Environmental Politics

ISSN: 0964-4016 (Print) 1743-8934 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/fenp20

Book Reviews
To cite this article: (2005) Book Reviews, Environmental Politics, 14:4, 551-575, DOI:
10.1080/09644010500175866
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Environmental Politics,
Vol. 14, No. 4, 551 575, August 2005

BOOK REVIEWS
A Theory of Ecological Justice by Brian Baxter. London: Routledge, 2005. Pp.
xii + 206; index. 65.00 (hardback). ISBN 0 415311 39X
This book by Brian Baxter is an impressive work of scholarship. The key
claims are as follows: (1) a theory of environmental ethics should account for
the interests of all life forms; (2) this objective is best served by invoking the
notion of ecological justice, understood as the extension of distributive justice
to non-humans; and (3) liberal society is best positioned to further that
objective. In support of his claims, Baxter engages in a provocative,
dierentiated analysis of key works in environmental ethics and politics,
showing clear familiarity with fundamental debates.
The details of the book make it a dicult, but rewarding, read. While the
discussion of individual authors can sometimes be roundabout and frustrating,
Baxter nonetheless prefaces his long detours with a clear statement of his
positions. The language of science upholds a universalist form of ethics that
challenges anthropocentrism, in fact extending moral claims beyond sentient
beings to reach the merely living. Baxter recognises not only the inherent
value of non-human nature, but also the varying degrees of moral agency and
hence the ecological responsibility incumbent upon the most sophisticated
species on the evolutionary scale.
This book was written with obvious care, and must be read by any scholar
and advanced student in environmental ethics. Its mark on environmental
politics will probably be less decisive, largely in view of its narrow scope.
Pausing to reect on the vast array of points raised in this work, I settle on two
essential questions. Does the defence of ecological justice constitute a clear
demarcation from previous scholarship? Can a fundamental redenition of the
moral community be implemented within the political mainstream? I oer
mixed reactions.
Alternatives to anthropocentrism are usually grouped under biocentrist and
ecocentrist labels. Baxter largely avoids both, undoubtedly concerned not to
reify either individualistic or holistic ethics. For instance, he takes Wetlesens
individualism to task, as it cannot do justice to the merely living (p.72), while
he rejects the notion of ecosystems as single, living entities (p.84). However, I
wonder how Baxters ecological justice improves on Paul Taylors (1986)
celebrated, biocentrist call to respect nature. It is unmentioned by Baxter, yet
it clearly lays out a set of principles for environmental action granting all life
forms a recognition of their basic interests, including a principle of
ISSN 0964-4016 Print/1744-8934 Online/05/04055125 2005 Taylor & Francis
DOI: 10.1080/09644010500175866

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Book Reviews

compensation meant to return a fair share of ecological resources to

populations victimised by human projects. Taylors approach eectively allows
him to take a (critical) position on such controversial activities as animal-based
experimental research or factory farming, which Baxters emphasis on justice
to viable populations merely relegates to other branches of moral theory
(p.138). Baxters synthesis between individualism and holism, in this sense,
leaves a strange void that a theory of environmental ethics yearns to ll.
Baxters pragmatic defence of political liberalism also invites replies. The
glass here is obviously half-full, as we seek hope for our planet from the urry
of environmental legislation that has admittedly marked the 20th century. The
problem, however, is that Baxters case against radical ecology zzles out at
every turn: the danger inherent in a liberal approach to world government is
recognised, but immediately left hanging (p.157); the pragmatic argument
ignores the many successful displays of radical action among progressive nongovernmental organisations; the continued anthropocentrism of liberal
solutions is, admittedly, a serious aw (p.188). In this general area of inquiry,
it is unfortunate that the intricate arguments of the ecosocialist David Pepper
(1993) were altogether ignored. The left does confront anthropocentrism with
the worst excesses of utilitarianism, and while neo-Marxism resists the mystical
temptations of deep ecology, it does oer practical pathways to redistributive
politics that would account for the ecological diversity of our planet. To
dismiss it as a Lakatosian degenerating research programme (p.193) is surely
arguable though Baxter, to his credit, would probably concur. In sum, there
is much to salvage in this dense, provocative book. It will remain a xture in
environmental studies for many years to come.
ERIC LAFERRIE`RE
John Abbott College

References
Pepper, D. (1993) Eco-socialism: from deep ecology to social justice (London: Routledge).
Taylor, Paul (1986) Respect for nature: a theory of environmental ethics (Princeton: Princeton
University Press).

Animal Philosophy: Ethics and Identity edited by Peter Atterton and Matthew
Calarco. London: Continuum Books, 2004. Pp. xxv + 218, index. 16.99
(paperback). ISBN 0 8264 6413 0
The tone of both Peter Singers foreword and the editors introduction to this
collection of extracts and essays is indicative of the books strength and its
weakness. Singer is strident, clearly angry about the lack of attention paid to
the treatment of animals in the culturaltheoretic strand of European thought

