This volume is the first to provide a comprehensive analysis of the nine environmental and health disputes that have been adjudicated at the WTO since 1995. The investigation concludes that criticism of the WTO has been overstated and, surprisingly, nations do in fact retain sovereignty over environmental and health policy. The disputes explored suggest that the WTO has been able to balance trade, environmental and health objectives. The discussion illuminates the strengths and weaknesses of the dispute resolution process and closes with suggestions for improving it. The Impact of the WTO will appeal not only to academics, be they economists, lawyers, political scientists, and academic libraries, but also practitioners, policymakers, and members of consumer, environmental, and business organizations who follow the debates surrounding the WTO's influence on environmental and health regulations.

This book is of paramount importance in the fields of engineering and applied sciences, given that through the values obtained by these procedures, many structures, like spillways of dams and highway culverts, are designed and constructed. The main aim of this book is to provide procedures for implementing many probability distribution functions, all of them based on using a standard and a common computational application known as Excel, which is available to any personal computer user. The computer procedures are given in enough detail, so readers can develop their own Excel worksheets. All the probability distribution functions in the book have schemes to estimate its parameters, quantiles, and confidence limits through the methods of moments and maximum likelihood.

Climate change and energy consumption are at the forefront of current environmental debate. Whilst energy is essential to the functioning and survival of our societies, the environmental impact that energy consumption is having, particularly on climate change, is a growing concern and the design and practicalities of energy and energy-related environmental policies are under constant scrutiny. This innovative new book not only addresses the economic assessment of environmental and energy policies but also discusses the efficiency and distributional consequences these policies have for producers and consumers. With contributions from leading academics in the field, this comprehensive volume uses a variety of methodological approaches with which to explore a number of pertinent issues, including several studies on the EU Emission Trading System, as well as more advanced topics such as indeterminacy and optimal environmental public policies, energy-saving technological progress, oil shocks and energy transitions and policy design. Combining theoretical and empirical work, this timely book is a significant contribution to the existing literature and deals with issues at the frontier of current economic knowledge. Economic Modelling of Climate Change and Energy Policies is a unique and informative book and will have widespread appeal amongst scholars, students and policymakers.

The Environment in Anthropology presents ecology and current environmental studies from an anthropological point of view. From the classics to the most current scholarship, this text connects the theory and practice in environment and anthropology, providing readers with a strong intellectual foundation as well as offering practical tools for solving environmental problems. Haenn, Wilk, and Harnish pose the most urgent questions of environmental protection: How are environmental problems mediated by cultural values? What are the environmental effects of urbanization? When do environmentalists' goals and actions conflict with those of indigenous peoples? How can we assess the impact of "environmentally correct" businesses? They also cover the fundamental topics of population growth, large scale development, biodiversity conservation, sustainable environmental management, indigenous groups, consumption, and globalization. This revised edition addresses new topics such as water, toxic waste, neoliberalism, environmental history, environmental activism, and REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation), and it situates anthropology in the multi-disciplinary field of environmental research. It also offers readers a guide for developing their own plan for environmental action. This volume offers an introduction to the breadth of ecological and environmental anthropology as well as to its historical trends and current developments. Balancing landmark essays with cutting-edge scholarship, bridging theory and practice, and offering suggestions for further reading and new directions for research, The Environment in Anthropology continues to provide the ideal introduction to a burgeoning field.

The field of environmental history emerged just decades ago but has established itself as one of the most innovative and important new approaches to history, one that bridges the human and natural world, the humanities and the sciences. With the current trend towards internationalizing history, environmental history is perhaps the quintessential approach to studying subjects outside the nation-state model, with pollution, global warming, and other issues affecting the earth not stopping at national borders. With 25 essays, this Handbook is global in scope and innovative in organization, looking at the field thematically through such categories as climate, disease, oceans, the body, energy, consumerism, and international relations.

