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Books > Earth & environment > The environment > Environmentalist, conservationist & Green organizations
Christianity struggles to show how living on Earth matters for living with God. While people of faith increasingly seek practical ways to respond to the environmental crisis, theology has had difficulty contextualizing the crisis and interpreting the responses. In Ecologies of Grace, Willis Jenkins presents a field-shaping introduction to Christian environmental ethics that offers resources for renewing theology. Observing how religious environmental practices often draw on concepts of grace, Jenkins maps the way Christian environmental strategies draw from traditions of salvation as they engage the problems of environmental ethics. By being particularly sensitive to the ways in which environmental problems are made intelligible to Christian moral experience, Jenkins guides his readers toward a fuller understanding of Christianity and ecology. He not only makes sense of the variety of Christian environmental ethics, but by showing how environmental issues come to the heart of Christian experience, prepares fertile ground for theological renewal.
Much of the debate on green growth and environmental governance tends to be general in nature and is often conceptual or limited to single disciplines. Even though recent discussions on these topics have benefited from the accumulation of empirical and theoretical knowledge over the last few decades, these discussions have not produced the kind of conceptual novelty and tools necessary to place the notion of a green economy within mainstream political, social, and economic agendas. Furthermore, discussions on governance remain mostly in the international sphere with only tenuous talk on governance at the national and subnational levels --the levels at which implementation is key. "Green Economy and Good Governance for Sustainable Development" takes stock of the achievements and obstacles toward sustainability over the last twenty years, and it proposes new ideas and changes to create a more sustainable future. The contributors present the gap that can emerge between intentions and results when green initiatives are put into practice and highlight the lack of discussion on important topics such as equity. The book includes in-depth discussion on and analysis of specific issues such as oceans, cities, and biodiversity in order to bring forth solutions that are politically legitimate, socially acceptable, and economically viable.
A shocking but informative, eye-catching and witty book of maps that
illustrate the perilous state of our planet.
Presenting a wealth of innovative scientific research and data in stunning, beautiful infographics, 99 Maps to Save the Planet provides us with instant snapshots of the destruction of our environment. At one glance, we can see the precarious state of our planet - but also realise how easy it would be to improve it Enlightening, a bit frightening, but definitely inspiring, 99 Maps to Save the Planet doesn't provide practical tips on how to save our planet: it just presents the facts. And the facts speak for themselves. Once we know them, what excuse do we have for failing to act?
Written for utilities serving fewer than 100,000 customers, this book provides practical advice and guidance for implementing a water conservation program. With a menu of possible conservation techniques and approaches from which to choose, the book lets you customize a program for your utility's particular needs, issues, and customers, regardless of your geographic location. Worksheets offer a step-by-step approach to help you decide which techniques will best benefit your utility and community. Includes benefit-cost analysis charts and tables, sample conservation programs, and recommended budgets.
The relationship between economic growth and the environment is at the forefront of public attention and poses serious challenges for policymakers around the world. Economic Analysis of Environmental Policy, a textbook for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses, provides a rigorous and thorough explanation of modern environmental economics, applying this exposition to contemporary issues and policy analysis. Opening with a discussion of contemporary pollution problems, institutional players and the main policy instruments at our disposal, Ross McKitrick develops core theories of environmental valuation and optimal control of pollution. Chapters that follow cover issues like tradable permits, regulatory standards, emission taxes, and polluter liability as well as advanced topics like trade and the environment, sustainability, risk, inequality, and self-monitoring. Throughout, McKitrick uses clear, intuitive, and coherent analytical tools, so that students, academics, and practitioners can develop their policy analysis skills while comprehending the debates and challenges at the frontier of this exciting and rapidly-developing field.
