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This book is the outcome of an interdisciplinary research process aimed at capturing the complexity of the social mobilisation for climate change. It brings together various academic perspectives to understand the diverse forms of climate activism, challenging traditional notions of agency, space, justice, and legality.The reader will broaden their understanding of the social mobilisation for climate change and its interactions with new digital spaces. This book questions public authorities and big greenhouse gas emitters, individual and generational behaviors, artistic creations, territorial identities, legal systems, and even the idea of democracy. This broad overview results from a collection of concise contributions from scholars with different backgrounds, who employ a variety of tools and methodologies in their analysis, although delivering their findings in an accessible language.It is intended for students, scholars, practitioners, and policymakers in the areas of Climate Change, Digital Activism, Cultural and Legal Geography, Social and Spatial Justice, Human Rights and Environmental Law, Sustainable Cities, and Just Transition.

The Aarhus Convention on access to information, public participation in decision-making and access to justice in environmental matters has been celebrated as a pioneering international environmental agreement. Given that a quarter-century has passed since Aarhus was opened for signature, now is an opportune moment to revisit it from a fresh perspective. Marking this anniversary, this book explores Aarhus from the vista of the English School of International Relations, an ethically-minded perspective used to gauge the prevalence of state-oriented and human-oriented progress from the Convention's rationales and realities. It firstly considers Aarhus'propagation, investigating the legal, diplomatic and geopolitical contexts enabling its emergence. It secondly investigates Aarhus'germination, with reference to its trinity of procedural rights. Thirdly, the book examines the Convention's growth, in terms of the development of its organisational infrastructure. The chief finding is that Aarhus demonstrates, in environmental contexts, the feasibility and benefit of fostering'humankind'solidarist progress, rooted in moral cosmopolitanism, within the existing power arrangements of a sovereignty-based pluralism. Pluralist concerns for diversity and international order are found to be a precondition for more ethically ambitious solidarist endeavours. These observations reinforce the logic of solidarisation, an English School innovation that presents sovereignty as (a) being ethically matured by solidarism whilst (b) delimiting solidarism within the threshold of states'tolerance.

In This Together explores how we can harness our social networks to make a real impact fighting the climate crisis. Against notions of the lone environmental crusader, Marianne E. Krasny shows us the power of'network climate action'—the idea that our own ordinary acts can influence and inspire those close to us. Through this spread of climate-conscious practices, our individual actions become collective ones that can eventually effect widespread change.Weaving examples of everyday climate-forward initiatives in with insights on behavioral and structural change, Krasny demonstrates how we can scale up the impact of our efforts through leveraging our community connections. Whether by inviting family, friends, or colleagues to a plant-rich meal or by becoming activists at climate nonprofits, we can forge the social norms and shared identities that can lead to change. With easy-to-follow dos and don'ts, In This Together shows us a practical and hopeful way forward into our shared future.

Although many local authorities underline the important role of citizens in climate adaptation, many experience difficulties with organizing citizen participation in a way that is meaningful to both citizens and policymakers. Climate change is for many simply not a top priority. Besides, the future is often rather abstract to people, citizens in particular. We argue that practical tools are needed to help citizens structure the process of thinking about and designing the future of their living environment under the impacts of climate change. The toolbox Towards a climate-resilient future together offers practical foresight methods and tools for organizing citizen participation in the process of building climate-resilient futures. It provides an overview of the state the art of and hands-on guidance for executing participatory foresight methods and showcases some of the lessons learned from several international research programs on citizen engagement. In doing so, the toolbox can assist practitioners, students and academics concerned with the question of how local communities in urban and rural areas could adapt to climate change impacts and become more resilient in the future. It is suitable for readers without any experience in citizen participation and/or foresight, while more experienced readers will find innovative combinations of methods and tools that are unique within the field of citizen participation and foresight..

