{"id":24571,"date":"2021-02-01T11:37:59","date_gmt":"2021-02-01T15:37:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=24571"},"modified":"2021-02-04T00:10:11","modified_gmt":"2021-02-04T04:10:11","slug":"define-environmental-degradation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/define-environmental-degradation\/","title":{"rendered":"Define Environmental Degradation: Real-Life Examples"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>How do you define environmental degradation? What does environmental deregulation mean for people?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When you define environmental degradation, it&#8217;s often to examine how companies and governments harm the environment. This deregulation often causes direct harm to citizens. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Read more to find out how you define environmental degradation and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Define Environmental Degradation<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>How do you define environmental degradation in real life? <strong>According to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/importance-of-environmental-protection\/\">Environmental Protection<\/a> Agency (EPA) and environmental watchdog groups, Louisiana is one of the most polluted states in the country. <\/strong>The state\u2019s wetlands, for example, are in an extremely vulnerable condition. Since 1930, Louisiana has lost an area of its wetlands equal in size to the entire state of Delaware.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This can largely be attributed to the power and influence of the extraction industry, particularly the oil and petrochemical industries. These sectors are notorious for hazardous working conditions where employees are routinely exposed to potentially lethal chemicals. Companies are also known to dump industrial waste into the streams and bayous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The ravages of Louisiana\u2019s largely unfettered extraction industry have destroyed an entire way of life. <\/strong>Since before the area was even part of the United States, generations of Cajuns (French Creole-speaking people, descended from 18th-century Acadians deported from Canada by the British), had been able to make a living from the land and water. Even today, older residents recall the days when they were able to live a self-sufficient life, growing beans and vegetables on their land and catching fish, turtles, and frogs from the nearby bayous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>But with the arrival of companies like Firestone and Pittsburgh Plate Glass (PPG) in the years after World War II, industrial pollution poisoned the land and water. <\/strong>Instead of aquatic wildlife, the bayous began to yield industrial waste and bits of rubber from the tire plants. Agriculture and husbandry became impossible when farm animals began to die after drinking the fouled water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Republican politicians and their pro-business, laissez-faire ideology have given these polluting companies a free hand to poison the drinking water and destroy a once-thriving commercial fishing industry, all in the name of free enterprise. Rather than using the power of government to rein in the reckless and dangerous behavior of the private sector, Louisiana Republicans\u2014and the large majority of voters who support them\u2014instead castigate \u201cBig Government\u201d and \u201coverregulation\u201d as the source of the state\u2019s problems. This is important to consider when trying to define environmental degradation. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How do you define environmental degradation? What does environmental deregulation mean for people? When you define environmental degradation, it&#8217;s often to examine how companies and governments harm the environment. This deregulation often causes direct harm to citizens. Read more to find out how you define environmental degradation and more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":18145,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,39,24],"tags":[194],"class_list":["post-24571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ethics","category-history","category-society","tag-strangers-in-their-own-land","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Define Environmental Degradation: Real-Life Examples - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"How do you define environmental degradation? Pollution and other factors caused by large corporations lead to unhealthy living conditions.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/define-environmental-degradation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Define Environmental Degradation: Real-Life Examples\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"How do you define environmental degradation? Pollution and other factors caused by large corporations lead to unhealthy living conditions.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/define-environmental-degradation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-02-01T15:37:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-02-04T04:10:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/industrial-revolution-stages-technological-revolutions-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1700\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Carrie Cabral\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Carrie Cabral\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/define-environmental-degradation\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/define-environmental-degradation\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Carrie Cabral\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2ababb7c63a94ff5d2190f71dc417d56\"},\"headline\":\"Define Environmental Degradation: Real-Life Examples\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-02-01T15:37:59+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-02-04T04:10:11+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/define-environmental-degradation\/\"},\"wordCount\":408,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/define-environmental-degradation\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/industrial-revolution-stages-technological-revolutions-scaled.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Strangers in Their Own Land\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Ethics\",\"History\",\"Society\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/define-environmental-degradation\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/define-environmental-degradation\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/define-environmental-degradation\/\",\"name\":\"Define Environmental Degradation: Real-Life Examples - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/define-environmental-degradation\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/define-environmental-degradation\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/industrial-revolution-stages-technological-revolutions-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-02-01T15:37:59+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-02-04T04:10:11+00:00\",\"description\":\"How do you define environmental degradation? 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