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Books > Earth & environment > The environment > Environmentalist thought & ideology
This edited collection analyzes the appropriate balance between conservation and development and the place for participation and popular protest in environmental assessment. Examining the relationship between law, environmental governance and the regulation of decision-making, this volume takes a reflective and contextual approach, using wide range of theories, to explore the key features of modern environmental assessment. This collection of work from experts in the area in the US and Europe provides a detailed treatment of key issues in environmental assessment, encouraging an appreciation of where environmental assessment has come from and how it could develop in the future. A 'stocktaking' exercise, this volume encompasses a broad range of concerns, timescales and legal and policy contexts. Individual chapters include discussions on:
Looking at the rots and current state of environmental assessment in the US and Europe and giving the reader a good sense of the political, scientific and technological settings in which environmental assessment has developed, this book critically examines the dilemmas the law has found itself in since the regulation of environmental assessment.
The climate crisis is here. Our chance to stop it has come and gone, but this doesn't have to mean the world is ending. 'If you care about the planet, and about the people and animals who live on it, there are two ways to think about this. You can keep on hoping that catastrophe is preventable, and feel ever more frustrated or enraged by the world's inaction. Or you can accept that disaster is coming, and begin to rethink what it means to have hope.' The honesty and realism of Jonathan Franzen's writings on climate have been widely denounced and just as widely celebrated. Here, in his definitive statement on the subject, Franzen confronts the world's failure to avert destabilising climate change and takes up the question: Now what?
In this benchmark volume top scholars come together to present state-of-the-art research and pursue a more rigorous framework for understanding and studying the linkages between social and ecological systems. Contributors from a wide spectrum of disciplines, including archaeology, anthropology, geography, ecology, palaeo-science, geology, sociology, and history, present and assess both the evolution of our thinking and current, state-of-the-art theory and research. Covering ancient through modern periods, they discuss the complex ways in which human culture, economy, and demographics interact with ecology and climate change. The World System and the Earth System is critical reading for all scholars and students working at the interface of nature and society. Contributors: Thomas Abel, Bjorn Berglund, Chris Chase-Dunn, Alfred Crosby, Carole L. Crumley, John Dearing, Bert de Vries, Nina Eisenmenger, Andre Gunder Frank, Jonathan Friedman, Stefan Giljum, Thomas Hall, Karin Holmgren, Alf Hornborg, Kristian Kristiansen, Thomas Malm, Daniel Mandell, Betty Meggers, George Modelski, Emilio Moran, Helena Oberg, Frank Oldfield, Susan Stonich, William Thompson, Peter Turchin.
Sigmund Freud's essay 'The Uncanny' is celebrating a century since publication. It is arguably his greatest and most fruitful contribution to the study of culture and the environment. Environmental Humanities and the Uncanny brings into the open neglected aspects of the uncanny in this famous essay in its centenary year and in the work of those before and after him, such as Friedrich Schelling, Walter Benjamin, E. T. A. Hoffmann and Bram Stoker. This book does so by focussing on religion, especially at a time and for a world in which some sectors of the monotheisms are in aggressive, and sometimes violent, contention against those of other monotheisms, and even against other sectors within their own monotheism. The chapter on Schelling's uncanny argues that monotheisms come out of polytheism and makes the plea for polytheism central to the whole book. It enables rethinking the relationships between mythology and monotheistic and polytheistic religions in a culturally and politically liberatory and progressive way. Succeeding chapters consider the uncanny cyborg, the uncanny and the fictional, and the uncanny and the Commonwealth, concluding with a chapter on Taoism as a polytheistic religion. Building on the author's previous work in Environmental Humanities and Theologies in bringing together theories of religion and the environment, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of the environmental humanities, ecocultural studies and religion.
