The protection of the environment : a comparative analysis

Abstract

Progressive technology, an increase in life expectancy as well as quality, and resource depletion have given rise to serious concern with man's fragile surroundings. The Mediterranean, has suffered from a Pyrrhic victory in tourism. Navigation and industry may have brought affluence, but in their wake, have made a babel of the Mediterranean. To-day, world resources seem to be extremely limited. The need to care for the environment does not arise only from aesthetic necessities but from the necessity of upgrading the quality of life. Environmental law is not that law which suppresses development but tames it. Care for the environment is creating now jobs and making enterprises more popular. Reviewing one's environment law has become an obligation for most states. What exactly do we mean by "environment?" There are at least three meanings which have been attributed to "environment". 1. Renewable resources: As a target of environmental law, environment in this sense usually means resources to be protected against pollution or other deterioration, most often air, water and land as living space, recreational and aesthetic resources, 2. All environmental resources: This includes the natural resources and processes that compose the environment understood as the biosphere (including the oceans) and the lithosphere (the crust of the earth). The main categories of environmental resources are a. renewable resources (air, water, soil, fauna, flora, solar and other natural resources); b. systems of natural resources: ecosystems, biomes, airsheds, water systems: animal/plant, soil/water/plant and other combined systems, such as coastal zones and wilderness preserves; c. non-renewable/ stock resources (underground mineral and fuel resources) , 3. Resources for man: On this level, environmental resources are defined in the perspective of human needs and capacity to manage. Human needs comprise, but are not limited to, economic needs. Man's cultural needs are just as important. There are various forms of environmentalism. Some wish to preserve aesthetic pleasures derived from existing landscapes, others to keep all land use in control, to protect animal end plant life, others to create facilities for recreational pastimes, others to use land productively to make the nation more self sufficient and others still think of the global environment and the survival of makind arguing that westerners consume too much of the world's resources.