This overview of recent research on how institutions matter in tackling environmental problems reports the findings and policy implications of a decade-long international research project.
Experts investigate how states and other actors can improve inter-institutional synergy and examine the complexity of overlapping environmental governance structures. Institutional interaction and complexity are crucial to environmental governance and are quickly becoming dominant themes in the international relations and environmental politics literatures. This book examines international institutional interplay and its consequences, focusing on two important issues: how states and other actors can manage institutional interaction to improve synergy and avoid disruption; and what forces drive the emergence and evolution of institutional complexes, sets of institutions that cogovern particular issue areas. The book, a product of the Institutional Dimensions of Global Environmental Change research project (IDGEC), offers both theoretical and empirical perspectives. Chapters range from analytical overviews to case studies of institutional interaction, interplay management, and regime complexes in areas including climate change, fisheries management, and conservation of biodiversity. Contributors discuss such issues as the complicated management of fragmented multilateral institutions addressing climate change; the possible “chilling effect” on environmental standards from existing commitments; governance niches in Arctic resource protection; the relationships among treaties on conservation and use of plant genetic resources; causal factors in cross-case variation of regime prevalence; and the difficult relationship between the World Trade Organization and multilateral environmental agreements. The book offers a broad overview of research on interplay management and institutional complexes that provides important insights across the field of global environmental governance.
Global environmental change often seems to be the most carefully examined issue of our time. Yet understanding the human sideâ€"human causes of and responses to environmental changeâ€"has not yet received sustained attention. Global Environmental Change offers a strategy for combining the efforts of natural and social scientists to better understand how our actions influence global change and how global change influences us. The volume is accessible to the nonscientist and provides a wide range of examples and case studies. It explores how the attitudes and actions of individuals, governments, and organizations intertwine to leave their mark on the health of the planet. The book focuses on establishing a framework for this new field of study, identifying problems that must be overcome if we are to deepen our understanding of the human dimensions of global change, presenting conclusions and recommendations.
This publication is extracted from a much larger report, Global Environmental Change: Research Pathways for the Next Decade, which addresses the full range of the scientific issues concerning global environmental change and offers guidance to the scientific effort on these issues in the United States. This volume consists of Chapter 7 of that report, "Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change," which was written for the report by the Committee on the Human Dimensions of Global Change of the National Research Council (NRC). It provides findings and conclusions on the key scientific questions in human dimensions research, the lessons that have been learned over the past decade, and the research imperatives for global change research funded from the United States.
International institutions and the consequences of their interplay are emerging as a major agenda item for research and policy. As governments enter into an ever-increasing number of international agreements, questions arise about the overlap of issues, jurisdiction and membership. Of particular interest to practitioners and analysts is how this mélange of institutions at the international level intersects and interrelates to influence and affect the content, operation, performance and effectiveness of a specific institution, as well as the functioning of the overall global governance context. Biosafety, an issue relevant to numerous institutions, offers a case study for exploring and applying interplay in practical terms.--Publisher's description.
How do Manhattan women remain so stunningly svelte, despite the fact that New York has more top restaurants than any other city on the planet, not to mention a bagel bar or pizzeria on nearly every corner? They eat out often, indulge in all types of cuisine and even sneak in junk food, but manage to stay trim and toned nonetheless. So what's their secret? Now you can learn to eat, lose weight and live your life the way chic New Yorkers do - and enjoy the same fabulous results. Manhattan insider Eileen Daspin reveals what real New York women - including celebrities like Sarah Jessica Parker, Anna Wintour and Tina Fey - really think about dieting and how they shop for food, cook, order in restaurants, eat, cheat, and splurge. Discover their eating secrets and waist-trimming tips, plus a detailed weight-loss program and 28-day eating plan that will fit easily into your personal lifestyle. Along with wisdom from leading nutritionists, tips from celebrity trainers and recipes by New York's most celebrated chefs, The Manhattan Diet gives you everything you need for a slim and stylish life - wherever you live.
How can we understand and rise to the environmental challenges of global change? One clear answer is to understand the science of global change, not solely in terms of the processes that control changes in climate and the composition of the atmosphere, but in how ecosystems and human society interact with these changes. In the last two decades of the twentieth century, a number of such research effortsâ€"supported by computer and satellite technologyâ€"have been launched. Yet many opportunities for integration remain unexploited, and many fundamental questions remain about the earth's capacity to support a growing human population. This volume encourages a renewed commitment to understanding global change and sets a direction for research in the decade ahead. Through case studies the book explores what can be learned from the lessons of the past 20 years and what are the outstanding scientific questions. Highlights include: Research imperatives and strategies for investigators in the areas of atmospheric chemistry, climate, ecosystem studies, and human dimensions of global change. The context of climate change, including lessons to be gleaned from paleoclimatology. Human responses toâ€"and forcing ofâ€"projected global change. This book offers a comprehensive overview of global change research to date and provides a framework for answering urgent questions.
Environmental change is increasingly considered a critical topic for researchers across multiple disciplines, as well as policy makers throughout the world. Mounting evidence shows that environments in every part of the globe are undergoing tremendous human-induced change. Population growth, urbanization and the expansion of the global economy are putting increasing pressure on ecosystems around the planet. To understand the causes and consequences of environmental change, the contributors to this book employ spatial and non-spatial data, diverse theoretical perspectives and cutting edge research tools such as GIS, remote sensing and other relevant technologies. International Perspectives on Global Environmental Change brings together research from around the world to explore the complexities of contemporary, and historical environmental change. As an InTech open source publication current and cutting edge research methodologies and research results are quickly published for the academic policy-making communities. Dimensions of environmental change explored in this volume include: Climate change Historical environmental change Biological responses to environmental change Land use and land cover change Policy and management for environmental change