Environmental issues appear deceptively simple: science tells us what the problems are and how to solve them, and, for Christians, the Bible motivates us to care for creation. And yet, both in society in general as well as in the Christian church in particular, we cannot seem to agree on what to do regarding environmental issues. In The Nature of Environmental Stewardship, climate scientist Johnny Wei-Bing Lin argues that determining the content of environmental stewardship, far from being a straightforward exercise, is a difficult and complex endeavour. He sets forth a general taxonomy, drawing from worldviews, ethical theories, science epistemology, sciencepolicy studies, politics, and economics, that can help us better understand what excellent creation care consists of and how to bridge the differences people have regarding environmental issues.

Knowledge is power. Get informed and choose action over despair. Everything you need to know about the earth and the life it supports - right now. From the challenges we face with global environmental, health, poverty, equality, technological, political and justice issues to the pioneering places and people making a difference to our future. With 40 simple ways to support change. 'While the hour is late, the future remains ours to make. This hugely enjoyable book is a powerful introduction to the way things are and the way things can be. Keep it by your bed.' Tim Smit, co-founder The Eden Project

Based on 40 years of experience, Integrated Environmental Management: A Transdisciplinary Approach brings together many ecological and technological tool boxes and applies them in a transdisciplinary method. The book demonstrates how to combine continuous improvement management tools and principles with proven environmental assessment methodologies. This integrated ecological and environmental management approach lets you view environmental problems from a holistic angle, considering the ecosystem as an entity as well as the entire spectrum of solutions and possible combinations of solutions. The book discusses the importance of examining all facets or possible problems associated with an ecosystem simultaneously and evaluating all the solution possibilities proposed by the relevant disciplines at the same time. The authors underline that there is no alternative to integrated, multidisciplinary, ecological-environmental management-at least not on a long-term basis. They lay down the fundamental concepts in an applications-oriented manner that allows you to apply the seven steps of environmental management directly. However, the book goes beyond delineating the available tool boxes; it also details how they can be integrated and combined to find an optimum solution to ecological-environmental problems.

Natural landscapes are intricately tied to human health and well-being. While contemporary lifestyles have caused people to feel disconnected from the natural environment, this relationship is now recognized as vitally important, with landscapes increasingly valued for their stress-reduction, aesthetic, and restorative benefits. Providing an overview of the history, theoretical concepts, and individual and societal implications of human connection to natural landscapes, this book considers natural landscapes' role as an antidote to our modern, predominantly urban society. It also delivers: - A robust, research-backed overview of the intersections between natural landscapes and human health; - A compendium of applications such as nature-based therapies, urban greenspaces, and adventure-based programming that promote health within specific populations of society and individuals; - Due consideration of crucial factors that can adversely affect health and landscape, such as climate change. Of critical importance as we continue to define the role that natural landscapes will play for future generations, this book should be required reading for policy makers, urban planners and industry practitioners. It provides a thorough grounding in understanding the intersections between health and natural landscapes, and will be a valuable resource for academicians and students from a broad range of disciplines including public health, leisure and tourism, environmental sciences, and geography.

