Environment and Society

by Harper, Charles L.

• ISBN13: 9780130165558
• ISBN10: 0130165557
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-10-01
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Summary

Appropriate for upper-division undergraduates in various departments such as Sociology, Environmental Studies, Anthropology, Political Science and Human Geography. With appropriate supplements, the text could also be used by beginning graduate students. This integrative text about human-environment relations connects many issues about human societies, ecological systems, and environments with data and perspectives from different fields of study. While the viewpoint is primarily sociological, coverage is specifically designed to relate to a diverse audience and encompass viewpoints from a variety of natural and social science approaches.

Table of Contents

Preface	x
PART I INTRODUCTION
Environmental Problems and Ecosystems	3	(29)
Environmental News	4	(3)
The Vanishing Wilderness	4	(1)
Agricultural Resources under Stress	4	(1)
Pollution and Other Garbage	5	(2)
The Spectre of Climate Change	7	(1)
Ecocatastrophe or Eco Hype?	7	(4)
Pollyannas and Cassandras	8	(3)
Ecosystems	11	(14)
Ecosystem Concepts	12	(9)
Explaining Ecosystem Dynamics: Change and Evolution	21	(1)
The Evolution of Ecosystems	22	(3)
What You Can Expect from the Rest of this Book and How It Is Organized	25	(1)
Science, Values, and Language	26	(1)
Personal Connections	27	(5)
Human Systems, Environment, and Social Science	32	(49)
Sociocultural Systems	32	(7)
Culture	34	(1)
Social Institutions	35	(1)
Social Structure	36	(1)
The Duality of Human Life	37	(1)
Worldviews, Social Paradigms, and Cognized Environments	37	(2)
Historical Change, Human-Environment Relationships, and Paradigms	39	(10)
Hunter-Gatherer Societies	39	(1)
Agricultural Societies	40	(5)
Industrial Societies	45	(4)
Explaining Sociocultural Evolution: Human Ecology and Political Economy	49	(8)
Ecosystem and Sociocultural Evolution	49	(4)
The Political Economy of the World System and Globalization	53	(4)
Environmental Social Science	57	(12)
Economic Thought	58	(4)
Sociological Thought	62	(7)
Conclusion: Human Systems and Environmental Systems	69	(5)
The Human Driving Forces of Environmental and Ecological Change	69	(3)
System Connections	72	(1)
Intellectual Paradigms about Human-Environment Relations	73	(1)
Personal Connections	74	(7)
PART II READING THE EARTH'S VITAL SIGNS
The Resources of the Earth: Sources and Sinks	81	(43)
Land and Soil	82	(5)
Soil and Food	83	(1)
Present and Future Status of the World's Soils	84	(1)
Addressing Soil Problems	85	(1)
Ecosystem Services: Pricing Soil Degradation	86	(1)
Water Resources	87	(4)
Growing Water Use and Its Problems	88	(1)
Water and Political Conflict	89	(1)
Addressing Water Problems	90	(1)
Freshwater Ecosystem Services	91	(1)
Biodiversity and Forests	91	(12)
Forest Resources	92	(1)
Forest Ecosystem Services	93	(1)
Declining Biodiversity	94	(7)
Addressing Deforestation and Declining Biodiversity	101	(2)
Nonfuel Minerals, Materials, and Solid Wastes	103	(8)
Reserves and Sources of Minerals	103	(3)
Problems with Mineral Production	106	(2)
Sinks: Solid Waste Problems	108	(1)
Addressing Solid Waste Problems	109	(2)
Chemical Pollution and Toxic Wastes	111	(7)
Chemical Pollution from Agriculture	112	(2)
Chemical Pollutants from Industry	114	(1)
Urban and Municipal Pollution	115	(1)
Pollution Trends	116	(2)
Conclusion: The Resources of the Earth	118	(2)
Personal Connections	120	(4)
Global Climate Change, Scientific Uncertainty, and Risk	124	(47)
Ozone Depletion and Ultraviolet Radiation	127	(5)
Destroying the Ozone Layer	128	(1)
A Cautionary Tale: Technology, Progress, and Environmental Damage	129	(1)
A Happy Ending?	130	(2)
Turning Up the Heat: Global Warming?	132	(18)
General Climate Models	133	(3)
More and Less Uncertainty	136	(3)
Impacts on Society	139	(2)
Policy Options: What Could Be Done about Global Warming?	141	(9)
Understanding Uncertainty and Risk	150	(12)
Sources of Scientific Uncertainty	150	(6)
Assessing Risks, Analytic Modeling, and the Risk Establishment	156	(6)
Conclusion: Criteria for Policy and Action	162	(2)
Do We Know Enough to Act?	162	(1)
Can We Afford the Costs?	163	(1)
Personal Connections	164	(7)
PART III THE HUMAN CAUSES OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS
Population, Environment, and Food	171	(49)
The Dynamics of Population Change	173	(13)
The Demographic Transition Model	174	(2)
Demographic Divergence: MDCs and LDCs	176	(2)
Population Redistribution: Urbanization and Migration	178	(8)
How Serious Is the Problem of World Population Growth?	186	(8)
Neo-Malthusian Arguments	187	(1)
