Robert L. Hicks, Bradley C. Parks, J. Timmons Roberts, and Michael J. Tierney
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199213948
- eISBN:
- 9780191707476
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199213948.001.0001
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Development, Growth, and Environmental
Every year, billions of dollars of environmental aid flow from the rich governments of the North to the poor governments of the South. Why do donors provide this aid? What do they seek to achieve? ...
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Every year, billions of dollars of environmental aid flow from the rich governments of the North to the poor governments of the South. Why do donors provide this aid? What do they seek to achieve? How effective is the aid given? And does it always go to the places of greatest environmental need? From the first Earth Summit in Stockholm in 1972 to the G8 Gleneagles meeting in 2005, the issue of the impact of aid on the global environment has been the subject of vigorous protest and debate. How much progress has there been in improving environmental protection and clean-up in the developing world? What explains the patterns of environmental aid spending and distribution — is it designed to address real problems, achieve geopolitical or commercial gains abroad, or buy political mileage at home? And what are the consequences for the estimated 4 million people that die each year from air pollution, unsafe drinking water, and lack of sanitation? This book aims to answer these questions. It evaluates the likely environment impact of over 400,000 development projects by more than fifty donors to over 170 recipient nations between 1970 and 2001. The book examines what is happening in foreign assistance and its impact on the environment. It explains major trends and shifts over the last three decades, ranks donors according to their performance, and offers case studies which compare and contrast donors and types of environmental aid.Less
Every year, billions of dollars of environmental aid flow from the rich governments of the North to the poor governments of the South. Why do donors provide this aid? What do they seek to achieve? How effective is the aid given? And does it always go to the places of greatest environmental need? From the first Earth Summit in Stockholm in 1972 to the G8 Gleneagles meeting in 2005, the issue of the impact of aid on the global environment has been the subject of vigorous protest and debate. How much progress has there been in improving environmental protection and clean-up in the developing world? What explains the patterns of environmental aid spending and distribution — is it designed to address real problems, achieve geopolitical or commercial gains abroad, or buy political mileage at home? And what are the consequences for the estimated 4 million people that die each year from air pollution, unsafe drinking water, and lack of sanitation? This book aims to answer these questions. It evaluates the likely environment impact of over 400,000 development projects by more than fifty donors to over 170 recipient nations between 1970 and 2001. The book examines what is happening in foreign assistance and its impact on the environment. It explains major trends and shifts over the last three decades, ranks donors according to their performance, and offers case studies which compare and contrast donors and types of environmental aid.
Toby Tyrrell
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691121581
- eISBN:
- 9781400847914
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691121581.003.0001
- Subject:
- Environmental Science, Environmental Studies
This introductory chapter discusses the Gaia hypothesis as well as two other competing hypotheses. Gaia, the idea that life moderates the global environment to make it more favorable for life, was ...
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This introductory chapter discusses the Gaia hypothesis as well as two other competing hypotheses. Gaia, the idea that life moderates the global environment to make it more favorable for life, was first introduced in 1972 in an academic paper by James Lovelock titled “Gaia as Seen through the Atmosphere.” The Gaia hypothesis proposes planetary regulation by and for the biota, where the “biota” is the collection of all life. Lovelock suggests that life has had a hand on the tiller of environmental control, and the intervention of life in the regulation of the planet has been such as to promote stability and keep conditions comfortable. The chapter then looks at the geological hypothesis, which suggests that the nature of the Earth's environment is principally determined by a mixture of geological forces and astronomical processes, and the coevolutionary hypothesis, which asserts that life has had an enormous impact on the planetary environment.Less
This introductory chapter discusses the Gaia hypothesis as well as two other competing hypotheses. Gaia, the idea that life moderates the global environment to make it more favorable for life, was first introduced in 1972 in an academic paper by James Lovelock titled “Gaia as Seen through the Atmosphere.” The Gaia hypothesis proposes planetary regulation by and for the biota, where the “biota” is the collection of all life. Lovelock suggests that life has had a hand on the tiller of environmental control, and the intervention of life in the regulation of the planet has been such as to promote stability and keep conditions comfortable. The chapter then looks at the geological hypothesis, which suggests that the nature of the Earth's environment is principally determined by a mixture of geological forces and astronomical processes, and the coevolutionary hypothesis, which asserts that life has had an enormous impact on the planetary environment.