A “smart, honest, and down-to-earth” (Elizabeth Kolbert) citizen's guide to the seven urgent changes that will really make a difference for our climate.If you think the only thing you can do to combat climate change is to install a smart thermostat or cook plant-based meat, you're thinking too small. In The Big Fix, energy policy advisor Hal Harvey and longtime New York Times reporter Justin Gillis offer a new, hopeful way to engage with one of the greatest problems of our age. Writing in a lively, accessible style, the pair illuminate how the really big decisions that affect our climate get made—whether by the most obscure public utilities commissions or in the lofty halls of state capitols—and reveal how each of us can influence these decisions to deliver change. The pair focus on the seven areas of our political economy where ambitious but practical changes will have the greatest effect: from what kind of power plants to build to how much insulation new houses require to how efficient cars must be before they're allowed on the road. Equal parts pragmatic and inspiring—and “full of illustrative stories and compelling evidence” (Al Gore)—The Big Fix provides an action plan for anyone serious about holding our governments accountable and saving our threatened planet.

With drastic action needing to be taken now, rather than over the 30 years to 2050, this book addresses the crucial question of how to get action from governments who will always put short-term considerations (e.g. post Covid economic growth) over longer term climate priorities – unless forced to do otherwise.How might governments be persuaded to implement policies that will result in effective action? And how can this be achieved at an international, as well as national, level? These are the questions that this book focuses on. Taking a systematic political science point of view and drawing on collective choice and other theories of political action, this book analyses the key political and economic dynamics shaping climate policies around the world, identifying major political opportunities that can be exploited by well-informed and determined political actors, such as NGOs and social movements. This book describes how to advance and accelerate climate action around the world and will be of interest internationally to climate change campaigners, activists, political and environmental scientists.

The Sea is Rising and So Are We: A Climate Justice Handbook is an invitation to get involved in the movement to build a just and sustainable world in the face of the most urgent challenge our species has ever faced. By explaining the entrenched forces that are preventing rapid action, it helps you understand the nature of the political reality we are facing and arms you with the tools you need to overcome them. The book offers background information on the roots of the crisis and the many rapidly expanding solutions that are being implemented all around the world. It explains how to engage in productive messaging that will pull others into the climate justice movement, what you need to know to help build a successful movement, and the policy changes needed to build a world with climate justice. It also explores the personal side, how engaging in the movement can be good for your mental health. It ends with advice on how you can find the place where you can be the most effective and where you can build climate action into your life in ways that are deeply rewarding.

One of The Observer's ‘Thirty books to help us understand the world'Shortlisted for the Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award Recycle. Fly less. Eat less meat. These are some of the ways that we've been told we can save the planet. But are individuals really to blame for the climate crisis? Seventy-one per cent of global emissions come from the same hundred companies, but fossil-fuel companies have taken no responsibility themselves. Instead, they have waged a thirty-year campaign to blame individuals for climate change. The result has been disastrous for our planet. In The New Climate War, renowned scientist Michael E. Mann argues that all is not lost. He draws the battle lines between the people and the polluters — fossil-fuel companies, right-wing plutocrats, and petro-states — and outlines a plan for forcing our governments and corporations to wake up and make real change.

