Development Power And The Environment

Unmasking the neoliberal paradox, this book provides a robust conceptual and theoretical synthesis of development, power and the environment. With seven case studies on global challenges such as under-development, food regime, climate change, dam building, identity politics, and security vulnerability, the book offers a new framework of a "double-risk" society for the Global South. With apparent ecological and social limits to neoliberal globalization and development, the current levels of consumption are unsustainable, inequitable, and inaccessible to the majority of humans. Power has a great role to play in this global trajectory. Though power is one of most pervasive phenomena of human society, it is probably one of the least understood concepts. The growth of transnational corporations, the dominance of world-wide financial and political institutions, and the extensive influence of media that are nearly monopolized by corporate interests are key factors shaping our global society today. In the growing concentration of power in few hands, what is apparent is a non-apparent nature of power. Understanding the interplay of power in the discourse of development is a crucial matter at a time when our planet is in peril — both environmentally and socially. This book addresses this current crucial need.

First Published in 2009. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Environment and Development: Basic Principles, Human Activities, and Environmental Implications focuses on the adverse impact that human activities, developments, and economic growth have on both natural and inhabited environments. The book presents the associated problems, along with solutions that can be used to achieve a harmonic, sustainable development that provides for the co-existence of man and natural life. Chapters provide detailed information on a range of environments including: atmospheric, aquatic, soil, natural, urban, energy, and extraterrestrial, as well as the relationship between the environment and development. In addition, this comprehensive book presents the latest research findings and trends in global environmental policy for each issue. Offers a discussion of the extraterrestrial environment and waste in earth orbit as one of the distinctive topics of the book Addresses global environmental policy issues and policies Presents tabulated data to support the analysis and explain the issues presented Includes case studies covering many topics of current interest Analyzes environmental issues and proposes solutions grounded in recent research findings Discusses the various interpretations of the development concept as well as alternative pathways to sustainable development

Nuclear power is often characterized as a "green technology." Technologies are rarely, if ever, socially isolated artefacts. Instead, they materially represent an embodiment of values and priorities. Nuclear power is no different. It is a product of a particular political economy and the question is whether that political economy can helpfully engage with the challenge of addressing the environmental crisis on a finite, inequitable and shared planet. For developing countries like India, who are presently making infrastructure investments which will have long legacies, it is imperative that these investments wrestle with such questions and prove themselves capable of sufficiency, greater equality and inclusiveness. This book offers a critique of civilian nuclear power as a green energy strategy for India and develops and proposes an alternative "synergy for sustainability." It situates nuclear power as a socio-technical infrastructure embodying a particular development discourse and practice of energy and economic development. The book reveals the political economy of this arrangement and examines the latter’s ability to respond to the environmental crisis. Manu V. Mathai argues that the existing overwhelmingly growth-focused, highly technology-centric approach for organizing economic activity is unsustainable and needs to be reformed. Within this imperative for change, nuclear power in India is found to be and is characterized as an "authoritarian technology." Based on this political economy critique the book proposes an alternative, a synergy of ideas from the fields of development economics, energy planning and science, technology and society studies.

In The Power of Existing Buildings, academic sustainability expert Robert Sroufe, and construction and building experts Craig Stevenson and Beth Eckenrode, explain how to realize the potential of existing buildings and make them perform like new. This step-by-step guide will help readers to: understand where to start a project; develop financial models and realize costs savings; assemble an expert team; and align goals with numerous sustainability programs. The Power of Existing Buildings will challenge you to rethink spaces where people work and play, while determining how existing buildings can save the world. The insights and practical experience of Sroufe, Stevenson, and Eckenrode, along with the project case study examples, provide new insights on investing in existing buildings for building owners, engineers, occupants, architects, and real estate and construction professionals.

The concept of sustainability lies at the core of the challenge of environment and development, and the way governments, business and environmental groups respond to it. Green Development provides a clear and coherent analysis of sustainable development in both theory and practice. Green Development explores the origins and evolution of mainstream thinking about sustainable development and offers a critique of the ideas behind them. It draws a link between theory and practice by discussing the nature of the environmental degradation and the impacts of development. It argues that, ultimately, ‘green’ development has to be about political economy, about the distribution of power, and not about environmental quality. Its focus is strongly on the developing world. The fourth edition retains the broad structure of previous editions, but has been updated to reflect advances in ideas and changes in international policy. Greater attention has been given to the political ecology of development, market-based and neoliberal environmentalism, and degrowth. This fully revised edition discusses: the origins of thinking about sustainability and sustainable development, and its evolution to the present day; the ideas that dominate mainstream sustainable development (including natural capital, the green economy, market environmentalism and ecological modernisation); critiques of mainstream ideas and of neoliberal framings of sustainability, and alternative ideas about sustainability that challenge ‘business as usual’ thinking, such as arguments about limits to growth and calls for degrowth; the dilemmas of sustainability in the context of forests, desertification, food and farming, biodiversity conservation and dam construction; the challenge of policy choices about sustainability, particularly between reformist and radical responses to the contemporary global dilemmas. Green Development offers clear insights into the challenges of environmental sustainability, and social and economic development. It is unique in offering a synthesis of theoretical ideas on sustainability and in its coverage of the extensive literature on environment and development around the world. The book has proved its value to generations of students as an authoritative, thought-provoking and readable guide to the field of sustainable development.

Those of us who have watched the process have said that the Earth Summit has failed ... Multinational corporations, the United States, Japan, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund have got away with what they always wanted ... the Summit has ensured increased domination by those who already have power. Worse still, it has robbed the poor of the little power they had. It has made them victims of a market economy that has thus far threatened our planet ... few negotiators realised how critical their decisions are to our generation. By failing to address such fundamental issues as militarism, the regulation of transnational corporations, the democratisation of international aid agencies and the inequitable terms of trade, my generation has been damned." - Wagaki Mwangi, Kenyan, Youth delegate to the Earth Summit

The concept of sustainability lies at the core of the challenge of environment and development and the way governments, business and environmental groups respond to it. Green Development provides a clear and coherent analysis of sustainable development in both theory and practice. This third edition retains the clear and powerful argument of previous editions, but has been updated to reflect advances in ideas and changes in international policy. Greater attention has been given to political ecology, environmental risk and the environmental impacts of development. This fully revised third edition discusses: the origins of thinking about sustainability and sustainable development and its evolution to the present day the ideas that dominate mainstream sustainable development (ecological modernization, market environmentalism and environmental economics) the nature and diversity of alternative ideas about sustainability that challenge ‘business as usual’ thinking (for example ecosocialism, ecofeminism, deep ecology and political ecology) the dilemmas of sustainability in the context of dryland degradation, deforestation, biodiversity conservation, dam construction and urban and industrial development the nature of policy choices about the environment and development strategies and between reformist and radical responses to the contemporary global dilemmas. Green Development offers clear insights into the challenges of environmental sustainability and social and economic development. It is unique in offering a synthesis of theoretical ideas on sustainability and in its coverage of the extensive literature on the environment and development around the world. This book has proved its value to generations of students as an authoritative, thought-provoking and readable guide to the field of sustainable development.