Our politics is intimately linked to the environmental conditions - and crises - of our time. The challenges of sustainability and the discovery of ecological limits to growth are transforming how we understand the core concepts at the heart of political theory. In this essential new textbook, leading political theorist Steve Vanderheiden examines how the concept of sustainability challenges - and is challenged - by eight key social and political ideas, ranging from freedom and equality to democracy and sovereignty. He shows that environmental change will disrupt some of our most cherished ideals, requiring new indicators of progress, new forms of community, and new conceptions of agency and responsibility. He draws on canonical texts, contemporary approaches to environmental political theory, and vivid examples to illustrate how changes in our conceptualization of our social aspirations can inhibit or enable a transition to a just and sustainable society. Vanderheiden masterfully balances crystal clear explanation of the essentials with cutting-edge analysis to produce a book that will be core reading for students of environmental and green political theory everywhere.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS PART 1 FISH CONSUMPTION AND METHYLMERCURY EXPOSURE IN THE AMAZON A. C. BARBOSA, A. M. GARCIA, J. R. DESOUZAI Mercurycontamination inhairofriverine 1-8 populations of Apiacas Reserve in the Brazilian Amazon E. D. BIDONE, Z. C. CASTILHOS, T. J. S. SANTOS, T. M. C. SOUZA and L. D. LACERDA I Fish contamination and human exposure to mercury in Tartarugalzinho River, Amapa State, Northern Amazon, Brazil. A screening approach 9-15 H. A. KEHRIG, O. MALM and H. AKAGI I Methylmercury in hair samples from different riverine groups, Amazon, Brazil 17-29 J. LEBEL, M. ROULET, D. MERGLER, M. LUCOTTE and F. LARRIBE I Fish diet and 31-44 mercury exposure in a riparian Amazonian population O. MALM. , J. R. D. GUIMARAES, M. B. CASTRO, W. R. BASTOS, J. P. VIANA, F. J. P. BRANCHES, E. G. SILVEIRA and W. C. PFEIFFER I Follow-up of mercury levels in fish, human hairand urine in the Madeira and Tapaj6s basins, Amazon, Brazil 45-51 PART 2 CHILD DEVELOPMENT AND LONG TERM EXPOSURE G. J. MYERS, P. W. DAVIDSON, C. COX, C. F. SHAMLAYE, O. CHOISY, E. CERNICHIARI, A. CHOI, J. SLOANE-REEVES, C. AXTELL, P. GAO and T. W. CLARKSON I The Seychelles child development study: Results and new directions through twenty-nine months 53-61 B. WHEATLEY, S. PARADIS, M. LASSONDE, M. -F. GIGUERE and S.

Contemporary international aid consists of a wide range of various support programs, where the end-result in many cases not only reflects the needs of the recipient country, but also the interests of the donor country. In Science and Politics of Foreign Aid - Swedish Environmental Support to the Baltic States it is shown that this particular support has been directed primarily towards areas of joint concern, such as air pollution and effluents to the Baltic Sea. Environmental problems with primarily local effects have, to a large extent, been neglected in the Swedish support program. The requirement on the Baltic recipient countries to finance a specific fraction of each joint program with local resources has furthermore drained the local national environmental budgets from resources, making it very difficult for these countries to mitigate various local environmental hazards by themselves.

In contrast to many previous foreign aid studies where various donor country biases often are suggested but not empirically validated, this book gives an in-depth view of how a particular support program is influenced by specific and self-interested considerations.

This book is a collection of timely and detailed articles on the North American Free Trade Agreement written by experts in the field who examine the Canadian, US and Mexican points of view. The scholars provide an overview as well as their insights of how NAFTA impacts on macroeconomic issues, national perspectives and bilateral issues, cross-border and industry-specific issues and the environment. This book serves as an excellent primary source of information on many of the significant aspects of NAFTA.

Perspectives in Life Cycle Impact Assessment: A Structured Approach to Combine Models of the Technosphere, Ecosphere and Valuesphere describes the relationship between subjective and objective elements in Life Cycle Impact Assessment. It suggests a new framework which will allow people to master two of the major problems associated with LCA, the difficulty of separating subjective from objective elements and the tendency for impact assessment to record phantoms' rather than actual damages. Perspectives in Life Cycle Impact Assessment: A Structured Approach to Combine Models of the Technosphere, Ecosphere and Valuesphere presents a proposal for a second generation framework and method for Life Cycle Impact Assessment. Many of the suggested elements are either based on other tools for environmental analysis, e.g. risk assessment, or fit in well with tools and concepts such as industrial ecology, technology assessment, or environmental impact assessment. The research presented in this book goes beyond the scope of presently used methods for Life Cycle Assessment and may stimulate new developments in a variety of areas. The book will appeal to persons from a wide range of scientific disciplines who are interested in learning more about Life Cycle Assessment. It will be especially valuable to members of SETAC and to students and researchers in the fields of environmental impact assessment, risk assessment and industrial ecology.

