Recommended readings for The Battle over Nature
Carbon, carbon everywhere?
- The BBC provides an introduction to carbon trading: Q&A: The Carbon Trade BBC News 20 April 2006
- 'Once the size of the current 'carbon footprint' of the Church has been assessed, the campaign will roll out initiatives to shrink that footprint.' The Church of England announces its plans to audit every church's energy use: Shrinking the Footprint
- 'The energy embodied in manufacture, transport and retail must come to be seen as a social ill, rather than a by-product of the relentless motion of the wheels of progress, as might once have been the case.' Dave Clements takes issue with Mayer Hillman's vision of a carbon-literate society: Review - How we can save the planet Culture Wars February 2004
Further readings:
- 'The carbon offset market worth about £60m worldwide, up from £20m in 2005. Within three years it is expected to top £300m, as a growing number of organisations and companies race to declare themselves "carbon neutral."' David Adam reports on the growing scepticism towards carbon offset schemes amongst environmental campaigners: You feel better, but is your carbon offset just hot air Guardian 07 October 2006
- Climate change may be a 'feel-good crisis' in the West, subverting the oft derided 'consumer culture' for ethical ends, but for the developing world it seeks to reconcile people to low material standards of living. Austin Williams explains: Down with Carbon Colonialism Spiked 28 September 2006
- Commisioned by the Geoff Mulgan chaired think-tank, Involve, this report simultaneously offers public bodies practical advice on how to raise levels of public participation in political life, whilst furnishing the lay reader with a particular conception of modern citizenship: People and Participation: How to put citizens at the heart of decision making Involve 2005 (pdf)
- Dave Clements challenges the champions of 'participation,' arguing that it is the political elite's isolation that prompts drives to involve the public, not a public clamour to participate: Active citizens Future Cities Project 04 March 2006
- For the Government's explanation of the carbon NAP (National Allocation Plan) see: UK's national carbon allocation plan Defra 2005
- 'Good parks and green spaces are (...) vital for a wide range of Government priorities, such as regeneration, renewal and housing programmes, supporting healthy living, fostering neighbourhood pride and community cohesion.' In 2002 the goverment outlined its vision for public spaces: Department for Communities and Local Government - Living Places: Cleaner, Safer, Greener ODPM, 2002 (pdf)
Books:
- Duncan McCorquodale's guide to recycling is targeted at that ideal unit of responsible citizenry, the 'eco-conscious' household: Recycle: The Essential Guide Black Dog Publishing 2006
- Less well-integrated, and suffering 'a decline in trust' - this is the view of modern society presented in a collection of essays edited by Alessandra Buonfino and Geoff Mulgan: Porcupines in Winter: The pleasures and pains of living together in modern Britain The Young Foundation 2006
- 'Unless we rethink our social obligations and reassess the issue of trust, we will become even more cynical, even more atomistic, ever more individualistic - and there really will be no such thing as society.' Rabbi Julia Neuberger passes judgement on the modern citizen: The Moral State We're In HarperCollins 2005
- In Michael Edwards' hands 'civil society' is a marriage of 'reason' and 'love,' a sphere in which political and economic differences are the source of reasoned, public debate, but never to the detriment what every social being has in common: Civil Society Polity 2003
- Lucy Siegle provides a green template for modern citizenship: Green Living in the Urban Jungle Green Books 2001
- Advocating 'carbon neutrality', Herbert Giradet urges cities to improve their 'metabolism with nature' by reducing their ecological footprint: The Gaia Atlas of Cities: New Directions for Sustainable Urban Living Gaia Books 1996
What does sustainability mean for the developing world?
- 'Some might say that it's incredible what people can do with a tarpaulin and a sheet of cardboard, but relativizing the issue of underdevelopment has had serious consequences for the Developed World.' Austin Williams implores architects to celebrate, not the natural environment, but man's ability to transform it: Gimme Shelter Future Cities Project 2006
- The World Bank's Sustainable Development pages
Further readings:
- This summary, issued by the Global Commons Institute, asserts that not only are the most underdeveloped nations most affected by climate change, they're now also its principal cause: Contraction and Convergence (pdf)
Books:
- Edited by Cedric Pugh, this collection of essays attempts to balance sustainability with the needs of underdeveloped countries: Sustainable Cities in Developing Countries Earthscan 2000
- Again, like the above, a collection of essays exploring the issues involved in urban 'sustainability.' (David Satterthwaite (ed.)): The Earthscan Reader in Sustainable Cities Earthscan 1999
- If 'sustainability' had a canon Paul Ehrlich's neo-Malthusian classic would be a candidate for inclusion: The Population Bomb Buccaneer Books 1995
Nature’s revenge?
- 'In the oldest part of New Orleans, the French quarter, the river runs along the crest of a ridge, a testament to man's engineering but a snub to nature.' A contemporaneous report from Adam Blenford on Hurricane Katrina: New Orleans: Nature's Revenge? BBC 31 August 2005
Further r
Books:
- Rather than explain the disappearance of societies in terms of some natural cataclysm, Jared Diamond argues that their fates have always been self-determined: Collapse: How Societies Choose or Fail to Survive Penguin 2006
- '(E)ngineering strives to create technology and to make it work.' Such is the refreshingly simple, human-centred ethos of E E Lewis: Masterworks of Technology: The Story of Creative Engineering, Architecture and Design Prometheus Books 2004
- Human agency's ability to affect the world in unpredictable ways, creating greater challenges than ever before, is matched only by its increasing ability to meet them, argues Peter Schwartz. Inevitable Surprises: Thinking Ahead in a Time of Turbulence Free Press 2003
- Frank Furedi's analysis of the 'culture of fear' provides a sociological context in which to make sense of the environmentalist narratives of doom: Culture of Fear: Risk Taking and the Morality of Low Expectation Continuum 2002
- This eco-manifesto, from William McDonough and Michael Braungart, reckons that the stuff we throw 'away,' by increasing the levels of toxicity in our environment, will eventually exact a huge cost: Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things Rodale Books 2002
- Hoping to 'harness the talent of business to solve the world's deepest environmental and social problems,' Paul Hawken, Amory B. Lovins, and L. Hunter Lovins attempt to reconcile profitability with sustainability: Natural Capitalism: The Next Industrial Revolution Earthscan 2000