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553

that is covered by the book. He considers this a monstrous failure that casts
contemporary theorists much-vaunted critical stance (p.xii) into doubt. The
editors themselves are less confrontational, but still see this lacuna in
European thought as an almost wilful failure that requires gentle chiding.
Heidegger is unable to overcome anthropocentrism (p.xix) while Derrida
(still living at the time of publication) has so far failed to link his thoughts
on our relationship to the animal with environmental philosophy as a whole
(p.xxii). The selection that the editors have made to illustrate this, and the
collection of responses that follow the work of each author, are intriguing
and provocative, but the books overall strategy is so confrontational that it
does not quite manage to be as enlightening on the subject of animal ethics as
its title might suggest.
Opening a collection of essays from leading thinkers with a statement of
their deciencies is a bold move. On the one hand it does point up a genuine
oddity. Authors such as Foucault and Derrida are generally considered to be
on the side of the other, the exploited outcast. Their reluctance to link the
suering of exploited animals to that of exploited humans is, as several of the
contemporary authors who respond to the essays suggest, redolent of an
extremely old-fashioned enlightenment viewpoint that considers man as
absolutely separate from the rest of the animal kingdom. However, such a
strategy also risks appearing to denigrate perfectly good pieces of philosophy
merely for their failure to say what their critics want them to say. Given that
Emmanual Levinas has been at the forefront of modern ethical thought it is
certainly reasonable to ask, as Peter Atterton does, why he has written so rarely
about the treatment of animals, and why he has such diculty extending his
concept of innite responsibility to them when he does. It is less fair to
demand, with David Wood, that Jacques Derrida include a commentary on
environmentalism in his already typically rigorous and wide-ranging account
of the ethical considerations prompted by the presence of animals in our lives.
Recognising ecological interdependency may, as Wood says at the increasingly
irrelevant close of his otherwise penetrating analysis, be the name of the game
(p.143), but this is so far from Derridas project in the extract presented that
commenting on its absence borders on the bizarre.
The extracts presented range in time from quotes from Nietzsche to an essay
by Luce Irigaray specially commissioned for the book. The responses vary in
tone: Clare Palmer gives an exacting but rather dry analysis of animality in
Foucault, while Steven David Rosss almost improvisational ring on Hele`ne
Cixouss contemplation of the unseen is a poetic pleasure to read but (perhaps
deliberately) never quite manages to get anywhere. All of them engage their
respective texts with some depth, and anyone with a general interest in currents
of Continental thought will nd this book invigorating. However, the authors
of the responses in this book are seeking, and in some unfortunate cases
demanding, something whose absence has already been admitted. Given the
grossness of the discrepancy between man-talk and animal-talk (p.xv) they
spend their considerable energies berating this absence and teasing out the

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Book Reviews

covert assumptions of the authors that they analyse, leaving little in reserve for
advancing the ethical debate.
MATTHEW BRIGHT
UMIST, University of Manchester

Environment and Democracy in the Czech Republic: the Environmental

Movement in the Transition Process by Adam Fagan. Cheltenham: Edward
Elgar, 2004. Pp. vi + 185; index. 49.95 (hardback). ISBN 1 85898 867 4
Environmental movement organisations (EMOs) have often proved signicant
actors in the transition from communism to political democracy in central and
east European (CEE) states. In this volume, Adam Fagan charts the history of
Czech environmentalism within an evolving context of regime change. Environmental politics is used as a lens to view the development of civil society and
constraints on the democratisation process. As such, it challenges assumptions
that democratisation has necessarily been enabling for EMOs, and that
problems experienced have resulted from the legacy of an authoritarian past.
The book presents a theoretical perspective on Czech democratisation, using
empirical accounts of the environmental movement. A consistent theme
articulated throughout is that current theories of social movement organisation
(SMO) could lack relevance to post-communist Czech politics due to their
roots in Western capitalist democracies. In order to test this claim, an
analytical framework is constructed from two broad theoretical explanations:
the political process approach, or political opportunity structure; and resource
mobilisation theory (chapter 2). Both seek to identify the variables aecting
organisational behaviour, including resources and the distribution of power
within the state. To these theories Fagan adds a third, radical perspective
focussing on a globalisation approach that emphasises the impacts of altered
relationships between the state and global corporate interests (chapter 2).
Fagan then provides a detailed overview of the Czech environmental
movement, showing the role of civil society in democratisation from the prerevolution era to recent events such as European Union accession. Case studies
of specic groups are utilised to illustrate general trends. Evidence suggests that
EMOs have invariably not, as theoretically predicted, always moved towards
institutionalism and professionalism, often nding themselves marginalised
from the policy process, deradicalised and dependent on external donors. In
fact, what has emerged is a completely dierent relationship to state, society
and capital. As Fagan argues, the key to understanding Czech environmental
movements may be the ideological hegemony of neo-liberal capitalism that has
pervaded post-communist politics. He theorises that this has weakened the
regulatory capacity of the state and its nancial support for civil society,
limiting the conditions for the ecacy of EMOs. Rather than stimulate
environmental protest and mobilisation, neo-liberalism has generated multiple

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555

social impacts, such as high unemployment, that actively militate against these
processes. Ultimately, as the book concludes, growing grass-roots opposition
to unfettered market capitalism may eventually reinvigorate the capacity of
EMOs to mobilise and challenge the neo-liberal agenda.
The book advances in several ways our knowledge of the dynamics of civil
society in the democratisation process, particularly in central and eastern Europe.
Firstly, it provides a highly readable, structured and fairly comprehensive
account of Czech EMO development under conditions of democratic change. The
historical analysis presented furnishes detailed empirical evidence that amply
supports the studys main arguments. Secondly, by challenging current
theoretical assumptions on the linearity of SMO evolution, it prepares the
ground for further research. Examination of Czech environmental politics does
demonstrate the potential problems of applying Western-centric theories to CEE
democratisation, though, obviously, we should be wary of drawing generalised
theoretical conclusions from the context-specic nature of the ndings. Indeed,
Fagans critique of SMO theory may have wider applications to parallel cases in
CEE, something that could be explored through careful comparative analyses. In
consequence, the books contents will appeal to academics working within the
elds of environmental politics or central and east European studies, as well as to
political or social scientists with an interest in SMO development.
DAVID BENSON
CSERGE, University of East Anglia

Hooked on Growth by Douglas E. Booth. Oxford: Rowman & Littleeld, 2004.