Mit einem Vorwort des deutschen Science4Future-Wissenschaftlers Volker Quaschning und einem Nachwort des Meteorologen Özden Terli. Der renommierte Klimawissenschaftler Michel E. Mann zeigt, wie die fossile Brennstoffindustrie seit 30 Jahren eine Kampagne führt, um von Schuld und Verantwortung abzulenken und Maßnahmen gegen den Klimawandel zu verzögern. In dem Buch präsentiert er seinen Aktionsplan zur Rettung des Planeten. Recyceln. Weniger Fliegen. Weniger Fleisch essen. Das sind nur einige der Maßnahmen, von denen uns gesagt wurde, dass sie den Klimawandel verlangsamen können. Aber die übermäßige Betonung des individuellen Verhaltens ist das Ergebnis einer Marketingkampagne, die es geschafft hat, die Verantwortung für die Bewältigung des drohenden Klimawandels vollständig auf die Schultern des Einzelnen zu legen. Die Unternehmen der fossilen Brennstoffindustrie sind dem Beispiel anderer Branchen gefolgt, die ebenso die Schuld von sich weisen – man denke nur an'Waffen töten keine Menschen, Menschen töten Menschen'– oder an das Greenwashing der Getränkeindustrie mit der'Crying Indian'Kampagne in den 1970er Jahren. Gleichzeitig blockieren sie Bemühungen, den Ausstoß von Kohlenstoffdioxid zu regulieren oder zu bepreisen. Sie führen PR-Kampagnen durch, die darauf abzielen, praktikable Alternativen zu diskreditieren. Und sie entziehen sich ihrer Verantwortung, das von ihnen geschaffene Problem zu lösen. Das Ergebnis ist für unseren Planeten verheerend. In'Propagandaschlacht ums Klima'vertritt Michael E. Mann die Ansicht, dass noch nicht alles verloren ist. Er beschreibt die Fronten zwischen den Verbrauchern und den Verursachern – den Unternehmen der fossilen Brennstoffindustrie, den rechtsgerichteten Plutokraten und den Petrostaaten. Und er skizziert einen Plan, um unsere Regierungen und Konzerne zu zwingen, aufzuwachen und echte Veränderungen vorzunehmen, einschließlich: - einer vernünftigen, realistischen Herangehensweise bei der Bepreisung von CO2 und einer Korrektur der gut gemeinten, aber fehlerhaften, derzeit vorgeschlagenen Version des Green New Deals; - einer fairen Konkurrenz zwischen Erneuerbaren Energien und fossilen Energieträgern; - der Entlarvung falscher Narrative und Argumente, die sich in die Klimadebatte eingeschlichen haben und einen Keil zwischen diejenigen treiben, die Lösungen für den Klimawandel unterstützen; - einer Bekämpfung von Klimauntergangsstimmung und Hoffnungslosigkeit. Angesichts der immens mächtigen Interessen, die den Status quo der fossilen Brennstoffe verteidigen, wird der gesellschaftliche Wandel nur mit der aktiven Beteiligung der Bürger gelingen, die den gemeinsamen Vorstoß unterstützen. Dieses Buch will überall die Menschen erreichen, informieren und befähigen, sich dem Kampf um unseren Planeten anzuschließen.

The Hidden Power of Systems Thinking: Governance in a Climate Emergency is a persuasive, lively book that shows how systems thinking can be harnessed to effect profound, complex change.In the age of the Anthropocene, the need for new ways of thinking and acting has become urgent. But patterns of obstacles are apparent in any action, be they corporate interests, lobbyists, or outdated political and government systems. Ison and Straw show how and why failure in governance is at the heart of the collective incapacity to tackle the climate and biodiversity emergencies. They go beyond analysis of the problem and demonstrate how incorporating systems thinking into governance at every level would enable us to break free of historical shackles. They propose 26 principles for systemic governance.This book will be inspiring reading for students applying their systemic methods, specialists in change management or public administration, activists for ‘whole system change'and decision makers wanting to effect challenging transformations. It is for anyone with the ambition to create a sustainable and fair world.

This electronic version has been made available under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-ND) open access license. Debates over science, facts, and values are pivotal in the struggle for environmental justice. For decades, environmental justice activists have campaigned against the misuse of science, engaging in community-led citizen science that champions knowledge produced by and for ordinary people living with environmental risks and hazards. However, post-truth politics have threatened science itself. Toxic truths examines the relationship between environmental justice and citizen science, focusing on enduring issues and new challenges in a post-truth age. The volume features a range of community-based participatory environmental health and justice research projects that seek to establish different ways of sensing, witnessing, and interpreting environmental injustice. From struggles in American hog country and contaminated indigenous communities, to local environmental controversies in Spain and China, this volume examines political strategies for seeking environmental justice. With international, interdisciplinary contributions from distinguished authors, emerging scholars and community activists, Toxic truths is essential reading for those seeking to understand the cutting edge of citizen science and activism around the world.

At the 2019 UN climate change conference, activists and delegates from groups representing Indigenous, youth, women, and labour rights were among those marching through the halls chanting'Climate Justice, People Power.'In The New Climate Activism, Jen Iris Allan looks at why and how these social activists came to participate in climate change governance while others, such as those working on human rights and health, remain on the outside of climate activism. Through case studies of women's rights, labour, alter-globalization, health, and human rights activism, Allan shows that some activists sought and successfully gained recognition as part of climate change governance, while others remained marginalized. While concepts key to some social activists, including gender mainstreaming, just transition, and climate justice are common terms, human rights and health remain'fringe issues'in climate change governance. The New Climate Activism explores why and how these activists brought their issues to climate change, and why some succeeded while others did not.