The term "climate justice" began to gain traction in the late 1990s following a wide range of activities by social and environmental justice movements that emerged in response to the operations of the fossil fuel industry and, later, to what their members saw as the failed global climate governance model that became so transparent at COP15 in Copenhagen. The term continues to gain momentum in discussions around sustainable development, climate change, mitigation and adaptation, and has been slowly making its way into the world of international and national policy. However, the connections between these remain unestablished. Addressing the need for a comprehensive and integrated reference compendium, The Routledge Handbook of Climate Justice provides students, academics and professionals with a valuable insight into this fast-growing field. Drawing together a multidisciplinary range of authors from the Global North and South, this Handbook addresses some of the most salient topics in current climate justice research, including just transition, urban climate justice and public engagement, in addition to the field's more traditional focus on gender, international governance and climate ethics. With an emphasis on facilitating learning based on cutting-edge specialised climate justice research and application, each chapter draws from the most recent sources, real-world best practices and tutored reflections on the strategic dimensions of climate justice and its related disciplines. The Routledge Handbook of Climate Justice will be essential reading for students and scholars, as well as being a vital reference tool for those practically engaged in the field.
Indigenous, Modern and Postcolonial Relations to Nature contributes to the young field of intercultural philosophy by introducing the perspective of critical and postcolonial thinkers who have focused on systematic racism, power relations and the intersection of cultural identity and political struggle. Angela Roothaan discusses how initiatives to tackle environmental problems cross-nationally are often challenged by economic growth processes in postcolonial nations and further complicated by fights for land rights and self-determination of indigenous peoples. For these peoples, survival requires countering the scramble for resources and clashing with environmental organizations that aim to bring their lands under their own control. The author explores the epistemological and ontological clashes behind these problems. This volume brings more awareness of what structurally obstructs open exchange in philosophy world-wide, and shows that with respect to nature, we should first negotiate what the environment is to us humans, beyond cultural differences. It demonstrates how a globalizing philosophical discourse can fully include epistemological claims of spirit ontologies, while critically investigating the exclusive claim to knowledge of modern science and philosophy. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of environmental philosophy, cultural anthropology, intercultural philosophy and postcolonial and critical theory.
'A dazzling illustrated edition of a 'hugely useful and fascinating resume of rewilding' Isabella Tree, author of Wilding 'Compelling ... succinct and objective' Financial Times Rewilding reveals the ways in which ecologists are restoring the lost interactions between animals, plants, and natural disturbances that are the essence of thriving ecosystems. It looks into a past in which industrialization and globalization have downgraded our grasslands; at present projects restoring plants and animals to their natural, untamed state; and into the future, with ten predictions for a rewilded planet. This illustrated edition combines beautiful natural history images with infographic flow-charts depicting the 'trophic cascades' of biodiverse ecosystems, to explore a brave new world repopulated with wild horses and cattle, beavers, rhinos, and wolves. 'A masterly job, explaining the science behind rewilding in an accessible, honest and compelling way. It deserves to be widely read and become a book of great influence.' Isabella Tree, author of Wilding.
Drawing on an unusually rich empirical base, this timely and compelling book examines how environmental values are constructed and legitimized within the policy process. It trains the spotlight on four environmentally significant countries - China, Japan, India, and the United States - representing a wide diversity of cultural, social, economic, illegible] political characteristics. Through a combination of case studies and comparative analysis, the contributors illuminate cultural assumptions, standards, and analytic techniques that shape environmental actions and policies around the world. Forging Environmentalism provides valuable direction regarding what can be done to secure public support for and illegible] in environmental policies. Incorporating expert legal, economic, philosophical, sociological, and political perspective points the way toward the possibilities for a convergence of environmental norms and values across diverse cultures.
Drawing on an unusually rich empirical base, this timely and compelling book examines how environmental values are constructed and legitimized within the policy process. It trains the spotlight on four environmentally significant countries - China, Japan, India, and the United States - representing a wide diversity of cultural, social, economic, and political characteristics. Through a combination of case studies and comparative analysis, the contributors illuminate the cultural assumptions, standards, and analytic techniques that shape environmental actions and policies around the world. Forging Environmentalism provides valuable direction regarding what can be done to secure public support for and trust in environmental policies. Incorporating expert legal, economic, philosophical, sociological, and political perspectives, it points the way towards the possibilities for a convergence of environmental norms and values across diverse cultures.
