Major environmental degradation is a serious problem for China as the country's economy continues to grow at a phenomenal pace. In recent years environmental organisations have begun to emerge in China, and in some cases have had remarkable success in affecting policies which would have had significant adverse impacts on the environment. This book, based on extensive original research, adopts a multi-disciplinary research approach to examine environmental activism in China, focusing on four cities. It analyses the nature, characteristics, strategies, organizational modes and influence of what could be labeled a Chinese environmental movement in-the-making. In particular, this volume highlights the specificities of Chinese environmental activism in an increasingly globalizing world, along with a comparison to the environmental movement in Western Europe and North America.

This title was first published in 2000: The author examines those current theories which purport to explain the emergence and character of 'new' social movements in the 'advanced' industrial societies since the 1960s. In particular, it sets out to test the efficacy of these explanations in relation to the history of the environmental movement in Britain. The book breaks new ground in bringing together both short-term and the more historically orientated long-term explanations into a single volume, thus providing an invaluable resource for students of social movements. Its critical exposition of major theories also points to the need for a more developmental approach which seeks to connect old and new movement forms, thus allowing for a more balanced evaluation of the potential of the environmental movement to bring about significant social change.

When green parties emerged in the 1980s, not only did they question established ideas about nature and economic growth, they also challenged the 'iron law' of Roberto Michels that all parties inevitably follow a similar path towards informal concentration of power and oligarchy. Grass-roots democracy was both an ideological tenet and an organizational project for practically all green parties. These days the greens have lost their glamour and innocence. They have grown up and even joined governing coalitions in several countries. Did they leave grass-roots democracy by the roadside on the way to power? This book investigates to what extent green parties have remained true to their identity or have been transformed. Country specialists analyze the development of green parties in 14 countries across the world - not only Western Europe but also Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States. These analyses also offer clues on broader questions about party types and party change in contemporary democracies.

From Jamestown to 9/11, concerns about the landscape, husbanding of natural resources, and the health of our environment have been important to the American way of life. Natural Protest is the first collection of original essays to offer a cohesive social and political examination of environmental awareness, activism, and justice throughout American history. Editors Michael Egan and Jeff Crane have selected the finest new scholarship in the field, establishing this complex and fascinating subject firmly at the forefront of American historical study.

Focused and thought-provoking, Natural Protest presents a cutting-edge perspective on American environmentalism and environmental history, providing an invaluable resource for anyone concerned about the ecological fate of the world around us.

In a time of darkening environmental prospects, frightening religious fundamentalism, and moribund liberalism, the remarkable and historically unprecedented rise of religious environmentalism is a profound source of hope. Theologians are recovering nature-honoring elements of traditional religions and forging bold new theologies connecting devotion to God and spiritual truth with love for God's creation and care for the Earth. And religious people throughout the world are transforming the meaning of their faiths in the face of the environmental crisis. The successes and significance of religious environmentalism are manifest in statements by leaders of virtually all the world's religions, in new and "green" prayers and rituals, and in sophisticated criticisms of modern society's economy, politics, and culture. From the Evangelical Environmental Network to the Buddhist prime minister of Mongolia, the National Council of Churches to tree-planting campaigns in Zimbabwe, religious environmentalism has become a powerful component of the world environmental movement.
In A Greener Faith, Roger S. Gottlieb chronicles the promises of this critically important movement, illuminating its principal ideas, leading personalities, and ways of connecting care for the earth with justice for human beings. He also shows how religious environmentalism breaks the customary boundaries of "religious issues" in political life. Asserting that environmental degradation is sacrilegious, sinful, and an offense against God catapults religions directly into questions of social policy, economic and moral priorities, and the overall direction of secular society. Gottlieb contends that a spiritual perspectiveapplied to the Earth provides the environmental movement with a uniquely appropriate way to voice its dream of a sustainable and just world. Equally important, it helps develop a world-making political agenda that far exceeds interest group politics applied to forests and toxic incinerators. Rather, religious environmentalism offers an all-inclusive vision of what human beings are and how we should treat each other and the rest of life.
Gottlieb deftly analyzes the growing synthesis of the movement's religious, social, and political aspects, as well as the challenges it faces in consumerism, fundamentalism, and globalization. Highly engaging and passionately argued, this book is an indispensable resource for people of faith, environmentalists, scholars, and anyone who is concerned about our planet's future.

