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Books > Earth & environment > The environment > Environmentalist thought & ideology
This introduction to the philosophy of the environment examines current debates on how we should think about the natural world and our place within it. The subject is examined from a determinedly analytic philosophical perspective, focusing on questions of value, but taking in attendant issues in epistemology and metaphysics as well. The book begins by considering the nature, extent and origin of the environmental problems with which we need to be concerned. Chapters go on to consider familiar strategies for dealing with environmental problems, and then consider what sort of things are of direct moral concern, examining in turn at animals, non-sentient life-forms, natural but non-living things and deep ecology. The final part of the book investigates notions of value, natural beauty and the place of human beings in the scheme of things.
Experiences are an important part of our lives and increasingly represent a crucial topic to address for businesses and professionals. This book focuses on designing, staging and managing experiences within the context of the events, tourism and hospitality industries. It also illustrates current and future developments in these industries and wider society, with an emphasis on sustainable development. The book offers an innovative approach for successfully creating experiences for (potential) customers that is based on combining insights and methods from the world of design and the social sciences. Moreover, it shows how the experience economy and sustainable development both reinforce one another and create challenges that businesses and professionals can address through this approach. Critical thinking questions, practical examples and international case studies are integrated throughout the text. Combining a design science and a social sciences perspective in one inclusive hands-on approach to designing, staging and managing experiences, this is essential reading for all students of Events, Tourism and Hospitality Management, but also related fields.
The beginning of the new century is a crucial time for environmental political theory. Since the first wave of environmental texts appeared in the late 1960s and early 1970s, environmentalism has come under a series of challenges, and has begun a process of redeveloping itself in order to meet these challenges. Environmental writers have shown that they can take on questions of distributive justice, democracy, economic efficiency, and other concerns of conventional political theory from an environmentalist perspective. This book offers a set of important contributions to the property theory, utopianism, justice, the third world, and direct action. perspective.
Global Change in Marine Systems analyses and appraises societal and governing responses to change affecting marine social and ecological systems around the world. Acknowledging the stakes - local societies that depend on marine systems for food, livelihoods and wellbeing can suffer great hardship - this book highlights and explains similarities and distinctions between successful and unsuccessful responses. The book presents an analytical framework ('I-ADApT') that enables decision-makers to consider possible responses to global change based on experiences elsewhere. Here an international group of researchers from the natural and social sciences apply the 'I-ADApT' framework to twenty enlightening case studies, covering a wide range of marine systems challenged by critical global change issues around the world. The innovative research presented here guides marine system researchers, policymakers, decision-makers and practitioners in responding to global change in a timely and appropriate manner. It will appeal to students and researchers interested in environmental studies, natural resources, marine resources, environmental sociology, sustainability, and climate change.
In Ecocinema in the City, Murray and Heumann argue that urban ecocinema both reveals and critiques visions of urban environmentalism. The book emphasizes the increasingly transformative power of nature in urban settings, explored in both documentaries and fictional films such as Children Underground, White Dog, Hatari! and Lives Worth Living. The first two sections-"Evolutionary Myths Under the City" and "Urban Eco-trauma"-take more traditional ecocinema approaches and emphasize the city as a dangerous constructed space. The last two sections-"Urban Nature and Interdependence" and "The Sustainable City"-however, bring to life the vibrant relationships between human and nonhuman nature. Ecocinema in the City provides a space to explore these relationships, revealing how ecocinema shows that both human and nonhuman nature can interact sustainably and thrive.
The liberal political theorist John Rawls, despite remaining largely silent on 'green concerns', was writing during a time of increasing awareness that the ecological stability of the earth is being compromised by human activity. Rawls's reluctance to engage with such concerns, however, has not stopped several scholars attempting to 'extend', or 'expand', his works to incorporate this newfound fear for the ecosystems that support human life. But why Rawls? What is to be gained from developing the ideas of a theorist whose primary aim was to establish a system of justice for contemporaneous, rational, and reasonable citizens of a liberal polity? This research monograph offers a critical consideration of the contextual framework within John Rawls's Political Liberalism and considers its compatibility with the conceptual process of 'greening'. Rawls and the Environmental Crisis argues that Rawls's perceived neutrality on green concerns is representative of a widespread societal indifference to environmental degradation and describes the plurality of methodological and ethical approaches undertaken by green political theorists in analyzing the contribution Rawls's theory makes to environmental concerns. Addressing a series of key debates within contemporary political philosophy regarding a wider frustration with liberal theory in general, Rawls and the Environmental Crisis will be of great interest to researchers in contemporary political philosophy, environmental ethics, green political theory, stewardship theory, and those interested in renewing existing conceptions of deliberative democracy.
