Edward O. Wilson
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195310726
- eISBN:
- 9780199785179
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195310726.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
Edward O. Wilson is a public intellectual and the best-selling author of On Human Nature, Sociobiology: The New Synthesis, Biophilia, Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge, and many other books. Wilson ...
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Edward O. Wilson is a public intellectual and the best-selling author of On Human Nature, Sociobiology: The New Synthesis, Biophilia, Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge, and many other books. Wilson is also a world authority on ants. In 1990, in collaboration with the German biologist Bert Hölldobler, Wilson published the Pulitzer prize-winning The Ants, a massive work of 732 beautifully illustrated pages. Moving beyond ants, he has expanded into the study of social insects, social animals, and human beings. Wilson is also known as an environmentalist and for his work in evolutionary psychology.Less
Edward O. Wilson is a public intellectual and the best-selling author of On Human Nature, Sociobiology: The New Synthesis, Biophilia, Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge, and many other books. Wilson is also a world authority on ants. In 1990, in collaboration with the German biologist Bert Hölldobler, Wilson published the Pulitzer prize-winning The Ants, a massive work of 732 beautifully illustrated pages. Moving beyond ants, he has expanded into the study of social insects, social animals, and human beings. Wilson is also known as an environmentalist and for his work in evolutionary psychology.
Susan Park
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719079474
- eISBN:
- 9781781703335
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719079474.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Environmental Politics
This book shows how environmentalists have shaped the world's largest multilateral development lender, investment financier and political risk insurer to take up sustainable development. It ...
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This book shows how environmentalists have shaped the world's largest multilateral development lender, investment financier and political risk insurer to take up sustainable development. It challenges an emerging consensus over international organisational change to argue that international organisations (IOs) are influenced by their social structure and may change their practices to reflect previously antithetical norms such as sustainable development. The text locates sources of organisational change with environmentalists, thus demonstrating the ways in which non-state actors can effect change within large intergovernmental organisations through socialisation. It combines an account of international organisational change with detailed empirical evidence of change in one issue area across three institutions.Less
This book shows how environmentalists have shaped the world's largest multilateral development lender, investment financier and political risk insurer to take up sustainable development. It challenges an emerging consensus over international organisational change to argue that international organisations (IOs) are influenced by their social structure and may change their practices to reflect previously antithetical norms such as sustainable development. The text locates sources of organisational change with environmentalists, thus demonstrating the ways in which non-state actors can effect change within large intergovernmental organisations through socialisation. It combines an account of international organisational change with detailed empirical evidence of change in one issue area across three institutions.
Tycho De Boer
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813032481
- eISBN:
- 9780813038360
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813032481.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
This last chapter concludes that by the time modern environmentalist movements emerged as the advocates for endangered flora and fauna, wilderness, biodiversity and ecosystem, they faced a defiance ...
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This last chapter concludes that by the time modern environmentalist movements emerged as the advocates for endangered flora and fauna, wilderness, biodiversity and ecosystem, they faced a defiance and hostility from the corporate and national interests they vilified as the main culprits behind the exploitation, abuse, and murder of nature. In areas like the Green Swamp, these environmentalists faced the historical, traditional, and local environment legacy of a community on the edge of swamps and forests and communities who saw themselves in intimate connection with the wilderness. To these communities the welfare of the ecosystem and the biodiversity of the land were often set aside for the more immediate necessities of capitalism and profit. For a majority of people who knew the forest and swamp lands of the Green Swamp region intimately and experientially as inextricable parts of their communal history and progress, the ideology and practices of business and government for the most part affirmed their larger worldviews. Knowing the forest and swamp culturally far more than they knew it ecologically pushed these people to seek for orderly, corporately managed, state-governed forests to serve their capitalist and economic claims. The conclusion suggests that while there may have been efforts to nurture the cutover lands and the continued tapping of their maintaining life by cultivation, this should not be an excuse to continue wasting and squandering nature, rather it should be seen as a model of human resilience and adaptability, drawn from experiential knowledge and the mythological view of the world.Less
This last chapter concludes that by the time modern environmentalist movements emerged as the advocates for endangered flora and fauna, wilderness, biodiversity and ecosystem, they faced a defiance and hostility from the corporate and national interests they vilified as the main culprits behind the exploitation, abuse, and murder of nature. In areas like the Green Swamp, these environmentalists faced the historical, traditional, and local environment legacy of a community on the edge of swamps and forests and communities who saw themselves in intimate connection with the wilderness. To these communities the welfare of the ecosystem and the biodiversity of the land were often set aside for the more immediate necessities of capitalism and profit. For a majority of people who knew the forest and swamp lands of the Green Swamp region intimately and experientially as inextricable parts of their communal history and progress, the ideology and practices of business and government for the most part affirmed their larger worldviews. Knowing the forest and swamp culturally far more than they knew it ecologically pushed these people to seek for orderly, corporately managed, state-governed forests to serve their capitalist and economic claims. The conclusion suggests that while there may have been efforts to nurture the cutover lands and the continued tapping of their maintaining life by cultivation, this should not be an excuse to continue wasting and squandering nature, rather it should be seen as a model of human resilience and adaptability, drawn from experiential knowledge and the mythological view of the world.