Risk science is becoming increasingly important as businesses, policymakers and public sector leaders are tasked with decision-making and investment using varying levels of knowledge and information. Risk Science: An Introduction explores the theory and practice of risk science, providing concepts and tools for understanding and acting under conditions of uncertainty. The chapters in this work cover the fundamental concepts, principles, approaches, methods and models for how to understand, assess, communicate, manage and govern risk. These topics are presented and examined in a way which details how they relate, for example, how to characterize and communicate risk with particular emphasis on reflecting uncertainties; how to distinguish risk perception and professional risk judgments; how to assess risk and guide decision-makers, especially for cases involving large uncertainties and value differences; and how to integrate risk assessment with resilience-based strategies. The text provides a variety of examples and case studies that relate to highly visible and relevant issues facing risk academics, practitioners and non-risk leaders who must make risk-related decisions. Presenting both the foundational and most recent advancements in the subject matter, this work particularly suits students of risk science courses at college and university level. The book also provides broader key reading for students and scholars in other domains, including business, engineering and public health.

This unique book examines the role of institutions in transport regulation within a sustainability and comparative Trans-Atlantic framework. With contributions from leading experts in the field, three areas of analysis are provided: barriers to implementation of reforms, regulatory issues and Public-Private Partnerships (PPP). The discussion on barriers focuses on political and public acceptance, as well as equity and environmental justice. Regulatory reform analyses include comparative discussions of railroad and airline deregulation in North America and Europe which are complimented with analyses of EU integration and transport regulation for sustainability, transport pricing and inter country competition. Finally, infrastructure finance and evaluation frameworks for PPP form the topical focus for a comprehensive assessment of PPP within the transport sector. Scholars and advanced students in engineering, public policy, planning, policy and international business will find Institutions and Sustainable Transport of great interest, as will national and sub-national transport senior planners and policy advisors in Europe and North America, and analysts and strategic planners for logistics organizations.

This book asks under which conditions cooperation is in the interest of the riparian countries sharing international waters, and how institutions must be designed to realize potential gains of cooperation. The author, Ines Dombrowsky, develops a conceptual framework that draws upon different economic theories, including the theory of external effects, non-cooperative game theory and transaction costs economics. She distinguishes the different types of externality problems inherent in international water management and specifies the institutional prerequisites for cooperation. She argues that the respective problems differ with respect to the need to define property rights and to establish enforcement mechanisms. The book also explores the role of issue linkage and of international organizations to foster cooperation. The theoretic considerations are compared and contrasted with the findings of a global review of international water treaties and organizations. By taking hydrological and legal aspects into account, this book provides an interdisciplinary contribution at the interface of hydrology, law and economics. As such, it is addressed to scholars, practitioners and policy-makers, including economists, political scientists, international lawyers, natural scientists, and water resource managers.

The edited volume explores the topic of experiential walks, which is the practice of multi- or mono-sensory and in-motion immersion into an urban or natural environment. The act of walking is hence intended as a process of (re-)discovering, reflecting and learning through an embodied experience. Specific attention is devoted to the investigation of the ambiance of places and its dynamic atmospheric perception that contribute to generating the social experience. This topic is gaining increasing attention and has been studied in several forms in different disciplines to investigate the particular spatial, social, sensory and atmospheric character of places. The book contains chapters by experts in the field and covers both the theory and the practice of innovative methods, techniques, and technologies. It examines experiential walks in the perspective of an interdisciplinary approach to environmental and sensory urban design by organising the contributions according to three specific interrelated focuses, namely the exploration and investigation of the multisensory dimension of public spaces, the different ways to grasp and communicate the in-motion experience through traditional and novel forms of representation, and the application of the approach to urban participatory planning and higher education. Shedding new light on the topic, the book offers both a reference guide for those engaged in applied research, and a toolkit for professionals and students.

Have you ever questioned why, despite the avalanche of self-help books and optimization hacks, we remain embroiled in multiple global health crises? Populations worldwide are gaining life-shortening excess weight (even in poorer countries), and water contamination is rampant (even in richer countries). In such dire circumstances, a gratitude journal won’t help.

The stark reality is that we’ve been sold a monumental lie. The obsession with individual health optimization has distracted us from the real game-changer: holding governments accountable for policies that can significantly extend our lifespans. How Not to Die (Too Soon) is a vital, transformative guide that shifts the focus from individual responsibility to societal accountability. It’s time to demand the changes that will save lives.

