Average customer rating: |
Global Sustainability: Bending the Curve (Routledge/Sei Global Environment and Developmentseries, 3)
G. Gallopin , and Paul D. Raskin Manufacturer: Routledge ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover ASIN: 0415265924 |
Book Description
Unprecedented levels of wealth, technology and institutional capacity can forge a just, peaceful and ecologically resilient future. However, the authors argue, social polarization, geo-political conflict and environmental degredation are threatening the long-term well-being of humanity and the planet.
Average customer rating: |
Environmental Governance Reconsidered: Challenges, Choices, and Opportunities (American and Comparative Environmental Policy)
Manufacturer: The MIT Press ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 0262541742 |
Book Description
This survey of current issues and controversies in environmental policy and management is unique in its thematic mix, broad coverage of key debates and approaches, and in-depth analysis of concepts treated less thoroughly in other texts. The contributing authors, all distinguished scholars or practitioners, offer a comprehensive examination of key topics in environmental governance today, including perspectives from environmental economics, democratic theory, public policy, law, political science, and public administration. Environmental Governance Reconsidered is the first book to integrate these wide-ranging topics and perspectives thematically in one volume.
Average customer rating:
|
Violent Environments
Manufacturer: Cornell University Press ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 0801487110 |
Customer Reviews:
Nice book that demonstrates why environmental conflicts can turn into violence.......2006-07-23
Average customer rating: |
Environmental Ethics: Concepts, Policy, and Theory
Joseph R. DesJardins Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 1559349867 |
Book Description
This exciting anthology emphasizes ethical issues in environmental policy while providing balanced coverage of theoretical perspectives and applied environmental topics.
Average customer rating: |
The Public Economics of the Environment (The Lindahl Lectures)
Agnar Sandmo Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover ASIN: 019829798X |
Book Description
Environmental policy is high on the political agenda in many countries. Considering the various dimensions of environmental quality as public goods, Sandmo identifies the failures of the market mechanism in the face of environmental problems and shows how economic policy should be designed to overcome them. Specific topics covered include the assessment of environmental benefits and costs, the choice between taxes and quotas as policy tools, the principles of environmental taxation in a second-best world, the various notions of the double dividend from environmental tax reform, and international aspects of environmental policy as well as its political economy ramifications. The treatment is mainly theoretical, but the emphasis throughout is on showing how theory can be relevant to the rational design of economic policy.
Average customer rating: |
Lost Landscapes and Failed Economies: The Search For A Value Of Place
Thomas Michael Power Manufacturer: Island Press ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover Similar Items:
ASIN: 1559633689 |
Amazon.com
Today's academic economists have, for the most part, withdrawn from "the parochial fray of local economic development policy" in pursuit analyzing broader national and international issues. Not so, says Thomas Michael Power, whose intent in his scholarly and deeply felt Lost Landscapes and Failed Economies is to address the fundamental errors and distractions inherent in folk economics. Power is uniquely suited to the task. A professor at the University of Montana, his is the perfect perch from which to regard the rapacious plunder of local and state economies by the mining and timber companies."A popular folk economics," Power writes, "teaches us that the extraction and processing of natural resources are the heart of economic development, that 'all wealth springs from the earth.'" Power argues against this conventional model of extractive-dependent communities. Such models play a role, he proves, in the decline and destabilization of local economies. To see landscape and its preservation not as an aesthetic whim but as an economic necessity is a brave and lonely stance, indeed. Economic health equals nothing less than "avoiding needless damage to the natural--and therefore human--environment."
We recognize the battle lines, clearly drawn between the environmental and resource-industry sides. At stake: both the extinction of whole species and traditional ways of life that have supported families and communities for generations. "If we could lay to rest," Power argues, "the fear that environmental protection will cause the imminent economic collapse of communities, the acrimony would subside and it would be much easier to engage in civil discourse over the real choices communities face." With a persuasive overview and the use of powerful case studies on the impact of ranching, mining, and timber on the land, Thomas Power has himself extracted a clear definition of the real issues from the rubble of misguided passions, paranoia, and a divisive media.
Book Description
Over the past two decades, a growing consensus has emerged among Americans as to the importance of environmental quality. Yet at the same time, conflict over environmental issues has built to a point where rational discussion is often impossible. Efforts to protect unique ecosystems and endangered wildlife are portrayed as threatening entire regions and ways of life, and anti-environmental groups such as the Wise Use Movement are able to use economic insecurity as a weapon in an ongoing attempt to rescind environmental protection measures.
In Lost Landscapes and Failed Economics, economist Thomas Michael Power argues that the quality of the natural landscape is an essential part of a community's permanent economic base and need not be sacrificed in short-term efforts to maintain employment levels in industries that are ultimately not sustainable. He provides numerous case studies of the ranching, mining, and timber industries in a critical analysis of the role played by extractive industry in our communities. In addition, he looks at areas where environmental protection measures have been enacted and examines the impact of protected landscapes on local economies.