Jessica F. Green
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691157580
- eISBN:
- 9781400848669
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691157580.003.0005
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
This chapter examines why states decided to delegate key monitoring tasks to private actors in the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol. It first provides an overview of the ...
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This chapter examines why states decided to delegate key monitoring tasks to private actors in the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol. It first provides an overview of the origins of the CDM before discussing the involvement of the Global Environment Facility, the World Bank, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Secretariat, and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in the CDM. It also presents three reasons behind delegated authority in the CDM, and specifically why private actors were selected to serve as the “atmospheric police” of the CDM. First, the private sector had relatively long-standing experience in the intricacies of measuring carbon offsets. Second, powerful states agreed that this market mechanism should be part of the Protocol, and that a third-party verifier was needed to monitor the quality of offset projects. Finally, there was a focal institution, the CDM Executive Board, to screen and oversee agents.Less
This chapter examines why states decided to delegate key monitoring tasks to private actors in the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol. It first provides an overview of the origins of the CDM before discussing the involvement of the Global Environment Facility, the World Bank, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Secretariat, and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in the CDM. It also presents three reasons behind delegated authority in the CDM, and specifically why private actors were selected to serve as the “atmospheric police” of the CDM. First, the private sector had relatively long-standing experience in the intricacies of measuring carbon offsets. Second, powerful states agreed that this market mechanism should be part of the Protocol, and that a third-party verifier was needed to monitor the quality of offset projects. Finally, there was a focal institution, the CDM Executive Board, to screen and oversee agents.
Toby Tyrrell
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691121581
- eISBN:
- 9781400847914
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691121581.003.0007
- Subject:
- Environmental Science, Environmental Studies
This chapter focuses on internally generated changes due to evolutionary inventions of new forms life. These evolutionary inventions include the evolution of oxygen-yielding photosynthesis and the ...
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This chapter focuses on internally generated changes due to evolutionary inventions of new forms life. These evolutionary inventions include the evolution of oxygen-yielding photosynthesis and the colonization of land by the first forests. Oxygen-dependent photosynthesis and respiration evolved to take advantage of the appearance of oxygen in the biosphere, while anaerobes crashed from preeminence to relative obscurity. Meanwhile, land plants evolved to adapt to the low carbon dioxide and low temperatures that earlier generations had produced, and enormous insects thrived temporarily to take advantage of the transiently abundant oxygen, only to disappear again when oxygen levels subsequently subsided. Eventually, new types of fungi evolved to make use of the new food source. Ultimately, these internally generated events produced some changes that generally improved the global environment for life, but also some that tended to spoil it.Less
This chapter focuses on internally generated changes due to evolutionary inventions of new forms life. These evolutionary inventions include the evolution of oxygen-yielding photosynthesis and the colonization of land by the first forests. Oxygen-dependent photosynthesis and respiration evolved to take advantage of the appearance of oxygen in the biosphere, while anaerobes crashed from preeminence to relative obscurity. Meanwhile, land plants evolved to adapt to the low carbon dioxide and low temperatures that earlier generations had produced, and enormous insects thrived temporarily to take advantage of the transiently abundant oxygen, only to disappear again when oxygen levels subsequently subsided. Eventually, new types of fungi evolved to make use of the new food source. Ultimately, these internally generated events produced some changes that generally improved the global environment for life, but also some that tended to spoil it.
David Freestone
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199299614
- eISBN:
- 9780191714887
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199299614.003.0016
- Subject:
- Law, Public International Law
After more than 20 years, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (LOSC) still stands as a massive achievement in the history of codification efforts in international law. This chapter ...
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After more than 20 years, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (LOSC) still stands as a massive achievement in the history of codification efforts in international law. This chapter examines the role of the World Bank (WB) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the fund for which it acts both as trustee and as one of the three implementing agencies. The implementation role the LOSC itself seems to envisage for the WB, and the way this has been supplemented by the 1995 UN Fish Stocks Agreement (UNFSA), are discussed. The role and financing capability of the WB itself are also considered, along with the establishment, restructuring, and evolution of the GEF, and the role of international organisations in developing and implementing the LOSC. The chapter concludes by looking at a representative spread of the growing portfolio of projects of both the WB and GEF in the law of the sea area, including marine pollution control and fisheries management.Less
After more than 20 years, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (LOSC) still stands as a massive achievement in the history of codification efforts in international law. This chapter examines the role of the World Bank (WB) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the fund for which it acts both as trustee and as one of the three implementing agencies. The implementation role the LOSC itself seems to envisage for the WB, and the way this has been supplemented by the 1995 UN Fish Stocks Agreement (UNFSA), are discussed. The role and financing capability of the WB itself are also considered, along with the establishment, restructuring, and evolution of the GEF, and the role of international organisations in developing and implementing the LOSC. The chapter concludes by looking at a representative spread of the growing portfolio of projects of both the WB and GEF in the law of the sea area, including marine pollution control and fisheries management.
