Review: Understanding the Environment and Social Policy, Cities and Low Carbon Transitions, Economic Thought and US Climate Change Policy, the Governance of Climate Change: Science, Economics, Politics and Ethics (original) (raw)

In Understanding the Environment and Social Policy Tony Fitzpatrick has put together a collection of papers that examine how social policy objectives of welfare enhancement need to be reconciled with environmental imperatives of ecological protection at a more expansive geographic and temporal scale. A realistic point that Fitzpatrick argues is that though optimists highlight win^win strategies that meet social and environmental objectives there are still inherent conflicts between the two spheres. Such conflicts arise from trade-offs where social policies prioritize economic growth over environmental protection. Alternatively, environmental protection imposes high costs on economic development. In both cases authors recognize that the poor and marginalized groups are disproportionately affected by environmental degradation and social inequities. Each chapter in the book delineates different aspects of these policy challenges and offers alternative perspectives on how to transform the nature and priorities of social and environmental policies in order to help them converge. Such convergence helps readers to understand how to truly realize the win^win strategies that achieve sustainable development and environmental justice. Though not explicitly divided, the chapters in this book are organized into three implicit topics. In the Introduction and first five chapters the authors explain how traditional social policies contribute to environmental degradation, while both social and environmental policies need to address inequities among classes, nations, and future generation. In highlighting the conflicts between the two spheres, the authors focus on what issues need to converge. In order to resolve the socioenvironmental trade-off, the next section of the book covers environmental ethics and justice (chapters 5 and 6, respectively). These chapters are especially useful in constructing principle frameworks that integrate social justice philosophies into environmental issues. Thus readers are forced to consider the parameters of values, rights, and responsibilities that need to be determined in order to create policies that are morally consistent. In the next section of the book these ethical frameworks are applied onto more practical topics in the policy sphere. Chapters 7 to 13 look at how to address issues surrounding environmental policy instruments, as well as policies in health, planning, transport, green jobs, citizenship, and international development. I found two important themes that were emphasized throughout the chapters in the book. The first theme concerns how sustainable development can be achieved. This question is especially pertinent to developing countries, as they face the development imperative to`catch up' with developed countries. Such development paths include undertaking industrialization processes that are resource and pollution intensive. Theorists who utilize optimistic theories, such as the environmental Kuznet's curve, ecological modernization, and environmental leapfrogging, propose that economic growth, scientific ingenuity, and technology transfer will help both developed and developing nations reduce their environmental impact and`green' their economies. Furthermore, they consider that environmental policies can have the right mix of regulations, economic incentives, and voluntary participation to promote environmental mitigation and adaptation. However, the authors in this book contend that sustainable development requires system-wide transformations within the economy and society that go beyond the realm of technological solutions and environmental policy instruments. Such contention leads to the second theme in the book, which proposes that the characteristics of environmental problems create the need to reformulate the nature of social and environmental policies. The disproportionate impact of environmental problems on poor and vulnerable groups requires policy makers to encourage greater governance in order to redress environmental injustice. Greater governance thus means that states encourage active citizenry, vibrant communities, and civic societies to (1) find solutions to such inequality,