Both environmental protection and extractive industry are economic activities that can contribute to local economic well-being. Both generate jobs and income. Both have a significant impact on people's lives. Power exposes the fundamental flaws in the widely accepted view of the local economy built around the "extractive model," a model that overemphasizes the importance of extractive industries and assumes that people don't care where they live and that businesses don't care about the available labor supply. By revealing the inadequacies of the extractive model, he lays to rest fears that environmental protection will cause an imminent collapse of the community, and puts economic tools in the hands of those working to protect their communities.
Average customer rating:
|
Trade and the Environment: Theory and Evidence (Princeton Series in International Economics)
Brian R. Copeland , and M. Scott Taylor Manufacturer: Princeton University Press ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 0691124000 |
Book Description
Nowhere has the divide between advocates and critics of globalization been more striking than in debates over free trade and the environment. And yet the literature on the subject is high on rhetoric and low on results. This book is the first to systematically investigate the subject using both economic theory and empirical analysis. Brian Copeland and Scott Taylor establish a powerful theoretical framework for examining the impact of international trade on local pollution levels, and use it to offer a uniquely integrated treatment of the links between economic growth, liberalized trade, and the environment. The results will surprise many.
The authors set out the two leading theories linking international trade to environmental outcomes, develop the empirical implications, and examine their validity using data on measured sulfur dioxide concentrations from over 100 cities worldwide during the period from 1971 to 1986.
The empirical results are provocative. For an average country in the sample, free trade is good for the environment. There is little evidence that developing countries will specialize in pollution-intensive products with further trade. In fact, the results suggest just the opposite: free trade will shift pollution-intensive goods production from poor countries with lax regulation to rich countries with tight regulation, thereby lowering world pollution. The results also suggest that pollution declines amid economic growth fueled by economy-wide technological progress but rises when growth is fueled by capital accumulation alone.
Lucidly argued and authoritatively written, this book will provide students and researchers of international trade and environmental economics a more reliable way of thinking about this contentious issue, and the methodological tools with which to do so.
Customer Reviews:
required reading.......2003-11-07
Chapter 2 lays out the analytical framework, which fuses a general model of competitive trade with a tractable treatment of industrial pollution. This comprehensive chapter does such a good job at covering the underlying competitive trade theory that I will probably also use it to teach such models in my graduate International Trade classes in the future.
The following chapters utilize the analytical model to address pressing debates within international environmental economics. Chapter 3 examines the theoretical assumptions that would be necessary for "Environmental Kuznet's Curves" (EKCs) to exist. This chapter alone is enough to recommend this book, as a decade of prior research on EKCs has failed to provide a systematic theoretical treatment of the subject.
In chapters 4, 5 and 6, Copeland and Taylor examine the impacts of trade liberalization on environmental quality. In preparation for their empirical chapter, the authors provide a systematic analysis of two competing hypotheses: the Pollution Havens hypothesis, and the Factor Endowments hypothesis. The Pollution Havens hypothesis argues that trade liberalization will drive polluting industry to poor countries that have weak environmental regulations. Yet little of the previous empirical work has found support for this hypothesis. Copeland and Taylor show that a long-accepted relationship from trade theory---the Factor Endowments hypothesis, which argues that trade liberalization will shift capital intensive industry to capital intensive (rich) countries---has an offsetting effect on the location of dirty industry, and provides a likely explanation for the non-results of previous empirical work. This is an argument the authors have made elsewhere, and I am glad that they allocate the space in their book to fleshing out the details.
In chapter 7 Copeland and Taylor draw together the theoretical predictions of their previous chapters to test empirically how free trade affects sulphur-dioxide concentrations in countries around the globe. They reveal that openness per se has little impact on pollution concentrations; instead, what matters is the combination of openness and country attributes. They conclude with a compelling `1% rule': "if openness to international markets raises both output and income by 1%, [sulfur-dioxide] concentrations fall by approximately 1%" (p.272). That is, freer trade may be good for the environment.
My only complaint with the book is that it isn't longer. The authors focus on the problem of industrial pollution in competitive, open economies. Additional chapters covering cases in which firms exert market power, or in which pollution is generated by consumers directly, would also be useful for students and practitioners alike. I suppose this means they'll just have to be encouraged to write a second volume.
A self-contained monograph of pioneering work.......2003-10-31
A self-contained monograph of pioneering work.......2003-10-18
Average customer rating:
|
Exploring the Gaps: Vital Links Between Trade, Environment and Culture
James R. Lee Manufacturer: Kumarian Press ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback ASIN: 1565491149 |
Book Description
Today's dramatic globalization parallels earlier historical periods of rapid technological change that brought contested benefits and costs. James Lee argues that the current pace of technological change is on a collision course with the human ability to absorb it, but that we can learn lessons from the past to help us resolve todays' problems.Exploring the Gaps looks at how the growing tensions between economic, ecological and social factors threaten our ability to make trade and cultural exchanges work to benefit people and the world around them. Through case studies collected by the Trade Environment Database Project, Lee's powerful argument provides a blueprint to meet the challenges of elemental reintegration at global and local levels. It will interest anyone concerned with the issues of development, environment, globalization and political economy.
