Exploring America's Approach on Environmental Issues.

• Author: Chaney, Quiwana N.
• Position: Global Environmental Politics - Book review

Pamela S. Chasek, David L. Downie, & Janet Welsh Brown, Global Environmental Politics (Worldview Press, 2017)

1. INTRODUCTION

   Although the environment, as a concept and an entity to be protected, is well established in America's collective consciousness today, it has not always been so. The United States government began to take resource management seriously in the early 1970s in response to widespread man-made environmental disasters. (1) In his 1970 state of the union address, President Richard Nixon called for "the 1970s [to be] a historic period when, by conscious choice, [we] transform our land into what we want it to become" by protecting and conserving public lands for future generations. (2) The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Clean Air Act of 1970, and the Clean Water Act of 1972 are often considered cornerstones of environmental law in the US because they conceived a new era of environmental consciousness. Congress passed these laws under its commerce clause power (3) with unified and bipartisan support, which is, perhaps, surprising considering the intensely partisan nature of environmental debates today. (4)

   The US government also promulgates environmental protection through federal land use laws. The federal government owns an estimated 28% of the US's total surface area, making it the greatest landowner in the United States. (5) Decades of legislation and executive orders on the permitted uses of public lands informs the robust umbrella of environmental law that is separate from the EPA. Notable examples include the National Park Service Organic Act of 19166 and President Barack Obama's moratorium on new leases of federal land for coal mining. (7) In 1976, Congress passed the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA), which created the Bureau of Land Management "to provide for the management' protection, development, and enhancement of the public lands." (8) The federal government effectuates environmental law within federally owned lands by promoting sustainable land usage and preserving natural resources within its purview.

   Nearly fifty years after Nixon's state of the union address, the vast majority of Americans believe the federal government should have some position in protecting the environment: 75% believe the government should have a major role and 22% believe the government should have a minor role in protecting the environment. (9) In 2015, a Gallup poll reported that 55% of Americans worry a great deal about the pollution of drinking water, and worry least about the destruction of rainforests. (10) Meanwhile, the Nature Conservatory reported in 2017 that scientists and environmentalists find the most pressing environmental concerns to be climate change, unsustainable food production, and rampant city growth to the detriment of surrounding lands and waters. (11)

   Global Environmental Politics has traditionally provided an up-to-date introduction to the world's most pressing environmental issues. This new edition continues that tradition by discussing the big issues and critical new developments in the field of global environmental politics and policy. Though Pamela Chasek, David Downie, and Janet Brown have ambitiously sought to provide readers with a comprehensive overview of contemporary international environmental politics in seven chapters, their work lives up to readers' expectations and adequately informs anyone wishing to understand the current state of the field. As the authors stated, "Today, environmental issues are globally important both in their own right and because they affect other aspects of world politics, including economic development, trade, humanitarian action, social policy, and even security." (12) Global Environmental Politics provides an adequate, concise, and comprehensive overview of the big issues involved in international environmental politics as well as discussions on new developments in the field, helping any reader to understand the current state of the field and make informed decision about environmental policies.

   In the beginning pages of this book, the authors provide a chronological list of important events in global environmental politics ranging from the 1800s to 2015. (13) This list includes events such as: the publishing of papers speculating on and discussing the existence of the natural greenhouse effect and the results of laboratory experiments detailing the greenhouse effect of different gases in the atmosphere; the creation of national parks in the United States and the establishments of groups meant to protect and defend those national parks; the formation of international nongovernmental organizations and the adoption of international treaties focused on environmental issues; and man-made environmental disasters and actions taken by various nations addressing environmental issues. (14) This brief but comprehensive list of international events relating to environmental issues and discoveries throughout history offers readers with limited knowledge in the field of global environmental politics and policy a quick and concise history lesson on the important events in the field before they begin to read the book.

   Though, a majority of American support protecting the environment, (15) deep partisan divides on the issue has skewed the information given to the public to support a certain agenda. In this book review, we analyze the authors' presentation of information by considering how this book can be utilized to further the discussion on environmentalism within the current American society, no matter the partisan view.

2. WHAT IS GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL POLITICS?

   Chapter One of this book is entitled "The Emergence of Global Environmental Politics." (16) This chapter provides an introduction to the global environmental politics by discussing global demographic, economic, and environmental macro trends; the interactions between economic developments and the complex ecosystems on which those developments depend on; international regimes in global environmental politics; and paradigms in global environmental politics. (17)

   Global environmental politics focus on "efforts to negotiate and implement multilateral agreements or other mechanism for cooperation to protect the environment and natural resources." (18) However, multilateral agreements and other mechanisms meant to protect the environment and natural resources are difficult to implement because of legitimate differences in economic, political, and environmental interest across states. The authors do a fantastic job of describing the what factors play a significant role in shaping the current field of global environmental politics.

   When discussing what factors play a significant role in shaping global environmental politics, the authors examine natural resources and pollution and the relationship between population growth, resource consumption, and waste production. (19) Throughout this section, the authors' examination of these issues showed that those forces play an important part in shaping global environmental politics because of the negative impact they could have on the environment.

   The authors also examined the interactions between economic developments and the ecosystem as well as international regimes and paradigms. International regimes are a "system of principles, norms, rules, operating procedures, and institutions that actors create to regulate and coordinate action in a particular issue area of international relations." (20) Paradigms are sets of beliefs, ideas, and values. In the international setting, the paradigms are influenced by governments' and institutions'. (21) The differences in regimes and paradigms, discussed by the authors, make it difficult and challenging to achieve unanimity among states responsible for an environmental problem.

   Throughout Chapter One, the authors supply readers with the necessary information to form a foundational level of thinking in regards to what global environmental politics is and what it involves. This chapter could serve as the first stepping stone to understanding environmental politics and why such politics have a global affect for any reader wanting to understand the complex field of environmental politics by discussing the factors involved and the regimes and paradigms that guide the thought processes behind environmental solutions selected by states.

3. WHO ARE THE ACTORS IN...