Uranium Production’s History of Environmental Injustice – and Why it Matters Today

From project introduction: “A People’s Atlas of Nuclear Colorado invites users to explore nuclear geographies, policy issues, artistic responses, and personal and scholarly reflections on the U.S. nuclear complex. Colorado is a microcosm of the U.S. nuclear apparatus. The state has seen uranium mining, plutonium processing, underground defense posts and labs, active air force bases, […]

Advances in International Environmental Politics

State-of-the-art surveys of key research areas within the field of international environmental politics which collectively provide a comprehensive and pluralistic overview you of the field. Chapters cover key substantive debates as well as different ways of evaluating the quality of global environmental politics: effectiveness, transparency, sustainability, justice.

Economics of the SDGs: Putting the Sustainable Development Goals into Practice

This is the first book that employs economics to develop and apply an analytical framework for assessing progress towards the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The authors explore the historical context for the underlying sustainability concept, develop an economics-based analytical framework for assessing progress towards the SDGs, and discuss the implications for sustainability policy and […]

Economics for a Fragile Planet

The world is facing growing environmental risks from global warming, biodiversity loss, water scarcity and degradation of the marine environment. Meeting these challenges calls for a fresh perspective on our economic relationship with the environment. For too long we have undervalued nature – at our peril. Managing an increasingly “fragile” planet requires new thinking on […]

Environmental Justice in the Anthropocene: From (Un)Just Presents to Just Futures

Through various international case studies presented by both practitioners and scholars, Environmental Justice in the Anthropocene explores how an environmental justice approach is necessary for reflections on inequality in the Anthropocene and for forging societal transitions toward a more just and sustainable future. Environmental justice is a central component of sustainability politics during the Anthropocene […]

Agency in Earth System Governance

The modern era is facing unprecedented governance challenges in striving to achieve long-term sustainability goals and to limit human impacts on the Earth system. This volume synthesizes a decade of multidisciplinary research into how diverse actors exercise authority in environmental decision making, and their capacity to deliver effective, legitimate and equitable Earth system governance. Actors […]

Natural Resources and Economic Development

Why is natural resource exploitation not yielding greater benefits for the poor economies? In this second edition of his landmark book, Barbier explores this paradox in three parts. Part I gives a historical review of resource use and development, examining current theories that explain the under-performance of today’s resource-abundant economies, and proposing a hypothesis of […]

The Real Cost of Cheap Food, Second Edition

This thought-provoking but accessible book critically examines the dominant food regime on its own terms, by seriously asking whether we can afford cheap food and by exploring what exactly cheap food affords us. Detailing the numerous ways that our understanding of food has narrowed, such as its price per ounce, combination of nutrients, yield per acre, or calories, the book argues for a more contextual view of food when debating its affordability.

Nature and Wealth: Overcoming Environmental Scarcity and Inequality

The world economy today is facing two major threats: increasing environmental degradation and a growing gap between rich and poor. Drawing on historical and contemporary evidence, this book argues that these two threats are symptomatic of a growing structural imbalance in all economies – how nature is exploited to create wealth. The root of this […]

The Water Paradox: Overcoming the Global Crisis in Water Management

For millennia, we have perceived water as an abundant and easily accessible resource. But water shortages are fast becoming a persistent reality for all nations, rich and poor. If water is so valuable and scarce, then why is it so poorly managed? Edward Barbier argues that the current water crisis is as much a failure […]