Environmental Decision-making (main)

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Environmental Decision-making


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Consensus, or coming to agreement, is how a group of people can make a choice. Another way to arrive at a decision is for one person to make the choice. When it comes to the environment, consensus is difficult to achieve. The environment is everywhere. It is complicated. It affects everyone and every nation. The complexity and scale of the issues make it difficult to agree on what the problem is, what the solution should be and what action to take, especially on a world-scale where there are many factors that stress differences rather than what people have in common. Even at the local level, opinions cause conflict. Certain situations call for group decisions, others are more appropriate for a sole leader to choose or an individual to make personal a personal choice. This section includes major achievements in consensus and leadership on environmental protection; international treaties, reports and assessments, government legislation – proposed and current, and examples of regional, local and other movements.

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