Biological, Cultural, Historical and Mathematical probabilities of safety outcomes spurred by development projects. -Hidden agendas of any party involved
Sustainability	-Analyzes the environmental issues that exist in a space, as well as the sustainability needs or goals that align with where that space of land is geographically. -Highlights need for global authority and judicial institution that handles offenses made against environmental sustainability, especially at mass levels -Addresses the need for mandates that aim to phase out the reliance of fossil fuels as a major energy source and usage of plastics/ microplastics
Policy implementation and enforcement	-Outlines consequences for not following policy -Addresses need enforcement at all levels of government -Highlights growing need for global level institutions that carry out inspections and uphold the standards outlined in the policy. -Aim to get everyone, government official or not, active in adopting policies -Can provide the incentives needed to motivate governments and enforcers to be more involved

Justifications on frame choices

     Identity is one of my frames because its extremely important to know certain aspects of an individual/company in order to understand their views, wants and even hidden agendas. Some of these aspects include the values, morals, motives, and ethics of those involved, whether directly or indirectly. Demographic characteristics are also gathered, which build up off the previously listed aspects, to provide more accurate context to the perspectives, or identity of individuals or companies involved in the use or abuse of environmental policies. Having these in depth understandings can help determine the end game of legal cases, as well as influence decisions made on land development projects. For example, knowing the socio-economic status of two parties involved in a court case can help determine if there are preexisting advantages or disadvantages that one party has to another. 

     I included conflict management as one of my frames for many reasons. 1) it aims to make compromises, 2) it typically seeks fairness, 3) it provides a way to ease potentially dangerous tensions between involved parties, 4) it appeals to political actions, 5) it considers the "best interest" of the economic market and 6) it utilizes information from other sections, like "identity", to better understand how conflicts arise, provide clues on how to solve the problem at hand, and even figure out how they can be avoided, or better handled in the future (Grey., Putnam, 2003). 

     Risk assessment is probably my biggest section, and is arguably one of the more important ones. On top of the points listed, this frame also probes potential ecological, environmental, biological, cultural, historical, and mathematical probabilities to assess if development is safe on or in certain land areas, or in certain underground ecosystems. For example, drilling into a cave that has been sealed off for thousands of years, and which is also home to an infectious viral disease, can allow for the release of this virus into the world, which could cause an epidemic, or even pandemic depending on how it interacts with humans (Vaughan, 2020). A majority of risk possibilities can be measured through environmental assessments. This section also gives special attention to the wealthy/ government officials in development projects or in court of law, as high amounts of wealth and political power have been historically known to corrupt people. 

     Every community has different unique needs, and as we go from smaller to bigger communities, those unique needs multiply, sometimes on each other, and grow exponentially. Therefore the sustainability-needs or goals of all communities, small to large, must be considered to ensure that not only everyone is fairly accounted for, but so that we can also start getting the whole world headed in the same direction; towards global, environmental sustainability. Policies must also include guidelines for the creation of local, state, national, and global mandates which “propel the growth of renewable energy” (Hsu & Kelly, 2019, para. 4). (Walker, Scott), and which also set goals for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and plastic consumption.

     Policies are only effective if they are enforced and fully implemented into society, which is hard to do considering the many different belief systems that exist when it comes to environmental policy frameworks. Therefore, considerations need to be made into the growing need for either national or global level institutions that carry out inspections and uphold the standards outlined in the policy. It is also recognized that if there is no incentive to change, then people won’t. On that note, the need for incentive-creating consequences that don’t provide the loopholes for lazy, uncaring individuals to abuse the system, has been highlighted. 

     

Works Cited 

Bryan, T. (2003). Context in environmental conflicts: Where you stand depends on where you sit. Environmental Practice, 5(3), 256-264. BRYAN_2003_Context_in_environmental_conflict Framing.pdf

Davis, C. B., & Lewicki, R. J. (2003). Environmental conflict resolution: Framing and intractability--an introduction. Environmental Practice, 5(3),200-206.   DAVISandLEWICKI_2003_Environmental_conflict_resolution__Framing.pdf

Gray, Barbara, and Linda L Putnam. “Means to What End? Conflict Management Frames.” Environmental Practice, vol. 5, no. 3, 2003, pp. 239–246

Hsu, A., & Kelly, M. L. (2019, June 24). How solar grew in Georgia despite lack of mandates on renewable energy. National Public Radio. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/2019/06/24/733795962/how-georgia-became-a-surprising-bright-spot-in-the-u-s-solar-industry

Kurrer, Christian. “Environment Policy: General Principles and Basic Framework.” Fact Sheets on the European Union | European Parliament, European Parliament , Nov. 2020, www.europarl.europa.eu/factsheets/en/sheet/71/environment-policy-general-principles-and-basic-framework. 

Vaughan-Lee, E. (Host). (2020). Shaking the viral tree: An interview with David Quammen [Audio podcast with transcript]. Emergence Magazine. https://emergencemagazine.org/story/shaking-the-viral-tree/