1st Edition
Global Environmental Politics From Person to Planet
Today's students want to understand not only the causes and character of global environmental problems like climate change, species extinction, and freshwater scarcity, but also what to do about them. This book offers the most comprehensive, fair-minded, accessible, and forward-looking text for introducing students to the challenge of global environmental protection. Drawing on a diverse range of voices, the book sequentially explains our current predicament, examines what is being done to respond at a variety of levels from the international to the local, and outlines different, relevant strategic choices for genuine political engagement. Developed by two top researchers and master teachers of global environmental politics, the book brings together sharply written introductory essays with tightly edited selections from a broad cross section of thinkers to provide a text that will excite and educate students of global environmental affairs. In addition, the book introduces a series of exercises designed specifically to help students draw connections between their own lives and the broader challenge of global sustainability. Global Environmental Politics: From Person to Planet finally answers the question of how to teach students about environmental harm with a sober sense of ecological reality, a firm grasp on politics, and an optimistic look toward the future.
Features of This Innovative Text Reader:
- Original section introductions by the volume editors cover key topics such as the four major planetary challenges (climate, extinction, water, and food); leading causes of environmental harm; the role of states, markets, and civil society; race, class, and geopolitical difference; and the value of thinking strategically and using a broad political imagination.
- Carefully selected and judiciously edited readings from a wide range of sources feature high-profile authors from popular as well as specialist media.
- Action-oriented exercises engage students in being part of the solution.
Biography
Simon Nicholson is Assistant Professor and Director of the Global Environmental Politics program in the School of International Service at American University. His research, teaching, and public engagement center on global food politics and the politics of emerging technologies, with a focus most recently on climate geoengineering technologies.
Paul Wapner is Professor of Global Environmental Politics in the School of International Service at American University and author of Living Through the End of Nature: The Future of American Environmentalism and Environmental Activism and World Civic Politics. His research focuses on Environmental Thought, Transnational Environmental Activism, Environmental Ethics, and Global Environmental Politics.
Praise for Global Environmental Politics
“The book creates an atypical walk through familiar readings and links one to another in an insightful way, enabling students to fain more than the sum of the parts…In sum, Global Environmental Politics has a place in any introductory-level undergraduate class on the subject.”
—Global Governance
“This remarkable collection ties together the work of writers, activists, and scholars to reveal the complexities of the world in which we live and the challenges facing the planet that supports us. Wapner and Nicholson confront readers with provocative ideas and realistic appraisals, but also with paths forward that cut across scales, from individual to global. I can’t wait to see how my students respond to the ideas and perspectives presented in this exciting volume!”
—Kate O’Neill, University of California at Berkeley
“More than a textbook, Nicholson and Wapner’s collection of readings combines the responsibilities of sound scholarship and civic action with the possibilities of informed, meaningful action. Highly recommended.”
—Thomas Princen, University of Michigan, author of The Logic of Sufficiency
“An excellent primary or complementary text for an introductory Global Environmental Politics course. The organization of topics is logical, the introductory comments are useful for putting the readings into context, and the student exercises are perhaps my favorite part—an excellent idea! I like the balance of mixing popular readings with more scholarly readings and find that students like the mix as well. There is a need for a new reader in this area, and I really like this approach!”
—Pamela Chasek, Manhattan College
“If you want to teach a course on environmental politics that forces students to engage the subject in relation to their daily lives, then Nicholson and Wapner’s volume cannot be beaten. They have curated and carefully edited an array of fantastic texts, both scholarly and popular, and provided readers with succinct, thoughtful overviews of the themes these texts introduce. This book will profoundly enrich the learning experience of all those students lucky enough to be required to read it.”
—Matthew Paterson, University of Ottawa
“Global Environmental Politics: From Person to Planet gives us all signals to inspire positive behaviors as we collectively design a beneficial future for all the children of all species for all time.”
—William McDonough, Architect and co-author of Cradle to Cradle