Environmental activism in contemporary Russia exemplifies both the promise and the challenge facing grassroots politics in the post-Soviet period. In the late Soviet period, Russia's environmental movement was one of the country's most dynamic and effective forms of social activism, and it appeared well positioned to influence the direction and practice of post-Soviet politics. At present, however, activists scattered across Russia face severe obstacles to promoting green issues that range from wildlife protection and nuclear safety to environmental education. Based on fifteen months of fieldwork in five regions of Russia, from the European west to Siberia and the Far East, Red to Green goes beyond familiar debates about the strength and weakness of civil society in Russia to identify the contradictory trends that determine the political influence of grassroots movements. In an organizational analysis of popular mobilization that addresses the continuing role of the Soviet legacy, the influence of transnational actors, and the relevance of social mobilization theory to the Russian case, Laura Henry details what grassroots organizations in Russia actually do, how they use the limited economic and political opportunities that are available to them, and when they are able to influence policy and political practice. Drawing on her in-depth interviews with activists, Henry illustrates how green organizations have pursued their goals by "recycling" Soviet-era norms, institutions, and networks and using them in combination with transnational ideas, resources, and partnerships. Ultimately, Henry shows that the limited variety of organizations that activists have constructed within post-Soviet Russia's green movement serve as a "fossil record" of the environmentalists' innovations, failures, and compromises. Her research suggests new ways to understand grassroots politics throughout the postcommunist region and in other postauthoritarian contexts.
The year 2005 marked the centennial of the founding of the United States Forest Service (USFS). Samuel P. Hays uses this occasion to present a cogent history of the role of American society in shaping the policies and actions of this agency. From its establishment in 1905 under the auspices of the Department of Agriculture, timber and grazing management dominated the agency's agenda. Due to high consumer demand for wood products and meat from livestock, the USFS built a formidable system of forest managers, training procedures, and tree science programs to specifically address these needs. This strong internal organization bolstered the agency during the tumultuous years in the final one-third of the century--when citizens and scientists were openly critical of USFS policies--yet it restricted the agency's vision and adaptability on environmental issues. A dearth of ecological capabilities tormented the USFS in 1960 when the Multiple-Use and Sustained-Yield Act set new statutes for the preservation of wildlife, recreation, watershed, and aesthetic resources. This was followed by the National Forest Management Act of 1976, which established standards for the oversight of forest ecosystems. The USFS was ill equipped to handle the myriad administrative and technological complexities that these mandates required. In "The American People and the National Forests, " Hays
chronicles three distinct periods in USFS history, provides a
summarizing "legacy" for each, and outlines the public and private
interests, administrators, and laws that guided the agency's course
and set its priorities. He demonstrates how these legacies affected
successive eras, how they continue to influence USFS policy in the
twenty-first century, and why USFS policies should matter to all of
us.
For those who eagerly awaited its periodic appearance, it was more than a publication: it was a way of life. The Whole Earth Catalog billed itself as "Access to Tools," and it grew from a Bay Area blip to a national phenomenon catering to hippies, do-it-yourselfers, and anyone interested in self-sufficiency independent of mainstream America. In recovering the history of the Catalog's unique brand of environmentalism, Andrew Kirk recounts how San Francisco's Stewart Brand and his counterculture cohorts in the Point Foundation promoted a philosophy of pragmatic environmentalism that celebrated technological achievement, human ingenuity, and sustainable living. By piecing together the social, cultural, material, environmental, and technological history of that philosophy's incarnation in the Catalog, Kirk reveals the driving forces behind it, tells the story of the appropriate technology movement it espoused, and assesses its fate. This book takes a fresh look at the many individuals and organizations who worked in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s to construct this philosophy of pragmatic environmentalism. At a time when many of these ideas were seen as heretical to a predominantly wilderness-based movement, Whole Earth became a critical forum for environmental alternatives and a model for how complicated ecological ideas could be presented in a hopeful and even humorous way. It also enabled later environmental advocates like Al Gore to explain our current "inconvenient truth," and the actions of Brand's Point Foundation demonstrated that the epistemology of Whole Earth could be put into action in meaningful ways that might foster an environmental optimism distinctly different from the jeremiads that became the stock in trade of American environmentalism. Kirk shows us that Whole Earth was more than a mere counterculture fad. In an era of political protest, it suggested that staying home and modifying your toilet or installing a solar collector could make a more significant contribution than taking to the streets to shout down establishment misdeeds. Given its visible legacy in the current views of Al Gore and others, the subtle environmental heresies of Whole Earth continue to resonate today, which makes Kirk's lucid and lively tale an extremely timely one as well.
