Humans are no longer spectators who need to adapt to their natural environment. Our impact on the earth has caused changes that are outside the range of natural variability and are equivalent to such ...major geological disruptions as ice ages. Some scientists argue that we have entered a new epoch in planetary history: the Anthropocene. In such an era of planet-wide transformation, we need a new model for planet-wide environmental politics. In this book, Frank Biermann proposes "earth system" governance as just such a new paradigm.Biermann offers both analytical and normative perspectives. He provides detailed analysis of global environmental politics in terms of five dimensions of effective governance: agency, particularly agency beyond that of state actors; architecture of governance, from local to global levels; accountability and legitimacy; equitable allocation of resources; and adaptiveness of governance systems. Biermann goes on to offer a wide range of policy proposals for future environmental governance and a revitalized United Nations, including the establishment of a World Environment Organization and a UN Sustainable Development Council, new mechanisms for strengthened representation of civil society and scientists in global decision making, innovative systems of qualified majority voting in multilateral negotiations, and novel institutions to protect those impacted by global change. Drawing on ten years of research, Biermann formulates earth system governance as an empirical reality and a political necessity.
Ancient lessons for sustainable citizenship An ecologically sustainable society cannot be achieved without citizens who possess the virtues and values that will foster it, and who believe that ...individual actions can indeed make a difference. Eco-Republic draws on ancient Greek thought—and Plato's Republic in particular—to put forward a new vision of citizenship that can make such a society a reality. Melissa Lane develops a model of a society whose health and sustainability depend on all its citizens recognizing a shared standard of value and shaping their personal goals and habits accordingly. Bringing together the moral and political ideas of the ancients with the latest social and psychological theory, Lane illuminates the individual's vital role in social change, and articulates new ways of understanding what is harmful and what is valuable, what is a benefit and what is a cost, and what the relationship between public and private well-being ought to be. Eco-Republic reveals why we must rethink our political imagination if we are to meet the challenges of climate change and other urgent environmental concerns. Offering a unique reflection on the ethics and politics of sustainability, the book goes beyond standard approaches to virtue ethics in philosophy and current debates about happiness in economics and psychology. Eco-Republic explains why health is a better standard than happiness for capturing the important links between individual action and social good, and diagnoses the reasons why the ancient concept of virtue has been sorely neglected yet is more relevant today than ever.
A discerning analysis of the future effects of climate
change on Russia, the major power most dependent on the fossil fuel
economy. Russia will be one of the countries most affected
by climate ...change. No major power is more economically dependent on
the export of hydrocarbons; at the same time, two-thirds of
Russia's territory lies in the arctic north, where melting
permafrost is already imposing growing damage. Climate change also
brings drought and floods to Russia's south, threatening the
country's agricultural exports. Thane Gustafson predicts that, over
the next thirty years, climate change will leave a dramatic imprint
on Russia. The decline of fossil fuel use is already underway, and
restrictions on hydrocarbons will only tighten, cutting fuel prices
and slashing Russia's export revenues. Yet Russia has no
substitutes for oil and gas revenues. The country is unprepared for
the worldwide transition to renewable energy, as Russian leaders
continue to invest the national wealth in oil and gas while
dismissing the promise of post-carbon technologies. Nor has the
state made efforts to offset the direct damage that climate change
will do inside the country. Optimists point to new
opportunities-higher temperatures could increase agricultural
yields, the melting of arctic ice may open year-round shipping
lanes in the far north, and Russia could become a global
nuclear-energy supplier. But the eventual post-Putin generation of
Russian leaders will nonetheless face enormous handicaps, as their
country finds itself weaker than at any time in the preceding
century. Lucid and thought-provoking, Klimat shows how
climate change is poised to alter the global order, potentially
toppling even great powers from their perches.
The fall of the Soviet Union was a transformative event for the national political economies of Eastern Europe, leading not only to new regimes of ownership and development but to dramatic changes in ...the natural world itself. This painstakingly researched volume focuses on the emblematic case of postsocialist Romania, in which the transition from collectivization to privatization profoundly reshaped the nation's forests, farmlands, and rivers. From bureaucrats abetting illegal deforestation to peasants opposing government agricultural policies, it reveals the social and political mechanisms by which neoliberalism was introduced into the Romanian landscape.
How Latin American countries became leading voices and innovators on addressing climate change—and what threatens their leadership.
Latin American countries have increased their influence at the ...United Nations climate change negotiations and offered potential solutions on coping with global warming. But in the face of competing priorities, sometimes these climate policies are jettisoned, undermined, or simply ignored.
A Fragmented Continent focuses on Latin America's three major blocs at the U.N. climate negotiations and how they attempt to balance climate action with building prosperity. Brazil has reduced its deforestation but continues its drive for economic growth and global recognition. A leftist group led by Venezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador decries the injustice of climate change but is highly dependent on the export of fossil fuels. A new group, including Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru and supported by Mexico, offers sharp reductions in their carbon emissions in return for greater action by others; these countries now have to deliver on their promises. Weaving together issues of politics and economy, trade, foreign policy, civil society, and environmental protection, A Fragmented Continent offers a long-missing perspective on one of this century's greatest challenges and neglected regions.
The world has witnessed extraordinary economic growth, poverty reduction and increased life expectancy and population since the end of WWII, but it has occurred at the expense of undermining life ...support systems on Earth and subjecting future generations to the real risk of destabilising the planet. This timely book exposes and explores this colossal environmental cost and the dangerous position the world is now in. Standing up for a Sustainable World is written by and about key individuals who have not only understood the threats to our planet, but also become witness to them and confronted them.
Bereits im 18. Jahrhundert fragten Philosoph*innen, Mediziner*innen und Anthropolog*innen nach dem Einfluss des Klimas auf den Menschen: Waren Differenzen in Körperbau und Hautfarbe Wirkungen des ...Klimas? Bestimmte die Umwelt den menschlichen Charakter? Und waren unterschiedliche Staatsformen das Resultat verschiedener Klimata? Im Zentrum stand dabei auch die Frage nach der Autonomie der Vernunft gegenüber der Natur. Bernd Kleinhans gibt einen Überblick über die Klimadebatten dieser Zeit und zeichnet die Grundpositionen des Diskurses nach. Dabei wird deutlich: Die Frage nach dem Verhältnis des Menschen zu seiner Umwelt ist eines der Grundprobleme der Moderne.
The global governance of climate change is in flux. Conventional strategies of addressing climate change through universal, interstate negotiations--the most prominent of which is the Kyoto ...Protocol--have been stymied by the gaps that exist between the negotiating powers of states, rendering such initiatives stagnant and ineffectual. In response, a number of new actors and processes have begun to challenge the traditionally exclusive authority of nation-states to create rules and manage environmental problems via multi-national treaties. Dozens of innovative climate response initiatives, or "governance experiments," have emerged at multiple levels of politics and across multiple jurisdictions: individuals, cities, states/provinces, corporations, and even new multilateral initiatives. Climate Governance at the Crossroads explains how and why these new governance experiments have emerged, drawing upon a database of such initiatives to ascertain how these initiatives fit together and how they influence what is defined as environmental governance. In assessing the relational impact of these initiatives (whether they complement each other or clash; whether they can be scaled up or down; and whether they can be expanded beyond their current jurisdictional and geographic boundaries), Matthew Hoffmann provides insight into whether this experimentation is likely to result in an effective response to climate change. Additionally, he draws broader conclusions about how we understand global governance, addressing questions of how we understand authority and what we accept as modes of rule-making in global political spaces. Available in OSO: http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/oso/public/content/politicalscience/9780195390087/toc.html