Capitalism is destroying our planet, but like most social progress in the last two centuries, ecological justice can only be achieved through working-class struggle. In Workers of the Earth, Stefania Barca uncovers the environmental history and political ecology of labour to shed new light on the potentiality of workers as ecological subjects. Taking an ecofeminist approach, this ground-breaking book makes a unique contribution to the emerging field of environmental labour studies, expanding the category of labour to include waged and unwaged, industrial and meta-industrial workers. Going beyond conventional categories of ‘production’ and ‘reproduction’ as separate spheres of human experience, Barca offers a fresh perspective on the place of labour in today’s global climate struggle, reminding us that the fight against climate change is a fight against capitalism.

Killing Bugs for Business and Beauty examines the beginning of Canada's aerial war against forest insects and how a tiny handful of officials came to lead the world with a made-in-Canada solution to the problem. Shedding light on a largely forgotten chapter in Canadian environmental history, Mark Kuhlberg explores the theme of nature and its agency. The book highlights the shared impulses that often drove both the harvesters and the preservers of trees, and the acute dangers inherent in allowing emotional appeals instead of logic to drive environmental policy-making. It addresses both inter-governmental and intra-governmental relations, as well as pressure politics and lobbying. Including fascinating tales from Cape Breton Island, Muskoka, and Stanley Park, Killing Bugs for Business and Beauty clearly demonstrates how class, region, and commercial interests intersected to determine the location and timing of aerial bombings. At the core of this book about killing bugs is a story, infused with innovation and heroism, of the various conflicts that complicate how we worship wilderness.

Islamic Environmentalism examines Muslim involvement in environmentalism in the United States and Great Britain. The book focuses upon Muslim activists and Islamic organizations that approach environmentalism as a religious duty: offering environmental readings of Islamic scriptures, and integrating religious ritual and practice with environmental action. Honing in on the insights of social movement theory, Hancock predominantly examines the activism and experience of Muslims involved in environmentalism and bases her research on interviews with activists in the United States and Great Britain. Indeed, the reader is first provided with an insightful analysis of the ways in which Muslim activists interpret and present environmentalism-diagnosing causes of environmental crises, proposing solutions, and motivating other Muslims into activism. This is followed by a discussion of the importance of affective ties, emotion and group culture in motivating and sustaining Muslim involvement in environmental activism. A timely volume which draws attention to the synthesis of political activism and religious practice amongst Muslim environmentalists, this book will be of interest to undergraduates, postgraduates and postdoctoral researchers interested in fields such as Islamic Studies, Sociology of Religion, Social Movement Theory and Environmental Studies.

Developing a framework of analysis which enables a detailed empirical investigation of Scottish Green Party membership, this is a detailed assessment of why people become members of a green party. The questions are particularly relevant in the light of declining political participation. Lynn Bennie responds to the gap in the literature on green and small parties and builds on the work of other researchers who have used similar methods to explore membership of the larger parties. The volume incorporates an extensive review of participation literature; details the history of the Scottish Green Party; documents extensive survey data of party members; and develops an understanding of motivations behind membership of a green party. It will prove ideal for courses on political behaviour and green politics, and be of interest to sociologists and political science researchers.

Businesses working under green finance models consider the potential environmental impact in investment and financing decisions and merge the potential return, risk, and cost correlated with environmental conditions into day-to-day financial business. Under this model, the ecological environment and sustainable development of society is observed and promoted. Green Finance for Sustainable Global Growth is an essential reference source that discusses emerging financial models that focus on sustainable development and environmental protection including developing trends in green finance, internet finance, and sustainable finance. Featuring research on topics such as competitive financing, supply chain management, and financial law, this book is ideally designed for accountants, financial managers, professionals, academicians, researchers, and students seeking coverage on the sustainable development of the finance industry.

