From the Foundations in Global Studies series, this student-friendly text follows a two-pronged approach to help readers understand the globalizing processes relating to environment and sustainability, which are examined in a range of disciplines, including environmental studies, geography, global studies, political science, international affairs, comparative politics, and other disciplines. First, it presents foundational material that gives students the conceptual underpinnings required for rigorous analysis. Following the Introduction and Overview, Part One presents a brief historical overview of the concerns revolving around environmental sustainability in the modern era. The textthen covers key concepts and theoretical constructs that define the global context for sustainable environmental practices, such as the key thinkers and theories pertaining to sustainable environmental practice, and the key international agencies and treaties involved in global discussions. The first part then explores the various models and ways to measure sustainability, the range of environmental domains at play in the sustainability dialogue, and the controversies surrounding them. Part Twoemploys case studies to examine theory and practice at work in particular situations. The case studies have been selected with an eye toward comprehensiveness of coverage across disciplines and across regions.

Global Environmental Sustainability: Case Studies and Analysis of the United Nations' Journey toward Sustainable Development presents an integrated, interdisciplinary analysis of sustainable development, addressing global environmental problems in the contemporary world. It critically examines current actions being taken on global and local scales, particularly in relation to the UN's efforts to promote sustainable development. This approach is supported by empirical analysis, drawing upon a host of interweaving insights spanning economics, politics, ecology, environmental philosophy, and ethics, among others. As a result, it offers a comprehensive and well-balanced assessment of the overall perspective of sustainable development supported by in-depth content analysis, theoretical evaluation, empirical and actual case studies premised on solid data, and actual field work. Also, the book marks a milestone in placing the Covid-19 pandemic into a perspective for understanding the universality of human collective environmental behavior and action.By utilizing in-depth analysis, both quantitative and qualitative, and challenging the status quo of what is expected in the global approach to sustainable development, Global Environmental Sustainability provides the theory and methodology of empirical sustainable development which is especially germane to our advanced society today, which is deeply entrenched in a crisis of environmental morality. More particularly, it serves as a salient source of moral reconstitution of society grounded in empirical reality to liberate man's excessive spirit of individualism and self-aggrandizement to the detriment of the environment. Epistemologically, the book furnishes a remarkable tour de force with a new level of analytical insight to help researchers, practitioners, and policymakers in sustainability and environmental science, as well as the many other disciplines involved in sustainable development, to better understand sustainability from a new perspective and provides a methodological direction to pursue solutions going forward. - Provides a systematic exposition of sustainable development in all its complexity, with all the chapters complementing each other in an integral way - Presents extensive empirical evidence of various environmental problems across the world including China, the United States, Canada, Southeast Asia, South America and Africa, and the extent to which the United Nations has succeeded in driving toward global environmental sustainability - Provides a cogent examination of the treatment of our global commons by some of the world's most powerful leaders - Includes data from field studies and in-depth interviews with indigenous people in Borneo's rainforests of the Malaysian state of Sarawak most affected by environmental change

More than twenty years after the Bruntland Commission report, Our Common Future, we have yet to secure the basis for a serious approach to global environmental governance. The failed 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development showed the need for a new approach to globalization and sustainability. Taking a critical perspective, rooted in political economy, regulation theory, and post-sovereign international relations, this book explores questions concerning the governance of environmental sustainability in a globalizing economy. With contributions from leading international scholars, the book offers a comprehensive framework on globalization, governance, and sustainability, and examines institutional mechanisms and arrangements to achieve sustainable environmental governance. It: considers current failures in the framework of global environmental governance addresses the problematic relationship between sustainability and globalization explores controversies of development and environment that have led to new processes of institution building examines the marketization of environmental policy-making; stakeholder politics and environmental policy-making; socio-economic justice; the political origins of sustainable consumption; the role of transnational actors; and processes of multi-level global governance. This book will be of interest to students and researchers of political science, international studies, political economy and environmental studies.

