The charismatic flora, the cinematic wildlife, the flowing waters, the wide range of the soil, the mighty sky, the breezy air are all compiled to make this earth a better and beautiful place to reside in. This calm yet furious environment has given an immense amount of resources to make the lives of the Homo sapiens refined and developed. With the reserves and the head of the human, there has been multifarious makeover of the comfortable assets over the times. The environment has been the supreme asset of humans.
Through the years the relationship between nature and human has evolved. The ancient theory of “determinism” is where the primitive human society has considered nature superior. They strongly believed the forces of the environment control the course of the action. The medieval times came with the flow of “environmental determinism” which said nature can be conquered by the humans. The hindrances of the environment can be overcome by the man force. Between the two extremes, ideas pop up “neo-environmentalism”. This theory dismisses the traditional green thinking and the fascist nature of humans and emphasises on limits and transforming societal values. Despite this mid-path, the mother earth has been hurt, tore a lot many times. The pollution, disasters and terrors of global warming have turned the earth into a trembling soul. Back in the times of 50 -60 century a plethora of disasters began. The Chilean earthquake of 9.5 magnitudes and the heavy monsoon rain and many more have snatched a thousand and lakhs of lives all over the world.
When these catastrophes gained momentum for the widespread public environmental concerns, an organization was created to make sure of the protection and the conservation of the natural environment and improve the health of humans by mandating limits on the use of pollutants. This Environmental Protection Agency was established in the year 1970 by the executive order of the then US President Richard Nixon. This federation has been an agency of the United States Federal aiming to protect human environmental health. The EPAs keeps an eye on the manufacturing, processing, distribution and use of chemicals. With this, it also enforces fines, sanctions and other procedures. Alongside it also oversees programs to promote energy efficiency, environmental stewardship, sustainable growth and the quality of air and water.
Under this agency, the well-known programmes are the EPA safer choice program, the energy star program, the smart growth program, Water Sense, the national pollutant discharge elimination
It has also been looking into
- Environmental licensing
- Enforcement of environmental law
- Environment planning education and guidance
- Monitoring analyzing and reporting on the environment
- Regulating Ireland’s greenhouse gas emissions regulations
- Environmental research development
- Strategic environmental assessment
- Waste management
- Radiological protection.
EPA has a long history of co-operation with India on a wide range of environmental topics. This has supported environmental outcomes from the improved and water quality to enhance the enforcement capacity. The works of improving Air quality, combating climate change, building strong institutions and legal structures and cleaning up E-waste are some of the notable works.
The agency is one of the largest for environmental issues also has large failures. Starting from the air, EPA has weekend cleaner cars standards dumping more pollution to the air we breathe and also slashing mercury and air toxics standards by cutting down the limit at the expense of our health. On the waters, despite the programmes on clean water the EPA has abandoned protection for wetlands and streams. The EPA has completely ignored climate science. Moving to a weaker plan of emissions the EPA may lead to 1400 premature deaths per year.
The agency has left the migrants and minorities to fend for themselves at toxic waste sites across the country. There also has been a systematic failure of the chemical safety of the environment. The agency also has been slammed for its failures on the toxic waste dumping operation. The continuous negativity around has also risen questioned by the inspector general. Besides this, the agency has also bitter the relationship with its no cooperative chief Ryan Jackson.
The high level of degradation of the environment has raised a rapid alarm. The wrong or delayed action of this agency can carve the path to the dead end. As the world is shut for a while because of the COVID19 and the nature is free to make a comeback to its alluring form, mother earth is being at its best form almost after decades. Once we escape the pandemic and the realm is geared and every industry falls to its place again precaution must be taken. The largest agency of the Environment i.e. Environmental Protection Agency has to stick to stringent policies to make peace with the ecosystem. Along with them every citizen of the world must also put their steps carefully making sure not contributing to the destruction of the environs.
Pallavi Mishra is accidentally an economics student but always a poet by heart. She is bold and pours her heart out in the words. She loves exploring the unheard emotions through her pen.