By the late 1990s Green parties had entered national governments in five Western European countries - Finland, Italy, Germany, France and Belgium.This book analyzes the performance of Green parties in these five governments by answering the following questions: what are the political conditions under which Green parties have gained effective office? How do Green parties behave in government? What is the impact of Green parties on the policy performance of the national government? What is the effect of government participation on the electoral and organizational stability of the Greens?

At every stage, environmental policy is the result of the combat of stakeholders interested in, and affected by, the problem being addressed and the range of possible solutions. The combatants include any or all of the following: the federal government, environmental advocacy groups, and business, the media, the scientific community, think tanks, NGOs of every stripe, trade associations and professional organizations, and even state and local governments, each of whom have their own interests in the resulting policy.

Environmental Politics: Interest Groups, the Media, and the Making of Policy discusses political battles over the environment from ground level - as they are fought in legislative chambers, the daily newspaper, on television, and, increasingly, on the Internet. The text explores environmental politics as a clash of interests, not ideologies, and environmental policy as a result of the reconciliation of those interests.

The author covers not only the conventional aspects of the policymaking process but more recent and less recognized elements and developments such as:

o Proliferation of legislative riders and monument designations as major environmental strategies
o Evolving role of the media, from science popularizer to agenda setter
o Growing influence on both Congress and the public of conservative and libertarian foundations and think tanks
o Devolution of environmental power from the Federal to state governments
o Metamorphosis of EPA in a business-driven regulatory revolution
o Effect of globalization on US environmental policy
o Newly emerging role of the precautionary principle in marrying science and politics
o Increasing role of the Internet in promoting populist issues and promoting the decentralization of the environmental power structure

No other book covers the politics of the environment the way this one does. Written by an expert with 25 years of experience in environmental policymaking, Environmental Politics: Interest Groups, the Media, and the Making of Policy gives you an insider's view of how policies are forged. By examining these issues through an interest group lens, this book not only accounts for what policies have been adopted but also shows how you can influence policy and effect change.

Direct action has become a key part of the strategy of the radical environmental movement since the early 1990s, used to address issues such as road building and car culture, genetically modified foods, consumerism and global finance institutions. It has helped shape the political climate and has transformed the way people view political action, undermining the assumption that the power of politicians and big businesses cannot be contested. At the same time it is highly controversial, often illegal, and, partly due to its move towards greater militancy, may be included in new Prevention of Terrorism legislation. "Direct Action in British Environmentalism" charts and analyzes the nature and impact of this new wave of direct action. The contributors approach the phenomenon from a wide variety of perspectives and disciplines and present data concerning both the quantity and type of recent environmental protest and the sociological and organisational features of those performing it. Subjects covered include: the history of the movement and its influence on contemporary activism; the identities and new tribalism of "eco-warriors"; the reaction of the mass media; the impact of direct act

Scientists are clear that urgent action is needed on climate change, and world leaders agree. Yet climate issues barely trouble domestic politics. This book explores a central dilemma of the climate crisis: science demands urgency; politics turns the other cheek. Is it possible to hope for a democratic solution to climate change? Based on interviews with leading politicians and activists, and the author's twenty years on the frontline of climate politics, this book explores why climate is such a challenge for political systems, even when policy solutions exist. It argues that more democracy, not less, is needed to tackle the climate crisis, and suggests practical ways forward.

Earth First! is one of the most controversial and well known green movements in the world and the driving force behind the anti-road campaigns of the 1990s, made famous by sabotage tactics. Detailed accounts of major anti-road campaigns both in the UK and internationally are included, describing confrontations at Twyford, Newbury, Glasgow, the Autobahn in Germany, and information on the international spread of the Earth First! movement, with details of campaigns in Australia, Ireland, Germany, France, Holland and Eastern Europe. "Earth First! and the Anti-Roads Movement" traces the origins of the movement and the history of anti-roads activism in Britain since the 1880s. Radical EF! organizers describe how they took on their green activist identity, why they launched both EF! and the anti-roads movement, and their experiences of dramatic protest. Exposing the tensions between EF! and other green activists, they explain the political and economic influences on and the culture and politics of protest. Showing how green social and political theory can be linked to practical struggles for environmental and social change, Derek Wall investigates key topics of political and sociological