This book investigates the relationship between non-state actors and climate justice from a philosophical perspective.The climate justice literature remains largely focused upon the rights and duties of states. Yet, for decades, states have failed to take adequate steps to address climate change. This has led some to suggest that, if severe climate change and its attendant harms are to be avoided, non-state actors are going to have to step into the breach. This collection represents the first attempt to systematically examine the climate duties of the most significant non-state actors – corporations, sub-national political communities, and individuals.Targeted at academic philosophers working on climate justice, this collection will also be of great interest to students and scholars of global justice, applied ethics, political philosophy and environmental humanities.

Breaking Boundaries analyzes efforts made by communities and policy makers around the world to push beyond conventional approaches to environmental decision making to enhance public acceptance, sustainability, and the impact of those decisions in local contexts. The current political climate has generated uncertainty among citizens, industry interests, scientists, and other stakeholders, but by applying concepts from various perspectives of environmental communication and deliberative democracy, this book offers a series of lessons learned for both public officials and concerned citizens. The contributors offer a broader understanding of how individuals and groups can get involved effectively in environmental decisions through traditional formats as well as alternative approaches ranging from leadership capacity building to social media activity to civic technology.

This title was first published in 2003. Environmental Human Rights redefines the political, ethical and legal relationships between the environment and human rights to claim the human rights to an environment free from toxic pollution and to natural resources. Through a focus on the operational dynamics of social power, this compelling book details how global capitalism subjugates concerns of human security and environmental protection to the values of allocative efficiency and economic growth. The capacity of social power to construct ethical norms and to determine the efficacy of law is examined to explain how ethical and legal concepts have been selectively applied to accommodate existing patterns of production, consumption and exchange that cause environmental degradation and human rights violations. By looking at how environmental values have been systematically excluded from the human rights discourse, the book claims that human rights politics and law has been constructed on double standards to accommodate the destructive forces of capitalism.

Facts and feelings constitute a complex tension in modern science. Not only can public opinion deviate from scientific knowledge, but that knowledge itself can be lacunose or contradicting. Managing Facts and Feelings in Environmental Governance examines this internal friction, between the need to engage the public in the importance of environmental governance and the demand of professional expertise to address the issues that arise. This timely and insightful book acknowledges the growing role of behavioural science in the determination of environmental policy, regulation and decision-making, providing astute guidance to decision-makers regarding how to balance the needs of public participation procedures and professional expertise. Its multidisciplinary approach provides new insights in the field of public participation, enabling further analysis of environmental psychology, equality law and fundamental rights and offers concrete guidance on how to approach natural science in court. Engaging with the role that the precautionary principle can play in balancing tensions between public and academic spheres, this book includes a state-of-the-art account of the precautionary approach under EU and International Law. Combining law in action with academic approaches, this book is a must-read for scholars of environmental law, governance and regulation. It also offers valuable guidance for decision-makers and NGOs active in environmental protection, as well as environmental lawyers at national, European and international levels.

Originally published in 2004. Using innovative methodology which considers both social and biophysical parameters to examine a range of mining and mineral production sites (including the controversial Superfund sites in the USA), this book focuses on how environmental regulators, local residents and other stakeholders work together to define the communities affected by environmental hazards and to assess the associated health impacts. It also questions the social factors which frame community-level decision-making about environmental risks, such as shared history, community identity, control in local decisions, distribution of power among local institutions, and participation in decisions about environmental risks and mitigation. The book argues that a better understanding of such factors would not only permit the development of more informed policies, but would also provide opportunities to improve community involvement in mitigation efforts.

