Human footprints on the global environment : threats to sustainability / edited by Eugene A. Rosa ... [et al.].

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Rosa, Eugene A.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Environmental policy--International cooperation.

Environmental policy.

Sustainable development--International cooperation.

Sustainable development.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (343 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, MA : MIT Press, c2010.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

"The colossal human ecological footprint now threatens the sustainability of the entire planet. Scientists, policymakers, and other close observers know that any understanding of the causes of global environmental change is a function of understanding its human dimension - the range of human choices and actions that affect the environment. This book offers a state-of-the-art assessment of research on the human dimensions of global environmental change, describing how global threats to sustainability have come about, providing an interpretive framework for understanding environmental change, reviewing recent work in the social and ecological sciences, and discussing which paths for future advances in our knowledge may prove most promising.

The chapters, by prominent North American and European authors, offer perspectives on population, consumption, land cover and use, institutional actions, and culture. They discuss such topics as risk, the new Structural Human Ecology approach to analyzing anthropogenic drivers of global environmental change, recent progress in understanding land use change, international environmental regimes, the concept of the commons, and the comparative vulnerability of societies around the world"--Pub. desc.

Contents:

""Contents""; ""Acknowledgments""; ""Preface""; ""1 Global Transformations""; ""2 World Risk Society as Cosmopolitan Society""; ""3 Human Driving Forces of Global Change""; ""4 Progress in the Study of Land Use/Cover Change and the Outlook for the Next Decade""; ""5 The Effectiveness of International Environmental Regimes""; ""6 Uncommon Ground""; ""7 Vulnerability of Coupled Human-Ecological Systems to Global Environmental Change""; ""8 Human Dimensions of Coupled Human-Natural Systems""; ""About the Contributors""; ""Index""

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

OCLC-licensed vendor bibliographic record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-282-54182-X

9786612541827

0-262-25916-8

OCLC:

558730662