Campaigns to redress gender inequities and injustices have resulted in significant achievements towards equality, especially for well-educated, career-orientated, white women in the West. However, such campaigns have primarily been conducted in the male-dominated arenas of public politics, paid work, and education, and the 'successes' of women's equality are usually calculated by the masculinist values of politics and the workplace. These, the learned editor of this new Routledge Major Works collection avers, are the very values-predicated on continuous economic and material growth, fuelled by consumption and competition, and combative politics-which are destroying the world's environment at a dizzying rate. However, since the late 1960s, a growing environmental awareness, combined with the third-wave feminist movement in the West, has challenged this worldview, particularly the liberal notion of 'equality' based on women achieving masculinist economic and social norms. Uneasy with the horror of a world in which everyone striving for 'equality' would end up consuming at the rate of an average Western male, the newly emerging ecological feminism of the 1970s argued that what constitutes 'success' needs to be reimagined, in other-arguably feminist/feminine-ways. This way of thinking prompted a reconceptualization of the relationship between environment and gender, with distinctive debates emerging variously in North America, Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Scandinavia, and France. The work of feminist critics in the Global South have both developed and challenged these debates, and have drawn to public attention the most egregious examples of how environmental impacts consistently, and structurally, exacerbate the inequalities that women and girls endure, especially in poorer parts of the world. Literature developing the links between environment, development, and gender has broadened the earlier Western eco-feminism discourse, and has also influenced-albeit selectively-various development strategies by global institutions (such as the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and various UN agencies) and NGOs (notably, for example, Oxfam). Questions about how we want to live in relation to our environment have arguably never been more urgent and this new title from Routledge's Critical Concepts in the Environment series answers the need for an authoritative reference work to make sense of the growing-and ever more complex-corpus of scholarly and campaigning literature on gender and the environment, and the continuing explosion in research output. Drawing on a wide variety of sources, Susan Buckingham has brought together in four volumes canonical and cutting-edge work to produce an indispensable 'mini library'. The collection is fully indexed and includes comprehensive introductions, newly written by the editor, which place the collected materials in their historical and intellectual context. It is an essential reference collection and is certain to be valued by scholars and students-as well as by serious policy-makers and practitioners-as a vital one-stop research and pedagogic resource.

Africa's urban population is growing rapidly, raising numerous environmental concerns. Urban areas are often linked to poverty as well as power and wealth, and hazardous and unhealthy environments as the pace of change stretches local resources. Yet there are a wide range of perspectives and possibilities for political analysis of these rapidly changing environments. Written by a widely respected author, this important book will mark a major new step forward in the study of Africa's urban environments. Using innovative research including fieldwork data, map analysis, place-name study, interviewing and fiction, the book explores environmentalism from a variety of perspectives, acknowledging the clash between Western planning mind-sets pursuing the goal of sustainable development, and the lived realities of residents of often poor, informal settlements. The book will be valuable to advanced undergraduate and graduate level courses in geography, urban studies, development studies, environmental studies and African studies.

The modern era is facing unprecedented governance challenges in striving to achieve long-term sustainability goals and to limit human impacts on the Earth system. This volume synthesizes a decade of multidisciplinary research into how diverse actors exercise authority in environmental decision making, and their capacity to deliver effective, legitimate and equitable Earth system governance. Actors from the global to the local level are considered, including governments, international organizations and corporations. Chapters cover how state and non-state actors engage with decision-making processes, the relationship between agency and structure, and the variations in governance and agency across different spheres and tiers of society. Providing an overview of the major questions, issues and debates, as well as the theories and methods used in studies of agency in earth system governance, this book provides a valuable resource for graduate students and researchers, as well as practitioners and policy makers working in environmental governance. This is one of a series of publications associated with the Earth System Governance Project. For more publications, see www.cambridge.org/earth-system-governance.

The onset of global concerns about environmental risks, climate change and threats to the planet from industry have focused the minds of a generation. Throughout the world, new movements are emerging in an attempt to challenge those who would put profits before the planet. This volume brings together global contributions that represent the cutting edge of research in the area of global environmental movements. Contributions include chapters on the spatial impacts of environmental groups in Israel, the work of Greenpeace in Brazil, environmental activism in Ireland, animal rights and anti-hunt activism in Malta, the global de-growth movement, environmental movement mobilization in China, and anti-pollution activism in India. The scope and breath of this research indicates the emergence of both a global grassroots environmental mobilization in addition to analysis and documentation of these responses by researchers world-wide. With increased threats from climatic change and ecological degradation being highlighted as a threat to much of the world's population in the coming century, this activism and ensuing research becomes all the more significant.

Futures: Imagining Socioecological Transformation brings together leading scholars to explore how we might know, enact, and struggle for, the conjoined social and ecological transformations we need to achieve just and sustainable futures. The question of transformation, and how it might be achieved, is explored across a variety of topics and geographical sites, and through heterodox analytical and theoretical approaches, in a collective effort to move beyond a form of critique that hands down judgements, to one that brings new ideas and new possibilities to life. Chapters are lively and original engagements with concrete situations that sparkle with creativity. Together, they add up to an impressive study of how to live, and what to struggle for, in the complex socioecological landscapes of the Anthropocene. This book was previously published as a special issue of the Annals of the Association of American Geographers.