Simon Avenell
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780824867133
- eISBN:
- 9780824873721
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824867133.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This chapter explores Japanese groups’ involvement at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. Responding to debates over global environmental problems such as climate ...
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This chapter explores Japanese groups’ involvement at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. Responding to debates over global environmental problems such as climate change, Japanese activists argued that the rights of marginalized groups needed to be recognized when formulating countermeasures. They sympathized with advocates from developing countries who argued that it was unfair to demand restraint now when the advanced countries had developed without consideration for resource usage or environmental destruction for hundreds of years. Japanese activists pointed to the violation of the rights of marginalized groups in Japan as a result of industrial pollution. They suggested that similar patterns of discrimination were at work between rich and poor countries and hence, any solutions to global environmental problems needed to consider the situation of these disadvantaged groups. The chapter argues that the experience of environmental injustices in Japan deeply shaped this perspective among some Japanese activists.Less
This chapter explores Japanese groups’ involvement at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. Responding to debates over global environmental problems such as climate change, Japanese activists argued that the rights of marginalized groups needed to be recognized when formulating countermeasures. They sympathized with advocates from developing countries who argued that it was unfair to demand restraint now when the advanced countries had developed without consideration for resource usage or environmental destruction for hundreds of years. Japanese activists pointed to the violation of the rights of marginalized groups in Japan as a result of industrial pollution. They suggested that similar patterns of discrimination were at work between rich and poor countries and hence, any solutions to global environmental problems needed to consider the situation of these disadvantaged groups. The chapter argues that the experience of environmental injustices in Japan deeply shaped this perspective among some Japanese activists.
Stephen Hopgood
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198292593
- eISBN:
- 9780191684920
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198292593.003.0013
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
This chapter discusses what has fundamentally changed in the making of American foreign environmental policy over three decades of international environmentalism. It describes three major ...
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This chapter discusses what has fundamentally changed in the making of American foreign environmental policy over three decades of international environmentalism. It describes three major developments since 1972: firstly, the tremendous growth in domestic environmentalism in the United States and its increasing professionalism; secondly, the establishment of new international institutions, especially the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP); and thirdly, the identification of even more complex and genuinely global environmental issues.Less
This chapter discusses what has fundamentally changed in the making of American foreign environmental policy over three decades of international environmentalism. It describes three major developments since 1972: firstly, the tremendous growth in domestic environmentalism in the United States and its increasing professionalism; secondly, the establishment of new international institutions, especially the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP); and thirdly, the identification of even more complex and genuinely global environmental issues.
Lydia Andler
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- August 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780262012744
- eISBN:
- 9780262258593
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262012744.003.0008
- Subject:
- Political Science, Environmental Politics
Created one year before the 1992 Rio summit, the Global Environment Facility (GEF) is mandated to fund projects designed to promote global environmental protection. In 1994, it was restructured in ...
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Created one year before the 1992 Rio summit, the Global Environment Facility (GEF) is mandated to fund projects designed to promote global environmental protection. In 1994, it was restructured in response to strong criticism from nongovernmental organizations and developing countries, and today, has a unique institutional structure that includes a small secretariat headquartered in Washington, DC. This chapter examines the autonomous influence of the GEF secretariat as a bureaucracy and the factors underlying such influence. After providing an overview of the GEF secretariat’s organizational structure and activities, the chapter analyzes its cognitive, normative, and executive influences. It also discusses the secretariat’s resources, competences, and embeddedness, along with its organizational expertise, organizational culture, and organizational leadership.Less
Created one year before the 1992 Rio summit, the Global Environment Facility (GEF) is mandated to fund projects designed to promote global environmental protection. In 1994, it was restructured in response to strong criticism from nongovernmental organizations and developing countries, and today, has a unique institutional structure that includes a small secretariat headquartered in Washington, DC. This chapter examines the autonomous influence of the GEF secretariat as a bureaucracy and the factors underlying such influence. After providing an overview of the GEF secretariat’s organizational structure and activities, the chapter analyzes its cognitive, normative, and executive influences. It also discusses the secretariat’s resources, competences, and embeddedness, along with its organizational expertise, organizational culture, and organizational leadership.