Customer Reviews:
Recommended and informative for students of global trade.......2001-01-11
A must read in this age of globalization and e-commerce.......2000-11-16
While many might suspect it to be purely academic, everyone from the dot-com manager to the international businessman will benefit from this book. International Trade, and Electronic Trade are not mutually exclusive terms anymore. This book makes that clearer than ever.
The historical perspectives offered here confirm that this process started ages before the "dot-com age". This historical context is invaluable. This is as much a history book as it is a book about the present and the future. There aren't many works that marry economics, anthropology, sociology, history and geography in such a fascinating manner, with implications for today's e-world.
One recommendation would be to have a few more graphics, but when read in conjunction with the websites listed, this book really does come alive in a sense.
The globalization debate and discourse is richer for this book.
A must read in this age of globalization and e-commerce.......2000-11-16
While many might suspect it to be purely academic, everyone from the dot-com manager to the international businessman will benefit from this book. International Trade, and Electronic Trade are not mutually exclusive terms anymore. This book makes that clearer than ever.
The historical perspectives offered here confirm that this process started ages before the "dot-com age". This historical context is invaluable. This is as much a history book as it is a book about the present and the future. There aren't many works that marry economics, anthropology, sociology, history and geography in such a fascinating manner, with implications for today's e-world.
One recommendation would be to have a few more graphics, but when read in conjunction with the websites listed, this book really does come alive in a sense.
The globalization debate and discourse ir richer for this book.
Average customer rating:
|
The Perception of Risk (Earthscan Risk and Society Series)
Paul Slovic Manufacturer: Earthscan Publications Ltd. ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 1853835285 |
Book Description
The concept of risk is an outgrowth of our society's great concern about coping with the dangers of modern life. "The Perception of Risk" brings together the work of Paul Slovic, one of the world's leading analysts of risk, risk perception and risk management.Customer Reviews:
Risk book purchase without risk.......2001-06-23
No one who has come across the term risk perception can have missed Paul Slovic's name. As one of the leading scientists in the field of risk perception, Paul has covered large areas and tackled various problems in order to show how we view, react to, and handle situations and problems related to what we in common language call risk.
To call him one of the founders of the psychometric paradigm is too plain a characterization of the scientific contribution of Paul Slovic. The psychometric methodology is just the means he has used to study how human beings perceive, judge and make decisions about risk in various situations. He has introduced psychological aspects of risk into natural sciences, where risk earlier has been considered as a numerical and objectively assessable quantity. Now physicists, chemists, and even engineers realize that risk perception cannot be ignored and is influenced by many factors (e.g. voluntariness, familiarity, dread, equity) relating to risk and how risk is described. For those who want to make risk comparisons, inform people about risks or do anything else regarding risk, it is necessary to be familiar with risk perception.
With his great openness, Paul has been able to collaborate with scientists from many different areas, both scientifically and geographically. In this way he has improved and enriched his work with practical aspects in many domains, particularly radioactivity and use of chemicals. Therefore it possible for most scientists to find in this book interesting reading related to their own problems. The book only contains about an eighth (but a representative sample) of Paul's total scientific production. As the papers are ordered chronologically, it is easy to follow the development in time of different ideas and conclusions and to see how later studies derive from earlier ones in a logical way. Thus, in the two last chapters of the book, the ideas and views on risk are further expanded and offer exciting vistas for the future. In the same way as many of Paul's earlier ideas have been accepted and continued by later researchers, his recent views about "the affect heuristic" most certainly will be the subject for many future scientific publications.
t.malmfors@chello.se
Average customer rating: |
Joint Production And Responsibility in Ecological Economics: On the Foundations of Environmental Policy (Advances in Ecological Economics)
Malte Michael Faber , and Johannes Schiller Manufacturer: Edward Elgar Publishing ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover ASIN: 1840648724 |
Book Description
This groundbreaking book takes a fresh look at how environmental problems emerge from economic activity and how they may be addressed in a responsible and sustainable manner. At its center is the concept of joint production. This captures the phenomenon whereby several effects necessarily emerge from one activity and whereby human action always entails unintended consequences. This, according to the authors, is the structural cause behind modern-day environmental problems.Combining concepts and methods from philosophy of science, systems theory, thermodynamics, economics and ethics in a truly interdisciplinary manner, the authors convincingly argue that the joint-production perspective has fundamental and far-reaching implications for the valuation of economic goods, the dynamic analysis of economy-environment interactions, and the accumulation of stocks in ecological-economic systems. Complementing the joint-production perspective with the ethical notion of responsibility, the authors develop principles of sustainable environmental policy, and give philosophical support to the precautionary principle. Four extensive case studies illustrate and deepen the approach.
With a wide range of analysis and case studies, this book will be of great interest to researchers and students in ecological economics, environmental and resource economics, environmental policy and regulation, environmental valuation, as well as environmental ethics and responsibility.
Books:
Recommended Books