Speth and Kraft on the Stalling on Environmentalism

Looking around me on a college campus, I start to see a lot of promise in the actions of some students as passions about sustainability and environmentally friendly living in general become more mainstream. I think about my hometown (Northampton, MA) and the locally oriented -and regionally famous- restaurant scene, about our flourishing community gardens, and all the farms and maple sugar shacks that provide Western Mass with its delicious local food. I think about land preservation that is brought about by locals working with municipalities and businesses and particularly about one neighborhood that fought a local developer to preserve their tract of wetlands.

All these efforts are individual or localized with communal impact, but while some of us seem to be doing our part and more to be conscious, Kraft and Speth together this week begin to point to an overarching problem which remains a monstrous blemish on the environmentalist record, particularly here in the US: the failure of effective environmental policy to push both the national and international communities toward sustainable practices. Speth's chapter lines up right with Kraft and his epochs:

1970s: Massive shift in policy as environmental issues push to the forefront of the national political agenda and the EPA is created. (1st epoch)

1980s-late 90s: Market incentives dramatically change the intent and direction of environmental problems, deriving more economic profit and development than progress towards sustainability.

2000s-present: Environmentalism in total, on the coat-tails of Global Climate Change, jockeys for international concern alongside other major issues (i.e. terrorism and oil), while sustainable practices begin to pop up locally.

Speth and Kraft both point out the shortcomings of environmental policy in Kraft's third epoch (or the last decade or so). Sure, sustainable practices at local levels by citizens who care are great, but what is being done to change the way policy is structured or implemented. Speth particularly finds many problems with the inefficiency of the system, calling it out on its principles and the neglecting of root causes by policy makers. Kraft focuses more on the specifics of policy faliure, particularly with projects that are underfunded, underdeveloped, and poorly managed (see the Endangered Species Act). Kraft's greater point is that even beyond the failure of the system to establish legislation with teeth, the lack of attention and resources for environmental issues in the US suffers many malfunctions with program evaluation.

What's important here is not that many local victories are beginning to occur. While that is important, what Speth and Kraft demonstrate this week is that there are a number of great contradictions in the US (and world) governmental system in regards to progress towards a more sustainable world.