In this important and original interdisciplinary work, well-known environmental philosopher Eric Katz explores technology's role in dominating both nature and humanity. He argues that technology dominates, and hence destroys, the natural world; it dominates, and hence destroys, critical aspects of human life and society. Technology causes an estrangement from nature, and thus a loss of meaning in human life. As a result, humans lose the power to make moral and social choices; they lose the power to control their lives. Katz's argument innovatively connects two distinct areas of thought: the fundamental goal of the Holocaust, including Nazi environmental policy, to heal the degenerate elements of society; and the plan to heal degraded natural systems that informs the contemporary environmental policy of 'ecological restoration'. In both arenas of 'healing,' Katz argues that technological forces drive action, while domination emerges as the prevailing ideology. Katz's work is a plea for the development of a technology that does not dominate and destroy but instead promotes autonomy and freedom.Anne Frank, a victim of Nazi ideology and action, saw the titular tree behind her secret annex as a symbol of freedom and moral goodness. In Katz's argument, the tree represents a free and autonomous nature, resistant to human control and domination. Anne Frank's Tree is rooted in an empirical approach to philosophy, seating complex ethical ideas in an accessible and powerful narrative of historical fact and deeply personal lived experience.

Of the global population of more than 7 billion people, some 800 million do not have enough to eat today. By 2050, the population is expected to exceed 9 billion. It has been estimated that some 15% of food production is lost to plant diseases; in developing countries losses may be much higher. Historically, plant diseases have had catastrophic impact on food production. For example: potato blight caused the Irish famine in 1845; brown spot of rice caused the Great Bengal Famine of 1943; southern corn leaf blight caused a devastating epidemic on the US corn crop in 1970. Food security is threatened by an ongoing sequence of plant diseases, some persistent for decades or centuries, others more opportunistic. Wheat blast and banana xanthomonas wilt are two contrasting examples of many that currently threaten food production. Other emerging diseases will follow. The proposed title aims to provide a synthesis of expert knowledge to address this central challenge to food security for the 21st century. Chapters [5] and [11] are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

The increasing demands which society places on the natural environment have led us to seek new ways of estimating the monetary costs of environmental degradation so that they can be compared with the benefits of development. This book provides a comprehensive and readable examination of the major techniques used in cost-benefit analysis and project appraisal to value environmental goods and services.Written by two leading practitioners in environmental valuation, the book includes detailed examinations of the theory and practice of a wide range of valuation techniques including contingent valuation, hedonic pricing, choice experiments and travel cost methods. Complementing the theory are case studies on various policy areas such as water quality, recreation, landscape and biodiversity drawn from Europe, the United States and Asia. The book concludes with an informative and provocative review of important contemporary issues as well as suggesting areas of future research in the practice of environmental valuation. Economic Valuation of the Environment will be essential reading for environmental and ecological economists and those practising resource management as well as for planners and policymakers.

The nation's approach to managing environmental policy and protecting natural resources has shifted from the national government's top down, command and control, regulatory approach, used almost exclusively in the 1970s, to collaborative, multi-sector approaches used in recent decades to manage problems that are generally too complex, too expensive,, and too politically divisive for one agency to manage or resolve on its own. Governments have organized multi-sector collaborations as a way to achieve better results for the past two decades. We know much about why collaboration occurs. We know a good deal about how collaborative processes work. Collaborations organized, led, and managed by grassroots organizations are rarer, though becoming more common. We do not as yet have a clear understanding of how they might differ from government led collaborations. Hampton Roads, Virginia, located at the southern end of the Chesapeake Bay, offers an unusual opportunity to study and draw comparative lessons from three grassroots environmental collaborations to restore three rivers in the watershed, in terms of how they build, organize and distribute social capital, deepen democratic values, and succeed in meeting ecosystem restoration goals and benchmarks. This is relevant for the entire Chesapeake Bay watershed, but is also relevant for understanding grassroots collaborative options for managing, protecting, and restoring watersheds throughout the U.S. It may also provide useful information for developing grassroots collaborations in other policy sectors. The premise underlying this work is that to continue making progress toward achieving substantive environmental outcomes in a world where the problems are complex, expensive, and politically divisive, more non-state stakeholders must be actively involved in defining the problems and developing solutions. This will require more multi-sector collaborations of the type that governments have increasingly relied on for the past two decades. Our approach examines one subset of environmental collaboration, those driven and managed by grassroots organizations that were established to address specific environmental problems and provide implementable solutions to those problems, so that we may draw lessons that inform other grassroots collaborative efforts.

