Policy, Environmental

Environmental policy concerns the attitudes that states, representing their people, adopt toward the environment and the need to protect or exploit it in different ways. These range from the desire to maintain nature in a pristine state to the desire to exploit all resources of the land and atmosphere without regard for the future or side effects.

Most ideologies, in common with most forms of organized religious belief, derived from a period in which agricultural lifestyles, featuring sustainable use of resources as part of folk wisdom concerning husbandry of the land, were dominant. This might have been expressed either through sacred texts outlining the role of man as part of nature or through practical education such as that provided by Buddhist monks in forested parts of East Asia.

Political ideologies that have derived from more modern history, such as communism or libertarianism, tend to have been created in periods in which industrial activities dominated agricultural activities. They are therefore more likely to support extraction of resources to facilitate more production. In these cases, the purpose of nature is generally seen as supporting mankind's development and ascension.

As modern life has become more complex, environmental policy has both become a more recognized area of concern in its own right and broadened to engage with numerous issues. Solid waste management, apportioning fishing rights, controlling industrial pollution, and addressing global warming are all issues now included within environmental policy. Governments around the world have established specific departments to formulate and implement policies and to monitor changes. Evidence of global warming and the effects of pollution have sparked worldwide interest in environmental issues, leading to increased involvement in voluntary organizations and growing pressure on elected politicians to adopt what are perceived to be environmentally-friendly policies.