The North The South And The Environment

The essays in this study contribute to an analysis of the prospects for the world's economy in the face of environmental constraints. The contributors examine the implications of development in both northern and southern hemispheres, and the extreme differences between rich and poor nations in the distribution of income, resource use and consumption. Using extensive case studies from WIDER-sponsored research, the text explores the limits and consequences of further development.

An examination of the role that inequality plays in shaping post-Kyoto prospects for a North-South global climate pact; with statistical and theoretical analysis and case studies of recent climate-related disasters.

Six years after the Rio Summit, the international politics of the environment have already become bogged down in a dispute between Southern and Northern states as to who, if anyone, is responsible for environmental degradation. Meanwhile the scientific evidence continues to accumulate and shows that continuing and possibly irreversible changes are already well advanced. The purpose of this book is to give a clear overview of the environmental politics of the South in each of the key problem areas, drawing on first-hand experience of five continents. The conclusion reviews the overall situation, discusses South-North relations and examines both optimistic and pessimistic scenarios for the future. Book jacket.

A geographer explores issues of the internationalization of environmental concerns for nonscientific readers, such as activists, policy makers, development personnel, and students and teachers of a range of disciplines that touch on the problem. He outlines the principles behind global warming, acid

Nowhere has the divide between advocates and critics of globalization been more striking than in debates over free trade and the environment. And yet the literature on the subject is high on rhetoric and low on results. This book is the first to systematically investigate the subject using both economic theory and empirical analysis. Brian Copeland and Scott Taylor establish a powerful theoretical framework for examining the impact of international trade on local pollution levels, and use it to offer a uniquely integrated treatment of the links between economic growth, liberalized trade, and the environment. The results will surprise many. The authors set out the two leading theories linking international trade to environmental outcomes, develop the empirical implications, and examine their validity using data on measured sulfur dioxide concentrations from over 100 cities worldwide during the period from 1971 to 1986. The empirical results are provocative. For an average country in the sample, free trade is good for the environment. There is little evidence that developing countries will specialize in pollution-intensive products with further trade. In fact, the results suggest just the opposite: free trade will shift pollution-intensive goods production from poor countries with lax regulation to rich countries with tight regulation, thereby lowering world pollution. The results also suggest that pollution declines amid economic growth fueled by economy-wide technological progress but rises when growth is fueled by capital accumulation alone. Lucidly argued and authoritatively written, this book will provide students and researchers of international trade and environmental economics a more reliable way of thinking about this contentious issue, and the methodological tools with which to do so.

First Published in 1994. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Situating the global poverty divide as an outgrowth of European imperialism, this book investigates current global divisions on environmental policy.

This study provides a road map of the principal measures that are proposed to slow climate change, deforestation, & species extinction, as well as the areas of agreement & disagreement between North & South. It will assess the potential costs to the developing world to stem these goal threats & discuss how these costs might complement & compete with other economic & environmental needs.