This book surveys major environmental writings on a wide range of subjects, from the origin and evolution of plants and animals to such recent environmental philosophies as deep ecology and the Gaia hypothesis. Environmental Literature examines works such as The Origin of Species, The Anatomy of Plants, Climate and Evolution, The Descent of Man, The Living Sea, Natural History, Playing God in Yellowstone, and Silent Spring. Each entry summarizes the work's main points and notes its reception and impact. Other entries include animal ecology, biodiversity, Chernobyl, Alexander von Humboldt, forest management, Stephen Jay Gould, nature writing, Charles Darwin, and the simple living movement.
Since the early 2000s, authoritarianism has risen as an increasingly powerful global phenomenon. This shift has not only social and political implications, but also environmental implications: authoritarian leaders seek to recast the relationship between society and the government in every aspect of public life, including environmental policy. When historians of technology or the environment have investigated the environmental consequences of authoritarian regimes, they have frequently argued that authoritarian regimes have been unable to produce positive environmental results or adjust successfully to global structural change, if they have shown any concern for the environment at all. Put another way, the scholarly consensus holds that authoritarian regimes on both the left and the right generally have demonstrated an anti-environmentalist bias, and when opposed by environmentalist social movements, have succeeded in silencing those voices. This book explores the theme of environmental politics and authoritarian regimes on both the right and the left. The authors argue that in instances when environmentalist policies offer the possibility of bolstering a country's domestic (nationalist) appeal or its international prestige, authoritarian regimes can endorse and have endorsed environmental protective measures. The collection of essays analyzes environmentalist initiatives pursued by authoritarian regimes, and provides explanations for both the successes and failures of such regimes, looking at a range of case studies from a number of countries, including Brazil, China, Poland, and Zimbabwe. The volume contributes to the scholarly debate about the social and political preconditions necessary for effective environmental protection. This book will be of great interest to those studying environmental history and politics, environmental humanities, ecology, and geography.
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.
Clean Energy presents a broad survey of the energy problems facing society over the coming decades and the prospects for their solution. The book emphasizes the importance of developing a strategy for the world's future energy supply. The strategy must take into account: the finite supplies of natural gas and petroleum; the increased consumption of fuel by developing economies; the concern over greenhouse gas emissions; the pollution caused by burning coal (especially coal with a high sulphur content); the difficulties and costs of extracting unconventional fossil fuels; and the technical, sociological and cost barriers that restrict the use of renewable forms of energy. Clean Energy sets the various renewable energies (wind, waves, solar etc) in the context of present and projected world production of energy and its use in the time-frame until 2020 and looks speculatively beyond that. It looks at the possibilities for reducing pollution from fossil fuels and tackles the serious problem of how to store energy, in order to smooth out fluctuations in supply and demand. Clean Energy is well illustrated with diagrams and photographs. It is accessible to anyone who has studied science to A-level and will appeal to anyone with a serious interest in environmental matters, and the interaction between energy usage and the environment.
Risks, including health and technological, attract a lot of attention in modern societies, from individuals as well as policy-makers. Human beings have always had to deal with dangers, but contemporary societies conceptualise these dangers as risks, indicating that they are to some extent controllable and calculable. Conceiving of dangers in this way implies a need to analyse how we hold people responsible for risks and how we can and should take responsibility for risks. Moral Responsibility and Risk in Society combines philosophical discussion of different concepts and notions of responsibility with context-specific applications in the areas of health, technology and environment. The book consists of two parts addressing two crucial aspects of risks and responsibility: holding agents responsible, i.e. ascribing and distributing responsibility for risks, and taking responsibility for risk. More specifically, the book discusses the values of fairness and efficacy in responsibility distributions and makes distinctions between backward-looking and forward-looking responsibility as well as individual and collective responsibility. Additionally, it analyses what it means to take responsibility for technological risks, conceptualising this kind of responsibility as a virtue, and furthermore, explores the notion of responsible risk communication and the implications for adult-child relationships. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of environmental ethics, bioethics, public health ethics, engineering ethics, philosophy of risk and moral philosophy.
