Environment and Society: A Critical Introduction(Critical Introductions to Geography)

Substantially updated for the second edition, this engaging and innovative introduction to the environment and society uses key theoretical approaches to explore familiar objects. Features substantial revisions and updates for the second edition, including new chapters on E waste, mosquitoes and uranium, improved maps and graphics, new exercises, shorter theory chapters, and refocused sections on environmental solutions Discusses topics such as population and scarcity, commodities, environmental ethics, risks and hazards, and political economy and applies them to objects like bottled water, tuna, and trees Accessible for students, and accompanied by in-book and online resources including exercises and boxed discussions, an online test bank, notes, suggested reading, and website links for enhanced understanding Offers additional online support for instructors, including suggested teaching models, PowerPoint slides for each chapter with full-color graphics, and supplementary images and teaching material

Table of Contents:
List of Figures ix List of Tables xi List of Boxes xii Acknowledgments xiii 1 Introduction: The View from a Human-Made Wilderness 1 What Is This Book? 4 The Authors’ Points of View 7 Part 1 Approaches and Perspectives 11 2 Population and Scarcity 13 A Crowded Desert City 14 The Problem of “Geometric” Growth 15 Population, Development, and Environment Impact 17 The Other Side of the Coin: Population and Innovation 20 Limits to Population: An Effect Rather than a Cause? 22 Thinking with Population 27 3 Markets and Commodities 31 The Bet 32 Managing Environmental Bads: The Coase Theorem 34 Market Failure 37 Market-Based Solutions to Environmental Problems 38 Beyond Market Failure: Gaps between Nature and Economy 43 Thinking with Markets 46 4 Institutions and “The Commons” 49 Controlling Carbon? 50 The Prisoner’s Dilemma 50 The Tragedy of the Commons 52 The Evidence and Logic of Collective Action 54 Crafting Sustainable Environmental Institutions 56 Are All Commoners Equal? Does Scale Matter? 61 Thinking with Institutions 62 5 Environmental Ethics 65 The Price of Cheap Meat 66 Improving Nature: From Biblical Tradition to John Locke 68 Gifford Pinchot vs. John Muir in Yosemite, California 70 Aldo Leopold and “The Land Ethic” 72 Liberation for Animals! 75 Holism, Scientism, and Other Pitfalls 77 Thinking with Ethics 79 6 Risks and Hazards 82 Great Floods 83 Environments as Hazard 84 The Problem of Risk Perception 86 Risk as Culture 89 Beyond Risk: The Political Economy of Hazards 90 Thinking with Hazards and Risk 94 7 Political Economy 98 The Strange Logic of “Under-pollution” 99 Labor, Accumulation, and Crisis 100 Production of Nature 107 Global Capitalism and the Ecology of Uneven Development 109 Social Reproduction and Nature 111 Environments and Economism 115 Thinking with Political Economy 115 8 Social Construction of Nature 119 Welcome to the Jungle 120 So You Say It’s “Natural”? 122 Environmental Discourse 126 The Limits of Constructivism: Science, Relativism, and the Very Material World 131 Thinking with Construction 134 Part 2 Objects of Concern 139 9 Carbon Dioxide 141 Stuck in Pittsburgh Traffic 142 A Short History of CO2 143 Institutions: Climate Free-Riders and Carbon Cooperation 149 Markets: Trading More Gases, Buying Less Carbon 152 Political Economy: Who Killed the Atmosphere? 157 The Carbon Puzzle 160 10 Trees 163 Chained to a Tree in Berkeley, California 164 A Short History of Trees 164 Population and Markets: The Forest Transition Theory 172 Political Economy: Accumulation and Deforestation 175 Ethics, Justice, and Equity: Should Trees Have Standing? 177 The Tree Puzzle 179 11 Wolves 183 The Death of 832F 184 A Short History of Wolves 185 Ethics: Rewilding and Wolves 191 Institutions: Stakeholder Management 194 Social Construction: Of Wolves and Men Masculinity 197 The Wolf Puzzle 199 12 Uranium 203 Renaissance Derailed? 204 A Short History of Uranium 205 Risk and Hazards: Debating the Fate of High-Level Radioactive Waste 211 Political Economy: Environmental Justice and the Navajo Nation 214 The Social Construction of Nature: Discourses of Development and Wilderness in Australia 217 The Uranium Puzzle 220 13 Tuna 224 Blood Tuna 225 A Short History of Tuna 225 Markets and Commodities: Eco-Labels to the Rescue? 230 Political Economy: Re-regulating Fishery Economies 233 Ethics: Saving Animals, Conserving Species 236 The Tuna Puzzle 239 14 Lawns 243 How Much Do People Love Lawns? 244 A Short History of Lawns 244 Risk and Chemical Decision-Making 248 Social Construction: Good Lawns Mean Good People 251 Political Economy: The Chemical Tail Wags the Turfgrass Dog 253 The Lawn Puzzle 255 15 Bottled Water 259 A Tale of Two Bottles 260 A Short History of Bottled Water 261 Population: Bottling for Scarcity? 266 Risk: Health and Safety in a Bottle? 269 Political Economy: Manufacturing Demand on an Enclosed Commons 272 The Bottled Water Puzzle 275 16 French Fries 279 Getting Your French Fry Fix 280 A Short History of the Fry 280 Risk Analysis: Eating What We Choose and Choosing What We Eat 285 Political Economy: Eat Fries or Else! 288 Ethics: Protecting or Engineering Potato Heritage? 293 The French Fry Puzzle 296 17 E-Waste 299 Digital Divides 300 A Short History of E-Waste (2000) 301 Risk Management and the Hazard of E-Waste 304 E-Waste and Markets: From Externality to Commodity 306 E-Waste and Environmental Justice: The Political Economy of E-Waste 310 The E-Waste Puzzle 313 Glossary 316 Index 324

About the Author :
Paul Robbins is Professor and Director of the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin–Madison. His research interests include understanding human–environment systems, the influence non-humans have on human behavior and organization, and the implications these interactions hold for ecosystem health, local communities, and social justice. He is the author of Political Ecology: A Critical Introduction (2nd edition, Wiley Blackwell, 2012) and Lawn People: How Grasses, Weeds, and Chemicals Make Us Who We Are (2007). John Hintz is Associate Professor of Environmental, Geographic, and Geological Sciences at the Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania. His current research focuses on land-use conflicts, environmental policy, and the US environmental movement. He has published in a number of journals, including Capitalism Nature Socialism and Ethics, Place & Environment. Sarah A. Moore is Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Her research focuses on urban development politics, urban environmental issues, and environmental justice inthe United States and Latin America. Her publications include articles in numerous journals including Progress in Human Geography, The Professional Geographer, and Society and Natural Resources.

Review :
new edition textbooks are not reviewed