From laboratory bombings to the destruction of ski resorts, this emerging new militancy has been steadily upping the political ante. This anthology features a range of voices- from academics to armed revolutionaries - that explore this new form of political struggle.
Environmental movements are among the most vibrant, diverse, and powerful social movements occurring today, across all corners of the globe. They range dramatically from government lobbyists raising campaign funds to save the North American spotted owl; to "Green Warriors" engaging in guerrilla conflict in the mountains of the Philippines; to small landholders and indigenous peoples vowing to die by meeting the waters of the Narmada River in India as it rises due to its damming. Drawing on his primary fieldwork in six countries, environmental researcher Timothy Doyle argues that there is, in fact, no one global environmental movement; rather, there are many, and the differences among them far outweigh their similarities. Movements in the third world--such as those in India and the Philippines --tend to be oriented around issues of human health, shelter, food security, and survival; while those of the developed world--for example, the United States, England, Germany, and Australia --can afford to focus on post-materialist issues such as wilderness concerns and animal rights. Doyle also demonstrates that the consequences of these campaigns are as wide-ranging as their motives and methods. Taking a much-needed step beyond the wealth of nation-centered accounts of environmentalism, this book makes an important contribution to studies concerned with global environmental problems and politics.
Organizations such as the Sierra Club and Friends of the Earth are familiar to anyone with an interest in environmental protection. As activist groups, they played by the same rules for years. But in 1994, the rules changed. With the Republican takeover of Congress, environmental groups faced sweeping changes in federal policies that threatened the enforcement of environmental laws. As these organizations intensified their efforts to meet these challenges, they also altered their electoral strategies and political spending patterns. This book traces those actions and shows what they mean for the future of environmentalism in the political arena. While environmental advocacy groups have become bigger and better funded in recent years, so have the corporate interests that compete with them for the attention of public and politicians. The Green Agenda in American Politics offers a new look at environmental advocacy that focuses on contemporary lobbying, electioneering, and agenda setting in this new context. Drawing on interviews with activists from a wide range of organizations, Robert Duffy describes what environmental groups actually do when lobbying officials or the public. He examines activity at both national and state levels to emphasize their growing use of websites, email, and action alert networks to conduct more sophisticated grassroots campaigns, and he shows how they are devoting more funds to unregulated forms of spending such as independent expenditure, issue advocacy advertising, and public education campaigns. Duffy also tracks emerging trends in interest group politics and provides an overview of activism through the early 1990s. He then documents the emergence of more aggressive action after 1994, such as providing campaign services to candidates and mounting voter registration drives. He also shows how state and local groups have begun to play more important roles in the wake of the rollback of federal environmental regulations. Brimming with new insights into interest group lobbies in general and contemporary environmental groups in particular, Duffy's book opens a new window on the influence of Big Money in the supposedly democratic electoral process.
The Chipko movement emerged in the early 1970s in the Garhwal region of the Indian Himalayas. In attempting to draw attention to the difficulty of sustaining their livelihoods in the region, local communities engaged in protest by hugging trees that were marked for felling in state-owned commercial forests. As the story of these protests spread across India and the globe, Chipko was transformed into a shining symbol of grassroots activism. Ironically, as the Chipko story was embraced worldwide by ecologists, ecofeminists, policy makers and academics so it became increasingly disconnected from the realities that gave rise to the original protests. Chipko now exists as a myth, tenuously linked to an imagined space of the Himalayas that represents the timeless realm of pristine nature and simple peasant life - the terrain that escapes history. Or, in the more prosaic language of policy makers, it is one of several 'disturbances' to have emerged from a mountainous region that has, since the late 1800s, been characterized as 'backward' or 'isolated.' This book brings the Chipko movement back from the realm of myth into the world of geographical history. It traces the modes of administration and policy intervention in the region through the pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial phases, and reveals how its biogeography has been shaped by varying struggles over resources, livelihoods and autonomy. Chipko, when seen in the context of its geographical history, shows that the question of sustainability in Garhwal, or in any other 'backward' or 'pristine' realm of the world, hinges more on an understanding of substantive democratic processes than on the need to make heroes or villains of those who participate in activist movements.
