Environmental Policy and Sustainability Essay

According to the EPA, â€Å"environmental justice† refers to that people regardless of their caste, creed, religion, race, place of origin, socio-economic status, etc, should be given fair treatment and equality with regard to the development, execution and enforcement of environmental rules and regulations. Based on environment issues, no group or religion should be given preferences or abused. The negative or positive consequences of the environment that may develop out of municipal, commercial or industrial strategies should be borne proportionately by all the groups and people. The federal, state, local and other policies meant to protect the environment should not affect a particular group adversely (Maryland Department of Environment, 2009). In the state of Maryland, the Commission on Environmental Justice and Sustainable Communities has been organizing a dialogue session with citizens, groups and the local leaders to address any environmental issue. Special importance is given to the needs of the minorities and the low family income groups in the state of Maryland. Four such programs were held in different parts of Maryland in the October-November 2003. Importance is given to sustainable environment development, protection of the communities and programs that would benefit the community and the environment. The EJ Commission has strong relationships with the state and federal governments and discussions held during the meeting would be reflected in the state and federal policies. The EJ has also prepared a list of environmental indicators that could help to improve the environmental status (Maryland Department of Environment, 2004). b. Why are finding solutions to environmental problems so complicated? Frequently, it has been seen that the environmental problems may not be simple ones. If the environmental problem is a simple issue, it would be having complex mechanisms behind itself that involves several processes and structures through strong interrelationships. As the environment problems are complicated themselves, finding a solution to them is also complicated and advanced. One way of sorting out environmental problems and reducing their complexity would be to utilize flow modeling solutions which can consider several horizontal, vertical or parallel processes or structures. Based on the flow diagram and the various issues that may arise, the reality can be visualized and modified appropriately. References Cone, J. D. (1980). Environmental Problems / Behavioral Solutions, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Maryland Department of Environment Justice (2009). What is Environmental Justice? Retrieved on June 25, 2009, from Web site: http://www. mde. state. md. us/Programs/MultimediaPrograms/Environmental_Justice/ej_intro/index. asp Maryland Department of Environment Justice (2009). Public Dialogue Executive Summary, Retrieved on June 25, 2009, from Web site: http://www. mde. state. md. us/assets/document/environmental_justice/Public%20Dialogues%20Exec%20Summary. pdf