Global Environmental Change and International Governance

As humankind continues to exploit the earth's limited resources, issues like ozone depletion, climate change, fresh and salt water pollution, and diminishment of biodiversity are no longer just local problems, but global threats. Eleven essays look at existing international regimes, those "rules of the game that define the character of social practices," and the successes and failures of these systems in curbing large-scale environmental degradation. Based on regime theory, the authors evaluate ongoing negotiations about environmental institution building and provide unique insights into forces shaping the attitudes of northern developed countries and southern newly developing ones. Writers from both perspectives illustrate the social, political, and economic complexities inherent in reconciling "emerging northern concerns for relieving pressure on the earth's physical and biological systems" with "increasingly insistent southern demands for restructuring of economic imbalances to meet reasonable standards of equity."