Like most of us, Damon Gameau has spent most of his adult years overwhelmed into inaction by the problem of climate change and its devastating effects on the planet. But when Damon became a father, he decided to do what he does best, and tell a story. The story became an imagining of what the world could look like in 2040, if we all decided to start doing things differently, right now. The result is the era-defining documentary 2040--a meticulously researched plea for the adoption of community-building, energy-generating, connection-forging, forest-renewing, ocean-replenishing measures that science tells us will reset our planet's health, drive our economies and improve lives across the globe. This book shows us how we can stitch this magnificent vision into everyday life by engaging in activities such as cooking, shopping, gardening, sharing, working and teaching our kids. It shows us that climate change is a practical problem that can be tackled by each of us, one small step at a time, and that we can make a genuine difference, if we know what to do. Brimming with practical wisdom and even 50 delicious recipes, the book empowers you to become the change you want to see in the world. Includes conversion chart.
Darrell A. Posey, who died in 2001, was internationally known for his support of indigenous peoples and their natural habitats, and particularly for his pioneering work with the Kayapo people of Brazil. He was an organiser of the First International Congress of Ethnobiology which resulted in the Declaration of Belem: the first instance of an international scientific organisation recognizing an obligation to compensate native peoples for use of their knowledge and biological resources. In 1993, Posey received the United Nations Global 500 Award for Outstanding Achievement in Service to the Environment. Indigenous Knowledge and Ethics presents seventeen of his articles on the topics of environment, indigenous knowledge and intellectual property rights. Demonstrating his belief in the validity of indigenous knowledge systems, and his insistence that indigenous rights must be recognised and protected, it is an ideal introduction to his thought and work.
In recent decades, environmental issues have increasingly been incorporated into liberal democratic thought and political practice. Environmentalism and ecologism have become fashionable, even respectable schools of political thought. This apparently successful integration of environmental movements, issues and ideas in mainstream politics raises the question of whether there is a future for what once was a counter-movement and counter-ideology. Liberal Democracy and Environmentalism provides a reflective assessment of recent developments, social relevance and future of environmental political theory, concluding that although the alleged pacification of environmentalism is more than skin deep, it is not yet quite deep enough. This book will appeal to students and researchers of social science and philosophers with an interest in environmental issues.
This important work satisfies the need for a thorough assessment of environmental justice concerns at the global level. Using three international environmental case studies, the book extends the theory of environmental justice, commonly used in domestic settings, to the international arena of environmental law, policy and politics. Spanning the traditional boundaries between political science, international relations, international law, international political economy and policy studies, this text is intended primarily for scholars of environmental justice, national and international policymakers, businesses, activists and students of international environmental law, public policy and political economy of the third world.
The concept of the 'triple bottom line' (TBL) - the idea that business activity can simultaneously deliver financial, social and environmental benefits - was introduced in the early 1990s. A decade on, The Triple Bottom Line: Does it All Add Up? brings together the world's leading experts on corporate responsibility to assess the implications, benefits and limitations of the TBL.This collection provides a review of what has already been achieved in stimulating change in corporate culture and bringing businesses to an appreciation of the importance and benefits of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and good environmental performance. It further explores the conceptual and practical limits of the metaphor of the TBL and sets out what can be achieved through regulation and legislation, presenting detailed professional procedures for environmental accounting and management and social auditing. The contributors' wealth of experience and insight provides a vivid picture of how much attention is now being focused by businesses on delivering more than just financial targets, and they clearly outline the necessary steps for successfully continuing along this trajectory.
'Conservation in the 21st century needs to be different and this book is a good indicator of why' Bulletin of British Ecological Society. Against Extinction tells the history of wildlife conservation from its roots in the 19th century, through the foundation of the Society for the Preservation of the Wild Fauna of the Empire in London in 1903 to the huge and diverse international movement of the present day. It vividly portrays conservation's legacy of big game hunting, the battles for the establishment of national parks, the global importance of species conservation and debates over the sustainable use of and trade in wildlife. Bill Adams addresses the big questions and ideas that have driven conservation for the last 100 years: How can the diversity of life be maintained as human demands on the Earth expand seemingly without limit? How can preservation be reconciled with human rights and the development needs of the poor? Is conservation something that can be imposed by a knowledgeable elite, or is it something that should emerge naturally from people's free choices? These have never been easy questions, and they are as important in the 21st century as at any time in the past. The author takes us on a lively historical journey in search of the answers.
