The world faces a number of environmental problems, and
clearly humans are not managing these problems as well as
they could. In the tragedy of the common examples we see
many natural systems that are suffering because human
societies are systematically unsustainable. So, the goal of
policy is to correct these systematic unsustainable elements
and return us to a more sustainable path. This article looks
at the background behind many ideas of environmental
policy, to see how they work and how they're applied. Many
places have air quality problems, for example, London in the
1950s had a huge problem with smog pollution which killed
thousands. So, smoker fields were banned and electricity
plants were moved away from the central city of London.
Chimneys were made taller, so that the pollutants dispersed
before they reached ground level. In the case of smog, the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency mandates that a city
must keep its pollutants below a certain level. For example,
carbon monoxide concentration should be below nine parts
per million. It's up to the city then, to figure out how to make
this ambient standard work and how to meet that standard,
and so there can be further regulation.