Friday, October 9, 2009

To be a Radical or Not to be a Radical

Here is the project my classmates and I have been given:
We are part of 4 different organizations that are either for/against the expansion of Heathrow Airport (this is a current topic in England right now. The UK agreed to stop carbon emissions by 20% and now they are actually trying to expand the airports in London and add more terminals and runways which would increase the amount of carbon emissions the UK emits).

The four groups are:

The Aviation Commission: You are for the expansion. It creates jobs, will allow more planes to fly to your airport, creates more money for you as well (you own planes and now more people will fly them).
The local police: You are against the expansion but for alternative methods of increased transportation (buses) because the expansion takes away the people that fill the jobs in the community and you would have to increase taxes on the residents to pay for this.
GreenPlanet: You are an international Non-Government Organization that is against the expansion because it creates health risks, destroys the earth yada yada yada (green planet). You have tons of money from donations, are completely successful, and you know people in government (so you have a lot of pull).
CleanAir: A super tiny Non-Government Organization that is against any form of increased transportation (expansions, new airports, extra buses or undergrounds). Think of a radical group that chains themselves to airplanes to stop them from creating carbon emissions. . . . .

Guess which group I am in :D I'm a radical :D Now where did I put those chains . . . .

Honestly, would I have chosen this.... this is not an easy one, and I got put in this group because of where I was the last to get the sign up sheet for the group choices. But this is excellent.

Each group has to come up with a strategy to influence public policy that would benefit their group. The Clean Air radicals don't have money for advertising, only have a few people in the organization, and don't have any links to government to get our word across. OH I should mention that the current government in power is FOR the expansion- lucky for those in the Aviation Group. But that means I will learn the most out of this project, we'll have to be extremely creative to develop our strategy, and look at all kinds of small NGO's and how they were effective.

The easy answer is to bribe Green Planet to allow us to be part of the their committee since we support similar things, but is the easy answer the right one? I will go with no on this one.

Which would you choose? And how could you be effective? This is really interesting if you are into governmental affairs because you really have to follow whichever government is in power and change your strategy based on it.

1 comment:

  1. For your group, are you allowed to be in support of some of the factors of the the other groups (middle ground?). It is well know there is carbon emission problems and the progress made has been slow to date - a possible solution would be to look for opportunities to combine forces with those in favor of expanision. "Going green" is a buzz word, however companies such as starbucks, google and such have led the way to make it a more popular agenda. State the benefits your activity can provide. Just a thought

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