Pp. x + 277; index. 16.99 (paperback). ISBN 0 7425 2718 2
In this contribution to the literature on economic growth, Douglas Booth
claims that economic growth constitutes a social addiction. Growth is
necessary to provide the pleasures of social and luxury goods, but is also
essential to avoid the pain of unemployment. Supporting this claim, the
opening chapters use theories of conspicuous consumption, from Thorstein
Veblen, and creative destruction, from Joseph Schumpeter. Creative destruction drives innovation, bringing forth the newer, status-bearing goods that are
conspicuously consumed. Conspicuous consumption and creative destruction
then feed on each other to produce a growth process that is socially and
ecologically debilitating. Exploration of the contradictions between growth
and the environment, along with the problems and possibilities of getting
unhooked from growth, concern most of the work.
One common solution to the problem of growth and environment is through
regulation, but, says Booth, resistance by industry groups to implementation
of specic, regulating measures has sometimes been strong and, as a
consequence, signicant problems persist (p.73). This introduces a theme
prominent throughout the work: economic and political interests dominate

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Book Reviews

democratic politics and limit the possibilities for individual action. This theme
is explored with a wealth of examples and evidence, but, ultimately, Booth is
unable to oer a solution to it.
According to Booth, two strategies exist for addressing ecological decline.
These are conventional economics [that] calls for adjusting the environment to
the economy. The other is the approach of ecological economics and calls for
adjusting the economy to the environment (p.141). Not surprisingly, the
author believes the rst strategy to be inadequate, and it is the normative basis
for the second approach that concerns the closing chapters of the book.
This basis is a synthesis of Aldo Leopolds land ethic, Jurgen Habermass
idea of public discourse and John Rawlss sense of justice. The land ethic,
according to Booth, oers a way to give non-human life and ecosystems
intrinsic value, because many people desire to experience unspoilt nature.
Protection of intrinsic value trumps economic goods not required for living
decently (p.197). Discourse could be the way to practise such an ethic as it is
concerned with discovering and clarifying a common interest or common
activity in the normal course of daily life (p.219). The common interest
concerns the formation of environmental rights and values forming the basic
structure (p.229) of society, extending Rawlss community of justice.
According to Booth, a reasonable next step is to extend societys basic
structure of rights beyond the strictly human to encompass non-human species
and the ecosystems they depend on (p.229).
Two questions immediately arise. The synthesis of Leopold, Habermas and
Rawls works at quite a supercial level, and the author makes no mention of the
large and growing scholarship concerning the complexities and problems of just
such a synthesis. Concerning the land ethic, for example, many have questioned
whether protection of the whole really can guarantee protection for the
individual. Many would be concerned to know how the community of justice
could be extended to include ecosystems, as such systems themselves cannot take
part in the deliberative process, nor can they make and keep agreements.
The second question concerns the vested economic and political interests
alluded to earlier. Making careful use of critical theory, Booth shows how such
interests can subvert and frustrate democratic processes. This argument leads him
to the conclusion that environmental rights and value producing public discourse
is unrealisable in a world of powerful corporations capable of dominating such
public discourse and public-sector decision making (p.233). Booth acknowledges
that the political solution is to bring such powerful economic bodies under
democratic control saying the simple conclusion. . .is that economic institutions
ought to be re-arranged to unhook modern society from high rates of growth and
to bring the process of environmental degradation to a halt (p.233). This is
probably true, but the author oers no further consideration or suggestion as to
how this might be achieved: it remains a moral idea.
DAVID LAYFIELD
University of Nottingham

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557

Anti-capitalist Britain edited by John Carter and Dave Morland. Cheltenham:

New Clarion Press, 2004. Pp. x + 182; index. 25.00 (hardback); 12.95
(paperback). ISBN 1 873797 43 5 and 1 873797 44 3
The title of this collection stands out amid the recent stream of books on what
is variously called anti-capitalism, anti-globalisation and alternative
globalisation. But anti-capitalist Britain? Is anti-capitalism not global, and
unable to be captured by national boundaries? In their introductory chapter,
the editors state how, although the choice of title reects an attempt to study
things in a national framework that should only really be understood in a
global context (p.4), they thought it worthwhile to look at the emergence and
nature of the movement in one particular place and how it has adapted to
and developed the pre-existing left politics of the UK (p.5).
John Carter and Dave Morlands contention, developed in their chapter,
Anti-capitalism: are we all anarchists now?, is of a shift in British progressive
politics, beginning in the 1960s, from traditional left convictions focused on the
working class and the nation state, towards more anarchistic sensibilities. They
claim this insurgent anarchism to be most potently symbolised by mass actions
at meetings of the G8 and World Trade Organization. This opposition to
capitalist globalisation is, they argue, producing a denable anti-capitalist
position and movement in the UK (p.3). Through a range of empirical
examples authored by movement participants and analysts, the book aims to
demonstrate that argument.
It fails, chiey because of a serious disjuncture between the issues privileged
by the editors and those actually tackled by other contributors. A few chapters
are reasonably consistent with the editors intentions. The piece by Alexandra
Plows, on activist networks in the UK, perhaps represents the books most
conscious and strongest attempt at setting out the recent emergence of a British
anti-globalisation movement. There is much else of interest. In focusing less on
high-prole protests than actions within submerged movement networks, many
contributors make the important point that it is not necessary to take to the
streets to oppose capitalism. Paul Taylor, for example, considers the keyboard
protests of hacktivists. Elsewhere, Derek Walls good natured excursion into
Russian theorist Mikhail Bakhtins relevance to both the theory and practice of
anti-capitalist struggle is particularly entertaining.
But the diverse contributions do not cohere. Two chapters, one by Caroline
Lucas and Colin Hines, the other by Molly Scott Cato, are articulations and
justications of Green Party positions. The chapter by Anonymous is a
dogmatic defence of the controversial street protest tactics of the anarchist
Black Bloc. Amir Saeed discusses the consequences for British Muslims of
events since 11 September 2001. Although worthwhile contributions in their
own right, such chapters neither orient towards nor make claims for the anticapitalist and anarchist credentials which the editors, in the rst two chapters,
emphasise.

