Paths to a Green World: The Political Economy of the Global Environment

This comprehensive and accessible text fills the need for a political economy view of global environmental politics, focusing on the ways key economic processes affect environmental outcomes. It examines the main actors and forces shaping global environmental management, particularly in the developing world. Moving beyond the usual academic emphasis on international agreements and institutions, it strives to integrate debates within the real world of global policy and the academic world of theory. The book maps out an original typology of four contrasting worldviews of environmental change - those of market liberals, institutionalists, bioenvironmentalists, and social greens - and uses these as a framework to examine the links between the global political economy and ecological change. This typology not only helps students understand and participate in debates about these worldviews but also provides a common language for students and instructors to discuss the issues across the social sciences. The book covers globalization and its consequences for the environment; the evolution of global discourse and global environmental governance; wealth, poverty, and consumption; the impact on the environment of global trade and trade agreements; transnational corporations and differential environmental standards; and the environmental effects of international financing, including multilateral lending and aid and bilateral and private finance. Brief, illustrative case studies appear throughout the text.

About the Author :
Jennifer Clapp is CIGI Chair in International Governance and Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of Waterloo. She is the coauthor of Paths to a Green World (MIT Press, 2005). Peter Dauvergne is Professor of International Relations at the University of British Columbia. He is the author of Environmentalism of the Rich, Eco-Business: A Big-Brand Takeover of Sustainability (with Jane Lister), and The Shadows of Consumption: Consequences for the Global Environment, all published by the MIT Press.

Review :
"For students and scholars of environmental politics, Jennifer Clapp and Peter Dauvergne have made transparent what is often opaque: What do people believe and why? This book provides the insights and understandings necessary to separate the data from the noise, and makes clear how the same environmental information can lead to such divergent conclusions and policies. Paths to a Green World is sure to become an essential text in both environmental studies and political science." Ronnie Lipschutz, Professor of Politics, University of California, Santa Cruz "Clapp and Dauvergne offer an unusually provocative and creative path into the study of global environmental issues. By drawing on four environmental worldviews to frame their discussion of the mounting environmental degradation across the planet, they give us a book that will foster critical, independent thinking among undergraduate students of the politics of globalization and environmental change."--Michael Maniates, Departments of Environmental Science and Political Science, Allegheny College "*Paths to a Green World* is a rare achievement: succinct yet comprehensive, clear and balanced without removing the passion and controversy from the issues. The authors thoughtfully present and elaborate on four worldviews, or paths to environmental protection, and then trust their readers to make their own choices. In a time when polarization or blandness seems to prevail in political life, this important book promotes tolerance and respect based upon a commitment to understanding the values and arguments of others."--Karen Liftin, Department of Political Science, University of WashingtonPlease note: Endorser gives permission to excerpt from quote.