Earth First! is one of the most controversial and well known green movements in the world and the driving force behind the anti-road campaigns of the 1990s, made famous by sabotage tactics.
Detailed accounts of major anti-road campaigns both in the UK and internationally are included, describing confrontations at Twyford, Newbury, Glasgow, the Autobahn in Germany, and information on the international spread of the Earth First! movement, with details of campaigns in Australia, Ireland, Germany, France, Holland and Eastern Europe. Earth First! and the Anti-Roads Movement traces the origins of the movement and the history of anti-roads activism in Britain since the 1880s. Radical EF! organisers describe how they took on their green activist identity, why they launched both EF! and the anti-roads movement, and their experiences of dramatic protest. Exposing the tensions between EF! and other green activists, they explain the political and economic influences on and the culture and politics of protest.
Showing how green social and political theory can be linked to practical struggles for environmental and social change, Derek Wall investigates key topics of political and sociological interest in Britain and the World today. This is an authoritative account based on passionate and lyrical autobiographical accutns form activists blended with a strong theoretical grounding.

eBook available with sample pages: 020301068X

An important comparative study of Japanese politics that reveals that green issues have yet to displace the traditional urban politics of post-industrial Japan. This is unlike the rise of green parties and politics in Europe. Unlike Europe, it seems that political values in Japan are still informed by the conservative values of hierarchy and deference.

This volume is the first systematic, comprehensive and cogent environmental political philosophy. It exposes the relationships between the ever-worsening environmental crises, the nature of prevailing economic structures and the role of the modern state and concludes that the combination of these factors is driving humanity towards destruction.
Innovative, provocative and cutting-edge, A Radical Green Political Theory will be of enormous value to all those with an interest in the environment, political theory and moral and political philosophy.

Paints a general picture of the Asian situation, backing it up with several case studies. Two major points are made: environmental campaigns in Asia tend to have a local focus and they cannot be understood in terms of environmental issues alone.

Bomberg argues the 'greening' of European politics and the advancement of European integration are inextricably linked and that the EU presents a strategic dilemma to Green parties. In short, how can Greens reconcile their radical, alternative politics with the EU's mainstream, traditional institutions and practices? Bomberg's analysis is based on over 100 interviews with leading green politicians, NGO members, environmental and industrial lobbyists, EU officials and MEPs. She includes appendices showing profiles of green parties in European countries, and key policy-making institutions

Bomberg argues the 'greening' of European politics and the advancement of European integration are inextricably linked and that the EU presents a strategic dilemma to Green parties. In short, how can Greens reconcile their radical, alternative politics with the EU's mainstream, traditional institutions and practices? Bomberg's analysis is based on over 100 interviews with leading green politicians, NGO members, environmental and industrial lobbyists, EU officials and MEPs. She includes appendices showing profiles of green parties in European countries, and key policy-making institutions

This book rejects apocalyptic pronouncements that the end of the millennium represents the 'end' of nature as well. "Remaking Reality" brings together contributors from across the human sciences who argue that a notion of "social nature" provides great hope for the future. Applying a variety of theoretical approaches to social nature, and engaging with debates in politics, science, technology and social movements surrounding race, gender and class, the contributors explore important and emerging sites where nature is now being remade with considerable social and ecological consequences.

Remaking Reality rejects apocalyptic pronouncements that the end of the millennium represents the 'end' of nature as well. Bringing together leading international contributors this book argues that a notion of 'social nature' provides great hope for the future. Engaging with debates in politics, science, technology and social movements surrounding race, gender and class, the contributors explore important and emerging sites where nature is now being remade with considerable social and ecological consequences.
For critics and activists alike Remaking Reality provides essential theoretical and political tools to rethink environmentalism and progressive social natures for the twenty-first century.