My First Summer in the Sierra is the incredible true story of John Muir's iconic time spent working in the California mountain range of the Sierra Nevada's. In this republished edition, read about his experience that shaped so much of environmental stewardship today. In the summer of 1869, a young John Muir joined a crew of shepherds working in the foothills of California's Sierra Nevada mountains. Spending countless hours working with the group, Muir also worked tirelessly to advocate for the land's protection. His efforts eventually transpired into the founding of Yosemite Valley as a national park, a landmark event in the history of United States environmentalism. A glimpse into Muir's private journals, My First Summer in the Sierra is the remarkable retelling of his time there. Full of humorous anecdotes and insightful prose, John Muir personal narrative will likely inspire you to pack up your belongings and head for the mountains.

Though much has been written about the Green Party in Germany, less is known about the changes in individuals' attitudes towards the environment that led to the rise of environmental movement, or of its cultural roots. This volume draws attention to the breadth of environmentalism in contemporary Germany and its significance for German political culture by focusing on the treatment of "green" issues in literature, the media and film, against the background of Green politics and the environmental movement. The volume includes an interview with Carl Amery, the Bavarian Green and science fiction writer, a short text by him and an account of his activities as writer and campaigner.

For decades, social scientists have searched for factors that shape pro-environmental behaviour. However, only a few studies have investigated the causes and consequences of participation in environmental organizations. This book fills the gap by analysing in detail the determinants of environmental participation and its consequences in different parts of the world. Benno Torgler, Maria A. Garcia-Valinas and Alison Macintyre seek the answer to several questions regarding who is working towards positive outcomes for our environment, what sort of social and institutional context will assist voluntary participation, what sort of attitudes are related to positive environmental behavior, and which countries are active on the intergovernmental stage. By focusing on voluntary participation in environmental organizations, we are able to determine the level of willingness to work towards a solution for environmental problems. This allows an insight into the motivations and attitudes of individuals and nations and how these factors can affect environmental cooperation. Participation in Environmental Organizations sheds light on who is liable to participate and will help to see whose priorities and values are forwarded through voluntary activities and to what extent voluntary participation can become representative. Thus, the book provides a unique examination of citizens' willingness to participate in environmental organizations. The book will be of interest to Economics students and researchers alike who seek a deeper understanding of the theory and practice of environmental participation.

As recently as fifty years ago, the billowing industrial smokestack was a proud symbol of progress and power; today it is an image of unbridled corporate irresponsibility. This change in public attitudes reflects a shift in social values as rapid and profound as any in American history. Its effects are so far-reaching that scarcely anyone imagines there was ever an alternative view of the relationship between human beings and nature. Yet for all the time and energy devoted to discussion of environmentalism as a social and political movement, no one has questioned its existence as a coherent philosophy or given an account of how it first emerged in public consciousness. Most people would assume that the environmental idea, and the powerful political movement it inspired, must have emerged in response to self evident environmental problems such as air and water pollution, acid rain, the human destruction of natural habitats, and the resulting extinction of endangered species. But Charles T. Rubin argues that environmental problems are far from being a matter of common sense. He points out that while such situations almost certainly existed in the past, they were defined in different terms-implying different kinds of social and political solutions. Rubin tells the story of this massive yet strangely unnoticed transformation of public perception and social morality by focusing on the small group of influential writers and thinkers-Rachel Carson, Barry Commoner, Paul Ehrlich, E. F. Schumacher, and others -whose enormously popular writings gave birth to the environmental movement as we know it.

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.

For decades, social scientists have searched for factors that shape pro-environmental
behaviour. However, only a few studies have investigated the causes and
consequences of participation in environmental organizations. This book fills the gap by analysing in detail the determinants of environmental participation and its consequences in different parts of the world.

Benno Torgler, Maria A. Garcia-Valinas and Alison Macintyre seek the answer to several questions regarding who is working towards positive outcomes for our environment, what sort of social and institutional context will assist voluntary participation, what sort of attitudes are related to positive environmental behavior, and which countries are active on the intergovernmental stage. By focusing on voluntary participation in environmental organizations, we are able to determine the level of willingness to work towards a solution for environmental problems. This allows an insight into the motivations and attitudes of individuals and nations and how these factors can affect environmental cooperation.

Participation in Environmental Organizations sheds light on who is liable to participate and will help to see whose priorities and values are forwarded through voluntary activities and to what extent voluntary participation can become representative. Thus, the book provides a unique examination of citizens' willingness to participate in environmental organizations. The book will be of interest to Economics students and researchers alike who seek a deeper understanding of the theory and practice of environmental participation.

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.

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.