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Book Reviews

Despite sensing their own answer is yes, we certainly get little evidence with
which to answer the editors question, Are we all anarchists now? Nor by the
end of the book are we in any position to judge the editors contention that the
varied contributions all belong to the same anti-capitalist movement. These
decits might have been ameliorated by a strong concluding chapter
attempting to demonstrate convergences between the apparently unrelated
contributions.
But whilst the book ends up being less than the sum of its parts, it does
usefully bring together under one title diverse examples of currently existing
progressive politics in the UK. The collection may strike some academics as
too activist and some activists as too academic, but that is the books
greatest strength, and academics and activists alike might nd it worthwhile.
For what this collection does provide is some useful material for anyone
interested in contemporary alternative, and especially green, British politics.
DAVE HORTON
Lancaster University

The Global Politics of the Environment, 2nd edn by Lorraine Elliott.

Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004. Pp. xvii + 296; index. 19.00 (paperback). ISBN 0 3339 4851 3
Sometimes it is hardly a compliment to say that a book has fullled its
promise, whereas some books are remarkable precisely because they give
exactly what they are committed to as is the case in this instance. The
global condition of the ecological crisis is explained here in a clear and
enlightening fashion, a rather remarkable accomplishment given the issues
empirical and theoretical diculties. More specically, the authors aim is
twofold: on the one hand, to oer an account of the historical process by
which the environmental agenda became global; on the other, to explain
normatively global environmental governance and the dierent responses to
its current crisis. It is the overlapping of ecological, political and economic
spheres which makes this topic so complex; perhaps this explains the
number of books which elaborate on this topic but fail to say anything at
all. Although this book is more a description of historical and legal
processes, as well as a taxonomy and explanation of dierent theoretical
positions, than an original critique, its usefulness and brilliance make it
more than worth reading.
The interweaving of ecological and social concerns in the face of
globalisation constitutes the standpoint of this work, together with the
continuous deterioration of the overall state of the environment. Such
widespread assumptions, though, have a social and historical origin, and the
rst third of the book is devoted to explaining the transition from a
national perception of environmental problems to a global one. This

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559

growing awareness of the global character of the environment is an

important dimension of the globalisation process itself. The history of the
expansion of the environmental agenda is rst explained through its more
signicant events, from the Stockholm to Johannesburg summits. Subsequently, the global politics of conservation and pollution are examined,
trying to illuminate the political problems, issues and debates which provide
the background for any normative analysis. The analysis reveals the distance
between rhetoric and commitment, in spite of the legal improvements:
Political will has not kept pace with environmental change (p.27).
Once Elliott states that a crisis exists in the human management of the
environment, environmental governance becomes the main focus of the book.
Not only are the reasons for that crisis explored, but the qualities of good
governance are shown the latter understood as including the broader social
institutions, rules and practices which provide the framework for decision
making and co-operation. Throughout this exploration, both the reformist and
the critical approaches are combined, showing the virtues and problems of
each. Whereas reformists consider the system as manageable but in need of
correction, the critical position underlines the limits to reform and gives way to
the old green suspicion namely, that the contemporary political and
economic order is likely to be the structural problem and not the solution. The
United Nations, state sovereignty, science and expertise, global civil society,
non-governmental organisations and grass-roots movements, corporate
environmentalism, women and indigenous claims all these issues are
described in the search for a more inclusive and democratic environmental
governance.
The need for a normative framework is then considered. Elliott argues
governance will be more eective if grounded on ethical norms and legal
and practical guidance for actors involved in environmental decisions.
Finally, the book turns to the global economy of the environment, especially
the ambivalent relationship between environmental degradation and
economic structures. Sustainable development and the relationship between
developed and developing countries lead the debate. Environmental security
is described subsequently, just before the book closes with a balanced
evaluation of the reformist and critical positions on issues of global
environmental politics. This recurrent opposition of the two positions is but
another invocation of the same dilemma which has been a dening feature
of the green movement that between realism and radicalism. As this
valuable book indirectly shows, such ambiguity mirrors the ambiguity of
globalisation, hence also of modernity and quite probably that of
humanity itself.
MANUEL ARIAS-MALDONADO
University of Malaga

