Environmental Risk and Public Relations †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Environmental Risk,Sustainability Discourses and Public Relations. Answer: Environmental risks are caused by human activities aimed at improving the social, economic and political status of the humankind. Sustainability involves applying specific means consistently and indefinitely. Discourses are ideologies that entail common ways of thinking, speaking and knowing about the world. Environmental risks can be addressed by employing both sustainability discourses and public relations. Coming up with the new ways of thinking and integrating it with public relations will be a landmark of fighting causes of environmental risks. Global concern on environmental risks have been gaining momentum since 1960s. The blame for environmental destruction has been shifted to developed nations governments and their business policies. Western democracies enjoy free market economies that are aimed to increase economic growth. Besides, rich nations action contribute to a lot environmental destruction, but their governments are not intervening on the escalating causes of climate change. It is a fact that developed world contributes largely to the causes of environmental change, but they do little or nothing to pay for the damage the cause on the environment. It is out of this observation whereby climate change disasters have captured the attention of the public. The key factor behind addressing climate change is to establish whether those who engage economic activities to enhance economic growth in their countries can do that sustainability. Over decades, the increasingly technological and industrial developments have caused environmental disasters such as Bhopal and Chernobyl. These environmental disasters among many others calls for the increased social and environmental protection. This is because the majority of environmental problems are largely linked to the economic growth strategies, applied by both developed and less developed nations. This makes it difficult to address the issue of climate change. It is high time the concern on global climate change was addressed through political and economic change. Juliet Roper admits that discourse is the key approach to address climate change concerns. Roper advocates that nations endowed with hegemony powers such as United States, China, Canada, Russia, Germany, France and the United Kingdom should be in the front line on addressing the problems of environmental destruction. These nations can use dominant discourses on the ground that countries that apply new strategies of production aimed at reducing environmental destruction are winners whereas nations that undertake business, as usual, are the losers. This approach can be the starting point of the long journey of addressing environmental disasters. However, it disputable whether the clash of democracies among western nations will allow this to prevail. This because most of the wealthy nations are aimed at the competing for economic growth irrespective of the external pressure to reduce environment destruction. The failure of the developed nations to engage in the fight against environmental disasters can be compelled by calling in public relations. Over the years, public relations advocators have requested to be included in the fight for the cause of environmental degradation. Public relations practices will critically evaluate political and social environments which companies running business as usual operate. Additionally, public relations will help in understanding the externalities that are caused by the companies, and therefore caution them to prevent and reduce long term environmental destruction. It will also create awareness to the companies that do not employ right production strategies will be the losers in the long.