Blog #14

What surprised you about the process of Environmental
Policy? Do you think that the U.S. Senate should have ratified the Kyoto Protocol?
Why or why not. Why do you think creating and implementing environmental policy
is so difficult locally, nationally, and internationally? Should communities and
local government do more on a local level to create environmental policy? What
environmental issues would you like to see addressed by policy makers?


The process of Environmental Policy doesn't really surprise me at all because it is still the process of creating a law or rule which is tedious no matter what law you are trying to pass or enact.  I agree with our Senate's decision to not ratify the Kyoto Protocol.  The conditions we expected, which were to have third-world countries also sign and ratify, were not met therefore I think we have no obligation to a world policy when everyone else in the world is not participating.  We are still trying to knock down our amount of emissions even without signing the Kyoto Protocol.  I also believe that it may have given the United States a better green image if we have ratified the Kyoto Protocol, and perhaps even more countries would have become involved if they had seen our country ratify the new policy.
It is difficult to implement and create any form of policy, not just environmental.  There are many obstacles that have to be conquered; majority of bills and proposals do not come close to becoming law.  Environmental policy may have more trouble because there are even more obstacles to consider.  By suppressing emissions, we may be inhibiting the production of some factories which in turn could halt production and cause people to lose jobs.  One could argue that the jobs and continued production of a certain useful good may be more important to our society than cutting emissions.
I am an advocate of the saying "Think Globally, Act Locally."  If a local community or local government can help to enact and enforce green policy on a smaller scale, then all of the small communities enforcing these policies add up to a much greener whole.  If we have problems here in South Carolina, we shouldn't be worried about what Georgia is doing, or worried about China, because we can't even solve these problems for ourselves.

Blog #13

What do you think of ecofemisnism before you read, and after? Did you have any strong reactions? What forms of dominance do you see in the world around you?

I didn't really have a disposition either supporting or against ecofeminism because I didn't really know what it was about, other than the obvious women's rights.  I think it is an interesting idea; I agree that women are more closely associated with nature than men are and I believe that women should be free as women.  Women don't need to be considered equal to men but they are very important and deserve their own freedoms as well.  I don't think that men are greater than women, but the way our patriarchal society is set up allows for that idea to exist.
I think in an ideal society the ideas behind ecofeminism could work.  There is evidence that it used to work in the past; many deities were female and highly revered, such as fertility goddesses.  Our society would have to undergo a major transformation in the way we think about social structure and the way we view women. 
Dominance is all over the world.  Many people believe men are the dominant sex.  White people are viewed as the "dominant" race in Western culture, but in some Middle-Eastern countries white people are on the bottom of the totem pole.  Humans are viewed as dominant over nature in Western culture. It seems part of nature for dominance to exist; lions are the "king of the jungle," sharks are one of the dominant predators of the sea, humans are considered the dominant species on the Earth because of our intelligence. Also, North Korea thinks they will one day dominate us, but that will never happen.