This book describes the origins and character of the global Appropriate Technology movement, identifying its three major components - the environmental, the social and the economic. The author discusses appropriate technologies in the bread, brick, cement and sugar industries in Africa and Asia. The reasons for the increasing attractiveness of small-scale production in the industrially advanced countries are described, and the author aims to show how this approach can open the way to more human-centred patterns of development throughout the globe. The final chapters discuss the limited role played by markets in the development and diffusion of these appropriate technologies, and consider both the nature of suitable governmental policies and assess the likelihood of their emergence.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Who will protect our planet from the corporations, governments, and individuals who pollute, destroy, and devastate our natural world?

Step forward a fresh new breed of passionately purposeful environmental lawyers, whose client is the Earth itself. At the head of this legal army stands James Thornton, who takes governments to court, and wins.

In Client Earth, we travel from Poland to Ghana, from Alaska to China, to see how citizens can use public interest law to protect our planet ― and our future.

Cramer provides a window into the world of radical environmentalism and the political process. He examines how deep ecology evolved, how its ideas influence our lives, and how it impacts our laws.

The book begins with an overview of deep ecology and traces its history in American political thought. Cramer then looks at the tactics employed by radical environmentalists and the relationship formed between activists and their political counterparts. He explains the difference between what deep ecology ultimately wants and what it strives for on a daily basis. Federal environmental legislation and congressional testimony are analyzed for trends, and media coverage of radical environmentalism is also examined. Cramer provides the first comprehensive look at the impact of deep ecology and radical environmentalism on American environmental politics and law. This book will be invaluable to scholars and researchers of contemporary American politics and law, environmental studies, and the media.

'An inspiring rallying cry for activists everywhere to work together to build a just, ecosocialist future' - Grace Blakeley Time is up. The climate crisis is no longer a future to be feared, but a devastating reality. We see it in the wildfires in California and floods across Britain - the 'once in a generation' extreme weather events that now happen every year. In a world where those in charge are constantly letting us down, real change in our lifetime means taking power into our own hands. The task ahead of us is daunting, but the emergence of a new wave of movements focused on climate justice, equality and solidarity also brings hope. Asking how we have arrived at this moment, Chris Saltmarsh argues that the profoundly political nature of the environmental crisis has been relentlessly downplayed. After all, how can solar panels save us while capitalism places profit over the future of the planet? Analysing the failures of NGOs, the limitations of Extinction Rebellion and Youth Strikes, the role of trade unions, and the possibilities of a Green New Deal, Burnt issues a powerful call for a radical collective movement: saving the world is not enough; we must build a better one in the process.

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?

Conita Walker tells the story of the love match that lured her from the world of international air travel to plunge, somewhat naively, into the life of a conservationist. It is a tale of adventure, mishaps, humour and heartbreak. Conita's life begins on a remote missionary station; she survives the WWII bombing of Berlin, witnesses the defeat of political systems in both Europe and South Africa, and eventually finds her true mission in the rescue and hand-rearing of black and white rhino orphans. There was a baby hippo to rescue and re-wild too, conservation organisations to found and support, wilderness battles to fight, but it was the rhinos that became her life's work. Her first male calf, named Bwana, was raised in her back garden, followed by a female hippo calf who grew up in her washroom, and eventually returned to the Palala River and has produced numerous offspring. The supreme test of her mothering skills was the raising of a very seriously injured black rhino female named Moeng who was saved in the nick of time by the dedicated work of veterinarian Dr Andre Uys. This rhino calf, along with her predecessor 'siblings', were to be viewed up close by thousands of school children who came to Conita's garden while attending the environmental school nearby.

From the foods you consume to the household and personal care products you buy, being just slightly greener can have a big impact on your health and happiness! The Slightly Greener Method gives you small, actionable changes you can easily make in three areas of your home-the kitchen (foods and beverages), bathroom (personal care products and cosmetics), and cleaning products-without breaking the bank or upending your life. You don't have to be 100% chemical free to be healthier and safer. By focusing on micro-habits you can build over time and the gradual introduction of non-toxic, all-natural or organic, eco-friendly products, board-certified holistic nutritionist Tonya Harris guides you along a roadmap to a greener, more environmentally-friendly and sustainable lifestyle that can help protect you and your families' health long-term. Get answers to questions like:What does "organic" really mean?Which of the unpronounceable chemicals listed on the back of my shampoo bottle might be toxic?Do I really need to throw away expired makeup?Why aren't companies always required to list toxic ingredients on their product labels?How can I make sure my kids and pets are safe while also keeping a squeaky clean house?It's never too soon (or too late) to start your slightly greener journey! This practical, actionable guide is perfect for readers of bestselling lifestyle and organizational books such as The Complete Book of Clean and Zero Waste Home, and fans of TV shows like Tidying Up with Marie Kondo and The Home Edit.

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