1st Edition

Society and Its Environment An Introduction

By Egbert Tellegen, Maarten Wolsink Copyright 1994
    288 Pages
    by Routledge

    288 Pages
    by Routledge

    First Published in 1998.People cannot live without changing nature. They do so by breathing, feeding and defecating, by dressing and heating and by creating barriers against wind and water, cold and heat. These forms of human-induced change of nature have been present since the dawn of mankind. People are constantly confronted by a malignant nature against which they have to defend themselves and whose resources they have to use in order to survive. However, the relationship between man and nature has dramatically changed during the past centuries. More than the word 'nature', the term 'environment' has become strongly associated with damage and decay caused by human beings. Hence, in practice 'environment' is mostly associated with problems. In this book the term 'environment' does not describe different 'environments' and the way they are changed by human activities in general, but focuses on those human-induced of it. What are the causes of these changes, when and where are these changes considered as environmental problems and how do people react to these changes are the main questions of this book. One of the possible reactions to environmental problems is the efforts to solve them. The ways in which individual citizens, private enterprises, public authorities, environmental organizations and others try to solve environmental problems is a main topic of this book.

    Acknowledgements, Introduction, 1 Environment and environmental problems, 2 History, 3 Geography, 4 Cultureand civilization, 5 Social dilemmas, 6 Environmental attitudes and behaviour, 7 Annoyance and risk, 8 Organizations, 9 State and environmental policy, 10 Globalization, References, Subject Index, Author Index

    Biography

    Egbert Tellegen, Maarten Wolsink University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    "Excellent reference book. It provides a succinct discussion of a very broad range of topics. It's very suitable for a first year course where students are coming from a diverse range of disciplines and need a basic introductory reference."

    " ...a clearly written text...uniquely combining a historical and sociological approach to environmental problems."