Kent Jones
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195166163
- eISBN:
- 9780199849819
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195166163.001.0001
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Economic Systems
Who is afraid of the WTO, the World Trade Organization? The list is long and varied. Many workers—and the unions that represent them—claim that WTO agreements increase import competition and threaten ...
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Who is afraid of the WTO, the World Trade Organization? The list is long and varied. Many workers—and the unions that represent them—claim that WTO agreements increase import competition and threaten their jobs. Environmentalists accuse the WTO of encouraging pollution and preventing governments from defending national environmental standards. Human rights advocates block efforts to impose trade sanctions in defense of human rights. While anti-capitalist protesters regard the WTO as a tool of big business—particularly of multinational corporations—other critics charge the WTO with damaging the interests of developing countries by imposing free-market trade policies on them before they are ready. In sum, the WTO is considered exploitative, undemocratic, unbalanced, corrupt, or illegitimate. This book is in response to the many misinformed, often exaggerated arguments leveled against the WTO. The book explains the reasons for the WTO's existence and why it is a force for progress toward economic and non-economic goals worldwide. Although protests against globalization and the WTO have raised public awareness of the world trading system, they have not, the book demonstrates, raised public understanding. Clarifying the often-muddled terms of the debate, the book debunks some of the most outrageous allegations against the WTO and argues that global standards for environmental protection and human rights belong in separate agreements, not the WTO. Developing countries need more trade, not less, and even more importantly, they need a system of rules that gives them the best possible chance of pursuing their trade interests among the developed countries.Less
Who is afraid of the WTO, the World Trade Organization? The list is long and varied. Many workers—and the unions that represent them—claim that WTO agreements increase import competition and threaten their jobs. Environmentalists accuse the WTO of encouraging pollution and preventing governments from defending national environmental standards. Human rights advocates block efforts to impose trade sanctions in defense of human rights. While anti-capitalist protesters regard the WTO as a tool of big business—particularly of multinational corporations—other critics charge the WTO with damaging the interests of developing countries by imposing free-market trade policies on them before they are ready. In sum, the WTO is considered exploitative, undemocratic, unbalanced, corrupt, or illegitimate. This book is in response to the many misinformed, often exaggerated arguments leveled against the WTO. The book explains the reasons for the WTO's existence and why it is a force for progress toward economic and non-economic goals worldwide. Although protests against globalization and the WTO have raised public awareness of the world trading system, they have not, the book demonstrates, raised public understanding. Clarifying the often-muddled terms of the debate, the book debunks some of the most outrageous allegations against the WTO and argues that global standards for environmental protection and human rights belong in separate agreements, not the WTO. Developing countries need more trade, not less, and even more importantly, they need a system of rules that gives them the best possible chance of pursuing their trade interests among the developed countries.
Roger D Sorrell
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195386738
- eISBN:
- 9780199852413
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195386738.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
One of the best-loved saints of all time, Francis of Assisi is often depicted today as a kind of proto-hippie or early environmentalist. This book — the most comprehensive study in English of ...
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One of the best-loved saints of all time, Francis of Assisi is often depicted today as a kind of proto-hippie or early environmentalist. This book — the most comprehensive study in English of Francis' view of nature in the context of medieval tradition — debunks modern anachronistic interpretations, arguing convincingly that Francis' ideas can only be understood in their 13th-century context. Through close analysis of Francis' writings, particularly the Canticle of the Sun, the author shows that many of Francis' beliefs concerning the proper relation of humanity to the natural world have their antecedents in scripture and the medieval monastic orders, while other ideas and practices — his nature mysticism, his concept of familial relationships with created things, and his extension of chivalric conceptions to interactions with creatures — are entirely his own. The author insists, however, that only by seeing Francis in terms of the Western traditions from which he arose can we appreciate the true originality of this extraordinary figure and the relevance of his thought to modern religious and environmental concerns.Less
One of the best-loved saints of all time, Francis of Assisi is often depicted today as a kind of proto-hippie or early environmentalist. This book — the most comprehensive study in English of Francis' view of nature in the context of medieval tradition — debunks modern anachronistic interpretations, arguing convincingly that Francis' ideas can only be understood in their 13th-century context. Through close analysis of Francis' writings, particularly the Canticle of the Sun, the author shows that many of Francis' beliefs concerning the proper relation of humanity to the natural world have their antecedents in scripture and the medieval monastic orders, while other ideas and practices — his nature mysticism, his concept of familial relationships with created things, and his extension of chivalric conceptions to interactions with creatures — are entirely his own. The author insists, however, that only by seeing Francis in terms of the Western traditions from which he arose can we appreciate the true originality of this extraordinary figure and the relevance of his thought to modern religious and environmental concerns.
Roger S. Gottlieb
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195176483
- eISBN:
- 9780199850846
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195176483.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter shows the faces of five religious environmentalists. The leaders of these environmentalist groups express their personal roles, their religious identity, and their concern for the earth, ...