Climate change is the main challenge facing developed countries in the 21st century. To what extent does this agenda converge with issues of poverty and social exclusion? Climate change and poverty offers a timely new perspective on the 'ecosocial' understanding of the causes and symptoms of, and solutions to, poverty and applies this to recent developments across a number of areas, including fuel poverty, food poverty, housing, transport and air pollution. Unlike any other publication, the book therefore establishes a new agenda for both environmental and social policies which has cross-national relevance. It will appeal to students in social policy, public policy, applied social studies and politics and will also be of interest to those studying international development, economics and geography

"Disasters cause economic as well as human losses. Indeed, economic losses associated directly with disasters have continued at increasing proportions worldwide since the 1970s, as the 2011 Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction conducted by the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) illustrates. Disaster losses due to single geological events sometimes appear much greater in magnitude than those attributed to climate-related disasters. Nonetheless, the overall trend for increasing loss can largely be attributed to the increase in climate-related disasters, which in turn is triggered in part by global climate change. Furthermore, as such disasters increase in frequency, it intensifies vulnerability in the poorest regions of developing countries. In this book, the authors discuss effective approaches to enhancing the local disaster risk management (DRM) capacity of developing countries to combat increasing climate-related disaster impacts. Also provided are ideas and lessons on local disaster risk management, in terms of planning and practice in developing countries, with particular focus on a case study in Costa Rica."

We live in a world which continues to experience dramatic suffering and loss of life due to natural hazard. The disaster paradigm has accelerated efforts towards resilience building, particularly since the adoption of the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA), a ten year plan to build the resilience of nations and communities to disasters Urban areas present complexity and interconnectivity of various elements, and this needs to be considered when building the resilience of such areas to disasters. To address urban risks, local level disaster risk reduction (DRR) is of fundamental importance, not only because it is closer to the citizens, but because it is the repository of regulatory governance functions and local knowledge The need to scale up the capacity of DRR at the local government level to build urban resilience is a key incentive for this study. With particular reference to the example of Makati City in the Philippines, this book analyses a local DRR approach with reference to the HFA, applies a micro-level resilience assessment and discusses an effective model for enhancing local DRR capacity in the future.

Available Open Access under CC-BY-NC licence. Climate change is the main challenge facing developed countries in the 21st century. To what extent does this agenda converge with issues of poverty and social exclusion? Climate change and poverty offers a timely new perspective on the 'ecosocial' understanding of the causes and symptoms of, and solutions to, poverty and applies this to recent developments across a number of areas, including fuel poverty, food poverty, housing, transport and air pollution. Unlike any other publication, the book therefore establishes a new agenda for both environmental and social policies which has cross-national relevance. It will appeal to students in social policy, public policy, applied social studies and politics and will also be of interest to those studying international development, economics and geography

Environmental justice aspires to a healthy environment for all, as well as fair and inclusive processes of environmental decision-making. In order to develop successful strategies to achieve this, it is important to understand the factors that shape environmental justice outcomes. This optimistic, accessible and wide-ranging book contributes to this understanding by assessing the extent of, and reasons for, environmental justice/injustice in seven diverse countries - United States, Republic of Korea (South Korea), United Kingdom, Sweden, China, Bolivia and Cuba. Factors discussed include: race and class discrimination; citizen power; industrialisation processes; political-economic context; and the influence of dominant environmental discourses. In particular, the role of capitalism is critically explored. Based on over a hundred interviews with politicians, experts, activists and citizens of these countries, this is a compelling analysis aimed at all academics, policy-makers and campaigners who are engaged in thinking or action to address the most urgent environmental and social issues of our time.