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Book Reviews

Man-made Global Warming: Unravelling a Dogma by Hans Labohm, Simon

Rozendaal and Dick Thoenes. Brentwood: Multi-science Publishing, 2004. Pp.
viii + 192. 50.00 (hardback); 37.50 (paperback). ISBN 0 906522 25 0
Environmental movements, environmental policy making and academic
research into environmental problems are subject to fashions and issue
attention cycles. In recent years, man-made climate change has moved into the
centre of public discourse and academic investigation. For the eco-political
debate global warming is an attractive focus because it still has the status of a
danger to come rather than a present problem. Its reality is still scientically
contested, and emphasising scientic uncertainty has always been a key
strategy for justifying that, at least for the time being, any radical action ought
to be postponed and established practices retained. This is exactly what this
book is about.
The three authors describe themselves as climate sceptics trying to stem the
massive ow of scaremongering information (p.vi) and in particular the
alarmist standpoint of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(p.16). The books basic message is that the man-made global warming scare
should be debunked and that the Kyoto Treaty should be put on ice until there
is sucient understanding of the factors which determine climate variability
(p.vii). The authors are keen to demonstrate that the scientic community is
still far from reaching consensus about the reality of man-made climate change.
The dogma of global warming, they suggest, is the result of political interests
rather than scientic evidence. It is explained as a combination of factors such
as the need of scientists to obtain research funding, Margaret Thatcher seeking
to justify the closure of British coal mines, environmental organisations
struggling for donations, the moral crusades of Christian fundamentalists and,
in particular, the academic marginalisation of climate sceptics like the authors
themselves. Man-made climate change is described as the mother of all
environmental scares (p.1), and the objective is not just to prevent the
devastating economic consequences which the implementation of the Kyoto
Treaty would entail (p.vii) but, more generally, to counter the view that the
western economy is excessively based on squandering raw materials and
energy. . .while we spoil nature irrevocably with the resulting waste products
(p.23).
The book ts squarely into the existing literature of ecological denial, but let
us get things straight: deconstructing the narratives of the environmental
movement and the related academic literature is entirely legitimate and in
many respects urgently necessary. The ecological debate is indeed full of
simplistic truths, inappropriate paradigms and ideological preoccupations.
Breaking the rules of ecological correctness can be very productive and
enlightening. Yet the present book is disappointing in at least ve respects.
Firstly, its many derogatory comments about environmental activists and
scientists nurture the suspicion that it is not just concerned with the science of
climate change but also pursues a political agenda. Secondly, the authors

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561

autopsy of a dogma (pp.5788) takes a rather journalistic approach and is not

a systematic discourse analysis. Thirdly, the book is at least as much about the
injured egos of three marginalised scientists as it is about the issue of global
warming. Not coincidentally, much space is devoted to the discussion of the
Lomborg saga. Fourthly, even if man-made global warming should eventually
turn out to be a myth, this would not render the established lifestyles and
consumption patterns of Western(ised) societies any more socially and
ecologically sustainable. And fthly, in this book the disastrous costs of
Kyoto which the authors are so adamant to prevent remain just as mythical as
the global warming myth which they are seeking to unravel. Despite all this,
the book makes interesting reading and may well help to increase the selfreective capacities of the eco-political debate. It should appear on the reading
list of any course on ecological denial and on the politics of sustainability.
INGOLFUR BLUHDORN
University of Bath

Global Warming and Social Innovation: the Challenge of a Climate-neutral

Society edited by Marcel Kok, Walter Vermeulen, Andre Faaij and David de
Jager. London: Earthscan, 2002. Pp. xix + 242; index. 50.00 (hardback);
19.95 (paperback). ISBN 1 85383 944 2 and 1 85383 945 0
As the Kyoto Protocol comes into force a new debate is raging about the
reality of human-induced climate change and the urgency of remedial policy
programmes. In this volume the focus is not on the question of whether or not
climate change is happening, but whether and how an 80% reduction of CO2
emissions compared to 1990 levels may be achieved by 2050. According to the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, this is what is required in order
to achieve a climate-neutral society. The continuation of present patterns
would lead to disastrous increases in greenhouse gas emissions, not least
because of the rapid economic development in China and India. The 12
chapters of this book explore possible strategies for, and obstacles to, achieving
this target. Trend breaks, that is, substantial shifts in established societal
structures and practices, are required, and the Netherlands, one of those
European countries with the strongest tradition of environmental management
and ecological modernisation, is used as a case study for exploring ways of
achieving them. The editors seek to avoid overly optimistic suggestions that a
climate-neutral society is easily achievable, but also overly fatalistic predictions
that present conditions and patterns of development are unchangeable.
Their back to the present approach aims to shift the emphasis from idealistic
visions of the future to a realistic assessment of presently existing opportunities
and obstacles. It entails outlining dierent scenarios of societal development until
the middle of the century (chapter 2), mapping major socio-political dilemmas
which any policy programme for radical climate protection will have to confront

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Book Reviews

(chapter 3) and investigating how specic societal actors and subsystems may
contribute to achieving the climate-neutral society (chapters 411). Technological innovation, changes in household consumption patterns, local authorities,
new ways of material management, new information and communication
technologies, emissions trading systems, adaptations in the legal system and the
participation and co-operation of all societal stakeholders are investigated as key
parameters in the eort of societal self-transformation. A particular strength of
this book is that it does not just rely on technological innovation, economic
instruments and managerial revolutions, but argues for a multi-dimensional
approach, a comprehensive package solution that involves all societal actors.
Rather than promoting one xed strategy, the authors argue for a exible and
long-term approach in which goals and policies are regularly reviewed.
One may argue that the Netherlands is not the most suitable case study for
exploring the chances for and obstacles to a trend break which would have to
involve all industrialised countries and more. Questions may also be raised
about the scenarios and visions in chapter 2, which seem somewhat underdeveloped and under-justied. The discussion of the dilemmas in chapter 3
remains indicative, and the strategies for overcoming them which are outlined
in the following chapters are not always plausible. Surprisingly, the book oers
virtually no discussion of the nuclear option and its implications even though
this is undoubtedly a key theme in the debate on CO2 reduction. But on the
whole this is an exceptionally well integrated collection of analyses that is very
accessible and, not least because of its large number of reviews, inserts and
summarising boxes, thoroughly appropriate as a textbook for undergraduate
units on the politics of climate change. It is strongly recommended for any
climate-oriented reading list.
INGOLFUR BLUHDORN
University of Bath