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This chapter shows the faces of five religious environmentalists. The leaders of these environmentalist groups express their personal roles, their religious identity, and their concern for the earth, which are all part of their lives. Despite many differences, certain basic and important similarities emerge. These include a wide ranging commitment to care for the human and the nonhuman alike, a faith in the possibility of deep change, and a refusal to despair—no matter what happens.Less
This chapter shows the faces of five religious environmentalists. The leaders of these environmentalist groups express their personal roles, their religious identity, and their concern for the earth, which are all part of their lives. Despite many differences, certain basic and important similarities emerge. These include a wide ranging commitment to care for the human and the nonhuman alike, a faith in the possibility of deep change, and a refusal to despair—no matter what happens.
Alon Tal
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780300216882
- eISBN:
- 9780300224955
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300216882.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Middle East History
During the past sixty-eight years, Israel's population has increased from one to eight million people. Such exponential growth has produced acute environmental and social crises in this tiny country. ...
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During the past sixty-eight years, Israel's population has increased from one to eight million people. Such exponential growth has produced acute environmental and social crises in this tiny country. This book, written by one of Israel's foremost environmentalists, considers the ramifications of the extraordinary demographic shift, from burgeoning pollution and dwindling natural resources to overburdened infrastructure and overcrowding. The book aims to answer the question: What should Israel's demographic objectives be, and what public policies are needed to attain them? It argues that while Israel has made remarkable efforts to accommodate its growing population, this extraordinary demographic expansion is ultimately unsustainable. Based on extensive fieldwork and interviews, the book examines the origins of Israel's population policies and how they must change to support a sustainable future.Less
During the past sixty-eight years, Israel's population has increased from one to eight million people. Such exponential growth has produced acute environmental and social crises in this tiny country. This book, written by one of Israel's foremost environmentalists, considers the ramifications of the extraordinary demographic shift, from burgeoning pollution and dwindling natural resources to overburdened infrastructure and overcrowding. The book aims to answer the question: What should Israel's demographic objectives be, and what public policies are needed to attain them? It argues that while Israel has made remarkable efforts to accommodate its growing population, this extraordinary demographic expansion is ultimately unsustainable. Based on extensive fieldwork and interviews, the book examines the origins of Israel's population policies and how they must change to support a sustainable future.
John Hultgren
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780816694976
- eISBN:
- 9781452952345
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816694976.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
This chapter analyzes two discourses of contemporary environmental restrictionism: social nativism and ecological nativism. Social nativism refers to traditional nativist and white nationalist ...
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This chapter analyzes two discourses of contemporary environmental restrictionism: social nativism and ecological nativism. Social nativism refers to traditional nativist and white nationalist ideologies that seek to secure American sovereignty against the “nonwhite invasion.” While social nativists routinely draw on nature as a symbol of disorder, they periodically deploy ecocentric concerns in attempts to appeal to those beyond the far right. By contrast, econativism refers to individuals and organizations or whom ecocentric commitments to nature have come to intersect with commitments to sovereignty driven by racial and cultural essentializations. It argues that econativism represents a form of neoracism through which “natural” visions of sovereignty serve to shore up visions of natural purity, and vice versa. It concludes by arguing that because the cultural essentializations prevalent in the discourse are so clearly racialized, it is unlikely that either of these discourses could work to broaden the support for environmental restrictionism, though they may deepen anti-immigrant sentiment within the far right. For this reason, a new discourse is emerging in an attempt to appeal to “progressive environmentalists.”Less
This chapter analyzes two discourses of contemporary environmental restrictionism: social nativism and ecological nativism. Social nativism refers to traditional nativist and white nationalist ideologies that seek to secure American sovereignty against the “nonwhite invasion.” While social nativists routinely draw on nature as a symbol of disorder, they periodically deploy ecocentric concerns in attempts to appeal to those beyond the far right. By contrast, econativism refers to individuals and organizations or whom ecocentric commitments to nature have come to intersect with commitments to sovereignty driven by racial and cultural essentializations. It argues that econativism represents a form of neoracism through which “natural” visions of sovereignty serve to shore up visions of natural purity, and vice versa. It concludes by arguing that because the cultural essentializations prevalent in the discourse are so clearly racialized, it is unlikely that either of these discourses could work to broaden the support for environmental restrictionism, though they may deepen anti-immigrant sentiment within the far right. For this reason, a new discourse is emerging in an attempt to appeal to “progressive environmentalists.”
John Hultgren
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780816694976
- eISBN:
- 9781452952345
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816694976.003.0004
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
This chapter introduces a discourse of environmental restrictionism that is typically, and problematically, ignored by opponents: ecocommunitarianism. Ecocommunitarianism provides a forceful critique ...