Chris P. Nielsen and Mun S. Ho
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780262019880
- eISBN:
- 9780262315418
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262019880.003.0001
- Subject:
- Environmental Science, Environmental Studies
As the years go by, the future of the global environment becomes more affected by policy choices that China is making regarding its economy, use of energy, and atmospheric environment. However ...
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As the years go by, the future of the global environment becomes more affected by policy choices that China is making regarding its economy, use of energy, and atmospheric environment. However intractable China's atmospheric environmental challenges seem, its government deserves credit for trying energetically to respond over the last decade. However, the program pursued by the Chinese government has produced mixed results. This chapter analyses these results and states that these successes and failures must be understood in a broader context. The chapter states the goals of this book: the first is to develop a rigorous framework for integrated analyses of national emission control policies that recognizes the main elements of this complex web; the second is to apply this framework to evaluation of two sets of national emission control policies, one concerning the recent past and the other the near future.Less
As the years go by, the future of the global environment becomes more affected by policy choices that China is making regarding its economy, use of energy, and atmospheric environment. However intractable China's atmospheric environmental challenges seem, its government deserves credit for trying energetically to respond over the last decade. However, the program pursued by the Chinese government has produced mixed results. This chapter analyses these results and states that these successes and failures must be understood in a broader context. The chapter states the goals of this book: the first is to develop a rigorous framework for integrated analyses of national emission control policies that recognizes the main elements of this complex web; the second is to apply this framework to evaluation of two sets of national emission control policies, one concerning the recent past and the other the near future.
Eiko Maruko Siniawer
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781501725845
- eISBN:
- 9781501725852
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501725845.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
In the unsettled years of the 1990s, values and commitments that had retreated into the background in the previous decade emerged again, reframed and reconfigured for an era of economic uncertainty ...
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In the unsettled years of the 1990s, values and commitments that had retreated into the background in the previous decade emerged again, reframed and reconfigured for an era of economic uncertainty and global environmental challenges. Attempts to rearticulate priorities in the age of the global environment came to link waste consciousness and environmental consciousness, which together became established and widespread norms. Even as waste and wastefulness were not seen in fundamentally different ways, they took on new meanings and additional purposes as waste consciousness came to be understood in somewhat more global and somewhat less anthropocentric terms.Less
In the unsettled years of the 1990s, values and commitments that had retreated into the background in the previous decade emerged again, reframed and reconfigured for an era of economic uncertainty and global environmental challenges. Attempts to rearticulate priorities in the age of the global environment came to link waste consciousness and environmental consciousness, which together became established and widespread norms. Even as waste and wastefulness were not seen in fundamentally different ways, they took on new meanings and additional purposes as waste consciousness came to be understood in somewhat more global and somewhat less anthropocentric terms.
Tyler Volk
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- August 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780262194983
- eISBN:
- 9780262283182
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262194983.003.0004
- Subject:
- Environmental Science, Climate
This chapter presents a personal history of tackling the Gaia theory, and presents its premises and conclusions. According to this chapter, the relatively steady states in the global environment are ...
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This chapter presents a personal history of tackling the Gaia theory, and presents its premises and conclusions. According to this chapter, the relatively steady states in the global environment are simply the expected, natural results of a system containing chemical reactions, many of which involve life. The chapter further suggests that the global environment is, in essence, a wasteworld—a system of by-products and their effects. Add life to this wasteworld and it creates a complexly structured dynamical system, because life is not passive in nature. Organisms make metabolic products aimed to ensure their success at living and reproducing, not at transforming or controlling the global environment. However, in making these products, organisms also produce by-products, which lead to large-scale environmental side effects. The environmental consequences of the by-products are inadvertent but do create a system with evolutionary and population feedbacks.Less
This chapter presents a personal history of tackling the Gaia theory, and presents its premises and conclusions. According to this chapter, the relatively steady states in the global environment are simply the expected, natural results of a system containing chemical reactions, many of which involve life. The chapter further suggests that the global environment is, in essence, a wasteworld—a system of by-products and their effects. Add life to this wasteworld and it creates a complexly structured dynamical system, because life is not passive in nature. Organisms make metabolic products aimed to ensure their success at living and reproducing, not at transforming or controlling the global environment. However, in making these products, organisms also produce by-products, which lead to large-scale environmental side effects. The environmental consequences of the by-products are inadvertent but do create a system with evolutionary and population feedbacks.