* Reviews and analyses the full spectrum of strategies and policies needed to deliver sustainability in the 21st century* Explains what we can hope for from governments and international agencies after the Johannesburg Summit, and what civil society, business and others need to contribute* Covers governance at all levels, natural resource management, equity, poverty reduction and markets* Includes free CD-ROM of Civil Society documents on the World Summit on Sustainable Development from over 500 organizations in 80 countries* Essential reading for those involved in implementing and researching sustainability at all levels"Survival for a Small Planet" brings together dozens of the leading experts from around the world in a "post-WSSD" analysis of the prospects for sustainable development on all the major policy fronts including security, finance, urban governance, radical partnerships, migration, health, access to resources and the role of markets. The distinguished group of authors examines the contributions that governments, business and civil society can each make to improve our prospects and they set out the agenda for those working to achieve sustainable world.This is essential reading and a vital resource for all those involved in researching and implementing sustainability at all levels and in all places.A free CD-ROM is included containing civil society documents from the WSSD process produced by over 500 organizations in 80 countries.Contributors include: Maria Adebowale, Tariq Banuri, Stephen Bass, Keith Bezanson, Tom Bigg, Roberto Bissio, Nicola Borregard, Chris Church, Barry Dalal-Clayton, Mark Halle, Saleemul Huq, Paul Kapelus, Rafi Khan, Marianne Kjellen, James Mayers, Gordon McGranahan, Jeffrey McNeely, Charles McNeill, Kalyani Menon-Sen, Liliana Miranda, Adil Najam, Yelena Panina, Jan Pronk, David Satterthwaite, Sara Scherr, Youba Sokona, Cecilia Tacoli, Simon Upton, Sonja Vermeulen, Bill Vorley.
It is often claimed by environmental philosophers and green political theorists that liberalism, the dominant tradition of western political philosophy, is too focused on the interests of human individuals to give due weight to the environment for its own sake. In "How to be a Green Liberal", Simon Hailwood challenges this view and argues that liberalism can embrace a genuinely 'green', non-instrumental view of nature. The book's central claim is that nature's 'otherness', its being constituted of independent entities and processes that do not reflect our purposes, is a basis for value and can be incorporated within liberal political philosophy as a fundamental commitment alongside human freedom and equality. Hailwood argues that the conceptual resources already exist within mainstream liberalism for a thoroughly non-instrumental perspective. Adopting a rigorous philosophical approach Hailwood tackles a wide range of themes across environmental ethics, including holistic theories, deep ecology, eco-feminism and eco-anarchism, as well as issues in value theory and political philosophy more generally. In making the case for liberalism's green credentials "How to be a Green Liberal" is a formidable challenge to recent green political theory and will be required reading not only for students of political philosophy but for all those interested in the natural world and man's relationship to it.
"Privatizing" public resources by creating stronger property rights is an increasingly popular environmental policy option. While advocates of these "market-based' approaches tend to f5ocus on their efficiency and ecological implications, the policies also raise important considerations of equity and distributive justice. Private Rights in Public Resources confronts these ethical implications by showing that, despite their limited attention as subjects of academic study, equity ideas have long had an influence in environmental policy. It argues that equity issues should be considered more explicitly in both the analysis and formulation of environmental policy. Leigh Raymond investigates equity norms through original studies of two important environmental laws, the Acid Rain Title of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments (CAAA) and the 1934 Taylor Grazing Act (TGA). He reviews legislative records, administrative documents, and interviews key policymakers. Confirming that much of the debate in the two programs centered on the equity or fairness of the initial allocation of property rights, he then uses the theories of John Locke, Morris Cohen and others to build a framework for identifying the competing norms of equity in play. Raymond's study reveals that, despite the different historical and ecological settings, the political actors in the two cases struggled to reconcile similar arguments -- and were able to achieve a similar synthesis of conflicting ownership ideas. He notes that the prominence of equity arguments in the debates and decisions about allocations contradict traditional views that the TGA and the CAAA simply "grandfathered" rights to existing users. Raymond extendshis analysis to ongoing national and international debates about allocations of greenhouse gas emissions. He demonstrates how ideas about equity and fairness operate in the context of global climate change, where there is less structure in the political, legal, and scientific context of the policy debate. |
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