In the mid-1990s, the state government of Maharashtra introduced an innovative strategy of slum redevelopment in its capital city, Mumbai (Bombay). Based on demolishing existing slums and rebuilding on the same sites at a higher density, it is very distinct from the two prevalent conventional strategies with respect to slums in developing countries - slum clearance and slum upgrading. So why did the slum redevelopment strategy originate in Mumbai, and how did it do so? What were the key issues in the implementation of such a project? This critical volume responds to these questions by closely examining one particular redevelopment project over a period of twelve years: the Markandeya Cooperative Housing Society (MCHS). It analyzes the problems faced and the solutions innovated; identifies non-traditional issues often overlooked in housing improvement strategies; reveals the complexities involved in housing production for low-income groups; and combines in-depth empirical research with historical, institutional, spatial and financial perspectives to improve our understanding of complex urban development processes.

The World Commission on Environment and Development was established in 1983 at the instigation of the United Nations and under the chairmanship of Mrs Gro Harlem Brundtland of Norway. Its mandate was to explore the nature and possible consequences of the environmental threats that face mankind and to recommend measures to safeguard and improve the quality of life on earth in the future, taking into account the interrelationships between people, resources, environment and development. The commission concluded that provision for an acceptable future could only be made by the adoption of sustainable development as the working principle behind all future planning.;In 1988, a year after the Commission's report was published, we organised a series of public lectures at Cambridge University to examine how politicians, industrialists, scientists and the public were responding to the report's recommendations and to the degradation that it highlighted. Some of the lectures were given media coverage, but the editors felt that a greater number of people than this reached, would benefit from the information and advice they gave. Macmillan's agreement to publish and their request that more mater

The long-term development of public green spaces such as parks, public gardens, and recreation grounds in London during the twentieth century is a curiously neglected subject, despite the fact that various kinds of green spaces cover huge areas in cities in the UK today. This book explores how and why public green spaces have been created and used in London, and what actors have been involved in their evolution, during the course of the twentieth century. Building on case studies of the contemporary boroughs of Camden and Southwark and making use of a wealth of archival material, the author takes us through the planning and creation stages, to the intended (and actual) uses and ongoing management of the spaces. By highlighting the rise and fall of municipal authorities and the impact of neo-liberalism after the 1970s, the book also deepens our understanding of how London has been governed, planned and ruled during the twentieth century. It makes a crucial contribution to academic as well as political discourse on the history and present role of green space in sustainable cities.

The papers in this volume push the study of the multifaceted nature-society relationship and the socioeconomic consequences of human dependence on nature forward in a variety of areas. In the first section, "Theoretical Foundations," the five chapters lay out theoretical models for examining the nature-society relationship. The chapters examine the roles of material process, space, and time in shaping social processes of economic ascent and long term hegemonic change, as well as the role of the analysis of raw materials in environmental sociology.

In the second section, "Commodities, Extraction and Frontiers," a series of case studies covering a range of industries, locations and historical periods present a variety of applications of the political economy of natural resources to critical issues regarding commodities, extraction and frontiers. The case study industries include oil, steel, transport, furs, sugar and Brazil nuts, and the chapters examine regions in Latin America, North America, and Asia.

In the third section, "Connecting Political and Economic Change," four chapters focus on the relationship between raw materials, economic change, and socioeconomic change. These chapters examine long term economic and political change and the relationship between political and economic change in Latin America and Africa.

Protection of human health by prevention of environmental hazards has become a major concern in all European countries. This concern is reflected in the regional strategy of Health for All by the Year 2000, as developed in 1984, and in the 1989 European Charter on Environment and Health. However, despite considerable progress, most efforts are related to single sources of exposure and to a small number of 'priority' chemicals. In protecting the population against chemical hazards, attention must also be paid to the fact that subgroups are particularly susceptible to the adverse effects of certain chemicals. This hypersusceptibility may be genetically determined. Such individual predisposition to toxic effects must be taken into account in the efforts to prevent adverse effects of environmental exposures to toxic chemicals. To help address these problems the Regional Office, in co-operation with the Institute of Human Genetics and Anthropology of the Univer sity of Dusseldorf and with financial support from the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety of the Federal Republic of Germany, organized a consultation in Krefeld in October 1989. The meeting was attended by 17 experts from 12 coun tries, three representatives of the host government, two representatives of other organizations and five staff members from the WHO Regional Office for Europe and WHO Headquarters. The list of participants is included as an appendix to the present volume."