Global climate change poses an unprecedented challenge for governments across the world. Small wonder that many experts question whether democracies have the ability to cope with the causes and long-term consequences of a changing climate. Some even argue that authoritarian regimes are better equipped to make the tough choices required to tackle the climate crisis.In this incisive book, Daniel Fiorino challenges the assumptions and evidence offered by sceptics of democracy and its capacity to handle climate change. Democracies, he explains, typically enjoy higher levels of environmental performance and produce greater innovation in technology, policy, and climate governance than autocracies. Rather than less democracy, Fiorino calls for a more accountable and responsive politics that will provide democratically-elected governments with the enhanced capacity for collective action on climate and other environmental issues.

In less than a decade, activism against the fossil fuel industry has exploded across the globe. While environmentalists used to focus on legislative goals, such as carbon emissions trading or renewable energy policies, today the most prominent activists directly attack the fossil fuel industry. This timely book offers a comprehensive evaluation of different types of activism, the success and impact of campaigns and activities, and suggestions as to ways forward. This book is the first systematic treatment of the anti-fossil fuel movement in the United States. An accessible and readable text, it is an essential reference for scholars, policymakers, activists, and citizens interested in climate change, fossil fuels, and environmental sustainability.The entire book or chapters from it can be used as required or supplementary material in various courses at the undergraduate and graduate level. As the book is not technically challenging but contains a comprehensive review of climate change, fossil fuels, and the literature on environmental activism, it can be used as an accessible introduction to the anti-fossil fuel campaign across disciplines.

A leading environmental thinker takes a hard look at the obstacles and possibilities on the long road to sustainability This gripping, deeply thoughtful book considers future of civilization in the light of what we know about climate change and related threats. David Orr, an award-winning, internationally recognized leader in the field of sustainability and environmental education, pulls no punches: even with the Paris Agreement of 2015, Earth systems will not reach a new equilibrium for centuries. Earth is becoming a different planet—more threadbare and less biologically diverse, with more acidic oceans and a hotter, more capricious climate. Furthermore, technology will not solve complex problems of sustainability. Yet we are not fated to destroy the Earth, Orr insists. He imagines sustainability as a quest and a transition built upon robust and durable democratic and economic institutions, as well as changes in heart and mindset. The transition, he writes, is beginning from the bottom up in communities and neighborhoods. He lays out specific principles and priorities to guide us toward enduring harmony between human and natural systems.

Urban sustainability citizenship situates citizens as social change agents with an ethical and self-interested stake in living sustainably with the rest of Earth. Such citizens not only engage in sustainable household practices but respect the importance of awareness raising, discussion and debates on sustainability policies for the common good and maintenance of Earth's ecosystems.Sustainability Citizenship in Cities seeks to explain how sustainability citizenship can manifest in urban built environments as both responsibilities and rights. Contributors elaborate on the concept of urban sustainability citizenship as a participatory work-in-progress with the aim of setting its practice firmly on the agenda. This collection will prompt practitioners and researchers to rethink contemporary mobilisations of urban citizens challenged by various environmental crises, such as climate change, in various socio-economic settings.This book is a valuable resource for students, academics and professionals working in various disciplines and across a range of interdisciplinary fields, such as: urban environment and planning, citizenship as practice, environmental sociology, contemporary politics and governance, environmental philosophy, media and communications, and human geography.

This book is about the history, present and future of one the most important policy ideas of the modern era – that there is a single, global dangerous amount of climate change. That dangerous amount of climate change is imagined as two degrees centigrade of global warming above the pre-industrial average. Though the two degree idea is based on the value system of elite policy actors, it is been constructed in public discourses as scientific fact. This false representation of the concept undermines opportunities for positive public engagement with the climate policy debate, yet it is strong public engagement which is a recurring aspiration of climate policy discourses and is considered essential if climate mitigation strategies are to work.Alongside a critical analysis of how the idea of a single dangerous limit has shaped our understanding of what sort of problem climate change is, the book explains how the public have been kept out of that decision making process, the implications of this marginalisation for climate policy and why the dangerous limit idea is undermining our ability to mitigate climate change. The book concludes by exploring possibilities for a deliberation about the future of the two degree limit which allows for public participation in the decision making process. This book illustrates why, at this critical juncture in the climate policy debate, the two degree limit idea has failed to achieve any of the policy goals intended.This is the first book dedicated to questioning the issue of the two degree limit within a social science framework and should be of interest to students and scholars of environmental policy and politics, climate change communication, and science, technology and society studies.