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This chapter introduces a discourse of environmental restrictionism that is typically, and problematically, ignored by opponents: ecocommunitarianism. Ecocommunitarianism provides a forceful critique of neoliberalism, brings nonhumans and future generations into its discussion of political community, and makes repeated reference to saving “wild places.” Ecocommunitarians also move beyond the neoracism of nativist forms of restrictionism. The ecocommunitarian restrictionists thus discuss race constantly, but in a way that is rhetorically distanced from the logic of ecocommunitarianism itself. This chapter observes that, for environmental restrictionists, ecocommunitarianism represents the next logical strategic step beyond econativism, but also signifies anideological breaking point. Race is displaced to such an extent that it becomes illegitimate to talk about, yet the policies supported by ecocommunitarians further entrench the racialized structures producing environmental injustice—thus threatening to shatter the very postracial narrative that ecocommunitarians rely upon. The shattering of this narrative is not preordained, however; it requires opponents who can articulate an alternative vision of the relationships between nature, sovereignty, and race. The problem is that the ecocommunitarian logic has received little attention from opponents of restrictionism despite the fact that it is the discourse of environmental restrictionism that is most likely to persuade social progressives and mainstream environmentalists.Less
This chapter introduces a discourse of environmental restrictionism that is typically, and problematically, ignored by opponents: ecocommunitarianism. Ecocommunitarianism provides a forceful critique of neoliberalism, brings nonhumans and future generations into its discussion of political community, and makes repeated reference to saving “wild places.” Ecocommunitarians also move beyond the neoracism of nativist forms of restrictionism. The ecocommunitarian restrictionists thus discuss race constantly, but in a way that is rhetorically distanced from the logic of ecocommunitarianism itself. This chapter observes that, for environmental restrictionists, ecocommunitarianism represents the next logical strategic step beyond econativism, but also signifies anideological breaking point. Race is displaced to such an extent that it becomes illegitimate to talk about, yet the policies supported by ecocommunitarians further entrench the racialized structures producing environmental injustice—thus threatening to shatter the very postracial narrative that ecocommunitarians rely upon. The shattering of this narrative is not preordained, however; it requires opponents who can articulate an alternative vision of the relationships between nature, sovereignty, and race. The problem is that the ecocommunitarian logic has received little attention from opponents of restrictionism despite the fact that it is the discourse of environmental restrictionism that is most likely to persuade social progressives and mainstream environmentalists.
Patrick Chura
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813034935
- eISBN:
- 9780813038278
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813034935.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
Henry David Thoreau, one of America's most prominent environmental writers, supported himself as a land surveyor for much of his life, parceling land that would be sold off to loggers. This book ...
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Henry David Thoreau, one of America's most prominent environmental writers, supported himself as a land surveyor for much of his life, parceling land that would be sold off to loggers. This book analyzes this seeming contradiction to show how the best surveyor in Concord combined civil engineering with civil disobedience. Placing Thoreau's surveying in historical context, the book explains the cultural and ideological implications of surveying work in the mid-nineteenth century. It explains the ways in which Thoreau's environmentalist disposition and philosophical convictions asserted themselves, even as he reduced the land to measurable terms and acted as an agent for bringing it under proprietary control. The book also describes in detail Thoreau's 1846 survey of Walden Pond. By identifying the origins of Walden in—of all places—surveying data, the book re-creates a previously lost supporting manuscript of this American classic.Less
Henry David Thoreau, one of America's most prominent environmental writers, supported himself as a land surveyor for much of his life, parceling land that would be sold off to loggers. This book analyzes this seeming contradiction to show how the best surveyor in Concord combined civil engineering with civil disobedience. Placing Thoreau's surveying in historical context, the book explains the cultural and ideological implications of surveying work in the mid-nineteenth century. It explains the ways in which Thoreau's environmentalist disposition and philosophical convictions asserted themselves, even as he reduced the land to measurable terms and acted as an agent for bringing it under proprietary control. The book also describes in detail Thoreau's 1846 survey of Walden Pond. By identifying the origins of Walden in—of all places—surveying data, the book re-creates a previously lost supporting manuscript of this American classic.
Kathleen McAfee
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520237612
- eISBN:
- 9780520937499
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520237612.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
New global environmental institutions, particularly the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and its Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, have become staging grounds for resistance to World Trade ...
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New global environmental institutions, particularly the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and its Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, have become staging grounds for resistance to World Trade Organization (WTO) rules and to the market-based management of genetic resources that the WTO supports. The origins, limitations, and conflicts of WTO Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights Agreement are elaborated. In contrast to the WTO, the CBD establishes an arguable basis in international law for taking non-economic criteria into account in biotechnology regulation. It recognizes the sovereignty of states over genetic and other resources within their territories. The U.S. government's commitment to promote the international expansion of its agricultural, pharmaceutical, and technology industries prevailed over U.S. environmentalists' desire for a comprehensive conservation treaty. Enforcement of intellectual property rights at the local level may be difficult in the face of growing defiance by social movements.Less
New global environmental institutions, particularly the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and its Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, have become staging grounds for resistance to World Trade Organization (WTO) rules and to the market-based management of genetic resources that the WTO supports. The origins, limitations, and conflicts of WTO Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights Agreement are elaborated. In contrast to the WTO, the CBD establishes an arguable basis in international law for taking non-economic criteria into account in biotechnology regulation. It recognizes the sovereignty of states over genetic and other resources within their territories. The U.S. government's commitment to promote the international expansion of its agricultural, pharmaceutical, and technology industries prevailed over U.S. environmentalists' desire for a comprehensive conservation treaty. Enforcement of intellectual property rights at the local level may be difficult in the face of growing defiance by social movements.