In this book, Janet McIntyre addresses the need for transcultural thinking tools, to not only mend problems in the global environment but also to understand the essential nature of the problems. Thinking tools comprise the analytical concepts which organise, disorganise, pattern and question thoughts about the social and natural world. Specifically, the concepts introduced in this book are 'global citizenship', 'human rights', 'responsibility', 'social movements' and 'transcultural webs of meaning'.
Is 'sustainable development' a charade sold to an increasingly misled public? This book presents a wide-ranging, penetrating critique of sustainability and what it actually means. The author argues that despite the rhetoric of socially and environmentally sustainable development and the ever-increasing number of legislative environmental policies, the real issues such as consumption, population growth and equity are either sidestepped or manipulated in international policy and law. Analyzing the main areas of concern - economic growth, market structure, trade, aid, debt, security and sovereignty - he shows that the entire development structure and the underpinnings of the debate are leading down quite a different path to that intended by sustainability.
The object of this text is to provide a comprehensive selection of critical texts which address the connection between ecology, culture and literature. It aims to offer a complete guide to the growing area of "ecocriticism" and a wealth of material on green issues from the romantic period to the present. The most important aspects of this field are covered in depth. These include: romantic ecology and its legacy; the earth, memory and the critique of modernity; nature/culture/gender; ecocritical principles; environmental literary history; and the nature of the text. Included in this collection are extracts from leading modern ecocritics and figures from the past who pioneered a green approach to literature and culture. As a whole, the reader encourages a reassessment of the whole development of criticism and offers a prospect for its future. The book includes extracts from William Wordsworth, Henry David Thoreau, William Morris, Virginia Woolf, D.H. Lawrence, Theodore W. Adorno, Martin Heidegger, Raymond Williams, Theodore Roszac, Claude Levi-Strauss, Jean-Francois Lyotard, Jonathan Bate, Kate Soper, Terry Gifford, Louise Westling, Richard Kerridge and Jhan Hochman.
With over half a million copies of Earth in the Balance sold, this timely re-issue benefits from a major new Foreword. It is a powerful and passionate analysis of the most crucial and far reaching issues confronting humanity. 'When I wrote this book, terms like global warming and greenhouse gases seemed exotic, unfamiliar, and unimportant to the lives of ordinary Americans. That has changed dramatically - except for those who still want to pretend that no one cares. There is a powerful awareness of the danger, and a widespread determination that we must not and will not leave our grandchildren a ravaged planet ringed with a thickening layer of carbon dioxide concentrations. So we have to strengthen, not weaken, environmental protection across the board, from global warming to stabilizing world population. This was my conclusion when this book was first published: We can believe in that future and work to achieve it and preserve it, or we can whirl blindly on, behaving as if one day there will be no children to inherit our legacy. The choice is ours; the Environment Decade is within our reach; the earth is in the balance.' AL GORE, December 1999 From the Foreword
Localization is a manifesto to unite all those who recognize the importance of cultural, social and ecological diversity for our future - and who do not aspire to a monolithic global consumer culture. It is a passionate and persuasive polemic, challenging the claims that we have to be 'internationally competitive' to survive and describing the destructive consequences of globalization. This book is unique in going beyond simply criticizing free trade and globalization trends. It details self-reinforcing policies to create local self-sufficiency and shows clearly that there is an alternative to globalization - to protect the local, globally.
Arguably the greatest challenges facing humanity are environmental. However, they are routinely under-reported in the media. Pressure groups and governments trying to get information through to the public often blame the media, but the picture is not necessarily this simple. This text presents the state of knowledge about media treatment and public understanding of key environmental issues, above all, climate change and biodiversity loss, which have enormous implications for economic, social and environmental security, yet mean little to the person in the street. The concept of sustainable development, which underpins responses to these problems is also shown to be unknown by most people.