"How do urban communities in Asian cities experience the impacts of urbanisation and climate change? This book throws light on the ongoing processes of rapid urban transformation in many cities in developing countries, with particular reference to cities such as Chennai in India. Due to increasing demands on infrastructures and urban services, cities in developing countries are often pushed to the edge of collapse even when not in times of disaster. While such cities try to implement measures to safeguard the well-being of their citizens, looming impacts of climate change such as increasingly frequent and intense natural hazards pose new and additional challenges to their urban communities. This book connects critical issues relating to the general functioning of cities with climate-related disasters with the concept of resilience. Furthermore, this research takes a pro-solution stance, and demonstrates that individuals can form collective power to deliver added value before, during and after a disaster. The concept of resilience is applied to determine whether an urban community would be affected or damaged during a climate-related disaster, and to what extent."

Communities affected by natural disasters are often stigmatized as being passive with regard to disaster prevention, mitigation and adaptation, waiting only for government assistance in the aftermath of such events. However, many innovative community initiatives have been developed to address natural disasters, which are often characterized as "local responses". While scrutinizing the potential strength and comparative advantage of community-based disaster response, this book analyzes and illustrates how individuals, families and social groups in rural and urban communities perceive natural disasters, their underlying reasons and their effects on their livelihoods, and documents and analyzes the role of local responses to natural disasters and conflict. Key factors determining the degree of vulnerability and resilience of affected communities are also elicited. Several pivotal issues related to community-based disaster responses are addressed, such as the relationship between local and external knowledge in addressing disasters, the relevance of institutional and policy frameworks for community-based disaster response and the role of social capital and collective action.

Humankind has long considered the relationship it holds with nature to be both a blessing and a challenge. The onset of climate change has brought a new impetus to this relationship. This volume of Advances in Sustainability and Environmental Justice will examine environmental philosophy from a number of viewpoints. Each contributor has a unique perspective on the interaction and engagement between humanity and the rest of nature, from the technological to the philosophical. Environmental Philosophy: the Art of Life in a World of Limits provides a series of interesting studies on humanity's place in the world, and the impact this is having on the planet. The book poses the question as to whether life can be lived in harmony with nature, and what limits can be achieved in the impact such life has on the world around us.

This unique study of social harm offers a systematic and critical discussion of the nature of environmental harm from an eco-justice perspective, challenging conventional criminological definitions of environmental harm. The book evaluates three interconnected justice-related approaches to environmental harm: environmental justice (humans), ecological justice (the environment) and species justice (non-human animals). It provides a critical assessment of environmental harm by interrogating key concepts and exploring how activists and social movements engage in the pursuit of justice. It concludes by describing the tensions between the different approaches and the importance of developing an eco-justice framework that to some extent can reconcile these differences. Using empirical evidence built on theoretical foundations with examples and illustrations from many national contexts, `Environmental harm' will be of interest to students and academics in criminology, sociology, law, geography, environmental studies, philosophy and social policy all over the world.

'It's important that everyone with an interest in fashion reads this book so we can live on a healthier planet' Arizona Muse 'The most timely book you'll read this year' India Knight * * * * * Running out of space for the clothes you can't stop buying? Curious about how you can make a difference to the environmental challenges our planet faces? Join Orsola's care revolution and learn to make the clothes you love, last longer. This book will equip you with a myriad of ways to mend, rewear and breathe new life into your wardrobe to achieve a more sustainable lifestyle. By teaching you to scrutinise your shopping habits and make sustainable purchases, she will inspire you to buy better, care more and reduce your carbon footprint by simply making your loved clothes last longer. Following Orsola's practical tips to lavish care and attention on the clothes you already own will not only have a positive environmental impact, but will be personally rewarding too: hand wash, steam and spot clean your clothes, air dry instead of tumble drying, or revive your clothes by sewing or crocheting. Fast fashion leaves behind a trail of human and environmental exploitation. Our wardrobes don't have to be the finish line; they can be a starting point. We can all care, repair and rewear. Do you accept the challenge? * * * * * 'An incredibly thoughtful, must-read guide' Kenya Hunt 'A must read for anyone who wants to understand the fashion industry as an outsider and wants direction as to where we go next' Aja Barber

