[HN Gopher] UN plastics treaty: don't let lobbyists drown out re...
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UN plastics treaty: don't let lobbyists drown out researchers
Author : adrian_mrd
Score : 59 points
Date : 2024-04-20 09:58 UTC (13 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.nature.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.nature.com)
| dudeinjapan wrote:
| For some reason I never got excited abt the Kyoto Protocol. This
| however is very exciting if it isnt killed by lobbyists. Maybe
| its because I can see plastic--esp on beaches--whereas I cant see
| carbon atoms.
| dbspin wrote:
| How or why are any lobbyists allowed to be part of the
| legislative process? It's understandable in the US with the total
| citizens united capture of campaign finance etc, but it's not
| normal or understandable in the context of more democratic
| countries.
| graemep wrote:
| You think its a problem only in the US? Its a problem
| everywhere.
| JadeNB wrote:
| > You think its a problem only in the US? Its a problem
| everywhere.
|
| Your parent comment:
|
| > How or why are any lobbyists allowed to be part of the
| legislative process? It's understandable in the US with the
| total citizens united capture of campaign finance etc, but
| it's not normal or understandable in the context of more
| democratic countries.
|
| seems to say the opposite: the legislative foundation is
| clear in the US, but it's less clear how the same problem,
| which the comment acknowledges exists, develops elsewhere.
|
| (I'd submit that this point of view just comes from being
| more familiar with US law than with other countries' laws,
| which I'm sure have their own peculiar histories of
| regulating lobbying, but it definitely doesn't deny the
| relevance of lobbying in non-US governance.)
| rrix2 wrote:
| policy makers need to be informed to make smart policy, how
| else would we trust a bunch of polisci majors to implement
| climate and tech and ag policies? this is unfortunately too
| easy to game by hiring people to go put your thoughts in ears.
|
| also, it's important to remember that there are lobbyists on
| all sides of an argument (some with much more paid time on
| their hands than others, but) its not hard to be one for an
| issue you want to impact if youre a subject matter expert.
|
| i dont think we should or could be eliminating lobbying but
| tightly controlling how money/gifts/time are allocated to
| people who are speaking to politicians and policy makers about
| a particular issue
| jan_Inkepa wrote:
| >policy makers need to be informed to make smart policy,
|
| Yeah, very important :)
|
| There was a case a while ago of...I think (vague recollection
| - I can't track it down exactly alas ) funding for some
| important disease research for orange trees in California
| being axed unexpectedly. The agro industry was like wtf, and
| I remember an interview with some politician expressing
| regret, it was cut because they thought it was useless
| research, and they really strongly recommended that that
| sector set up some lobbying body to that there'd be a line of
| communication between the industry and the government.
|
| Lobbies can be malign, but, yeah they also serve some useful
| purposes.
| chrismcb wrote:
| I guess it depends on your definition of lobbyist. But why
| shouldn't they be allowed? And why would any democratic country
| disallow it? Disallowing lobbyists doesn't seem very democratic
| to me.
| danman114 wrote:
| Simple Question: how could I as a private party contribute to
| help this get more friction & ultimately more success?
| bennyhill wrote:
| I'd like to see graphs connecting politicians, lobbyists, geos
| and tainted policy proposals and a sufficiently large
| political/social group bringing awareness to such graphs,
| getting experts talking about them, etc.
|
| IMO the goal is not one treaty, it is to make the cost of
| selling out sufficiently high that every treaty round improves
| every future round instead of so low that every round adds to
| the percentage of participants who are sell outs still
| participating in the political system.
| TheCleric wrote:
| Depends how much money you have.
| rexpop wrote:
| Simply put: don't be a "private" party. Join an association or
| affinity group, and then you can more effectively lobby your
| representatives. An association with leverage, especially, is
| effective. Principally, economic leverage in the form of either
| capital or industrial relevance, ie a union.
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