Ulrich Fastenrath, Rudolf Geiger, Daniel-Erasmus Khan, Andreas Paulus, Sabine von Schorlemer, and Christoph Vedder (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199588817
- eISBN:
- 9780191725272
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199588817.001.0001
- Subject:
- Law, Public International Law
This Festschrift, dedicated to Judge Bruno Simma, traces the development of international law from regulating bilateral state-to-state relationships towards strengthening the entire international ...
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This Festschrift, dedicated to Judge Bruno Simma, traces the development of international law from regulating bilateral state-to-state relationships towards strengthening the entire international community by protecting human security, the global environment, and human rights. It provides both theoretical and practical insights into these sometimes conflicting goals, their basis in international law, and the role played by international institutions charged with upholding these values and interests. The work thus examines the mechanism by which international law contributes to the realization not only of individual State interests, but the interests of the international community as a whole. From this vantage point, it looks at the various functions that international law fulfils in the international community, from law-making and institution-building towards adjudication and the securing of human rights. Taken together, the chapters paint a detailed, but nevertheless comprehensive picture of the realization of community interest in contemporary international law. As professor and judge, Bruno Simma has contributed to all of these tasks: providing ground-breaking theoretical work, serving in the International Law Commission and in the Committee for Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, and finally, as a judge at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.Less
This Festschrift, dedicated to Judge Bruno Simma, traces the development of international law from regulating bilateral state-to-state relationships towards strengthening the entire international community by protecting human security, the global environment, and human rights. It provides both theoretical and practical insights into these sometimes conflicting goals, their basis in international law, and the role played by international institutions charged with upholding these values and interests. The work thus examines the mechanism by which international law contributes to the realization not only of individual State interests, but the interests of the international community as a whole. From this vantage point, it looks at the various functions that international law fulfils in the international community, from law-making and institution-building towards adjudication and the securing of human rights. Taken together, the chapters paint a detailed, but nevertheless comprehensive picture of the realization of community interest in contemporary international law. As professor and judge, Bruno Simma has contributed to all of these tasks: providing ground-breaking theoretical work, serving in the International Law Commission and in the Committee for Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, and finally, as a judge at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
Ian Jared Miller, Julia Adeney Thomas, and Brett L. Walker (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824836924
- eISBN:
- 9780824871109
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824836924.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This book explores the relationship between Japan's history, culture, and physical environment. It expands the focus of previous work on Japanese modernization by examining Japan's role in global ...
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This book explores the relationship between Japan's history, culture, and physical environment. It expands the focus of previous work on Japanese modernization by examining Japan's role in global environmental transformation and how Japanese ideas have shaped bodies and landscapes over the centuries. The immediacy of Earth's environmental crisis, a predicament highlighted by Japan's March 2011 disaster, brings a sense of urgency to the study of Japan and its global connections. The book is an environmental history in the broadest sense of the term because it contains writing by environmental anthropologists, a legendary Japanese economist, and scholars of Japanese literature and culture. The editors have brought some of the finest scholars in the field who, rather than treat it in isolation or as a unique cultural community, seek to connect Japan to global environmental currents such as whaling, world fisheries, mountaineering and science, mining and industrial pollution, and relations with nonhuman animals. The book asserts the importance of the environment in understanding Japan's history and proposes a new balance between nature and culture, one weighted much more heavily on the side of natural legacies. This approach does not discount culture. Instead, it suggests that the Japanese experience of nature, like that of all human beings, is a complex and intimate negotiation between the physical and cultural worlds.Less
This book explores the relationship between Japan's history, culture, and physical environment. It expands the focus of previous work on Japanese modernization by examining Japan's role in global environmental transformation and how Japanese ideas have shaped bodies and landscapes over the centuries. The immediacy of Earth's environmental crisis, a predicament highlighted by Japan's March 2011 disaster, brings a sense of urgency to the study of Japan and its global connections. The book is an environmental history in the broadest sense of the term because it contains writing by environmental anthropologists, a legendary Japanese economist, and scholars of Japanese literature and culture. The editors have brought some of the finest scholars in the field who, rather than treat it in isolation or as a unique cultural community, seek to connect Japan to global environmental currents such as whaling, world fisheries, mountaineering and science, mining and industrial pollution, and relations with nonhuman animals. The book asserts the importance of the environment in understanding Japan's history and proposes a new balance between nature and culture, one weighted much more heavily on the side of natural legacies. This approach does not discount culture. Instead, it suggests that the Japanese experience of nature, like that of all human beings, is a complex and intimate negotiation between the physical and cultural worlds.