J. Peter Brosius
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520227477
- eISBN:
- 9780520935693
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520227477.003.0004
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Asian Cultural Anthropology
Discussing the Penan of Sarawak, this chapter explores cultural citizenship by triangulating among three viewpoints: The national—that of the Sarawak state and the Malaysian federal government; the ...
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Discussing the Penan of Sarawak, this chapter explores cultural citizenship by triangulating among three viewpoints: The national—that of the Sarawak state and the Malaysian federal government; the local—that of the indigenous Penan; and the transnational—that of the Northern (European and American) environmentalists. The study delineates the asymmetrical perceptions and power relations among the three groups. Government officials hope to convert the Penan from what they see as their present state of savagery into citizens of the national community like themselves. They view the Penan as a remnant of the past and argue for strategies to transform, improve, and update them rather than, as they say, attempting to preserve Penan lifeways as if the Penan belonged in a museum.Less
Discussing the Penan of Sarawak, this chapter explores cultural citizenship by triangulating among three viewpoints: The national—that of the Sarawak state and the Malaysian federal government; the local—that of the indigenous Penan; and the transnational—that of the Northern (European and American) environmentalists. The study delineates the asymmetrical perceptions and power relations among the three groups. Government officials hope to convert the Penan from what they see as their present state of savagery into citizens of the national community like themselves. They view the Penan as a remnant of the past and argue for strategies to transform, improve, and update them rather than, as they say, attempting to preserve Penan lifeways as if the Penan belonged in a museum.
Etienne S. Benson
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780226706153
- eISBN:
- 9780226706320
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226706320.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Environmental History
This book is a critical history of the concept of environment from the late eighteenth century to the present. Situating key episodes of that history in their material, social, cultural, and ...
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This book is a critical history of the concept of environment from the late eighteenth century to the present. Situating key episodes of that history in their material, social, cultural, and political contexts, it makes an argument for environmental pluralism—that is, for recognizing the profound variations in the way the concept of environment has been defined and put into practice in different times and places. Adopting this pluralistic perspective, the book argues, has several benefits. First, it provides both a more accurate and a more capacious account of the history of this multifarious concept than any attempt to identify a single dominant tradition or overarching trajectory could do. Second, it helps us recognize the diversity of concepts of environment and forms of environmentalism that are emerging at the present time, many of which diverge from those associated with the modern environmental movement. The episodes discussed in the book include research at the Paris Museum of Natural History following its founding in 1793, imperial medicine in the British Caribbean, urban reform in Progressive Era Chicago, resource management and ecology from World War I to the early Cold War, consumer protection and the environmental movement in the postwar United States, and climate change science and activism since the 1970s. The book concludes by describing several promising forms of environmentalism that are emerging today, each of which defines the concept of environment and puts it into practice in its own distinctive way.Less
This book is a critical history of the concept of environment from the late eighteenth century to the present. Situating key episodes of that history in their material, social, cultural, and political contexts, it makes an argument for environmental pluralism—that is, for recognizing the profound variations in the way the concept of environment has been defined and put into practice in different times and places. Adopting this pluralistic perspective, the book argues, has several benefits. First, it provides both a more accurate and a more capacious account of the history of this multifarious concept than any attempt to identify a single dominant tradition or overarching trajectory could do. Second, it helps us recognize the diversity of concepts of environment and forms of environmentalism that are emerging at the present time, many of which diverge from those associated with the modern environmental movement. The episodes discussed in the book include research at the Paris Museum of Natural History following its founding in 1793, imperial medicine in the British Caribbean, urban reform in Progressive Era Chicago, resource management and ecology from World War I to the early Cold War, consumer protection and the environmental movement in the postwar United States, and climate change science and activism since the 1970s. The book concludes by describing several promising forms of environmentalism that are emerging today, each of which defines the concept of environment and puts it into practice in its own distinctive way.
David Ehrenfeld
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780195148527
- eISBN:
- 9780197561867
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780195148527.003.0025
- Subject:
- Environmental Science, Social Impact of Environmental Issues
I had a call from Bill Stevens at the science desk of the New York Times. “I’m doing a story about an article that is about to appear in Nature,” he said, ...
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I had a call from Bill Stevens at the science desk of the New York Times. “I’m doing a story about an article that is about to appear in Nature,” he said, “and I’d like to fax you a copy for your comments. The article is by Robert Costanza and twelve other economists, geographers, and ecologists. It’s called ‘The Value of the World’s Ecosystem Services and Natural Capital.’” As soon as I heard the title, I knew that I was not likely to see eye to eye with the authors. With some reluctance, partly because Costanza is a committed and accomplished environmentalist whom I didn’t like to criticize, I agreed to read and comment on the article. Soon I had it in hand. I started out to read the article thoroughly, word by word, examining the methods, the assumptions, and the numbers in the tables with care. But it was hard to do; I kept wanting to skim. Not that it was badly written; it was clear and lucid. Not that it was aggressive or arrogant in tone; indeed it was mildly apologetic. Not that it was ill-intentioned; its goal was to demonstrate that nature in the form of intact ecosystems is worth far more to us than we currently imagine. Nor were the estimates exaggerated; as the authors claimed, they were obviously understated, giving a minimal figure of $33 trillion for the annual value of nature. This is approximately twice the value of the global gross national product, they pointed out. In other words, nature is very valuable to us, even more valuable than the goods and services that people produce. One problem was immediately obvious. The authors did not seem to realize the dangers of what they were doing. Never mind the larger dangers to our essential humanity, but even the practical, economic dangers.