The impact of global environmental change on surface water resources affects gendered livelihoods, governance and development. The deterioration of water quality, rising temperatures, and changes in the seasonality, quantity, and duration of precipitation increasingly alters human, animal and plant demand for water resources. This edited volume explores how a feminist political ecology framework can bring new and exciting insights to the study of livelihoods dependent on vulnerable rivers, watersheds, wetlands and coastal environments. Bringing together political ecologists and feminist scholars from multiple disciplines, the book develops solution-oriented advances to theory, policy and planning to tackle the complexity of these global environmental changes.Using applied research on the contemporary management of rivers, watersheds and coastal wetlands in the South Pacific, Central and South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and South and North America, the authors draw on a variety of methodological perspectives and new theoretical approaches to demonstrate the importance of considering multiple layers of social difference as produced by and central to the effective governance and local management of water resources. This unique collection employs a unifying feminist political ecology framework that emphasizes the ways that gender interacts with other social and geographical locations of water resource users. In doing so, the book further questions the normative gender discourses that underlie policies and practices surrounding water management and climate change, large-scale development and dams, resource knowledge and expertise, and critical livelihood studies. The book should be of interest to students and scholars of environment studies, development studies, anthropology, feminist and environmental geography, as well as women's and gender studies.

This book offers a critical perspective on the issue of organising waste in cities, which has often been positioned in terms of relatively narrow engineering, economic and physical science approaches. It emphasises the ways in which the notion of waste, and the narratives and discourses associated with it, have been socially constructed with corresponding implications for waste governance and local waste handling practices. Organising waste in the city takes a broad and international approach to the ways in which the issue of waste is framed, and brings together narratives from cities as diverse as Amsterdam, Bristol, Cairo, Gothenburg, Helsingborg and Managua. Organised into four main sections and with an integrative introduction and conclusion, the book not only provides new insights into the hidden stories of urban and municipal household solid waste and waste landscapes, but also connects concerns regarding urban waste to such issues as globalisation, governance, urban ecology, and social, economic and environmental justice.

How do scientists, scholars, and other experts engage with the general public and with the communities affected by their work or residing in their sites of study? Where are the fine lines between public scholarship, civic engagement, and activism? Must academics 'give back' once they collect data and publish results? In this volume, authors from a wide range of disciplines examine these relationships to assess how they can be fruitful or challenging. Describing the methodological and ethical issues that experts must consider when carrying out public scholarship, this book includes a checklist for critical factors of success in engagement and an examination of the role of digital social media in science communication. Illustrated by a range of case studies addressing environmental issues (climate change, resource use, post-disaster policy) and education, it offers an investigation into the levels and ways in which scholars can engage, and how and whether academics and experts who engage in community work and public scholarship are acknowledged and rewarded for doing so by their institutions. Also bringing into the debate the perspective of citizens who have collaborated with academics, the book offers an exploration of the democratizing potential of participatory action research.

This book presents a 360-degree picture of the world of insects and explores how their existence affects our lives: the "good, bad, and ugly" aspects of their interactions with humankind. It provides a lucid introductory text for beginning undergraduate students in the life sciences, particularly those pursuing beginner courses in entomology, agriculture, and botany.

Disaster by Design: The Aral Sea, Lessons for Sustainability addresses the impacts of the Aral Sea disaster. The virtual disappearance of what was the world's fourth largest inland body of water was neither natural nor accidental. It was the result of deliberate policy decisions. The sea's disappearance is hardly the entire disaster. Instead, we find an accumulation of cascading effects, beginning with the decision to grow cotton, reached remotely in Moscow that altered the farming practices surrounding the Aral Sea. Unsustainable choices resulted in soil salinization, water pollution and toxic blowing sands, impacting the entire bioregion and beyond. A remote island was used to test biological weapons. Uzbekistan, most notably Karakalpakstan, was the autonomous republic at the epicenter of the disaster. Sustainable prospects exist, including renewable energy, permaculture and strengthening the social fabric amidst poverty and ecological collapse. This volume of Research in Social Problems and Public Policy is essential reading for everyone concerned with averting environmental disaster and instead creating livable, sustainable communities. Disaster by Design is a clarion call and an insightful study of Central Asia today.