Blog: 1
What is Environmental Policy? Well, according to Fordham University’s Environmental policy department the phrase/term is
“an academic discipline, is the interdisciplinary study of the creation, evolution, implementation and effectiveness of environmental policies and is often called Environmental Studies as opposed to Environmental Science”.
In general, Environmental Policy is the study of effective policies created by groups, organizations, and governments to help protect the environment, its evolutionary processes, and natural systems; but also, to help address environmental problems associated with big-business, consumption, and human-kind.
Thus, the major follows true to this definition. Therefore, there are many key environmental policy dimensions, world-views, values, policies, stakeholder groups, technology and design, and environmental problems. These dimensions in turn are affected by different disciplines practiced by students who major in Environmental Policy, due to its curriculum.
As a student who is minoring in the environmental policy I can attest to the use of the core curriculum. It is appropriately used. Starting freshman/sophomore year off with the basics has worked and I feel like I have grown in my love for the environment. Each class brings a new concept of the environment, and it helps the student grow/become ready for his/her future.
In fact, varying concepts of the environment can help anyone grow and by experiencing the nature for at least 20 minutes a day can be beneficial. Being a part of/within nature is encoded in our own DNA, this idea is called Biophilia. Biophilia is our innate love for the environment because it is built into our own DNA, or “the urge to affiliate with other forms of life”. Human interaction with the environment for a small amount of time has been found to lower cholesterol, increase cognitive though, and decrease chances of cancer, tumors, or heart disease. In fact, George Wright states that this hypothesis is unquestionable because the world of nature and the world of humans are deeply intertwined. Really, it is unfathomable how reliant we have become as a species on mother nature.
Wright goes on discussing this idea and mentions this idea of parks and our health, and this brings me back to the idea of the no child left inside act. The no child left inside act seeks to “provide funding for environmental education (wikipedia). This act moved me, and the line that really gets to me is the last,
“Developers and environmentalists, corporate CEOs and college professors, rock stars and ranchers, may agree on little else, but 
they agree on this: no one among us wants to be a member of the last generation to pass on to our children the joy of playing outside in nature.”
Our culture needs to educate our youth, younger generations, about nature. Increasingly, the idea of nature is dissipating. Parks are becoming weed-ridden deserted landscapes, and nobody cares too much about nature and the experiences it can bring… it is sad really. But, this article seeks to correct this problem. Because, the changes our world needs is a broader incorporation of the outside world, which involves today’s youth.
Ethics of the Environment 