The people of Florida, Massachusetts, Oregon, etc. are paying for the “party goin’ on” in Texas, Oklohoma, North Dakota, etc. Thank goodness electric cars and renewable energy cost less, and are about to take away the punchbowl. It’s none too soon for a world rapidly getting too warm. Florida ships away $100 million a day in exchange for motor fuel—and natural gas and coal for its electricity generating plants. Other states, Georgia, New Jersey, Connecticut, and so on, suffer the same disa...

Each of the four essays reprinted here was written for a specific occasion and together comprise only the smallest selection from a larger corpus questioning commodity and energy-intensive economies. The essays are presented thematically instead of chronologically to offer a better view of the sweep of Illich's argument. In the first two, "War against Subsistence" and "Shadow Work," Illich reveals both the ruins on which the economy is built and the blindness of economics which cannot but ...

Rethinking Private Authority examines the role of non-state actors in global environmental politics, arguing that a fuller understanding of their role requires a new way of conceptualizing private authority. Jessica Green identifies two distinct forms of private authority--one in which states delegate authority to private actors, and another in which entrepreneurial actors generate their own rules, persuading others to adopt them.Drawing on a wealth of empirical evidence s...

Do we have the resources to produce enough food for an expected world population of over 9 billion in 2050? Are modern agricultural practices sustainable? Do we have enough fresh water? What do we understand about climate change? Can we decarbonize the world economy? Can we save the oceans? Are genetically modified crops bad for the environment? Are we entering a new era of resource wars? These are some of the questions addressed in this ambitious and comprehensive book by Ingrid Bryan.

With rapidly declining costs and seemingly unlimited sunshine, the choice of solar in Australia seems obvious. Yet despite its many advantages, homes with solar remain completely dependent on the electricity grid for reliable supply, which in Australia implies mostly coal-fired generation. Indeed, even countries that have invested heavily in solar, such as Spain and Germany, have been unable to deflect the trajectory of fossil fuel dependence.The reasons for this apparent paradox a...

Drawing on their extensive knowledge of the oil industry, Roberto F. Aguilera and Marian Radetzki provide an in-depth examination of the price of the world's most important commodity. They argue that although oil has experienced an extraordinary price increase over the past few decades, we have now reached a turning point where scarcity, uncertain supply and high prices will be replaced by abundance, undisturbed availability and suppressed price levels. They look at the potential of new gl...

The stock of the world's biological diversity and the state of its ecosystems are major determinants of the availability of commodities, both essential and desirable, for human life. This leading-edge study provides an overarching and balanced approach to the economics of biological conservation; considering man made and natural components, and their interdependence.Recognising the deficiencies of many contemporary studies, which focus almost entirely on natural capital, Clement Ti...

A unique book that takes the reader into the depths and mysteries of creating a wondrous people-initiated economic plan grounded in centuries of cultural and ecological wisdom. In a tapestry of factual and everyday events, the author makes a well-reasoned argument that we first need to address culture, then a sustainable lifestyle, then ecology, and finally economics. The author strongly reasons that this paradigm in the current century has been reversed by all the countries of the world. ...

Confronting climate change is now understood as a problem of 'decarbonising' the global economy: ending our dependence on carbon-based fossil fuels. This book explores whether such a transformation is underway, how it might be accelerated, and the complex politics of this process. Given the dominance of global capitalism and free-market ideologies, decarbonisation is dependent on creating carbon markets and engaging powerful actors in the world of business and finance. Climate Capitalism a...

Although the academic study of development is well established, as is also its policy implementation, less considered are the broader, more popular understandings of development that often shape agendas and priorities, particularly in representative democracies.Through its accessible and provocative chapters, Popular Representations of Development introduces the idea that while the issue of ‘development’ – defined broadly as problems of poverty and social deprivation, and ...

The National Clean Energy Fund (NCEF), announced in the Government of India’s Budget 2010-11, is seen as a major step in India's quest for energy security and reducing the carbon intensity of energy. Funding research and innovative projects in clean energy technologies, and harnessing renewable energy sources to reduce dependence on fossil fuels constitute the objectives of the NCEF. The NCEF’s utilization of funds is considered to be rather low and disbursements poorly aligned with the fu...

This report takes a neutral and independent point of view in attempting to show concrete ways to achieve the goal of reducing CO2 emissions and limiting global warming to the 2-degree target. It presents an overall picture spanning all key countries. In the report, the temporal evolution of the main parameters is given from 1970 to 2011 for all regions of the world and all G-20 countries, starting from the basic data, gross domestic consumption. The parameters are then extrapolated to 2030...