1st Edition

Environmental Policy and the Pursuit of Sustainability

Edited By Chelsea Schelly, Aparajita Banerjee Copyright 2018
    228 Pages
    by Routledge

    228 Pages
    by Routledge

    It is increasingly apparent that human activities are not suitable for sustaining a healthy global environment. From energy development to resource extraction to use of land and water, humans are having a devastating effect on the earth’s ability to sustain human societies and quality lives. Many approaches to changing the negative environmental consequences of human activities focus on one of two options, emphasizing either technological fixes or individual behavior change to reduce environmental harms through sustainable consumption habits. This book takes a different approach, focusing on the role of environmental policy in shaping the possibilities for and creating hindrances to pursuing more sustainable use of environmental resources.

    This unique compilation examines environmental policy through empirical case studies, demonstrating through each particular example how environmental policies are formed, how they operate, what they do in terms of shaping behaviors and future trajectories, and how they intersect with other social dynamics such as politics, power, social norms, and social organization. By providing case studies from both the United States and Mexico, this book provides a cross-national perspective on current environmental policies and their role in creating and limiting sustainable human futures.

    Organized around four key parts – Water; Land; Health and Wellbeing; and Resilience – and with a central theme of environmental justice and equity, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of environmental policy and sustainability.

    Introduction: When One Size Does Not Fit All: Environmental Policy, Social Context, and Social Justice

    Aparajita Banerjee and Chelsea Schelly

    PART 1: Water, Water Management, and Adaptation to Changing Water Landscapes

    Chapter 1: Nutrient Trading Credits: Best Management Practices and Policy Hurdles for Non-Point Source Polluters in the Chesapeake Bay

    M. Dawn King

    Chapter 2: Water Management in the Upper Klamath Basin: Collaboration and Polarization

    Patricia Snyder

    Chapter 3: Toward a Whole-of-Government and Whole-of-Community Approach for Regional Adaptation to Sea Level Rise: Lessons Learned from the Hampton Roads Intergovernmental Pilot Project

    Juita-Elena (Wie) Yusuf, Michelle Covi, Carol Considine, Burton St. John III, Meagan M. Jordan, and J. Gail Nicula

    PART 2: Land Management and Land Use

    Chapter 4: U.S. Public Lands and a New Administration: New and Old Issues

    John Freemuth

    Chapter 5: Perceptions of Contentiousness: How Individual Traits Shape Environmental Policy Conflicts

    Kristin Olofsson

    Chapter 6: Solid Waste Governance: Consumption and Culture in the Globalization Era

    Beatriz Adriana Venegas Sahagun

    PART 3: Human Health and Well-Being

    Chapter 7: Where is the Justice? An Examination of the Failure of the US EPA Office of Civil Rights to Ensure Environmental Justice for Poor and Minority Communities

    Amelie Simons

    Chapter 8: The Power of the Talking Points: Persuasive Power and the Challenges of Sustainable Natural Resource Development

    Amanda Kreuze, Roman Sidortsov, and Chelsea Schelly

    Chapter 9: Social and Political Inequality as Challenges in Technology Diffusion: Evidence from Government-Funded Improved Cookstove Program in Rural Mexico

    Aparajita Banerjee and Chelsea Schelly

    PART 4: Resilience

    Chapter 10: The Role of Voluntary Agreements in a Hybrid Model of Environmental Law Enforcement

    Joice Chang

    Chapter 11: Institutional Barriers to Managing Dynamic Landscapes: Lessons Learned in Southwestern Colorado

    Nina Burkardt and Patricia Orth

    Chapter 12: The Long Road to Sustainability of Mexican Oil Palm Production

    Erin C. Pischke

    Conclusion: Environmental Policy and Pursuit of Just Sustainability

    Chelsea Schelly and Aparajita Banerjee

    Biography

    Chelsea Schelly is Associate Professor of Sociology in the Department of Social Sciences and the Environmental and Energy Policy graduate program at Michigan Technological University, USA.

    Aparajita Banerjee recently completed her PhD in Environmental and Energy Policy from Michigan Technological University, USA.