World Resources 20022004 by United Nations Development Programme,

United Nations Environmental Programme, World Bank and World
Resources Institute.Washington, DC: World Resources Institute, 2003. Pp.
xii + 315; index. 20.95 (paperback). ISBN 1 56973 532 8
Which countries in the world have ratied the Kyoto Protocol or any other
major multilateral environmental agreement? What is the gross domestic
product (GDP) of Bangladesh, Belgium or Brazil, and how is this GDP
distributed among the rst (agriculture), second (industry) and third (services)
sector? What is the dierence in total CO2 emissions and per capita CO2
emissions between France, Germany and the United Kingdom? Originally the
main function of the biennial World Resources Report the product of a
collaboration of four global institutions was providing data for answering
these and many other related questions. The 10th, most recent volume of

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563

World Resources still fulls this function in an exemplary way by providing

more than 50 pages of statistics on agriculture and food, forests, climate,
freshwater resources, biodiversity and so on. The report departs from previous
editions by making the full World Resources database freely accessible and
searchable on-line in the companion website Earth Trends (http://earthtrends.wri.org).
Apart from these statistics, each volume of World Resources has a special
theme, covering the lions share of the report. In their millennial World
Resources 20002001 the four organisations documented peoples dependence
on ecosystems and the goods and services they yield. The capacity of the
worlds ecosystems to sustain us was also assessed. The report under review,
intended as a companion to the former one, deals with the capacity of our
social, economic and political institutions to make decisions that will reverse
the lost of forests, the decline of soil fertility and the pollution of air and water
that reect our past failures.
The key phrase is environmental governance. The report argues that better
environmental governance is one of the most direct routes to fairer and more
sustainable use of natural resources. To understand the challenge of
environmental governance today, four broad trends are examined: economic
globalisation; democratisation of political systems around the world; the rapid
growth of non-governmental organisations (NGOs); and the proliferation of
new information and communication technologies.
Governments and business, the report states, no longer have a monopoly on
environmental decision making. A third force civil society is changing the
power balance. Civil society can be dened as all organisations in public life
above the household level that are neither governmental nor prot-oriented.
Thus, religious organisations, professional associations and universities are all
part of civil society, in addition to non-governmental organisations. Citizens
groups of all sorts now routinely participate in decisions about the
environment and development. The growing inuence of these organisations
is one of the most dynamic changes in environmental governance today.
How, in its turn, should this analysis be assessed from a political science
point of view? In contemporary civil society theory two dierent versions of
civil society can be distinguished: a neo-liberal and an activist version.
According to the neo-liberal version, civil society consists of associational life,
a non-prot voluntary third sector that not only restrains state power but also
actually provides a substitute for many of the functions performed by the state.
In the activist version, civil society refers to active citizenship, to growing selforganisation outside formal political circles and to an expanded space in which
individual citizens can inuence the conditions in which they live both directly
through self-organisation and political pressure.
Although the activist version is not completely absent in the report, the
problem denitions and solution strategies it presents are disproportionately
inuenced by the neo-liberal approach. Depoliticisation, NGO-isation of civil
society and marginalisation of the role of social movements are some of the

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Book Reviews

consequences. Apparently this is the price to be paid for a collaboration of four

so dierent organisations.
HEIN-ANTON VAN DER HEIJDEN
University of Amsterdam

Tropical Forests, International Jungle. The Underside of Global Ecopolitics by

Marie-Claude Smouts (CERI Series in International Relations and Political
Economy). New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003. Pp. xiv + 266; indices.
27.50 (hardback). ISBN 1 4039 6203 0
This books holistic perspective lends itself to dealing with a complex matter:
vegetation change in relation to political drivers. It approaches the subject
from an international relations viewpoint, focussing on the timber trade. From
a political perspective, discourses highlight the set of interaction hubs between
transnational actors, as well as the redenition of public and private spheres.
Smoutss study purposefully takes a step away from international relations
paradigms such as realism, liberal neo-institutional, structuralism or postmodernism. Instead, its most salient theoretical elements are derived from John
Burtons School of World Society, the international political sociology
research programme, discourse generation (e.g. transcoding by non-governmental organisations (NGOs), role of the media), and the concept of epistemic
community. The specic critiques of academics and the acknowledgements of
their role are particularly useful. Using these theoretical elements, the studys
starting point is a deconstruction of tropical deforestation as a political
problem, via a historic account beginning in 1952, its take-o during the 1980s,
to more recent events in this process. Unlike other deconstruction attempts
that refer only to Western collective imagination, Smouts digs deeper into
discourse generation to interpret the motives and logics of key transnational
actors in forest politics: multilateral agencies, and NGOs.
The books main nding (chapter 5) is that tropical deforestation is an
instance of the workings of an emerging global political system in which
transnational actors have honed discourses to garner vantage positions. This
has been an eective mechanism whenever discourse has combined the
powerful logics of citizensconsumers and markets. In this process the United
Nations (UN) has played an important role but UN agencies have entered
bureaucratic competition with interspersed co-operation. The leading role in
the UN system regarding forests has moved from the Food and Agriculture
Organization to the World Bank and more recently to the International
Tropical Timber Organization. The World Bank was instrumental in giving the
largest NGOs access to the initial debates on tropical forests in the mid-1980s.
However, UN agencies have fallen short of assuming leadership in sustainable
forestry management (SFM) certication, which, according to Smouts, is the
only practical development so far regarding tropical forests. Moreover, NGOs

