| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
|
|
|
|||||||
|
|||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
School of Biological Sciences (Plant and Soil Science) Cruickshank Building, St. Machar Drive, University of Aberdeen, AB24 3UU, Scotland, United Kingdom
(m.aitkenhead{at}abdn.ac.uk)
Pamela S. Chasek, David L. Downie, and Janet Welsh Brown, Westview Press, 5500 Central Avenue, Boulder, CO 80301-2877. 2006. 350 pages. $27.95. ISBN 0-8133-4332-1.
Global Environmental Politics is an ambitious text, which, to a great degree, succeeds in describing the dilemmas, challenges, and obstacles of its namesake topic. The layout and presentation are clear and well-structured and contain a great amount of information. Sometimes the level of detail and plethora of acronyms make the text a little dense, but, on the whole, the reader's interest is sufficiently well maintained for this not to be a problem. The quality of the language is extremely good. The questions at the end of each chapter are well thought-out and provide a range of sample problems from relatively simple to complex, essay-question type discussions. The only general criticism that can be leveled at this work is the hint of demonization of those seen as environmentally destructive. This may not be the most productive way to proceed from an environmentalist's standpoint, as it provides an opening to accusations of bias and can undermine ongoing, objective scientific research.
The opening chapter provides a thorough (and rather depressing) review of the current state of the global environment, and the direction it is taking, and of the many influences on global environmental politics. Chapter 2 has a slight feel of Genesis about it, with its "X begat Y" style; however, this is also one of the most interesting chapters in the book, containing, as it does, informative insights into the character and rationales of major actors. Chapter 3, in which 11 case studies of environmental regimes are discussed, should be recommended reading for anyone wishing to understand how things operate at the "coal face" of environmental politics. This chapter also demonstrates the manner in which science can be misused or ignored for political reasons. Whether this is the fault of politicians or of scientists failing to hit the mark is not clear, but what is made obvious is that the potential for influence by the academic community in global environmental politics is there; the manner of its gaining this influence is yet to be uncovered.
Chapters 4 and 5 together give detailed expositions of the obstacles to global environmental "regimes" and to ways in which these obstacles can be dealt with and provide possible routes by which future regimes may evolve. It is easy to overlook these chapters, if one has read earlier parts of the book, because the obstacles to and internal workings of environmental regimes are complex and plagued by detail. However, persistence is rewarded by a clearer understanding of what is required to make these agreements binding and effective and an appreciation of the often unforeseen repercussions that can occur.
An important and yet discomfiting truth that becomes apparent from reading this work is that the often-portrayed clash of "good" versus "evil" relating to the environment is a massive oversimplification of the situation. The only real Bad Guy, who we would hope does not exist (or, if he or she does, does not have access to political power), would be someone who believed that the end of the world was nigh and that there was, therefore, no point in worrying about the future. The simple reality of the situation is that short-term interests often take precedence. People who would like to do something have (or believe that they have) no time or energy to spare. In demonstrating this, Global Environmental Politics is at once both powerfully useful and yet restricted, because it reveals only the greater extent of the problem without providing any real solutions to the problems of using politics to resolve environmental issues.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