Research on the cutting edge of economics, ecology, and ethics is presented in this timely study. Building from a theoretical critique of the tradition of cost-benefit analysis, the contributors lay the foundation for a macroeconomics of environmental sustainability and distributive justice. Attention is then turned to three of the most critical areas of social and environmental applied research - biodiversity, climate change, and energy. The contributors redefine progress away from growth and toward development. To this end, the first section of the book tackles the dominant framework used in the US today to evaluate tradeoffs between economic growth and its inherent externalities. Succeeding chapters cover a wide variety of studies related to biodiversity health and energy. Each section is anchored with overviews by top scholars in these areas - including Herman Daly, Carl McDaniel, Stephen Schneider, and Nathan Hagens - and followed by detailed analyses reflecting the transdisciplinary approach of ecological economics. Students and scholars of ecological, environmental, and natural resource economics, sustainability sciences, and environmental studies will find this book of great interest. Non-profit and government agencies in search of methods and cases that merge the study of ecology and economics will also find the analyses of great practical value.

This innovative book investigates the practical applications of sustainable development in the spirit of the Brundtland Report, paying special attention to water-stressed developing countries. Satoshi Kojima argues that the main objective of sustainable development is poverty alleviation within the present generation without destroying those ecosystems underpinning life support systems. The policy implications of such sustainable development policies are investigated with an original quantitative policy analysis framework. The book develops an innovative dynamic optimisation CGE model based on the Ramsey growth model but employs an imperfect foresight assumption and a decentralised setting in which the private agent and the government optimise their objective functions separately. The model also addresses trade-offs between rain-fed and irrigated agriculture, urban unemployment due to rural-urban migration and welfare costs of lack of safe water access. The model is calibrated and dynamically validated against Moroccan time-series data. Researchers in environmental, ecological and development economics will find this book of great interest. It will also appeal to researchers and scholars interested in water management and related issues.

Addresses a gap in the market between policy and academia. Broad readership given the focus on climate change action, a hugely topical area. Interdisciplinary approach - politics, IPE, international economics, and environmental economics. Written in an accessible voice/style.

This book provides evolutionary and institutional perspectives on the reform of infrastructure industries, tracing the development of this process in a number of sectors and countries.The contributors contend that infrastructure based industries such as telecommunications, public transport, water management and energy have been increasingly exposed to the dynamism of the market since becoming privatized, and have therefore been stimulated into short-term efficiency and long-term innovation. Drawing on institutional economic theory backed up with case studies such as the California energy crisis, the Dutch gas industry, oil and electricity companies in Spain and the privatization of Schipol airport in Amsterdam, the book focuses on process, driving forces, and actors' roles to explain how new balances are established between competing institutions. The degree to which the processes of institutional change are predictable and the effects of deliberate strategic interventions of governments or private actors are explored. Specific technical and sector aspects and their influence on institutional change in various infrastructures are also discussed. This book will strongly appeal to academics and practitioners in politics or industry with an interest in industrial, evolutionary institutional or public sector economics.

Translation of the principle of sustainable development into policy and practice, and the evaluation of the outcomes of these strategic interventions, are some of the most pressing challenges facing policymakers in Europe and beyond. The chapters in this book contribute to the debate surrounding these challenges. By exploring the conceptual and methodological issues relating to the evaluation of sustainable development and analysing European practice and experience, this work provides a coherent and integrated contribution to our understanding of these issues. With contributions from a distinguished international group of authors, this book will be of interest to researchers, policy analysts and practitioners in the area of impact assessment and sustainable development.