Allen Thompson and Jeremy Bendik-Keymer (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780262017534
- eISBN:
- 9780262301541
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262017534.001.0001
- Subject:
- Environmental Science, Climate
Predictions about global climate change have produced both stark scenarios of environmental catastrophe and purportedly pragmatic ideas about adaptation. This book takes a different perspective, ...
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Predictions about global climate change have produced both stark scenarios of environmental catastrophe and purportedly pragmatic ideas about adaptation. This book takes a different perspective, exploring the idea that the challenge of adapting to global climate change is fundamentally an ethical one, that it is not simply a matter of adapting our infrastructures and economies to mitigate damage but rather of adapting ourselves to realities of a new global climate. The challenge is to restore our conception of humanity—to understand human flourishing in new ways—in an age in which humanity shapes the basic conditions of the global environment. In the face of what we have unintentionally done to Earth’s ecology, who shall we become? The contributors examine ways that new realities will require us to revisit and adjust the practice of ecological restoration; the place of ecology in our conception of justice; the form and substance of traditional virtues and vices; and the organizations, scale, and underlying metaphors of important institutions. Topics discussed include historical fidelity in ecological restoration; the application of capability theory to ecology; the questionable ethics of geoengineering; and the cognitive transformation required if we are to “think like a planet.”Less
Predictions about global climate change have produced both stark scenarios of environmental catastrophe and purportedly pragmatic ideas about adaptation. This book takes a different perspective, exploring the idea that the challenge of adapting to global climate change is fundamentally an ethical one, that it is not simply a matter of adapting our infrastructures and economies to mitigate damage but rather of adapting ourselves to realities of a new global climate. The challenge is to restore our conception of humanity—to understand human flourishing in new ways—in an age in which humanity shapes the basic conditions of the global environment. In the face of what we have unintentionally done to Earth’s ecology, who shall we become? The contributors examine ways that new realities will require us to revisit and adjust the practice of ecological restoration; the place of ecology in our conception of justice; the form and substance of traditional virtues and vices; and the organizations, scale, and underlying metaphors of important institutions. Topics discussed include historical fidelity in ecological restoration; the application of capability theory to ecology; the questionable ethics of geoengineering; and the cognitive transformation required if we are to “think like a planet.”
Dale Jamieson
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- April 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199337668
- eISBN:
- 9780199357468
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199337668.003.0002
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy, Political Philosophy
This chapter begins with the rise of climate science, takes us to the enthusiasm and energy of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, and culminates in the debacle of the 2009 Copenhagen Climate Change ...
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This chapter begins with the rise of climate science, takes us to the enthusiasm and energy of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, and culminates in the debacle of the 2009 Copenhagen Climate Change Conference. Like other sciences, climate science developed incrementally. By the 1950s climate change was being discussed in the popular press. By 1965 it had been mentioned by the President of the United States. In 1988 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was established to provide objective information about climate change to decision-makers around the world. In 1992 the largest gathering of heads of state ever assembled met at the Rio Earth Summit. The Rio dream was that the countries of the North and South would join hands to protect the global environment and lift up the world’s poor. At Copenhagen in 2009 it became clear that the dream was over.Less
This chapter begins with the rise of climate science, takes us to the enthusiasm and energy of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, and culminates in the debacle of the 2009 Copenhagen Climate Change Conference. Like other sciences, climate science developed incrementally. By the 1950s climate change was being discussed in the popular press. By 1965 it had been mentioned by the President of the United States. In 1988 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was established to provide objective information about climate change to decision-makers around the world. In 1992 the largest gathering of heads of state ever assembled met at the Rio Earth Summit. The Rio dream was that the countries of the North and South would join hands to protect the global environment and lift up the world’s poor. At Copenhagen in 2009 it became clear that the dream was over.
Kirk Hamilton
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199676880
- eISBN:
- 9780191756252
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199676880.003.0009
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Development, Growth, and Environmental
Biodiversity, a property of natural areas, provides a range of benefits to the economy including bio-prospecting rents, knowledge and insurance, ecotourism fees, and ecosystem services. Many of these ...
