Decision-Making for a Sustainable Environment: A Systemic Approach(Social Environmental Sustainability)

Increasingly, environmental decision making is like playing a multidimensional game of chess. With interactions between the atmosphere, the litho-hydrosphere, and the biosphere, the game is at once a measure of complexity, uncertainty, interdisciplinary acuity, social-environmental sustainability, and social justice for all generations. As such, it

Table of Contents:
Nature's Urgent Message to the World's Decision Makers: The Principles of Biophysical Sustainability. Decision Making and Nature's Rules of Engagement. When the Decision Making Becomes Self-Serving: The Stages of an Environmental Agency. Dissonance within Duplicity: Sustainability Programs at the Southern Nevada Water Authority, a Case Study. Breaking the Dysfunctional Cycle of Environmental Agency Decision Making. What Makes a Psychologically Mature Decision Maker? The Essence of a Responsible Decision Maker. Coping with the Responsibilities and Pressures of Social-Environmental Decision Making. Giving Children a Voice in Their Future through Shared Decision Making. Afterword. Appendix: Common and Scientific Names of Plants and Animals. Index.

About the Author :
Chris Maser was trained in zoology and ecology and worked for 25 years as a research scientist in agricultural, coastal, desert, forest, valley grassland, shrub steppe, and subarctic settings in various parts of the world before realizing that science is not designed to answer the vast majority of questions society is asking it to address. Maser gave up active scientific research in 1987 and has since worked to unify scientific knowledge with social values in helping to create sustainable communities and landscapes, part of which entails his facilitating the resolution of social-environmental conflicts. He has contributed to more than 286 publications, including 34 books, mostly dealing with some aspect of social-environmental sustainability. Although he has worked and lectured in Canada, Egypt, France, Germany, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Nepal, Slovakia, and Switzerland, he calls Corvallis, Oregon home.

Review :
"Decision Making for a Sustainable Environment is a challenging read on a whole range of levels. Deeply personal, deeply reflective, courageous, and atypically altruistic. If you find yourself in self-analysis while reading this book, then you have got the point. ... Not for the faint-hearted, [it] reminds us that humans have a power and responsibility to make wise decisions when it comes to sustaining the natural world that we are part of. The Earth is a complex place made more so by humans. Decision Making for a Sustainable Environment places the role of humans on the Earth in the right context: be humble, be respectful, and be aware." -Dr. Andrew W. Claridge, Senior Research Scientist, NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, Australia "[This book] provides ideas, language, approaches, and examples to move a place of employment, a government, or a community toward what Chris Maser calls 'psychological maturity for the social-environmental sake of all generations.' ... I am more ready to effect change in decision makers because of the lessons and wisdom and approach that Chris offers in this book." -From the foreword by D. Alexander Wait, Missouri State University, USA