How can we save America's wilderness areas? Wilderness and the Common Good argues that the answer to this question lies in the actions of America's citizens. Beginning with The Wilderness Act of 1964, Dr. Jo Arney examines the state of American environmental policies and how they intersect with individual citizen action. Drawing on the work of environmental and political scientists, advocates, and philosophers, Dr. Arney argues that modern civic responsibility entails both an understanding of the importance of wilderness and citizen activism to ensure its existence. True and lasting protection for wilderness will be borne out of a shared understanding of how protected wilderness areas enriches all of our lives. Weaving in her own personal narratives, Dr. Arney shows that wild areas are not only important for the biodiversity that they safeguard but are also essential for the common good of our society.

On a historical global turning point, this book offers a thorough exploration of the “New Sustainability Paradigm”, originally developed by the Global Scenario Group (GSG) of the Stockholm Environmental Institute (SEI) as a starting point for analyzing real-life transitions and transformations. 11 contributors from 5 continents present detailed analyses of economic and political transitions in Western and Eastern Europe, the USA, the Middle East, and in Asia, discussing the role of different players in the implementation of the New Sustainability Paradigm.Part I offers an overview of the six scenarios developed by the GSG and a short discussion of significant papers published by the Great Transition Initiative (GTI) of the Tellus Institute. Next come examples of dramatic historical and current transitions in Western Europe, the USA, Eastern Europe, the Middle East (Arabian Spring), and Asia, as well as an analysis of the potential of humankind to manage a great transition to the new sustainability paradigm. Subsequent chapters highlight the role of culture and education and review the role of different players for the implementation of the new sustainability paradigm. The focus of Part II is on the ecological pillar of Sustainability. The discussion includes urgent ecological problems including climate engineering, eco-criminality, bioterrorism, biodiversity protection, water, energy, and food security. Part III deals with needed innovations in sustainable waste management and sustainable city architecture, especially big cities in developing and threshold countries, where a significant part of the world population is concentrated. The fourth and final section offers an analysis of insights developed throughout the book, and outlines recommendations for the implementation of the New Sustainability Paradigm by civil society, grass-root movements, scholars, politically neutral NGOs, sincere media players, and by open-minded and enlightenedpoliticians to manage and steer the Great Transition towards sustainable global democracy.

An examination of the potential and limitations of deliberative consensus as a way to achieve effective international environmental governance.In this book, Walter Baber and Robert Bartlett explore the practical and conceptual implications of a new approach to international environmental governance. Their proposed approach, juristic democracy, emphasizes the role of the citizen rather than the nation-state as the source of legitimacy in international environmental law; it is rooted in local knowledge and grounded in democratic deliberation and consensus. The aim is to construct a global jurisprudence based on collective will formation. Building on concepts presented in their previous book, the award-winning Global Democracy and Sustainable Jurisprudence, Baber and Bartlett examine in detail the challenges that consensus poses for a system of juristic democracy. Baber and Bartlett analyze the implications of deliberative consensus for rule-bounded behavior, for the accomplishment of basic governance tasks, and for diversity in a politically divided and culturally plural world. They assess social science findings about the potential of small-group citizen panels to contribute to rationalized consensus, drawing on the extensive research conducted on the use of juries in courts of law. Finally, they analyze the place of juristic democracy in a future “consensually federal” system for earth system governance.

