Peter Dauvergne

What it means for global sustainability when environmentalism is dominated by the concerns of the affluent -- eco-business, eco-consumption, wilderness preservation.

Environmentalism of the Rich

Jennifer Clapp

The Political Economy of the Global Environment

Paths to a Green World

Jane Lister

McDonald's promises to use only beef, coffee, fish, chicken, and cooking oil obtainedfrom sustainable sources. Coca-Cola promises to achieve water neutrality. Unilever has set adeadline of 2020 to reach 100 percent sustainable agricultural sourcing. Walmart has pledged tobecome carbon neutral. Today, big-brand companies seem to be making commitments that go beyond theusual "greenwashing" efforts undertaken largely for public relations purposes. InEco-Business, Peter Dauvergne and Jane Lister examine this new corporate embraceof sustainability, its actual accomplishments, and the consequences for the environment. For manyleading-brand companies, these corporate sustainability efforts go deep, reorienting centraloperations and extending through global supply chains. Yet, as Dauvergne and Lister point out, thesecompanies are doing this not for the good of the planet but for their own profits and market sharein a volatile, globalized economy. They are using sustainability as a business tool. Advocacy groupsand governments are partnering with these companies, eager to reap the governance potential ofeco-business efforts. But Dauvergne and Lister show that the acclaimed eco-efficiencies achieved bybig-brand companies limit the potential for finding deeper solutions to pressing environmentalproblems and reinforce runaway consumption. Eco-business promotes the sustainability of bigbusiness, not the sustainability of life on Earth.

A Big-Brand Takeover of Sustainability

Eco-Business

Walmart. Coca-Cola. BP. Toyota. The world economy runs on the profits of transnational corporations. Politicians need their backing. Non-profit organizations rely on their philanthropy. People look to their brands for meaning. And their power continues to rise. Can these companies, as so many are now hoping, provide the solutions to end the mounting global environmental crisis? Absolutely, the CEOs of big business are telling us: the commitment to corporate social responsibility will ensure it happens voluntarily. Peter Dauvergne challenges this claim, arguing instead that corporations are still doing far more to destroy than protect our planet. Trusting big business to lead sustainability is, he cautions, unwise — perhaps even catastrophic. Planetary sustainability will require reining in the power of big business, starting now.

Will Big Business Destroy Our Planet?

The second edition of this Handbook contains more than 30 new and original articles as well six essential updates by leading scholars of global environmental politics. This landmark book maps the latest theoretical and empirical research in this energetic and growing field. Captured here are the pioneering and lively debates over concerns for the health of the planet and how they might best be addressed. The introduction explores the intellectual trends and evolving parameters in the field of global environmental politics. It makes a case for an expansive definition of the field, one that embraces an interdisciplinary literature on the connections between global politics and environmental change. The remaining chapters are divided into four broad themes – states and cooperation; global governance; the political economy of governance; and knowledge and ethics – with each section covering key emerging issues. In-depth explorations are given to topics such as climate change, multinational corporations, international agreements and UN organizations, regulations and business standards, trade and international finance, multilevel and transnational governance, and ecological citizenship. Handbook of Global Environmental Politics, Second Edition is a comprehensive review of the field and offers cutting-edge ideas for further research. As such, scholars, students and policymakers will find themselves looking to it for many years to come.

Handbook of Global Environmental Politics

This book is the first to analyze the environmental impact of Japanese trade, corporations, and aid on timber management in the context of Southeast Asian political economies. It is also one of the first comprehensive studies of why Southeast Asian states are unable to enforce forest policies and regulations.

Japan and the Politics of Timber in Southeast Asia

Shadows in the Forest

Genevieve LeBaron

Mass protests have raged since the global financial crisis of 2008. Across the world students and workers and environmentalists are taking to the streets. Discontent is seething even in the wealthiest countries, as the world saw with Occupy Wall Street in 2011. Protest Inc. tells a disturbingly different story of global activism. As millions of grassroots activists rally against capitalism, activism more broadly is increasingly mirroring business management and echoing calls for market-based solutions. The past decade has seen nongovernmental organizations partner with oil companies like ExxonMobil, discount retailers like Walmart, fast-food chains like McDonald’s, and brand manufacturers like Nike and Coca-Cola. NGOs are courting billionaire philanthropists, branding causes, and turning to consumers as wellsprings of reform. Are “career” activists selling out to pay staff and fund programs? Partly. But far more is going on. Political and socioeconomic changes are enhancing the power of business to corporatize activism, including a worldwide crackdown on dissent, a strengthening of consumerism, a privatization of daily life, and a shifting of activism into business-style institutions. Grassroots activists are fighting back. Yet, even as protestors march and occupy cities, more and more activist organizations are collaborating with business and advocating for corporate-friendly “solutions.” This landmark book sounds the alarm about the dangers of this corporatizing trend for the future of transformative change in world politics.

