6th Edition
Green Planet Blues Critical Perspectives on Global Environmental Politics
Revised and updated throughout, this unique anthology examines global environmental politics from a range of perspectives and captures the voices of both the powerless and the powerful. Paradigms of sustainability, environmental security, and ecological justice illustrate the many ways environmental challenges and their solutions are framed in contemporary international debates about climate, water, forests, toxics, energy, food, and biodiversity.
Organized thematically, the selections offer a truly global scope. Seventeen new readings explore climate justice, globalization, land and water grabs, climate change and conflict, China’s international environmental relations, and the future of climate politics in the wake of the Paris Agreement. This book stresses the underlying questions of power, interests, authority, and legitimacy that shape environmental debates, and it provides readers with a global range of perspectives on the critical challenges facing the planet and its people.
This new edition of Green Planet Blues connects directly with a wide-range of upper-level undergraduate and graduate-level courses.
Introduction: From Stockholm to Sustainability?
Ken Conca & Geoffrey D. Dabelko
Part One: The Debate Begins
1. The Limits to Growth
Donella H. Meadows et al.
2. Environment and Development: The Case of the Developing Countries
João Augusto de Araujo Castro
3. The Tragedy of the Commons
Garrett Hardin
4. Redefining National Security
Lester R. Brown
5. Two Agendas on Amazon Development
Coordinating Body for the Indigenous Peoples’ Organizations of the Amazon Basin (COICA)
6. Beyond the Tragedy of the Commons
Xavier Basurto & Elinor Ostrom
Part Two: Ecology and the Structure of The International System
7. Rethinking the Ecology-Sovereignty Debate
Ken Conca
8. China’s Environmental Challenges
Judith Shapiro
9. Nobel Lecture
Wangari Maathai
10. Transnational Environmental Activism in North America: Wielding Soft Power through Knowledge Sharing?
Raul Pacheco-Vega
Part Three: Institutions of Global Environmental Governance
11. Green Pluralism: Lessons for Improved Environmental Governance in the 21st Century
Norichika Kanie et al.
12. A Wish List for an Environmentally Friendly NAFTA
Jennifer Huizen
13. The Climate Change Battle in Paris
Meenakshi Raman
14. Climate Change after Paris: From Turning Point to Transformation
Richard Kinley
15. This Changes Nothing: The Paris Agreement to Ignore Reality
Clive L. Spash
Part Four: The Sustainability Debate
16. From the Millennium Development Goals to the Sustainable Development Goals
Sakiko Fukuda-Parr
17. The Problem of Consumption
Peter Dauvergne
18. The End of Sustainability
Melinda Harm Benson & Robin Kundis Craig
19. Sustainability vs. Resilience
William E. Rees
20. Sustainability Is Not Enough: We Need Regenerative Cultures
Daniel C. Wahl
Part Five: From Ecological Conflict to Environmental Security?
21. An Uncommon Peace: Environment, Development, and the Global Security Agenda
Geoffrey D. Dabelko
22. From Conflict to Peacebuilding: The Role of Natural Resources and the Environment
UN Environment
23. The Role of Drought and Climate Change in the Syrian Uprising: Untangling the Triggers of the Revolution
Francesca de Châtel
24. Environmental Peacebuilding: The Good Water Neighbors Project
EcoPeace
25. Deadly Environment
Global Witness
Part Six: Ecological Justice
26. Climate Wrongs and Human Rights: Putting People at the Heart of Climate-change Policy
Oxfam International
27. The Global Water Grab: A Primer
Sylvia Kay & Jenny Franco
28. The Real Price of Europe Going Green
Silas Kpanan’Ayoung Siakor
29. Coal, Identity, and the Gendering of Environmental Justice Activism in Central Appalachia
Shannon Bell & Yvonne Braun
30. Inequality and Environmental Policy
Joseph E. Stiglitz
Biography
Ken Conca is Professor of International Relations in the School of International Service at American University. He is the author and editor of several books on global environmental politics, peacebuilding, global governance, the United Nations, and the politics of water.
Geoffrey D. Dabelko is Professor and Associate Dean at Ohio University’s Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs. He is also a Senior Advisor for the Environmental Change and Security Program at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, DC.
"The updated sixth edition of Green Planet Blues, edited by Conca and Dabelko, is a must-read for students, scholars and policy makers concerned about environmental scarcity and environmental sustainability. The chapters of this volume deal with this important subject in a comprehensive and insightful manner, and in its breadth and depth, this book remains a major contribution."
—Ashok Swain, Professor of Peace and Conflict Research & UNESCO Chair of International Water Cooperation, Uppsala University"Green Planet Blues remains the go-to anthology for capturing the big theoretical debates and thematic issues in global environmental politics. Important topics covered include climate change, environmental security, sustainability, and ecological justice. What makes this volume distinctive is the inclusion of both academic and practitioner voices that inspire as well as remind us of the challenges faced in building institutions and governance mechanisms for the environment."
—Erika Weinthal, Lee Hill Snowdon Professor of Environmental Policy, Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University"Green Planet Blues is a unique text, capturing a truly global diversity of voices and perspectives on the state of our planet. Insightful readings, along with connecting essays and discussions, will inspire critical reflection and debate. This new edition, which takes us from the elite actors negotiating the Paris Agreement to grassroots activists in Appalachia, articulates the factors that have led to our present day crisis and offers glimpses of a sustainable future."
—Kate O’Neill, Professor, Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, University of California, Berkeley