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I had a call from Bill Stevens at the science desk of the New York Times. “I’m doing a story about an article that is about to appear in Nature,” he said, “and I’d like to fax you a copy for your comments. The article is by Robert Costanza and twelve other economists, geographers, and ecologists. It’s called ‘The Value of the World’s Ecosystem Services and Natural Capital.’” As soon as I heard the title, I knew that I was not likely to see eye to eye with the authors. With some reluctance, partly because Costanza is a committed and accomplished environmentalist whom I didn’t like to criticize, I agreed to read and comment on the article. Soon I had it in hand. I started out to read the article thoroughly, word by word, examining the methods, the assumptions, and the numbers in the tables with care. But it was hard to do; I kept wanting to skim. Not that it was badly written; it was clear and lucid. Not that it was aggressive or arrogant in tone; indeed it was mildly apologetic. Not that it was ill-intentioned; its goal was to demonstrate that nature in the form of intact ecosystems is worth far more to us than we currently imagine. Nor were the estimates exaggerated; as the authors claimed, they were obviously understated, giving a minimal figure of $33 trillion for the annual value of nature. This is approximately twice the value of the global gross national product, they pointed out. In other words, nature is very valuable to us, even more valuable than the goods and services that people produce. One problem was immediately obvious. The authors did not seem to realize the dangers of what they were doing. Never mind the larger dangers to our essential humanity, but even the practical, economic dangers.
Eduardo Silva and Patricio Rodrigo
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813034751
- eISBN:
- 9780813038186
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813034751.003.0009
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Latin American Studies
This chapter analyzes the questions of consensus and conflict around property questions, state institutional development, and issues affecting indigenous peoples and the environment. It discusses the ...
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This chapter analyzes the questions of consensus and conflict around property questions, state institutional development, and issues affecting indigenous peoples and the environment. It discusses the responses of the Bachelet administration to these issues, and the horizontal connections between the indigenous and environmental movements. It also analyzes the most conflictive environmental issues. Furthermore, the chapter summarizes Concertaciόn policies toward indigenous peoples, and traces the history under the Lagos and Bachelet administrations of a growing and ever more violent conflict between the indigenous movement and government authorities. The chapter concludes with an analysis of the nature of the indigenous movement, its connection with other social groups, and the construction of horizontal linkages with environmentalist groups. Finally it provides a discussion of the violent movements of early 2008 that led to Bachelet's third cabinet reshuffle.Less
This chapter analyzes the questions of consensus and conflict around property questions, state institutional development, and issues affecting indigenous peoples and the environment. It discusses the responses of the Bachelet administration to these issues, and the horizontal connections between the indigenous and environmental movements. It also analyzes the most conflictive environmental issues. Furthermore, the chapter summarizes Concertaciόn policies toward indigenous peoples, and traces the history under the Lagos and Bachelet administrations of a growing and ever more violent conflict between the indigenous movement and government authorities. The chapter concludes with an analysis of the nature of the indigenous movement, its connection with other social groups, and the construction of horizontal linkages with environmentalist groups. Finally it provides a discussion of the violent movements of early 2008 that led to Bachelet's third cabinet reshuffle.
Adam Tompkins
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801456688
- eISBN:
- 9781501704215
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801456688.003.0006
- Subject:
- Sociology, Occupations, Professions, and Work
This chapter focuses on the pesticide conflict that pitted Arizona growers and the state’s Board of Pesticide Control (BPC) against farmworkers and suburban families during the 1970s and 1980s. In ...
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This chapter focuses on the pesticide conflict that pitted Arizona growers and the state’s Board of Pesticide Control (BPC) against farmworkers and suburban families during the 1970s and 1980s. In 1971, an “insecticide fog” drifted west from the fields that growers leased on the Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian Community Reservation into the city of Scottsdale. People living within a mile of the fields complained of breathing problems, coughing, and burning eyes, throats, and noses. The spread of suburban development into other agricultural areas of the Valley of the Sun intensified the complaints about pesticides. This chapter examines the collaboration among farmworkers, environmentalists, and suburbanites affected by pesticide drift as they tried to make the BPC more responsive to the concerns of the public and to overcome the power of the agricultural lobby.Less
This chapter focuses on the pesticide conflict that pitted Arizona growers and the state’s Board of Pesticide Control (BPC) against farmworkers and suburban families during the 1970s and 1980s. In 1971, an “insecticide fog” drifted west from the fields that growers leased on the Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian Community Reservation into the city of Scottsdale. People living within a mile of the fields complained of breathing problems, coughing, and burning eyes, throats, and noses. The spread of suburban development into other agricultural areas of the Valley of the Sun intensified the complaints about pesticides. This chapter examines the collaboration among farmworkers, environmentalists, and suburbanites affected by pesticide drift as they tried to make the BPC more responsive to the concerns of the public and to overcome the power of the agricultural lobby.