This book introduces crucial environmental and health issues, since environmental degradation and illness and disease prevent millions of people in many countries from surviving and achieving their potential. The book thus serves as a comprehensive guide to key environmental and health issues confronting the planet, enumerates approaches and techniques to address these issues, and provides real-world examples of good corporate citizenship.Although there are a growing number of books on corporate social responsibility (and related concepts, such as business ethics, stakeholder theory and sustainable development), there is no volume comparable to this one. Specifically the book addresses a range of issues that will be invaluable to many specialists such as: organization leaders who want to improve the environment and health of their colleagues at home and globally, practitioners in corporate social responsibility, managers involved in environmental, health and safety issues and finally business students who wish to seek to enhance the well-being of their colleagues and the health of the planet and humanity.

The speed and scale of urbanisation in India is unprecedented almost anywhere in the world and has tremendous global implications. The religious influence on the urban experience has resonances for all aspects of urban sustainability in India and yet it remains a blind spot while articulating sustainable urban policy. This book explores the historical and on-going influence of religion on urban planning, design, space utilisation, urban identities and communities. It argues that the conceptual and empirical approaches to planning sustainable cities in India need to be developed out of analytical concepts that define local sense of place and identity. Examining how Hindu religious heritage, beliefs and religiously influenced planning practices have impacted on sustainable urbanisation development in Jaipur and Indian cities in general, the book identifies the challenges and opportunities that ritualistic and belief resources pose for sustainability. It focuses on three key aspects: spatial segregation and ghettoisation; gender-inclusive urban development; and the nexus between religion, nature and urban development. This cutting-edge book is one of the first case studies linking Hindu religion, heritage, urban development, women and the environment in a way that responds to the realities of Indian cities. It opens up discussion on the nexus of religion and development, drawing out insightful policy implications for the sustainable urban planning of many cities in India and elsewhere in South Asia and the developing world.

Why Animals Talk is a scientific journey through the untamed world of animal communication. From the majestic howls of wolves and the enchanting chatter of parrots to the melodic clicks of dolphins and the spirited grunts of chimpanzees, these diverse and seemingly bizarre expressions are far from mere noise. In fact, they hold secrets that we are just beginning to decipher.

For example, wolves – just like humans – possess unique accents that distinguish their howls, and not only do dolphins give themselves names, but they also respond excitedly to recordings of the whistles of long-lost companions.

Chapter by chapter and animal by animal, Kershenbaum draws on his extensive research and observations of animals in the wild to explain the science behind why animals are communicating. Also revealing profound insights into our own language and why it is different, Why Animals Talks tells the comprehensive story of communication and how it works across the entire animal kingdom.

The climate change problem can only be effectively dealt with if global anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions can be reduced substantially. Since the emission of such gases is closely related to the economic growth of countries, a critical problem to be addressed by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC) is: how will the permissible emission levels be shared between industrialised (ICs) and developing countries (DCs)? The thesis of this book is that the long-term effectiveness of the FCCC runs the risk of a horizontal negotiation deadlock between countries and the risk of vertical standstill within countries if there is little domestic support for the domestic implementation of measures being announced in international negotiations. The research question is: Can one observe trends towards horizontal deadlock and vertical standstill and if yes, how can the treaty design be improved so as to avoid such potential future bottlenecks? The research focuses on the perspectives of domestic actors on the climate convention and related issues in four developing countries: India, Indonesia, Kenya and Brazil. The following key findings emerge from the research: 1. Handicapped negotiating power: The common theme of the foreign policy of DCs is that ICs are responsible for the bulk of the GHG emissions and need to take appropriate domestic action.

After all the research on agricultural risk to date, the treatment of risk in agricultural research is far from harmonious. Many competing risk models have been proposed. Some new methodologies are largely untested. Some of the leading empirical methodologies in agricultural economic research are poorly suited for problems with aggregate data where risk averse behavior is less likely to be important. This book is intended to (i) define the current state of the literature on agricultural risk research, (ii) provide a critical evaluation of economic risk research on agriculture to date and (iii) set a research agenda that will meet future needs and prospects. This type of research promises to become of increasing importance because agricultural policy in the United States and elsewhere has decidedly shifted from explicit income support objectives to risk-related motivations of helping farmers deal with risk. Beginning with the 1996 Farm Bill, the primary set of policy instruments from U.S. agriculture has shifted from target prices and set aside acreage to agricultural crop insurance. Because this book is intended to have specific implications for U.S. agricultural policy, it has a decidedly domestic scope, but clearly many of the issues have application abroad. For each of the papers and topics included in this volume, individuals have been selected to give the strongest and broadest possible treatment of each facet of the problem. The result is this comprehensive reference book on the economics of agricultural risk.

