A critical analysis of the post-Rio consensus on environment and development which questions the role of particular forms of internationalized elite scientific expertise. It asks why certain understandings of environmental change stick with such tenacity. In exploring this, the authors unravel the politics of knowledge surrounding policymaking, looking particularly at Ethiopia, Mali and Zimbabwe and their land and soils management. The book also looks at prospects for more inclusive, participatory forms of policymaking.
“The hope for the future depends on teaching current and future students the analytical and critical thinking skills for dealing with the most critical problems. My own hope is for this book to be read by everyone, even those outside the field of environmental education. Read this book, read it again, share it widely, and do something - anything - to help our needy and wounded planet."-Marc Bekoff, author of The Animal Manifesto: Six Reasons For Expanding Our Compassion Footprint "Saylan and Blumstein provide a compelling vision of what can be, and what should be, if we have the courage to open our eyes and the boldness to act.”-Peter Saundry, Ph.D., Executive Director of the National Council for Science and the Environment “A clarion call to incorporate environmental education in all grades K-12, across all academic disciplines, in order to produce future generations of environmental stewards."-Mark Gold, President, Heal The Bay "We need a sea change in the educational system. After all, if we can teach schoolchildren that vandalism is wrong, why can we not teach them that environmental destruction is wrong? This book is a haunting call to action. A beautifully written manifesto that gets it right."-Ron Swaisgood, Director of Applied Animal Ecology, Institute for Conservation Research, San Diego Zoo Global “The greatest threat to the future of all species on the planet is the huge gap between what is understood about global climate change by the scientific community and what is known about climate change by the people who need to know -- the public. The sound prescriptions in this book need to be read now. We are running out of time.”-Dr. James Hansen, world-renowned climatologist and author of Storms of My Grandchildren: The Truth About the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity “Environmental education is a disaster and educating the public on environmental issues is the greatest challenge facing humanity today. This book will help us understand why we are headed toward the collapse of civilization, and more important, how to fix it. Packed with sound science, useful information, and brilliant ideas, it is a book we must read, and give, to our local school boards and principals nationwide. Our children will thank us."-Paul R. Ehrlich, author of The Population Bomb and Humanity on a Tightrope
More than 40 years after the United States launched bold efforts to curb pollution and waste, American environmental management has stalled. Drawing extensively on recent enviornmental science, engineering, regulatory agency data and trade information, American Environmental Policy explores how environmental management in the US has fallen short of its early promise and reputation. Arguing that policies need to be redesigned for the 21st century, this book offers examples and principles of effective environmental policy reforms. It concludes with suggestions for how new policies should be designed, as well as examples of successfull regulatory innovations already in practice around the world.
This book adds to the environmental politics and policy literature by conducting a comprehensive investigation of business influence in agenda building and environmental policymaking in the United States over time. As part of this investigation, the author presents an analysis of six cases in which private firms were involved in disputes concerning pollution control and natural resource management. In addition to determining how much business interests influence environmental and natural resource policy, the book tests possible explanations for their level of success in shaping the government's agenda and policy. The study offers a general conceptual framework for analyzing the influence of corporate America over environmental policymaking. The research then explores how much firms have influenced Congress, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and certain natural resource agencies, and the courts on environmental and natural issues since the beginning of the environmental movement in 1970. No other study has examined the ability of business to influence environmental policy in all three branches of government and in such detail.
This unique book traces the origins and evolution of environmental policy formation, comparing the differences in this process between developing and developed countries. It focuses on the importance of the state’s role and issues of timing and sequence in the creation of environmental policies.
A new edition with new and updated case studies and analysis that demonstrate the trend in U.S. environmental policy toward sustainability at local and regional levels.
With the growing number, complexity, and importance of environmental problems come demands to include a full range of intellectual disciplines and scholarly traditions to help define and eventually manage such problems more effectively. Decision Making for the Environment: Social and Behavioral Science Research Priorities is the result of a 2-year effort by 12 social and behavioral scientists, scholars, and practitioners. The report sets research priorities for the social and behavioral sciences as they relate to several different kinds of environmental problems.
A critical appraisal of why environmental policies fail and succeed, Environmental Policymaking and Stakeholder Collaboration provides policy makers with the keys to navigating complicated environmental issues and stakeholder negotiations. It covers theories in environmental policy making and stakeholder management, compares and contrasts failed and successful process and policy, and includes practical guidelines and tools for the practitioner. More than just a theoretical examination, the book presents an extensive tool kit of more than 70 practical and applied ideas to guide the implementation of inclusive stakeholder collaboration. These ideas can be used by governments and organizations to improve decision making and ensure that stakeholders and the general public have a say in public policy. The book covers theories of stakeholder collaboration, building an understanding of why stakeholder collaboration is simultaneously critical for effective policy making and why it is so challenging. While the focus of this book is on environmental policymaking, the theories and tools can be applied to any issue. Government cannot be expected to solve our public problems in isolation: we must ensure that diverse interests are heard and represented in the policymaking process. This book is more than just a theoretical treatise about stakeholder collaboration; it is also a collection of applied and practical tools to ensure that collaboration is put into practice in ways that are effective and meaningful. It helps people with a passion for the environment understand how to get their voices heard and helps governments understand how to listen.
Over recent decades national environmental policies have converged. This book analyses the international and domestic driving forces behind this process.
The issues that increasingly dominate the 21st century cannot be solved by any single country acting alone, no matter how powerful. To manage the global economy, prevent runaway environmental destruction, reign in nuclear proliferation, or confront other global challenges, we must cooperate. But at the same time, our tools for global policymaking - chiefly state-to-state negotiations over treaties and international institutions - have broken down. The result is gridlock, which manifests across areas via a number of common mechanisms. The rise of new powers representing a more diverse array of interests makes agreement more difficult. The problems themselves have also grown harder as global policy issues penetrate ever more deeply into core domestic concerns. Existing institutions, created for a different world, also lock-in pathological decision-making procedures and render the field ever more complex. All of these processes - in part a function of previous, successful efforts at cooperation - have led global cooperation to fail us even as we need it most. Ranging over the main areas of global concern, from security to the global economy and the environment, this book examines these mechanisms of gridlock and pathways beyond them. It is written in a highly accessible way, making it relevant not only to students of politics and international relations but also to a wider general readership.
