Citizens expect their governments to lead on sustainability. But from largely disappointing international conferences like Rio II to the U.S.’s failure to pass meaningful climate legislation, governments’ progress has been lackluster. That’s not to say leadership is absent; it just often comes from the bottom up rather than the top down. Action—on climate, species loss, inequity, and other sustainability crises—is being driven by local, people’s, women’s, and grassroots movements around th...

As the U.N. moves closer to a new global warming treaty, it is time to examine the calls for reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. The health and welfare of humanity has benefited from access to fossil fuels, and any drastic move to limit that access must have extraordinary evidence to support it.While alternative energy technologies will increasingly be relied upon in the face of dwindling fossil fuel supplies, leading climate researcher Dr. Roy W. Spencer argues that the free m...

Based on a true story of recent events that took place in one of America's most famous small towns. Known for cereal, Battle Creek, Michigan, became world-famous again in July of 2010 when over 800,000 gallons of crude oil were spilled into the river that runs through town, from a pipeline that nobody knew existed, owned by a company no one had heard of.Leap of Faith is the true story of a small-town news photographer who covered the breaking news story, then began an intensive inv...

This sobering examination of climate-change and the disastrous effects of rising sea levels explains what must be done to avoid the worst outcomes.By the end of this century, hundreds of millions of people living at low elevations along coasts will be forced to retreat to higher and safer ground. Because of sea-level rise, major storms will inundate areas farther inland and will lay waste to critical infrastructure, such as water-treatment and energy facilities, cr...

Today we find ourselves exhausted and depleted by natural and economic disruption. Worse, we face more of the same but on a greater, even more frightening scale. Hopeful and provocative, this book considers the principle social and ecological threats facing Australia, and outlines ways in which thesecrises need to be confronted and addressed. Leading writer and commentator Brendan Gleeson wants to rouse us and his book makes a big statement about our collective future.

Humanity is facing an unprecedented global catastrophe as a result of global warming. This book examines the reasons why international agencies, together with national governments, are seemingly unable to provide real and binding solutions to the problems. The reasons presented relate to the existing dominant global economic structure of capitalism as well as the fact that global warming is too often seen as an isolated problem rather than one of a suite of exceptional, converging and acce...

The most striking feature of British colonialism in the twentieth century was the confidence it expressed in the use of science and expertise, especially when joined with the new bureaucratic capacities of the state, to develop natural and human resources of the empire.Triumph of the Expert is a history of British colonial doctrine and its contribution to the emergence of rural development and environmental policies in the late colonial and postcolonial period. Joseph Morg...

A surprising call to action from a key business and environmental player at the dawn of the millenium.From the Report to the Shareholders, Earth Inc., dated January 1, 2030 that begins Where on Earth Are We Going?: world hunger, ecological and environmental disaster, global warming, massive shifts in weather systems, the re-emergence of diseases long thought controlled, and political turmoil in a world where a barrel of water is more expensive than a barrel of oil.

In the coming decades, countries around the world will face increasingly severe challenges related to global climate change. While the details vary from country to country, the impacts will be especially grave for marginalized people, whose access to food, potable water, and safe shelter may be threatened due to fluctuations in rainfall and temperature, and to extreme weather events. Because weather extremes are the main way that climate change manifests itself, water governance is a cruci...

The integration of development and climate objectives is increasingly recognized as significant in research and policy making. In practice, some development aims, such as poverty alleviation, enhancing energy security and access or improving health, also have potential climate benefits. The challenge is to find a broadly applicable range of effective policies and actions that realize development objectives and at the same time result in real climate benefits.This special issue of t...

What role does nature play in the cultural world of the theatre? Is the auditorium not a natural environment, and how can theatre and nature aesthetics co-exist in the productive expression of performance? Re-Place: Irish Theatre Environments proposes a new way of thinking about Irish theatre: one that challenges established boundaries between nature and culture and argues for theatre performances to be seen as conceptual ecological environments. Broadening the scope of theatre en...

A brief foray into a moral thicket, exploring why we should protect nature despite tsunamis, malaria, bird flu, cancer, killer asteroids, and tofu.Most of us think that in order to be environmentalists, we have to love nature. Essentially, we should be tree huggers—embracing majestic redwoods, mighty oaks, graceful birches, etc. We ought to eat granola, drive hybrids, cook tofu, and write our appointments in Sierra Club calendars. Nature's splendor, in other words,...