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565

have so far kept in check the UN agencies and national governments by

successfully campaigning against a global conference on tropical forests, for
fear of the inuential role that corporations have lately played in UN
conferences. One NGO in particular, the Forest Stewardship Council, has
made a successful claim of being the only valid accreditation source for SFM
certication. More generally, the book illustrates that NGOs are, to date, the
most cohesive set of actors and agenda-setters, due to their common ethical
stance, their exible networking, and their marketing abilities.
The book concludes that the root causes of tropical deforestation are
political: corruption and short-term development projects. Its prediction is that
certication, as a conjunction of consumer and producer moves, will have a
predominant role.
A wide audience can benet from reading this book from a political
perspective. As part of the methods, the book incorporates historic accounts,
documents from a wide spectrum of relevant institutions, interviews, and
various anecdotal insights allowing dierent readings. It is also a useful read for
natural and political scientists, providing some common ground for interdisciplinary research. However, the sections devoted to land use, conservation
ecology, and forestry management reect the investigators perspective. Her
conclusions deliberately sideline current debates in these disciplines.
Reading, however, is problematic at times. The holistic perspective and
eclectic theory assemblage are not at fault, but the overly abundant details on,
for instance, the many satellite platforms for forest monitoring are distracting.
This detail does not help in understanding the main focus of the book, and
forces the reader to glean elements dispersed throughout the book. A more
forceful point on one particularly relevant topic was thus eschewed: the
mechanism through which discourse generation from stakeholders relates to
the distribution of project funds. In other words, missing here are the
connections between the power of words and economic leverages.
ALEJANDRO DE LAS HERAS
School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia

Governing through Markets: Forest Certication and the Emergence of Nonstate Authority by Benjamin Cashore, Graham Auld and Deanna Newsom.
New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2004. Pp. vi + 316; index. 30.00
(hardback). ISBN 0 3001 0109 0
Cashore, Auld, and Newsom address a crucial, under-explored area of
contemporary environmental politics: private sector or non-state governance.
In the past decade, non-governmental organisations, industry associations, and
producers have experimented with using the market to stimulate consumer
demand for sustainable products and to change production practices. In this

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Book Reviews

case, the authors focus on forest certication, in the form of the Forest
Stewardship Council (FSC) and competing industry schemes. The book will
interest those who research and practise in environmental regulation,
sustainable industry, and forestry.
The authors set out to explain a puzzle: why do industry actors accept FSC
certication in some countries but not others? Cashore, Auld, and Newsom
stress the politics of convincing dierent industry actors such as producers,
manufacturers, or retailers to accept a particular certication scheme in the
conditions of a specic country. The legitimacy of a scheme is established
privately, rather than through government action. The authors analyse the
strategies that proponents or opponents of FSC adopt when trying to
legitimate FSC or their own certication approach. They note that actors may
persuade others to accept higher standards (converting), or may adapt their
standards to meet the needs of others (conforming).
The authors usefully identify and analyse nine factors likely to inuence
whether conversion or conformation strategies are eective. These factors
include: the extent to which a forest economy depends on exports; industry
structure and concentration; the degree to which non-industrial forest owners
are fragmented; and forestry politics. Considering them provides much insight
into what non-state governance may mean. To test whether the factors do
matter, Cashore, Auld, and Newsom compare developments in British
Columbia, Britain, the United States, Germany, and Sweden. They demonstrate convincingly that signicant variations in FSC acceptance do exist, and
show that certication politics can be charged. Their conclusions are valuable
in considering prospective certication schemes in many industries ranging
from seafood to electronics.
Several powerful insights contribute to the extant literature. First, the
interaction between certain factors can cancel or amplify outcomes that might
otherwise be expected with a particular conguration. The course of accepting
certication is therefore not static or predictable: there is scope for experimentation. Second, non-state market approaches need only some demand for
certication somewhere along the production chain. Retailers, for example,
can demand certication from upstream manufacturers. In contrast to what
many studies and consumer campaign experiments assume, consumers may not
be the most important (or only) group to target. Third, and relatedly, the precise
segmentation of the production chain matters in terms of the audiences who need
to be enlisted as supporters of certication. Dierent actors along the chain may
have dierent needs and interests. Critically, eective certication depends on the
chain of custody issue (i.e. tracing products from points of production to
consumption), yet many practical and political issues can break this chain
without thinking about engaging key actor groups. Fourth, environmental
groups may lose their opportunity to ratchet up standards if they fail to address
industry fears early on and to show how industry can benet economically.
Governing through Markets has several gaps. The authors do not take enough
account of how national regulatory and policy styles may aect the politics of

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567

certication. Comparative environmental politics scholarship has shown that

Britain, the US, and Germany dier in their regulatory approaches. However
hard to dene, political culture undeniably plays some role. In some cases, these
domestic conditions may outweigh the factors that the authors study (as in
Finland, which Cashore has subsequently studied as an outlying case). The
authors also could do a more cohesive job of laying out the production chain
aspects. The chains involved are taken for granted. It would help the reader to
have a clearer view of what steps and actors are involved in forest production
chains. The importance of the multiple actors found throughout a production
chain is not explained well and key insights are not integrated. The book,
however, adds much new insight to environmental politics.
ALASTAIR ILES
University of California at Berkeley