The Corporatization of Activism

Protest Inc.

The book s greatest strength is the range and theoretical ambition of its contributions to regime theory, governance, and international cooperation. . . Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, and faculty. D.L. Feldman, Choice The first Handbook of original articles by leading scholars of global environmental politics, this landmark volume maps the latest theoretical and empirical research in this young and growing field. Captured here are the dynamic and energetic debates over concerns for the health of the planet and how they might best be addressed. The introductory chapters explore the intellectual trends and evolving parameters in the field of global environmental politics. They make a case for an expansive definition of the field, one that embraces an interdisciplinary literature on the connections between global politics and environmental change. The remaining chapters are divided into three broad themes states, governance and security; capitalism, trade and corporations; and knowledge, civil societies and ethics with each section providing a cohesive discussion of current issues. In-depth explorations are given to topics such as: global commons, renewable energy, the effectiveness of environmental cooperation, regulations and corporate standards, trade liberalization and global environmental governance, and science and environmental citizenship. A comprehensive survey of the latest research, the Handbook is a necessary reference for scholars, students and policymakers in the field of global environmental politics.

An environmentalist maps the hidden costs of overconsumption in a globalized world by tracing the environmental consequences of five commodities. The Shadows of Consumption gives a hard-hitting diagnosis: many of the earth's ecosystems and billions of its people are at risk from the consequences of rising consumption. Products ranging from cars to hamburgers offer conveniences and pleasures; but, as Peter Dauvergne makes clear, global political and economic processes displace the real costs of consumer goods into distant ecosystems, communities, and timelines, tipping into crisis people and places without the power to resist. In The Shadows of Consumption, Peter Dauvergne maps the costs of consumption that remain hidden in the shadows cast by globalized corporations, trade, and finance. Dauvergne traces the environmental consequences of five commodities: automobiles, gasoline, refrigerators, beef, and harp seals. In these fascinating histories we learn, for example, that American officials ignored warnings about the dangers of lead in gasoline in the 1920s; why China is now a leading producer of CFC-free refrigerators; and how activists were able to stop Canada's commercial seal hunt in the 1980s (but are unable to do so now). Dauvergne's innovative analysis allows us to see why so many efforts to manage the global environment are failing even as environmentalism is slowly strengthening. He proposes a guiding principle of “balanced consumption” for both consumers and corporations. We know that we can make things better by driving a high-mileage car, eating locally grown food, and buying energy-efficient appliances; but these improvements are incremental, local, and insufficient. More crucial than our individual efforts to reuse and recycle will be reforms in the global political economy to reduce the inequalities of consumption and correct the imbalance between growing economies and environmental sustainability.

Consequences for the Global Environment

The Shadows of Consumption

Examining the potential benefits and risks of using artificial intelligence to advance global sustainability. Drones with night vision are tracking elephant and rhino poachers in African wildlife parks and sanctuaries; smart submersibles are saving coral from carnivorous starfish on Australia's Great Barrier Reef; recycled cell phones alert Brazilian forest rangers to the sound of illegal logging. The tools of artificial intelligence are being increasingly deployed in the battle for global sustainability. And yet, warns Peter Dauvergne, we should be cautious in declaring AI the planet's savior. In AI in the Wild, Dauvergne avoids the AI industry-powered hype and offers a critical view, exploring both the potential benefits and risks of using artificial intelligence to advance global sustainability.

Sustainability in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

AI in the Wild

Justin Alger

In a world confronted with escalating environmental crises, are academics asking the right questions and advocating the best solutions? This Research Agenda paves the way for new and established scholars in the field, identifying the significant gaps in research and emerging issues for future generations in global environmental politics.

A Research Agenda for Global Environmental Politics

"The first book to analyze the consequences of the political economy of artificial intelligence for global sustainability"--

Peter Dauvergne

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