"They assess the effectiveness of the organizing tactics employed,
casting particular scrutiny on the courts as agents of social
change...The authors have presented concrete examples, all the
while making clear that there are no road maps for successful
organizing." "This is an important and unusual booka].It is an academic book
on an important issue When Bill Clinton signed an Executive Order on Environmental Justice in 1994, the phenomenon of environmental racism--the disproportionate impact of environmental hazards, particularly toxic waste dumps and polluting factories, on people of color and low-income communities--gained unprecedented recognition. Behind the President's signature, however, lies a remarkable tale of grassroots activism and political mobilization. Today, thousands of activists in hundreds of locales are fighting for their children, their communities, their quality of life, and their health. From the Ground Up critically examines one of the fastest growing social movements in the United States, the movement for environmental justice. Tracing the movement's roots, Luke Cole and Sheila Foster combine long-time activism with powerful storytelling to provide gripping case studies of communities across the U.S--towns like Kettleman City, California; Chester, Pennsylvania; and Dilkon, Arizona--and their struggles against corporate polluters. The authors effectively use social, economic and legal analysis to illustrate the historical and contemporary causes for environmental racism. Environmental justice struggles, theydemonstrate, transform individuals, communities, institutions and even the nation as a whole.
An overview of contemporary environmental affairs, from 1940s to the present--with an emphasis on nature in an urbanized society, land developments, environmental technology, the structure of environmental politics, environmental opposition, and the results of environmental policy.
Nearly a century after John Muir's death, his works remain in print, his name is familiar, and his thought is much with us. How Muir's life made him a leader and brought him insights destined to resonate for decades is the central question underlying this biography by Thurman Wilkins. Profoundly attached to dramatic wild places and plants, and to the Sierra and the redwoods in particular, Muir spearheaded efforts to protect forest areas and have some designated as national parks. Muir's wilderness ethic, as revealed in his books, letters, and journals, rests on his conception of the proper relationship between human culture and wild nature as one of humility and respect for all life.
Eight engaging biographies to inspire a new generation of conservationists. It's easy to feel small and powerless in the face of big environmental challenges. When climate change forces species to fight for their very survival and the planet's last places of wilderness are growing smaller and smaller, what can a single person do? But environmentalism's greatest change-makers started out living ordinary lives. In Nature's Allies, Larry Nielsen uses the inspiring stories of conservation pioneers to show that through passion and perseverance we can each make a difference. In eight engaging biographies, John Muir, Ding Darling, Aldo Leopold, Rachel Carson, Chico Mendes, Billy Frank Jr., Wangari Maathai, and Gro Harlem Brundtland, we meet individuals who have little in common except that they all made a lasting mark on our world. Some famous and some little known to readers, they all spoke out to protect wilderness, wildlife, fisheries, rainforests, and wetlands. They exposed polluting practices and fought for social justice. They wrote books, marched, performed acts of civil disobedience, and, in one case, were martyred for their defence of nature.Nature's Allies pays tribute to them all as it seeks to rally a new generation of conservationists to follow in their footsteps.
The relevance and importance of Samuel P. Hay's book, "Conservation and the Gospel of Efficiency," has only increased over time. Written almost half a century ago, it offers an invaluable history of the conservation movement's origins, and provides an excellent context for understanding contemporary enviromental problems and possible solutions. Against a background of rivers, forests, ranges, and public lands, this book defines two conflicting political processes: the demand for an integrated, controlled development guided by an elite group of scientists and technicians and the demand for a looser system allowing grassroots impulses to have a voice through elected government representatives.