In 1994, representatives from all over the world met in Costa Rica to discuss the impact of ecological economics on developing countries. That groundbreaking conference laid the foundation for this new collection of research on environmental sustainability. While most discussions on sustainable development focus on the industrialized nations, Environmental Sustainability: Practical Global Applications takes a different angle: it presents the views of the developing countries themselves on issues such as wildlife resources in Nambia, timber production in Costa Rica, property rights and land reform in South Africa, and other steps being taken to implement environmentally sustainable economies around the world. This is an ideal text for students of natural and social sciences, development professionals and entrepreneurs seeking opportunities for ecologically sustainable businesses. Academics will find it useful as a source of current research and for making new contacts in the field. For anyone interested in exploring the link between man and his environment-specifically, the relationship between economics and ecology- Environmental Sustainability, is a must.

This book provides a critical understanding of the challenges that exist in protecting the local and global environment through compliance efforts using existing environmental regulations. The best compliance measures with the most useful regulations from over 50 countries are surveyed and are combined with science-based quantitative analysis of geology, hydrogeology, and the chemistry of contaminants from anthropogenic sources. The results are presented as a model that establishes a means by which protection of the environment can be greatly improved. This is accomplished through a deeper understanding of our natural world and how anthropogenic activities and their management affect our planet. Features The first book that examines the successes of environmental regulation worldwide and highlights the areas that need improvement Presents a tested and verified scientific model for enhanced environmental protection with scalability from local parcels to global levels Describes and integrates the importance of understanding the geologic and hydrogeologic environment of urban and developed areas Explains the importance of understanding the different types of pollution and their behavior in the environment Identifies the need for consistency in banning chemicals that are harmful in not just one country but throughout the world

From the Foundations in Global Studies series, this student-friendly text follows a two-pronged approach to help readers understand the globalizing processes relating to environment and sustainability, which are examined in a range of disciplines, including environmental studies, geography, global studies, political science, international affairs, comparative politics, and other disciplines. First, it presents foundational material that gives students the conceptual underpinnings required for rigorous analysis. Following the Introduction and Overview, Part One presents a brief historical overview of the concerns revolving around environmental sustainability in the modern era. The text then covers key concepts and theoretical constructs that define the global context for sustainable environmental practices, such as the key thinkers and theories pertaining to sustainable environmental practice, and the key international agencies and treaties involved in global discussions. The first part then explores the various models and ways to measure sustainability, the range of environmental domains at play in the sustainability dialogue, and the controversies surrounding them. Part Two employs case studies to examine theory and practice at work in particular situations. The case studies have been selected with an eye toward comprehensiveness of coverage across disciplines and across regions.

Globalization today is as much a problem for international harmony as it is a necessary condition of living together on our planet. Increasing interconnectedness in ecology, economy, technology, and politics has brought nations and societies into even closer contact, creating acute demands for cooperation. Earthly Politics argues that in the coming decades global governance will have to accommodate differences even as it obliterates distance, and will have to respect many aspects of the local while developing institutions that transcend localism. This book analyzes a variety of environmental-governance approaches that balance the local and the global in order to encourage new, more flexible frameworks of global governance. On the theoretical level, it draws on insights from the field of science and technology studies to enrich our understanding of environmental-development politics. On the pragmatic level, it discusses the design of institutions and processes to address problems of environmental governance that increasingly refuse to remain within national boundaries. The cases in the book display the crucial relationship between knowledge and power—the links between the ways we understand environmental problems and the ways we manage them—and illustrate the different paths by which knowledge-power formations are arrived at, contested, defended, or set aside. By examining how local and global actors ranging from the World Bank to the Makah tribe in the Pacific Northwest respond to the contradictions of globalization, the authors identify some of the conditions for creating more effective engagement between the global and the local in environmental governance.

Theoretical and empirical accounts of the role of business in shaping international environmental policies.

This revised and updated new edition retains the clear and powerful argument which characterized the original. It gives a valuable analysis of the theory and practice of sustainable development and suggests that at the start of the new millennium, we should think radically about the challenge of sustainability. Fully revised, this latest edition includes further reading, chapter outlines, chapter summaries and new discussion topics, and explores: the roots of sustainable development thinking and its evolution in the last three decades of the twentieth century the dominant ideas within mainstream sustainable development the nature and diversity of alternative ideas about sustainability the problems of environmental degradation and the environmental impacts of development strategies for building sustainability in development from above and below. Offering a synthesis of theoretical ideas on sustainability based on the industrialized economies of the North and the practical, applied ideas in the South which tend to ignore 'First World' theory, this important text gives a clear discussion of theory and extensive practical insights drawn from Africa, Latin America and Asia.

A holistic approach to a complex set of environmental issues.