Belgium is a small country, but its planning traditions are rooted in a heritage which has been greatly enriched by its central location in the West European community of nations. Medieval, Renaissance and industrial age planning and urban design gave Belgium many examples of architectural masterpieces especially in the city centers. During the post World War II period, Belgian planners and politicians legislated national planning laws that divided the country into 48 planning regions (also called sub-regions and sectors) and empowered the municipalities (communes) with potent legal instruments to direct land development in accordance with their plans. Preparation, amendment and execution of these plans in a democratic society with a strong laissezJaire tradition have been painstaking, but nonethe less, significant tangible results have been achieved. The purpose of this book is to explore and assess the successes and failure of Belgian planning and make this record available in English so that they may remain facets of Belgian planning. The general socio-economic and historical background is provided with a view to understanding the theoretical, legal, physical and selected topical aspects of Belgian planning. In doing so a multi-disciplinary approach has been taken and the authors have been selected from a variety of disciplines. Professor Louis Albrechts of the University of Leuven is a planning theorist. Ms. Brigitte Beernaert and Mr. Karel Vroom are practicing planners. Beernaert is also a planning historian. Legal and administrative backgrounds are represented by the planning experts, Dr."

Cutting carbon emissions is urgent but very challenging in wealthy democracies." Energy for the Future" analyzes the changing contexts, imperatives and fault lines, and proposes ways forwards. Greater public engagement and a new approach to markets are vital, but traditional concerns with energy security and economic efficiency cannot be set aside.

This book draws on preeminent planning theorist Patsy Healey's personal experiences as a resident of a small rural town in England, to explore what place and community mean in a particular context, and how different initiatives struggle to get a stake in the wider governance relations while maintaining their own focus and ways of working. Throughout the book, Healey assesses the public value generated by community initiatives and the impact of such activity on wider governance dynamics. Healey explores the power which small communities are able to mobilise through self-organisation and grassroots activism. Through the lens of Wooler and Glendale as a micro-society, the book centres on a community experiencing an economic and demographic transition. It focuses on three initiatives developed and led by local people - a small community development trust, an informal attentionmobilising network, and a Neighbourhood Plan project which uses an opportunity provided within the formal planning system. It examines how, in such civil society activism, people came together to promote local development in a place and community neglected by the dominant political economy. The book details the power and force of community initiative and its potential for transforming both the future possibilities for the place and community itself, as well as wider governance relations. Overall, it seeks to enrich academic and policy discussion about how the relations between formal government and civil society energy could evolve in more productive and progressive directions.

The only pocket guide to the UK building regulations on the market Succinct, portable, reliable guide to UK Building regulations Essential for anyone involved in building works or renovations in the UK

This second volume of the Handbook presents professional surveys of all the important topics in urban economics. The first section contains 6 surveys on locational analysis, the second, 5 surveys of specific urban markets, and the third part presents 5 surveys of government policy issues. The book brings together exhaustive research by distinguished scholars from many countries. It is the only complete survey volume of urban economics and should serve as a reference volume to scholars and graduate students for many years. For more information on the Handbooks in Economics series, please see our home page on http: //www.elsevier.nl/locate/hes

This important text develops an institutional response to the core issues raised in public policy making and develops a distinct understanding of the role of institutions, not least in the study of environmental problems. It questions: how are conflicting interests shaped and taken into account in policy making? How should they be accounted for? What motivates the behaviour of firms and individuals, and how is it possible to change these motivations to produce the favoured common outcomes? The author addresses these questions by integrating elements from classical institutional economics, neoclassical economics, sociology and ecological economics. He argues that public policy in general, and environmental policy in particular, are best examined from an institutional perspective. In this way the author presents a distinct and consistent alternative to standard neoclassical economics for students and scholars who are interested in an institutional understanding of environmental policy making. The book is written in a clear and accessible style with boxes and figures to help explain the issues and, as such, would be an ideal alternative or supplement to the standard environmental economics texts.

Modern industrial sectors are often at the root of global environmental problems such as global warming and ozone layer depletion. Are they also the main source of inertia and obstruction that often hold back international efforts to save the environment? Does the limited success of the Kyoto Protocol process suggest that the fossil fuel industry and others can prevent effective climate action? This book puts forward a distinctive theoretical approach and analytical framework for studying business as an international actor in the environmental field, and provides detailed case studies of the most important environmental challenges in recent years.