Industrial Environmental Management

2Genesis of Environmental Problem Worldwide: International Environmental Regulations

2.1 Introduction

Engineers in all disciplines practice a profession of those who must obey rules governing their professional conduct. One important set of rules that all engineers should be aware of is environmental statues, which are laws enacted by US Congress and governments of other countries around the world.

Environmental law, also known as environmental and natural resources law, is a collective term describing the network of treaties, statutes, regulations, common, and customary laws addressing the effects of human activity on the natural environment. The core environmental law regimes address environmental pollution. A related but distinct set of regulatory regimes, now strongly influenced by environmental legal principles, focus on the management of specific natural resources, such as forests, minerals, or fisheries. Other areas, such as environmental impact assessment, may not fit neatly into either category but are nonetheless important components of environmental law.

The objective of this chapter is to provide an overview of history behind present environmental laws and regulations and environmental pollution in various countries and continents. Much of the materials presented in this chapter has been adopted from various sources that include the following: United States Code (USC); Code of Federal Regulations (CFR); United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA); United ...