Enviroment and Society: Human Perspectives on Environmental Issues

✍ Scribed by Charles Harper

• Publisher: Pearson/Routledge
• Year: 2012
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 331
• Edition: 5
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This book discusses human connections and impacts on the environment and vice versa and examines suggestions for changing the human–environment relationship to a more "sustainable" environment. It provides students and interested readers with an introduction to environmental issues.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of Contents
Preface
About the Author
Chapter 1 Environment, Human Systems, and Social Science
Ecocatastrophe or Ecohype?
Ecosystems: Concepts and Components
Ecosystem Change, Evolution, and Human-Environment Interaction
Sociocultural Systems
Culture
Social Institutions
Social Structure
The Duality of Human Life
Worldviews and Cognized Environments
Ecosystem and Sociocultural Evolution: Human Ecology
Industrial Societies
Environmental Social Sciences
Economic Thought
Sociological Thought
The Greening of Social Theory and Sociology
Conclusion: Environment, Ecosystems, and Human Systems
The Human Driving Forces of Environmental and Ecological Change
System Connections
Intellectual Paradigms About Human-Environment Relations
Personal Connections
More Resources
Electronic Resources
Endnotes
Chapter 2 Humans and the Resources of the Earth: Sources and Sinks
Land and Soil
Soil and Food
Addressing Soil Problems
Economic and Ecosystem Services: Pricing Soil Degradation
Water Resources
Growing Water Use and Its Problems
Water and Political Conflict
Addressing Water Problems
Freshwater Economic and Ecosystem Services
Biodiversity and Forests
Forest Resources
Forest Economic and Ecosystem Services
Declining Biodiversity
Addressing Deforestation and Declining Biodiversity
Wastes and Pollution
Chemical Pollution from Agriculture
Addressing Solid Waste Problems
Municipal Pollution
Pollution Trends
Conclusion: The Resources of the Earth
Personal Connections
More Resources
Electronic Resources
Endnote
Chapter 3 Climate Change, Science, and Risk
Ozone Depletion and Ultraviolet Radiation
Destroying the Ozone Layer
A Cautionary Tale: Technology, Progress, and Environmental Damage
A Happy Ending?
Turning Up the Heat: Global Warming
General Circulation Models
Some Ambiguities in the Evidence
Evolving Science and Consensus
Impacts on Society
Controversy and Conflict
Do We Know Enough to Act?
Policy Options: What Could Be Done About Global Warming?
Strategies, Social Change, and Inequality
Greenhouse Diplomacy: Kyoto and Beyond
Can We Afford the Costs?
Understanding Uncertainty and Risk
Sources of Scientific Uncertainty
Assessing Risks: Analytic Modeling
Social Contexts of Risk: Organizations and Society
Conclusion
Personal Connections
More Resources
Electronic Resources
Endnote
Chapter 4 Energy and Society
A Historical Detour: Recent Energy Crises
Energy Problems: Environmental and Social
Source Problems: Energy Resource Supplies
Population Growth, Economic Development, and Distribution Problems
Policy and Geopolitical Problems
Sink Problems: Energy and Environment
The Energetics of Human Societies
Low- and High-Energy Societies
Social Science and Energetics
The Present Energy System and Its Alternatives
Fossil Fuels
Nuclear Energy
Renewable Energy Sources
Barriers, Transitions, and Energy Policy
Barriers to Change
Transitions and Policy
Conclusion: Energy and the Risks We Take
Personal Connections
More Resources
Electronic Resources
Endnotes
Chapter 5 Population, Environment, and Food
The Dynamics of Population Change
The Demographic Transition Model
The Demographic Divide: MDCs and LDCs
Population Redistribution: Urbanization and Migration
How Serious Is the Problem of World Population Growth?
Neo-Malthusian Arguments
Economistic Arguments
Inequality Arguments
Making Sense Out of This Controversy
Population, Food, and Hunger
Change and the Contours of World Hunger
Explaining World Hunger
Feeding Nine Billion People in the Next Fifty Years?
Biotechnology?
Sustainable Agriculture: Agroecology and Low-Input Farming?
Stabilizing World Population: Policy Options
Conclusion
Personal Connections
More Resources
Electronic Resources
Endnote
Chapter 6 Globalization, Inequality, and Sustainability
Social Science Perspectives and Globalization
Globalization Perspective I: Neoliberalism
Globalization Perspective II: World-System Theory
Globalization Perspective III: Landscapes and Global Flows
Globalization and Social Inequality
Inequality and Environmental Impact
Sustainability
Growth and Sustainability: Two Perspectives
Limits to Growth: Outbreak-Crash
Ecological Modernization: Prosperity While Protecting the Environment
Understanding the Controversy
Promoting More Sustainable Consumption
Growth, Well-Being, and Happiness
More Sustainable Societies?
Integrating Perspectives: Agency, Structure, and Time Horizons
Time Horizons
Conclusion: A Transformation to Sustainability?
Personal Connections
More Resources
Electronic Resources
Chapter 7 Transforming Structures: Markets and Politics
Markets
Market Failures
Market Incentives: Environmentally Perverse or Not?
Transforming Markets and Consumer Behavior: Green Taxes and Buying Green
New Measures of Economic and Social Progress
Rational-Choice and Human-Environment Problems
Markets Alone Are Not "the" Answer
Politics and Policy
Strategies for Public Policy
Policy and the Economic Production Cycle
Policy and Social Structure
Politics and the Limits of Policy
The Recreancy Theorem—Mistrust of Regulatory Agencies in Complex Societies
Possible Levers for Progress
The Environmental State and Regulatory Policy
Ecological Modernization
Community Management of Commons Resources
Tradable Environmental Allowances
Comparing Tradable Environmental Allowances and Community Resource Management
The Global Political Economy and the Environment
Organizations, Treaties, and the Environment
Transnational Corporations (TNCs)
Protesting Globalization: Trouble with the World Trade Organization
International Treaties and Regimes for Environmental Protection
Conclusion
Personal Connections
More Resources
Electronic Resources
Chapter 8 Environmentalism: Ideology and Collective Action
American Environmentalism
Early American Environmental Movements, 1870-1950
American Environmentalism Since the 1950s
Reform Environmentalism and the Environmental Lobby
Environmental Justice and Grassroots Movements
Other Voices: Deep Ecology and Ecofeminism
Other Voices: Ecotheology and Voluntary Simplicity
Movement Activism: Grassroots and Astroturf
Antienvironmentalism: Manifest Destiny and Countermovements
Global Environmentalism
Environmentalism: Popular Support and Change
People and Environment: Attitudes, Commitments, and Behaviors
Environmentalism: How Successful?
Personal Connections
More Resources
Endnotes
Epilogue
Glossary
References
Photo Credits
Name Index
Subject Index