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Biodiversity, a property of natural areas, provides a range of benefits to the economy including bio-prospecting rents, knowledge and insurance, ecotourism fees, and ecosystem services. Many of these values can be broken out in the System of National Accounts (SNA), leading to better estimates of the economic losses when natural areas are degraded or destroyed. Developing countries harbour the great majority of biodiversity, and this diversity provides benefits, including knowledge and carbon sequestration, to the whole world. However, protecting biodiversity is particularly costly for developing countries: the opportunity cost of forgoing development of natural areas exceeds 1% of GDP in fifty-eight developing countries, versus only four OECD countries. The Global Environment Facility (GEF) can offset these costs through grant finance, but annual GEF finance and co-finance averages only 8% of the opportunity costs faced by low-income countries.Less
Biodiversity, a property of natural areas, provides a range of benefits to the economy including bio-prospecting rents, knowledge and insurance, ecotourism fees, and ecosystem services. Many of these values can be broken out in the System of National Accounts (SNA), leading to better estimates of the economic losses when natural areas are degraded or destroyed. Developing countries harbour the great majority of biodiversity, and this diversity provides benefits, including knowledge and carbon sequestration, to the whole world. However, protecting biodiversity is particularly costly for developing countries: the opportunity cost of forgoing development of natural areas exceeds 1% of GDP in fifty-eight developing countries, versus only four OECD countries. The Global Environment Facility (GEF) can offset these costs through grant finance, but annual GEF finance and co-finance averages only 8% of the opportunity costs faced by low-income countries.
M. Cherif Bassiouni, Gomula Joanna, Paolo Mengozzi, John G. Merrills, Rafael Nieto Navia, Anna Oriolo, William Schabas, and Anna Vigorito (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- April 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199332304
- eISBN:
- 9780190259815
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199332304.001.0001
- Subject:
- Law, Public International Law
This book offers a broad and challenging view of the changing world society and the implications of globalization for the content and structure of the law, the development of judicial institutions, ...
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This book offers a broad and challenging view of the changing world society and the implications of globalization for the content and structure of the law, the development of judicial institutions, and the shaping of world policies. The chapters offer insights into different aspects of globalization and its implications on changes in the world system. It examines a variety of current issues relating to international law, judicial institutions, and global policies, focusing on different aspects of globalization and its implications on key areas of the world system, with a particular focus on issues such as, human rights, global justice, global politics, global environment, and public goods. This special edition presents not only a systemic approach to changes in the world system but gives us the outline of the future evolution of the role of law, justice, and policy in tomorrow's increasingly globalized society. This book offers the advantage of simultaneously covering new insights into the meaning and function of the concept of globalization, combined with a thorough analysis of the evolutionary trends in key areas of the world system to provide a unified vision.Less
This book offers a broad and challenging view of the changing world society and the implications of globalization for the content and structure of the law, the development of judicial institutions, and the shaping of world policies. The chapters offer insights into different aspects of globalization and its implications on changes in the world system. It examines a variety of current issues relating to international law, judicial institutions, and global policies, focusing on different aspects of globalization and its implications on key areas of the world system, with a particular focus on issues such as, human rights, global justice, global politics, global environment, and public goods. This special edition presents not only a systemic approach to changes in the world system but gives us the outline of the future evolution of the role of law, justice, and policy in tomorrow's increasingly globalized society. This book offers the advantage of simultaneously covering new insights into the meaning and function of the concept of globalization, combined with a thorough analysis of the evolutionary trends in key areas of the world system to provide a unified vision.
Ann Phoenix, Uma Vennam, Catherine Walker, and Janet Boddy
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781447339199
- eISBN:
- 9781447339229
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447339199.003.0002
- Subject:
- Social Work, Children and Families
This chapter explores the situated, dynamic, and relational complexities, and of the ways in which space, place, and time intersect with meanings of environment in the everyday lives of children and ...
