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August 3, 2006
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| Perspectives and Essential Resources |
The dangers of global warming, pollution, and resource depletion are real, they
are happening now, and they suggest a moral imperative to act.
The
National Association of Evangelicals’ call to action on climate change issued in February, the media
success of Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, and the recent G8 talks on
energy security, are examples of a broad agreement that significant changes in
our relations to nature and natural resources are necessary.
The
Carnegie Council has been focusing on environmental issues for over a decade, as
part of its work on human rights and global social justice. We provide a forum
to develop environmental solutions that meet the demands of human rights
protection, justice, development, and sustainability.
Our most recent
publication, Forging Environmentalism: Justice, Livelihood, and Contested
Environments (Joanne Bauer, ed.), is an example of our efforts in this
direction. Forging Environmentalism trains a spotlight on the
big players in environmental politics—China, Japan, India, and the United
States. The book examines the social and cultural values that people bring
to bear on environmental problems and how they mobilize those values to create
and sustain programs and movements of environmental action in their communities
and countries. Greeted with acclaim from noted environmentalists such as Gustave
Speth, it was chosen as a Foreign Policy Association Summer 2006 Pick.
To
augment the book, the Council has posted an Online Companion, designed both for
the general reader and as a study guide to educators. It offers additional
resources, an online exclusive, discussion questions, and chapter synopses. Go
to: Forging Environmentalism. You can also purchase your copy of the book online.
For more on the
environment, we are pleased to offer you a selection of Carnegie Council
resources.
GLOBAL WARMING
Place-Based Environmentalism and Global Warming: Conceptual
Contradictions of American Environmentalism
Daniel Somers
Smith, Carnegie Council Fellow 2000-2001
Although American
environmentalism has had considerable success in addressing threats to
particular places and resources, this well-organized and enormously popular
social movement has not resulted in effective action on the problem of global
warming. A partial explanation lies in the internal contradictions of
environmentalism itself. (Ethics & International Affairs 15.2,
2001)
The Global Warming Tragedy and the Dangerous Illusion of the Kyoto
Protocol
Stephen Gardiner, Assistant Professor of Philosophy,
University of Utah
Gardiner insists that the Kyoto agreement, far from being
too demanding, does too little to protect future generations. (Ethics &
International Affairs 18.1, 2004)
Global
Crises, Global Solutions
Bjorn Lomborg, Founder, The
Copenhagen Consensus
Asking how we can get “the best bang for the buck,” the
controversial Lomborg argues that the $50 billion that will be spent on
development assistance over the next four years ought to be spent on realistic
goals such as ending malnutrition and communicable diseases—not on reducing
global warming. (Public Affairs Program, 2005)
Fairness, Responsibility, and Climate Change
Paul G.
Harris, Associate Professor of Politics, Lingnan University, Hong Kong
Harris says that while the precise pace and effects of climate change are
uncertain, this does not justify inaction on the part of the world community.
(Ethics & International Affairs 17.1, 2003)
NATURAL RESOURCES DEPLETION
PLAN
B: Rescuing a Planet under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble
Lester Brown, Founder, Worldwatch
Founder of Worldwatch in 1974,
Lester Brown has been sounding the alarm about the state of the planet for
decades. Warning that we now have a "bubble economy" based on over-consumption
of the earth's capital, he urges that steps be taken immediately to raise water
productivity, stabilize the world's population, and cut carbon emissions in half
by 2015. (Public Affairs Program, 2003)
Resource Wars: The New Landscape of Global
Conflict
Michael Klare, Five College Professor of Peace &
World Security Studies
Unprecedented rates of consumption, population growth
and globalization are setting the stage for violent conflict over natural
resources in the future. To avert such conflicts we should adopt a cooperative
approach including international collaboration in the development of new
technologies, alternative sources, increased efficiency, and an equitable
distribution of the world’s resources. (Public Affairs Program, 2001)
Blue Gold: The Fight to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World’s
Water
Maude Barlow, National Volunteer Chairperson of the
Council of Canadians
The amount of fresh water in the world is disappearing
at an alarming rate. The answer to the impending crisis is good governance, and
a new “water ethic,” where water is not seen as a tradable commodity, argues
Maude Barlow. “The commodification of water is ethically, environmentally, and
socially wrong. It would ensure that decisions regarding the allocation of water
are based on commercial, not environmental or social-justice considerations.”
(Public Affairs Program, 2002)
ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY
Red
Sky at Morning: America and the Crisis of the Global Environment
James Gustave Speth, Dean, Yale School of Forestry &
Environmental Studies
Speth's recommended steps for transitioning into
sustainability range from creating a world environmental organization with the
requisite power to make treaties with teeth, to encouraging innovative measures
at the local level—what he calls "green jazz." (Public Affairs Program, 2004)
The Real Environment Crisis: Why Poverty, Not Affluence, Is the
Environment's Number One Enemy
Dale Jamieson (reviewer),
Professor of Environmental Studies, New York University
Dale Jamieson
criticizes Jack Hollander’s assertion that affluence is the solution, rather
than the cause, of environmental problems. (Ethics & International
Affairs 18.1, 2004)
Johannesburg: Achievements and Challenges
Nitin
Desai, Secretary-General of the Johannesburg Summit
Desai reports that a
major achievement of the UN's Johannesburg summit was reaching consensus on the
need to provide sustainable energy to the 2 billion people who fall outside the
modern energy net. (Public Affairs Program, 2002)
Human Rights Dialogue Magazine: "Environmental
Rights"
Human rights activists from various countries discuss
whether environmental rights deserve protection as a basic human right.
Perspectives from Cambodia, former Czechoslovakia, Guatemala, India, Iraq,
Papua, the U.S, Africa and Latin America. (Human Rights Dialogue 2 .11,
2004)
THE CARNEGIE COUNCIL RECOMMENDS:
Infinite
Nature
R. Bruce Hull*
In this engaging and informed
book R. Bruce Hull argues convincingly that the success of environmentalism
depends on its ability to avoid the trap of fundamentalism and polarized
ideologies. Showing the numerous ways people relate to and experience
nature—from the mechanical and functional to the esthetic, spiritual, and
moral—the book pluralizes and expands the debate on the environment. In doing
so, Infinite Nature represents an important step towards
“pragmatic pluralism,” in which environmental action is based on civic discourse
and the acceptance of differences.
* Bruce Hull was a participant in the 2003 Carnegie faculty development workshop
“Ethics, Science, and Policy: Environmental Education for a Transnational World”
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