Jeremiah D. Lambert
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780262029506
- eISBN:
- 9780262330985
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262029506.003.0007
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Business History
While Lovins addressed fossil fuels, renewables, and a carbon tax as a consultant and public intellectual, Jim Rogers, until recently the chief executive officer of Duke Energy, the nation’s largest ...
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While Lovins addressed fossil fuels, renewables, and a carbon tax as a consultant and public intellectual, Jim Rogers, until recently the chief executive officer of Duke Energy, the nation’s largest electric utility, did so as a shrewd pragmatist and soldier in the trenches of legislative conflict. A facile lawyer who served as a FERC litigator, Rogers once ran the gas pipeline business of Houston Natural Gas, an Enron predecessor. Later he took the helm at PSI Energy, a coal-fired utility, where he reached an accommodation with environmental opponents on cleaning up his company’s SO2 emissions, then the subject of cap-and-trade amendments to the Clean Air Act. Rogers defied industry logic and supported the new program just as other utility executives lobbied against it. Rogers saw the SO2 cap-and-trade program as a smart and creative compromise that allocated generous allowances to utilities in coal-dependent states and enabled them to modernize their plants to meet emissions targets without price spikes. In the conservative utility industry, Rogers was an outlier whose environmental credentials generated favorable publicity but at the same time drew skepticism. In 2006, after a series of acquisitions, Rogers headed Duke Energy, just in time to participate as a key player in shaping forthcoming climate change legislation that proposed CO2 cap-and-trade methodology modeled on the successful SO2 program of almost twenty years before. Rogers wanted Duke Energy to receive enough free allowances to make the transition to clean energy affordable and avoid rate shock for its customers. Environmentalists saw free allowances as a giveaway to polluters and demanded they be auctioned, but Rogers objected to according the government free rein to spend revenues raised from selling allowances. In his first State of the Union message President Obama proposed legislation that placed a market cap on carbon pollution. Coal-fired utilities, with Duke Energy in the forefront, saw a looming threat. Eager to shape the debate, Rogers urged that the power sector receive 40 per cent of all allowances for free as a bridge to a decarbonized economy and got most of what he wanted in the Waxman-Markey bill that narrowly passed the House in 2009 but later failed in the Senate, the victim of polarized politics. In negotiations with Congress, Rogers had used his pivotal position to extract the accommodation he required only to see cap and trade blown away by hard economic times, extreme partisan division, and effective right-wing opposition. Given the threat of legislation, he tried to mitigate the risks to his company. “When you see a parade form on an issue in Washington,” he said, “you have two choices: you can throw your body in front of it and let Washington walk over you, or you can jump in front of the parade and pretend it’s yours.”Less
While Lovins addressed fossil fuels, renewables, and a carbon tax as a consultant and public intellectual, Jim Rogers, until recently the chief executive officer of Duke Energy, the nation’s largest electric utility, did so as a shrewd pragmatist and soldier in the trenches of legislative conflict. A facile lawyer who served as a FERC litigator, Rogers once ran the gas pipeline business of Houston Natural Gas, an Enron predecessor. Later he took the helm at PSI Energy, a coal-fired utility, where he reached an accommodation with environmental opponents on cleaning up his company’s SO2 emissions, then the subject of cap-and-trade amendments to the Clean Air Act. Rogers defied industry logic and supported the new program just as other utility executives lobbied against it. Rogers saw the SO2 cap-and-trade program as a smart and creative compromise that allocated generous allowances to utilities in coal-dependent states and enabled them to modernize their plants to meet emissions targets without price spikes. In the conservative utility industry, Rogers was an outlier whose environmental credentials generated favorable publicity but at the same time drew skepticism. In 2006, after a series of acquisitions, Rogers headed Duke Energy, just in time to participate as a key player in shaping forthcoming climate change legislation that proposed CO2 cap-and-trade methodology modeled on the successful SO2 program of almost twenty years before. Rogers wanted Duke Energy to receive enough free allowances to make the transition to clean energy affordable and avoid rate shock for its customers. Environmentalists saw free allowances as a giveaway to polluters and demanded they be auctioned, but Rogers objected to according the government free rein to spend revenues raised from selling allowances. In his first State of the Union message President Obama proposed legislation that placed a market cap on carbon pollution. Coal-fired utilities, with Duke Energy in the forefront, saw a looming threat. Eager to shape the debate, Rogers urged that the power sector receive 40 per cent of all allowances for free as a bridge to a decarbonized economy and got most of what he wanted in the Waxman-Markey bill that narrowly passed the House in 2009 but later failed in the Senate, the victim of polarized politics. In negotiations with Congress, Rogers had used his pivotal position to extract the accommodation he required only to see cap and trade blown away by hard economic times, extreme partisan division, and effective right-wing opposition. Given the threat of legislation, he tried to mitigate the risks to his company. “When you see a parade form on an issue in Washington,” he said, “you have two choices: you can throw your body in front of it and let Washington walk over you, or you can jump in front of the parade and pretend it’s yours.”