Economistic Arguments	188	(1)
Inequality Arguments	189	(3)
Population Policy and Politics	192	(2)
Making Sense Out of This Controversy	194	(3)
An Emerging Consensus?	196	(1)
Population and Food	197	(4)
Pressing the Earth's Limits?	199	(2)
How Can We Feed Nine Billion People in the Next 50 Years?	201	(10)
Increasing Food Security: Technical Options	202	(5)
Increasing Food Security: Political-Economic Options	207	(3)
Food Options and Policy Questions	210	(1)
Stabilizing World Population: Policy Questions	211	(2)
Promoting Fertility Decline	212	(1)
Conclusion	213	(1)
Personal Connections	213	(7)
Energy and Society	220	(43)
The Winter of 1973	221	(2)
Energy Problems: Environmental and Social	223	(6)
Source Problems: Energy Resource Supplies	223	(1)
Energy, Population Growth, and Economic Development	224	(1)
Policy, Economic, and Geopolitical Problems	225	(2)
Sink Problems: Energy and Environment	227	(2)
The Energetics of Human Societies	229	(13)
Low- and High-Energy Societies	230	(2)
Social Science and Energetics	232	(10)
The Present Energy System and Its Alternatives	242	(11)
Fossil Fuels	242	(1)
Nuclear Energy	243	(2)
Renewable Energy Sources	245	(8)
Changing The World Energy System: Barriers and Policy	253	(5)
Barriers	254	(1)
Transitions	255	(2)
Making Energy Policy	257	(1)
Personal Connections	258	(5)
Alternative Futures: Sustainability, Inequality, and Social Change	263	(44)
Sustainability	264	(3)
Conceptualizing the Human Impact Again: I = PAT	267	(2)
Affluence, Social Inequality, and Environment	269	(7)
Social Inequality and Stratification	270	(3)
Inequality and Environmental Degradation	273	(3)
Social and Environmental Futures: Two Views	276	(15)
A Future without Limits: Cornucopia?	277	(2)
A Future with Limits: Outbreak-Crash?	279	(6)
The Two Scenarios: Evidence and Understanding the Debate	285	(4)
Thinking about High-Risk Choices in Contexts of Uncertainty	289	(2)
What Would a Sustainable Society Look Like?	291	(3)
Transformation and Sustainable Societies: Social Change	294	(5)
Functionalism and Change	294	(1)
Conflict Perspectives and Change	295	(1)
Interactionism, Social Constructionism, and Change	296	(1)
Multiple Perspectives and Change: Agency, Structure, and Time Horizons	296	(3)
Conclusion: A Transformation to Sustainability?	299	(1)
Personal Connections	300	(7)
PART IV TOWARD A SUSTAINABLE WORLD?
Transforming Structures: Markets, Politics, and Policy	307	(38)
Markets	309	(13)
Market Failures	310	(3)
Environmentally Perverse Subsidies and Market Incentives	313	(1)
Transforming Market Incentives: Green Taxes and Owning the Commons	314	(2)
New Measures of Economic and Social Progress	316	(1)
Rational-Choice Theory and Human-Environment Problems	317	(2)
But Markets Are Not the Answer	319	(3)
Politics and Policy	322	(9)
Public Policy and Strategies of Social Change	323	(1)
Policy and the Economic Production Cycle	324	(2)
Policy and Social Structure	326	(2)
Politics and the Limits of Policy	328	(3)
The Potential for Structural Change	331	(9)
Signs of Progress?	331	(3)
Revisiting the Tragedy of the Commons: Community Resource Management	334	(6)
Personal Connections	340	(5)
Environmentalism: Ideology, Action, and Movements	345	(40)
American Environmentalism	348	(26)
American Environmental Movements, 1870-1950	350	(2)
Contemporary Environmentalism	352	(18)
Manifest Destiny: Anti-Environmentalism and Countermovements	370	(4)
Environmentalism and Change	374	(6)
The Question of Durability	374	(1)
Changing Attitudes and Beliefs	374	(2)
Paradigm Change?	376	(2)
Voluntary Simplicity Again?	378	(1)
Changed Economic Structures	379	(1)
Conclusion: How Successful Is Environmentalism?	380	(1)
Personal Connections	381	(4)
Globalization: Trade, Environment, and the Third Revolution	385	(42)
The Growth of Trade and the World Market Economy	387	(1)
Global Environmentalism	388	(4)
Organizations, Trade, Treaties, and the Environment	392	(12)
Approaches to International Trade	394	(2)
Transnational Corporations (TNCs) and World Trade	396	(2)
Environmentalists, Neoliberal ``Free Traders,'' and LDCs	398	(5)
Trouble in the World System: Seattle and the WTO	403	(1)
A Global Civil Society	404	(4)
Toward a Greener Global System?	408	(9)
Evolving Treaties and International Regimes	408	(1)
Hard Rocks: Problems in Global Regime Formation	409	(3)
Effective Global Treaties: Bargains, Strategies, and the World System	412	(5)
Progress and Problems	417	(4)
Progress and Problems: Political Security	418	(1)
Goals for Change: What Needs to Be Done	419	(2)
Conclusion: Long Transformations and the Third Revolution	421	(3)
Personal Connections	424	(3)
References	427	(27)
Name Index	454	(5)
Subject Index	459