Post-industrial urban spaces typically include abandoned factories, disused rail lines, old pits and quarries, and de-commissioned landfills. In these places, different visions compete for dominance with respect to current and future land uses. Neighbours often view such urban greenspace as polluted, unkempt and weedy, harbouring undesirable biophysical features and people. These are spaces that often become the focus of some form of revitalization, reinvestment and restoration. From the perspective of civic authorities and urban planners, transforming post-industrial landscapes into disciplined and tended greenspace creates the urban conditions and signals of popular contemporary taste that attract investors, gentrifiers, and tourists. But post-industrial spaces are also places where unique and unpredictable human and ecological associations can emerge spontaneously. Such places may contain considerable ecological integrity and biodiversity and host human populations who find a home and respite in such ecologies. They also tell stories of an industrial and urban past that should be acknowledged, understood and (if suitable) celebrated. This volume explores the environmental justice and injustice dimensions of emerging urban post-industrial landscapes, including the ecological politics, cultural representations and aesthetics of these spaces. This book was published as a special issue of Local Environment.
Non-market environmental valuation (NMEV) is undergoing a period of increased growth in both application and development as a result of increasing recognition of the role of economics in environmental policy issues. Against this backdrop, The International Handbook on Non-Market Environmental Valuation brings together world leaders in the field to advance the development and application of NMEV as a tool for policy-making. The expert contributors provide insights into the state of the art across the spectrum of both revealed and stated preference methods and highlight new directions being taken. A sequence of topical applications demonstrate various techniques and illustrate what can be achieved using NMEV: deliberately diverse case studies are drawn from Europe, North America, Asia and Australia with valuation targets ranging across use and non-use values of the environment. A number of reviews of cutting-edge issues are also presented. This outstanding resource will enable those interested in environmental valuation from theoretical, practical or policy perspectives to bring themselves to the forefront of developments and practice. As such, this Handbook will prove invaluable to a wide-ranging audience encompassing academics, researchers, students, practitioners and consultants involved in environmental economics and NMEV.Contributors: S. Bain, I.J. Bateman, J. Bennett, E.Y. Besedin, M.C.J. Bliemer, R. Brouwer, R.T. Carson, J. Champ, J. Cheesman, S. Colombo, J. Downing, J. Englin, S. Garcia, M. Giergiczny, A. Gonzalez-Caban, T. Groves, N. Hanley, J.A. Herriges, S. Hess, T. Holmes, Y. Jeon, R.J. Johnston, H.A. Klaiber, C.L. Kling, Y. Liu, J. Loomis, P.-A. Mahieu, K.E. McConnell, S. Navrud, A. Pang, G.L. Poe, P. Riera, J. Rolfe, J.M. Rose, E.T. Schultz, K. Segerson, V.K. Smith, J. Strand, P.J. Thomassin, D. Tinch, P. van Beukering, C.A. Vossler, X. Wang
In twenty short books, Penguin brings you the classics of the environmental movement. In Hot Money Naomi Klein lays out the evidence that deregulated capitalism is waging war on the climate, and shows that, in order to stop the damage, we must change everything we think about how our world is run. Over the past 75 years, a new canon has emerged. As life on Earth has become irrevocably altered by humans, visionary thinkers around the world have raised their voices to defend the planet, and affirm our place at the heart of its restoration. Their words have endured through the decades, becoming the classics of a movement. Together, these books show the richness of environmental thought, and point the way to a fairer, saner, greener world.
Environmental movements have produced some impressive results, including cleaner air and the preservation of selected species and places. But movements that challenged western prosperity and comfort seldom made much progress, and many radical environmentalists have been unabashed utopianists. In this short guide, Peterson del Mar untangles this paradox by showing how prosperity is essential to environmentalism. Industrialisation made conservation sensible, but also drove people to look for meaning in nature even as they consumed its products more relentlessly. Hence Englandled the way in both manufacturing and preserving its countryside, and the United Statescreated a matchless set of national parks as it became the world's pre-eminent economic and military power. Environmentalismconsiders both the conservation and preservation movements and less organized forms of nature loving (from seaside vacations to ecotourism) to argue that these activities have commonly distracted us from the hard work of creating a sustainable and sensible relationship with the environment. |
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