Timothy J. Cooley (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780252042362
- eISBN:
- 9780252051203
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252042362.003.0010
- Subject:
- Music, Ethnomusicology, World Music
In 1911 Charles Ives wrote “The New River,” a song unique among his works for its outspoken environmentalist stance. Composed in direct response to the diversion of waters from Ives's beloved ...
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In 1911 Charles Ives wrote “The New River,” a song unique among his works for its outspoken environmentalist stance. Composed in direct response to the diversion of waters from Ives's beloved Housatonic River to feed New York City reservoirs and plans for constructing a dam, the song also captured widespread national outrage over the Hetch Hetchy Dam being built at the same time through Yosemite National Park. Combining transcendentalist understandings of nature with more contemporary arguments to save Hetch Hetchy published by Robert Underwood Johnson and John Muir, Ives's song sounds his belief “the fabric of life weaves itself whole.”Less
In 1911 Charles Ives wrote “The New River,” a song unique among his works for its outspoken environmentalist stance. Composed in direct response to the diversion of waters from Ives's beloved Housatonic River to feed New York City reservoirs and plans for constructing a dam, the song also captured widespread national outrage over the Hetch Hetchy Dam being built at the same time through Yosemite National Park. Combining transcendentalist understandings of nature with more contemporary arguments to save Hetch Hetchy published by Robert Underwood Johnson and John Muir, Ives's song sounds his belief “the fabric of life weaves itself whole.”
H. Tristram Engelhardt
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780823251445
- eISBN:
- 9780823252909
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823251445.003.0024
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
With regard to the environment, and more generally with respect to developing environmental policy, there is uncertainty about all the empirical data that can be invoked to change and frame policy. ...
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With regard to the environment, and more generally with respect to developing environmental policy, there is uncertainty about all the empirical data that can be invoked to change and frame policy. Against this background of controversy and contention, this chapter focuses primarily on what Orthodox Christianity can bring to the articulation of an environmental ethic. To do this, a general theological background is presented, then some salient empirical and moral ambiguities are highlighted, and then finally some general theological constraints and norms bearing on environmental ethics are elaborated. Throughout, the emphasis is on recalling the prime focus of Orthodox theology, which falls on rightly loving, worshipping, and believing in God and, in the light of that rightly ordered love of God, loving one's neighbor. Within these constraints, Orthodox Christianity leaves a considerable space within which one is left to determine prudent choices. The chapter concludes with the recognition that we must first pursue the kingdom of heaven, not the realization of the environmentalist kingdom.Less
With regard to the environment, and more generally with respect to developing environmental policy, there is uncertainty about all the empirical data that can be invoked to change and frame policy. Against this background of controversy and contention, this chapter focuses primarily on what Orthodox Christianity can bring to the articulation of an environmental ethic. To do this, a general theological background is presented, then some salient empirical and moral ambiguities are highlighted, and then finally some general theological constraints and norms bearing on environmental ethics are elaborated. Throughout, the emphasis is on recalling the prime focus of Orthodox theology, which falls on rightly loving, worshipping, and believing in God and, in the light of that rightly ordered love of God, loving one's neighbor. Within these constraints, Orthodox Christianity leaves a considerable space within which one is left to determine prudent choices. The chapter concludes with the recognition that we must first pursue the kingdom of heaven, not the realization of the environmentalist kingdom.
Peter Dauvergne
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780262034364
- eISBN:
- 9780262332132
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262034364.003.0016
- Subject:
- Environmental Science, Environmental Studies
This chapter analyzes the growing influence of multinational corporations on the narrative of sustainability, demonstrating how over the past decade they have been turning a once critical discourse ...
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This chapter analyzes the growing influence of multinational corporations on the narrative of sustainability, demonstrating how over the past decade they have been turning a once critical discourse of the environmental movement into a business strategy of growth and control. Seeing the general understanding of sustainability losing its ecological meaning, some environmentalists are giving up on the concept. This chapter sees this as a mistake. The author argues for the ongoing value of the narrative of sustainability, calling for environmentalists to continue to infuse this narrative with principles of ecology, equity, and social justice, and to do more to challenge the half-truths and illusions underlying the corporate claims of sustainability progress and leadership. Scholars and students of global environmental politics, he contends, are especially well placed to help recapture the narrative of sustainability.Less
This chapter analyzes the growing influence of multinational corporations on the narrative of sustainability, demonstrating how over the past decade they have been turning a once critical discourse of the environmental movement into a business strategy of growth and control. Seeing the general understanding of sustainability losing its ecological meaning, some environmentalists are giving up on the concept. This chapter sees this as a mistake. The author argues for the ongoing value of the narrative of sustainability, calling for environmentalists to continue to infuse this narrative with principles of ecology, equity, and social justice, and to do more to challenge the half-truths and illusions underlying the corporate claims of sustainability progress and leadership. Scholars and students of global environmental politics, he contends, are especially well placed to help recapture the narrative of sustainability.
