Environmental Issues

Traditional concepts of Gaia, Greek goddess of the earth, as the mediator of environmental laws & guardian of the self-regulating, multicentered biosphere, protecting the interdependent rights of all life forms to their own existence, are examined. Potentials for modern environmentalism are explored in terms of Gaian themes of biorights, sustainable utilization, biochemical models, & mysticism, a cylindrical model whose tenets overlap. Specific environmental issues such as "green bans" & radioactive waste disposal are addressed, with particular reference to incidents at the Sellafield, GB, nuclear plant & possible links to leukemia "clusters" found in the surrounding areas. Increased public suspiciousness stemming from government secrecy on such subjects has spawned greater interest in Greenpeace & similar environmental groups, formerly thought too radical. Agricultural & environmental interests continue to conflict in the cases of the Sizewell B public inquiry into the proposed building of GB's first pressurized water reactor & plans for revision of the Wildlife & Countryside Act. Innovative reports from the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution have been treated with characteristic caution by the government, but it is hoped that GB's political inertia in matters of environmental protection will begin to change now that it has entered the European Community, which seeks to set standards for a European Environmental Policy. 1 Figure, 42 References. K. Hyatt.