Global Environmental Politics
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Book Description
In the past two decades, scientific understanding of global environmental issues has increased enormously. The realization that environmental threats can have serious socioeconomic and human costs and that they cannot be solved by the unilateral decisions of states has given impetus to increased international cooperation to halt or reverse environmental degradation. But in each case some states-and certain economic interests-have opposed strong international actions to reduce or eliminate activities that threaten the global environment. The result is an intensifying struggle over global environmental issues. As global negotiations multiply on issues affecting a wide range of interests around the globe, the stakes for all the participants in the struggle will continue to grow. This book provides a good introduction to global environmental politics, the actors and the issues involved and the socioeconomic factors that have an impact on both the actors and the issues. The book opens with an introduction to the concept of global environmental politics a summary of the role of international regimes in environmental politics and a review of the importance of the 1992 Earth Summit. The second chapter examines the wide variety of actors in the environmental arena, including states, international organizations, nongovernmental organizations, and the business community. Chapter Three examines the development of international environmental regimes through the use of ten case studies: acid rain, ozone depletion, whaling, endangered species, toxic waste, the Antarctic environment, global warming, biodiversity loss, desertification and fisheries. Once regimes are developed, they have to be effectively implemented to be successful. This is the topic of Chapter Four, which specifically looks at improving compliance with environmental conventions, financing global environmental regimes and strengthening existing regimes. Chapter Five focuses on economics and development. After a review of North-South economic relations and the environment, two examples of environment vs. economic development are examined in more detail: international forest policy and trade. The book concludes with a look at the future of global environmental politics.
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Nice Try...no CigarMonday, November 17, 2003
Was assigned this textbook by my professors who actually happens to be one of the authors. I was impressed with the first couple of chapters, but then realized the text drags on into long, verbose explanations and becomes repetitive. It seems as if the authors intention was to keep the text simple, but instead, they produced a rather tedious and boring read! It's a shame too because I absolutely love the course. I don't think the book accurately reflects the author's teaching abilities.
2 out of 6 people found the following review helpful:
From everyone's fav expert on CambodiaMonday, September 15, 2003
What if Dr. Josef Goebbels, after spending a lucrative and leisurely tenure as propaganda chief for Der Fuhrer, decided to pursue an alternative career path teaching at a prominent university in the US, all the while denying that he or his former buddies had anything to do with genocide on a massive scale? Would he have been accepted with open arms, provided with a lush salary/tenure, treated as an authority on the subject, and allowed to present his ideas and opinions to generations of students? We'll never know, but judging by the reaction of US "intellectuals" and academic institutions to Gareth Porter, erstwhile cheerleader for the Khmer Rouge, we certainly have a good idea.
Porter began his career in the mid-1970s, producing crude agitprop for the impressionable and the credulous to high praise and acclaim from ivy covered institutions and ivy-covered scholars. The high point of his career came during his congressional testimony, where he denied that any "killing fields" existed in Cambodia, and that it was all a Big Lie from the CIA. Despite being roasted by the likes of Rep. Stephen Solarz (D-NY), our hero kept true to his beliefs...even after his Vietnamese pals came charging across the border and discovered mountains of human skulls, armies of emaciated peasants, and a society that would have made Charlie Manson proud.
Needless to say, apologies during the subsequent quarter century have not been forthcoming, and we will most certainly see Dr. Porter living well, fat, and happy in the land of the free and the home of the brave, whilst he ventures out into new territory, pontificating ever-so-widely on subjects as diverse as environmental politics...my how time flies when you're having fun...
Excellent view into international environmental policyThursday, June 27, 2002
I came across this book in a Washingon, D.C. bookstore and consumed the entire thing in a matter of days. It's both lucid and insightful. Interest in so-called international environmental issues is high these days, but very few books are available that even attempt to define what such issues are, much less describe them as a group and relate them to one another. This book is in a class by itself. Not only does it discuss and provide fascinating insight into specific areas of international environmental policy, from global warming to international forestry conservation, but also it relates these areas to one another within a single, coherent and robust theoretical framework. The authors display not only a detailed practical knowledge of the policy issues they discuss, but also higher level insight into characteristics that connect disparate policy areas to one another. This is not just interesting; it's of immense practical usefulness. Even without a detailed knowledge of all the specific topics (and acronyms) it addresses, this book is well worth the money of anyone interested in international environmental policy.
2 out of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Confusing and repetitiveTuesday, November 28, 2000
This book was assigned for a class on environmental public policy, and I think it's the worst textbook I've ever had. The sections are badly ordered and repetitive, and the usage of constant acronymns prevents the book from being readable. There are certain parts that are far more clear than others, such as the section on global forests. But on the whole, the book reads like it was rushed into printing.