05-05-2015, 08:51 PM
Your idea has merit in that it recognises a bit more nuance than the generic "ban fracking!" attempts. I'm still not entirely sold, though.
I personally think environmental laws in the WA should concentrate on transnational impact. If a nation wants to pollute their own countryside, then so be it; the WA's role is to step in when the environmental factors aren't confined to their own borders, such as ozone depletion. This isn't meant to be a bullish "national sovereigntist" stance: it was something that Mikitivity, a player who taught me a lot about these things as he was a RL environmental scientist and active in MUN, strongly favoured despite being much less starkly sovereigntist on issues of human rights or disarmament, and it's also something that reflects the principle of subsidiarity. IRL there is in fact some international law on this topic, the Aarhus Convention, and the only reason I've never tried proposing such a thing is that ironically in NationStates, the self-proclaimed "national sovereigntists" would end up voting it down!
In the case of fracking, such effects could only really occur at the transnational level through groundwater pollution, and that's something that should already be covered by Article 3.IV of the Transboundary Water Use Act.
I personally think environmental laws in the WA should concentrate on transnational impact. If a nation wants to pollute their own countryside, then so be it; the WA's role is to step in when the environmental factors aren't confined to their own borders, such as ozone depletion. This isn't meant to be a bullish "national sovereigntist" stance: it was something that Mikitivity, a player who taught me a lot about these things as he was a RL environmental scientist and active in MUN, strongly favoured despite being much less starkly sovereigntist on issues of human rights or disarmament, and it's also something that reflects the principle of subsidiarity. IRL there is in fact some international law on this topic, the Aarhus Convention, and the only reason I've never tried proposing such a thing is that ironically in NationStates, the self-proclaimed "national sovereigntists" would end up voting it down!
In the case of fracking, such effects could only really occur at the transnational level through groundwater pollution, and that's something that should already be covered by Article 3.IV of the Transboundary Water Use Act.