Environmental Justice

Numerous studies have revealed that the poor disproportionately bear the burden of environmental problems in America today. Issues range from higher levels of poisonous wastes, carbon dioxide, and ozone, to greater than normal incidences of asthma and lead poisoning. The environmental justice movement, which has emerged in working class and low-income African American and Latino communities since the early 1990s, is an effort that is reinterpreting the definition of the environment as "where we live, work, and play" to connect new constituencies traditionally outside of the postwar environmental movement. Novotny documents this expanding constituency through case studies of four community groups ranging from South Central Los Angeles to Louisiana.

In the first ever theoretical treatment of the environmental justice movement, David Schlosberg demonstrates the development of a new form of `critical' pluralism, in both theory and practice. Taking into account the evolution of environmentalism and pluralism over the course of the century, the author argues that the environmental justice movement and new pluralist theories now represent a considerable challenge to both conventional pluralist thought and the practices of the major groups in the US environmental movement. Much of recent political theory has been aimed at how to acknowledge and recognize, rather than deny, the diversity inherent in contemporary life. In practice, the myriad ways people define and experience the `environment' has given credence to a form of environmentalism that takes difference seriously. The environmental justice movement, with its base in diversity, its networked structure, and its communicative practices and demands, exemplifies the attempt to design political practices beyond those one would expect from a standard interest group in the conventional pluralist model.

Moving straight to the heart of pressing international and national concerns, Nicholas Low and Brendan Gleeson explore the issues of environment and development, fair treatment of humans and non-humans, and the justice of the social and economic systems which affect the health and safety of the peoples of the world. Current grass-roots concerns such as the environmental justice movement in the U.S. and the ethics of the international regulation of development are examined. This book is essential reading for those seeking to understand current discussions in environmental politics, justice and ecology. The authors take debates beyond mere complaint about the injustice of the world economy, and suggest what should now be done to preserve the environment.

Although closely associated with the 1960s, the environmental movement has a long history in the United States. In this book, Leslie Paul Thiele describes this history, particularly environmentalism as a social movement, tracing it from its beginnings in the mid-1800s to its broad role in the culture today. With a dispassionate eye, the author presents the key stages in environmentalism's development and the concerns which have driven it. The volume touches on issues in philosophy, political science, and sociology, and can serve as a general introduction to the field or as a textbook for courses in environmental ethics, environmental politics, or American social history.

This multidisciplinary volume presents a refreshing new approach to environmental values in the global age. it investigates the challenges that globalization poses to traditional environmental values in general as well as in politics and international governance. Divided into five parts, the book investigates how environmental values could be reconceived in a globalizing world. Part I explores contemporary environmental values and their implications for a globalizing world. Part II examines the development of Western and Eastern environmental values Part III discusses contemporary environmental politics Part IV examines how values inform environmental governance and how governance solutions influence which values are realised Part V concludes the volume with two different views of the prospects of environmental values in a globalising world. This study will be of great interest to students and researchers studying the environment in philosophy, political science, international relations, international environment law, environmental studies and development studies.

Global Ethics and Environment explores several ethical issues from a range of perspectives and uses a wide range of case studies. The book focuses on the impact of development in new industrial regions and the ethical relationship between human and non-human nature. The editors also discuss the ethics of the impact of a single event, like the Chernobyl disaster, on the global community.

The new narrative of world history must have ecological process as its major theme. This book includes seven essays written by historians who take different approaches but share a conviction that world-history writing must take ecological processes seriously. All the essays center on modern history, particularly in the twentieth century, or treat it in an important way, although they may relate modern issues to their roots in earlier times.

This book will challenge world historians to take the environment seriously, as it also challenges environmental historians to take the global dimension of their subject seriously.