Its issues are climate change, biodiversity, soil erosion, fish stocks, forest loss, biotechnology. Water is still on this agenda but now as more of an issue of quantity than quality. These environmental resource issues are both much more serious than the old pollution ones and much more difficult to address. Companies must learn to treat the environment as a business issue, not just as a technical one For a start, the need for action is not so obvious. Even though there are now fewer critical challenges to the underlying science of climate change, the major impacts of global warming are not yet unambiguously visible.
Fishermen consistently argue that fears for fish stocks are unfounded.
And the real significance of the ever faster loss of forests or biodiversity is not immediately apparent to everyone. This limits the scope of what government regulations can do. It is clear that, at least initially, almost anything done will create more losers than winners. The political drive to act is also weaker. Resource issues are far less highly charged than health ones, and much less media friendly.