The increasing awareness of the human impact on the environment is having a profound effect on the concept and content of citizenship – one of the fundamental institutions that structures human relations. In what is the first introduction of its kind, this book provides an accessible, stimulating and multidimensional overview of the many ways in which concern for the environment – driven primarily by the preoccupation with sustainability – is reshaping our understanding of citizenship. Environment and Citizenship is structured into three parts. Part I introduces the reader to the concept and theories of citizenship and explores the impact that environmental concerns is having on contemporary formulations of citizenship, both traditional (e.g. national, liberal and republican) and emerging (e.g. cosmopolitan, ecological and ecofeminist). Part II explores the practical manifestations of environmental citizenship, with each chapter focusing on a particular actor: citizens, governments, and corporations. These chapters include references to examples and case studies from a wide range of countries, broadly categorized as belonging to the Global North and the Global South. Part III explores the making of green citizens and outlines the dominant articulations of environmental citizenship that emerge from formal education, news media and popular culture. The book concludes with a general reflection on the present and future of environmental citizenship. The book contains a variety of illustrations, boxed case-studies, links to online resources and suggestions for further reading. This original and engaging text is essential reading for students and scholars of environmental politics, sustainability studies and development studies, as well as for environmental activists, policy practitioners and environmental educators. More broadly, this book will appeal to anyone interested in and concerned with issues of sustainability, social justice and citizenship in the twenty-first century.

Coming Back to Life has helped people transform denial, despair and grief in the face of the social and ecological challenges of our time. This new, completely updated edition repositions the classic work within the context of deepening global crises and the cognitive, spiritual and perceptual revolutions occurring all around us.

Our behaviour in our own homes - our recycling habits, consumer choices and transport preferences - all have a huge impact on the environment locally and globally. Governments across the world are trying to formulate and implement policies to encourage and enforce more sustainable household actions. Yet so often these policies fail to have the desired effects because of a lack of understanding of the complex interplay of policy and individual behaviour. This book examines this interplay, looking at the role of values, attitudes and constraints in the links between policy and changing behaviour at the household level. The first part of the book explores the theoretical background looking at the politics of lifestyles and lifestyle change, policy legitimacy and barriers and facilitators for pro-environmental behaviour. The second part is made up of in-depth case studies from Sweden - one of the fore-running countries in this area - examining three main types of household behaviour: waste and recycling; consumption and labelling; and transportation choices. Within these case studies, the contributors examine what policy initiatives have and haven't worked and the role of values and constraints in those processes. This is the first inter-disciplinary, in-depth look at how environmental policy enters the private, domestic sphere. The theoretical insights and policy guidance the book offers will be vital in the drive to generate behaviour change at the household level and the move towards sustainable societies.

Giulia Parola's Environmental Democracy at the Global Level: Rights and Duties for a New Citizenship can be seen as a manifesto that is both traditional and revolutionary at the same time. It calls for the construction of a new civilisation centred on the environment, while drawing on the traditional notions of democratic government. It adopts an approach that is focused on the power of individuals rather than governments, as ways to protect and improve the environment. It proposes that environmental rights and ecological duties are self-evident and inalienable, and should be treated as the cornerstones of a new democracy. Parola's book is a thought provoking and intriguing work that will be of interest to scholars of environmental studies as well as to legal practitioners and non-specialists.Giulia Parola has studied Environmental Law at the University of Torino, at the University of René Descartes in Paris, (where she obtained PhD in Public Law) and at the University of Iceland ( LLM in Natural Resources Law and International Environmental Law).In 2011, she was appointed by the University of Laval (Canada, Quebec) as a researcher and a lecturer in Environmental Law.

An analysis of why people with knowledge about climate change often fail to translate that knowledge into action.Global warming is the most significant environmental issue of our time, yet public response in Western nations has been meager. Why have so few taken any action? In Living in Denial, sociologist Kari Norgaard searches for answers to this question, drawing on interviews and ethnographic data from her study of'Bygdaby,'the fictional name of an actual rural community in western Norway, during the unusually warm winter of 2000-2001.In 2000-2001 the first snowfall came to Bygdaby two months later than usual; ice fishing was impossible; and the ski industry had to invest substantially in artificial snow-making. Stories in local and national newspapers linked the warm winter explicitly to global warming. Yet residents did not write letters to the editor, pressure politicians, or cut down on use of fossil fuels. Norgaard attributes this lack of response to the phenomenon of socially organized denial, by which information about climate science is known in the abstract but disconnected from political, social, and private life, and sees this as emblematic of how citizens of industrialized countries are responding to global warming.Norgaard finds that for the highly educated and politically savvy residents of Bygdaby, global warming was both common knowledge and unimaginable. Norgaard traces this denial through multiple levels, from emotions to cultural norms to political economy. Her report from Bygdaby, supplemented by comparisons throughout the book to the United States, tells a larger story behind our paralysis in the face of today's alarming predictions from climate scientists.