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This chapter explores the situated, dynamic, and relational complexities, and of the ways in which space, place, and time intersect with meanings of environment in the everyday lives of children and families. It sets out to disrupt assumptions of Minority to Majority world learning, and homogenising notions of cross-national in/comparability, through a methodological approach designed to create an analytic conversation across diverse contexts within and between India and the UK. The chapter focuses on the relationality and materiality of everyday lives, devising a multi-method approach in order to capture the interconnectedness of family lives and practices. It uses a common world approach that seeks to avoid the unhelpful binarisations of big and small or ‘global’ and ‘local’ environments, which act as a barrier to understanding.Less
This chapter explores the situated, dynamic, and relational complexities, and of the ways in which space, place, and time intersect with meanings of environment in the everyday lives of children and families. It sets out to disrupt assumptions of Minority to Majority world learning, and homogenising notions of cross-national in/comparability, through a methodological approach designed to create an analytic conversation across diverse contexts within and between India and the UK. The chapter focuses on the relationality and materiality of everyday lives, devising a multi-method approach in order to capture the interconnectedness of family lives and practices. It uses a common world approach that seeks to avoid the unhelpful binarisations of big and small or ‘global’ and ‘local’ environments, which act as a barrier to understanding.
Sébastien Dutreuil
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780226569871
- eISBN:
- 9780226570075
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226570075.003.0018
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
After a career as a chemist and engineer, James Lovelock proposed the Gaia hypothesis in the 1970s with Lynn Margulis, a biologist. The hypothesis highlights the important influence that living ...
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After a career as a chemist and engineer, James Lovelock proposed the Gaia hypothesis in the 1970s with Lynn Margulis, a biologist. The hypothesis highlights the important influence that living beings have on their geological environment to speculate about the possibility of a regulation of the planetary environment. From the beginning Lovelock saw Gaia as a grand idea, challenging the way biology and geology should be carried out, up to our very conception of nature. This chapter recalls the rich context in which the hypothesis was elaborated in the 1960s and 1970s. It then traces Gaia’s contrasted reception. Whereas evolutionary biologists ridiculed it as a pseudo-metaphor comparing the earth with an organism, Gaia has generated new research programs in the earth sciences and has been embraced by the environmental counterculture as a new conception of nature and of our relationships with the earth.Less
After a career as a chemist and engineer, James Lovelock proposed the Gaia hypothesis in the 1970s with Lynn Margulis, a biologist. The hypothesis highlights the important influence that living beings have on their geological environment to speculate about the possibility of a regulation of the planetary environment. From the beginning Lovelock saw Gaia as a grand idea, challenging the way biology and geology should be carried out, up to our very conception of nature. This chapter recalls the rich context in which the hypothesis was elaborated in the 1960s and 1970s. It then traces Gaia’s contrasted reception. Whereas evolutionary biologists ridiculed it as a pseudo-metaphor comparing the earth with an organism, Gaia has generated new research programs in the earth sciences and has been embraced by the environmental counterculture as a new conception of nature and of our relationships with the earth.
Stolarski Richard S.
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226284132
- eISBN:
- 9780226284163
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226284163.003.0018
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
Ozone in the stratosphere shields the Earth from ultraviolet radiation. Worries about the possible depletion of this protective layer led, in the early 1980s, to international attempts to control ...
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Ozone in the stratosphere shields the Earth from ultraviolet radiation. Worries about the possible depletion of this protective layer led, in the early 1980s, to international attempts to control chlorofluorocarbons, the manmade chemicals thought to be responsible. But it took the dramatic discovery of the Antarctic “ozone hole,” in 1985, to show that humans really were modifying the global environment. The resulting international agreements have put the atmosphere on the road to recovery and provide a model for environmental stewardship. The discovery of the ozone hole gave a huge jolt to the field. Dynamicists thought it might be the result of ozone-poor air flowing upward from the lower atmosphere. The ozone hole was the first clear evidence that man could damage the global environment, but it also provided the first case of concerted international action to counteract such an effect. Its story provides both a cautionary tale and a guiding light for the future, when other environmental threats to the planet will have to be faced by humanity as a whole.Less
Ozone in the stratosphere shields the Earth from ultraviolet radiation. Worries about the possible depletion of this protective layer led, in the early 1980s, to international attempts to control chlorofluorocarbons, the manmade chemicals thought to be responsible. But it took the dramatic discovery of the Antarctic “ozone hole,” in 1985, to show that humans really were modifying the global environment. The resulting international agreements have put the atmosphere on the road to recovery and provide a model for environmental stewardship. The discovery of the ozone hole gave a huge jolt to the field. Dynamicists thought it might be the result of ozone-poor air flowing upward from the lower atmosphere. The ozone hole was the first clear evidence that man could damage the global environment, but it also provided the first case of concerted international action to counteract such an effect. Its story provides both a cautionary tale and a guiding light for the future, when other environmental threats to the planet will have to be faced by humanity as a whole.