In 1968 Sir William McDonald, Victoria's Minister of Lands, announced a rural settlement scheme for the Little Desert in Victoria's far north-west. The conservation campaign that ensued was one of unprecedented vehemence and sophistication. It cost McDonald his parliamentary seat and consigned the Little Desert Settlement Scheme to oblivion. The Little Desert dispute was a watershed in Australian environmental politics. Suburban activists, scientists, amateur naturalists, economists and bureaucrats banded together to oppose McDonald's ill-conceived scheme. It marked the beginning of a new consciousness of nature and the concept of `biological diversity' was voiced in the halls of parliament for the first time. In Defending the Little Desert, Libby Robin offers a sensitive account of the unlikely coalition of forces that assembled to save the Little Desert. This beautifully written account of the campaign, perhaps the earliest expression of ecological consciousness in Australia, will be read by all Australians interested in conservation and the environment, in participatory political processes and in 'public science'.
When first proposed in this country during the 1970s, waste-to-energy (WTE) incinerators appeared to be ideal solutions to the growing mounds of trash in our "throw-away" society. Promising to convert useless garbage into electricity while saving precious landfill space, trash incinerators seemed perfectly timed to respond to a national need. Within a decade, however, a grassroots anti-incineration movement emerged as a vibrant offshoot of the environmental movement. In Don't Burn It Here, sociologists Edward Walsh, Rex Warland, and D. Clayton Smith examine this grassroots movement through detailed analyses of the struggles surrounding proposals to build eight municipal incinerators in Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey. The eight case histories that form the heart of the book are comparable to hundreds of others across the U.S. The authors' research is based on interviews, focus group discussions, extensive newspaper files, and questionnaire responses from participants on both sides of the conflicts. A final chapter examines the similarities and differences between the three successful projects and the five defeated ones. An overview of the history of the modern incinerator in the U.S. and the emergence of a major national opposition movement provides the necessary context, and throughout the book, the authors make useful comparisons to other national movements seeking legal justice for deprived collectivities such as women and ethnic groups. This project was supported by a grant from the Ford Foundation's Fund for Research in Dispute Resolution. Striving to maintain a balanced treatment of both sides of the incinerator battles, the authors provide fresh theoretical and methodological perspectives on a new type of collective action. They also help to close the gap between theory and empirical data in the social sciences.
This book presents an argument that the environmental movement is a coalition of many groups working toward common objectives without common values. Norton believes this lack of unity causes unnecessary and divisive controversy and debate within the environmentalist community, which in turn impedes the development of effective and timely environmental management policies. Norton proposes the creation of a common language for discussing environmental issues as a first step towards a unified theory of environmental management.
This book examines the Greens' contribution to the changing nature of contemporary German local politics and the effect of local political involvement upon the Greens themselves. The author shows how the established 'unpolitical' nature of Germany's local politics has given way to overtly political and confrontational approaches. This has occurred primarily under the influence of the Greens and the 'New Local Politics'. The book appears at an important juncture for the German Greens with questions being posed about their relevance in a post-unification Germany.
Ecologists and economists both use models to help develop strategies for biodiversity management. The practical use of disciplinary models, however, can be limited because ecological models tend not to address the socioeconomic dimension of biodiversity management, whereas economic models tend to neglect the ecological dimension. Given these shortcomings of disciplinary models, there is a necessity to combine ecological and economic knowledge into ecological-economic models. Gradually guiding the reader into the field of ecological-economic modelling by introducing mathematical models and their role in general, this book provides an overview on ecological and economic modelling approaches relevant for research in the field of biodiversity conservation. It discusses the advantages of and challenges associated with ecological-economic modelling, together with an overview of useful ways of integration. Although being a book about mathematical modelling, ecological and economic concepts play an equally important role, making it accessible for readers from very different disciplinary backgrounds.
A book that will set the course for the environmental movement for years to come, Confessions of an Eco-Warrior is an inspiring ecological call to arms by America's foremost and most controversial environmental activist. "Rude and brilliant. Read it and you will see the future."--William Kittredge.
Wallace profiles 12 activists from around the world who prove that environmental victories are possible; that they begin within us and can happen in our own backyards. (Environmental Studies) |
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