Despite increasing public awareness of climate change, our behaviours relating to consumption and energy use remain largely unchanged. This book answers the urgent call for effective engagement methods to foster sustainable lifestyles, community action, and social change. Written by practitioners and academics, the chapters combine theoretical perspectives with case studies and practical guidance, examining what works and what doesn't, and providing transferable lessons for future engagement approaches. Showcasing innovative thought and approaches from around the world, this book is essential reading for anyone working to foster real and lasting behavioural and social change.

Community action is a vital strategy in the fight against climate change and has increasingly informed government policy, academic inquiry and grassroots action since the start of this century. This timely and engaging volume explores both the promise of community-based action in tackling climate change and some of its limitations.On the one hand, community-based action offers a meaningful way to achieve global targets and an avenue for renewing social relations at the local level. On the other, it challenges fundamental aspects of social organization in the modern economy and sometimes comes into conflict with wider structures and constraints. This volume brings together theoretical and practical perspectives on community action to mobilize social change towards a sustainable, low carbon future. The opportunities and challenges are considered through a diverse range of models and case studies. Fresh conceptual insights are provided and new light is shed on the policy implications and practical ramifications of establishing effective community engagement in efforts to combat climate change locally. This book will prove a stimulating read for academic researchers in the fields of climate change science, local and national level policy analysis and governance research. Local authorities, development agencies and policy makers seeking to understand and to influence the behaviours and practices of ‘energy consumers'and the communities in which they live will also find much to inspire them.

Environmental assessment and management involve the production of scientific knowledge and its use in decision-making processes. The result is that within these essentially rational, political assessment frameworks, experts are creating and applying scientific knowledge for decision and management purposes that actually have strong ethical and aesthetic dimensions. Yet these rational political frameworks lack the tools to provide guidance on ethical and aesthetic issues that affect the wider public. This revolutionary work argues that ethical and aesthetic dimensions can only be brought into environmental politics and policies by citizens actively taking a stand on the specific matters in question. The author draws on Habermas? trisection of rationality as cognitive-instrumental, moral-practical and aesthetic-expressive, to suggest that truly effective environmental policy needs to activate all three approaches and not favour only the rational. To achieve this objective, the author argues that public participation in environmental policy and assessment is necessary to counteract the dictatorship of technical and economic instrumentality in environmental policy - the failure to take ethical and aesthetic rationalities into account - and, more importantly, how such policy is applied on the ground to shape our natural and material world.

Environmental assessment and management involve the production of scientific knowledge and its use in decision-making processes. The result is that within these essentially rational, political assessment frameworks, experts are creating and applying scientific knowledge for decision and management purposes that actually have strong ethical and aesthetic dimensions. Yet these rational political frameworks lack the tools to provide guidance on ethical and aesthetic issues that affect the wider public. This revolutionary work argues that ethical and aesthetic dimensions can only be brought into environmental politics and policies by citizens actively taking a stand on the specific matters in question. The author draws on Habermas trisection of rationality as cognitive-instrumental, moral-practical and aesthetic-expressive, to suggest that truly effective environmental policy needs to activate all three approaches and not favour only the rational. To achieve this objective, the author argues that public participation in environmental policy and assessment is necessary to counteract the dictatorship of technical and economic instrumentality in environmental policy - the failure to take ethical and aesthetic rationalities into account - and, more importantly, how such policy is applied on the ground to shape our natural and material world.

Participation and Power examines the ways in which citizens are allowed to participate in environmental policy decision making. Despite requirements that mandate public participation, institutional practices and current models of public participation often exclude citizens from anything other than a superficial role. W. Michele Simmons offers a firsthand look at risk communication and public participation practices through a case study involving the disposal of VX nerve agent. Arguing that a rhetoric for civic discourse in policy debates is needed, she constructs a theory of democratic and ethical public involvement that grants citizens more power in the decision-making process.