New Instruments of Environmental Governance? National Experiences and

Prospects edited by Andrew Jordan, Rudiger K. W. Wurzel and Anthony R.
Zito. London: Frank Cass, 2003. Pp. 232; index. 45.00 (hardback); 18.50
(paperback). ISBN 0 7146 5366 7 and 0 7146 8300 0
This book enters the debate about new environmental instruments and the
claim that instruments based on market mechanisms, voluntary agreements
and eco-labels have become increasingly widespread. The analysis presented in
this book critically engages with the implicit assumption that new instruments
of environmental governance are the same and equally important across
dierent countries. Through its systematic cross-country comparative analysis
of policy instrument choice, the book also speaks to a more general
comparative public policy literature. Here, the focus on a specic policy sector
allows for a detailed analysis of policy change. Finally, the book also oers
interesting insights for the debate on governance. The corresponding literature
has tended to be characterised by a high level of abstraction, whereas the case
study material presented in this collection illustrates the complexities and
contradictions of governance in practice.
The aim of the book is to analyse critically the use of new instruments of
environmental governance in a cross-country comparative perspective. The
analysis is structured around four questions: What are the drivers of policy
change? What is the pattern of use in relation to the new instruments of
environmental governance? How new are the new instruments of environmental
governance? What explains the choice and use of the (new) policy instruments?
The third question examines policy continuity and the co-existence of dierent
policy instruments and as such helps to put claims about a revolution in
environmental governance into context. In contrast, the nal question directs our
attention to competing claims about the factors inuencing policy change. The

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Book Reviews

introductory chapter juxtaposes theories of policy learning (and the importance

of ideas) with theories of path dependence, and thereby puts the relative
importance of similarities and dierences at the centre of the analysis.
The main body of the book consists of eight country case studies, which
systematically examine the key questions around the use of new instruments in
environmental governance. The countries oer an interesting spread in terms
of geography (including Australia and Finland besides a number of western
European countries) as well as national policy structures, styles and content.
The individual chapters provide powerful illustrations of the strong
embeddeddness of policy instruments. Signicantly, as the concluding chapter
highlights, diversity goes beyond dierences between countries and also
includes dierences between dierent sectors of environmental policy and how
specic instruments are used. This diversity contrasts with the similarities in
relation to the drivers of policy change and the fact that countries change along
broadly similar tracks.
The book oers a clearly structured and systematic comparative analysis of
the use of new instruments of environmental governance and as such
distinguishes itself from many edited collections in the eld which feature case
studies only loosely connected and whose comparative potential therefore
remains limited. By contrast, the key strengths of this book are: rst, the
similar structure of what are after all very dierent country case studies allows
for implicit comparison throughout the entire study and comparison is not
limited to the concluding discussion. Second, the analysis allows for a detailed
assessment of what exactly is or is not changing. Interestingly, new and old
policy instruments not only co-exist but also depend on each other, which
presents the nature of governance in a new (and challenging) light. Finally,
the analysis oers a detailed assessment of the relative weight of individual
explanatory factors and as such goes beyond general statements of policy
convergence and divergence.
However, the book might have further gained in analytical strength if the
authors had been more adventurous methodologically. Paired comparison
preceded by short introductions could have helped to further exploit the rich
comparative material. Including southern and central/eastern European
countries might have provided additional insights into the dynamics of policy
change. Nevertheless, this remains a highly insightful comparative study which
will be of interest well beyond the specic group of analysts of new instruments
of environmental governance.
VIOLA BURAU
University of Aarhus

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569

Three Mile Island: a Nuclear Crisis in Historical Perspective by J. Samuel

Walker. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2004. Pp. xi + 303;
index. 16.95 (hardback). ISBN 0 520 23940 7
According to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the accident at
the Three Mile Island (TMI) nuclear plant in March 1979 was the most serious
in US commercial nuclear power plant operating history. J. Samuel Walker is
historian of the NRC and, as you would expect, his book is a meticulously
detailed account of the accident which was a severe crisis that resulted from
mistakes, oversights and misjudgements (p.3).
To set the scene Samuel Walker summarises the main issues in the nuclear
power debate, and gives an overview of US energy policy and its regulation.
The four chapters dealing with the four days of the incident give a highly
readable view of the technical issues and the human stories behind them. He
documents, for instance, the frustration of the engineers on duty on the rst
day, one of whom said I would have liked to have thrown away the alarm
panel. It wasnt giving us any useful information (p.74). Equally frustrated was
the lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania, William Scranton, who was chair of
the emergency management council. He faced a dearth of reliable and timely
information (p.84) and lacked the time to properly assess the information that
he did receive.
In analysing the central arguments about nuclear safety, Samuel Walker
suggests that the TMI incident showed that proponents of nuclear power
underestimated the possibility and potential implications of such an accident.
The president of the Atomic Industrial Forum commented in retrospect: I
thought we were better than that before the accident happened (p.222). The
events at TMI showed that although the safety system on the reactor worked,
lack of training, confusing instrumentation, and inattention to human factors
(p.240) were signicant. Most concerning perhaps is that no one during the
accident knew that the reactor core had melted (p.241).
On the other hand, Walker argues that there was no major contamination
and the meltdown was contained, thus indicating the overstatement of risks of
the nuclear industry by its critics: reactor experts concluded that there was
little chance [of]. . . uncontrolled release of radiation (p.240). However, if the
extent of the damage to the core had been known, the authorities most likely
would have ordered a full-scale evacuation (p.241) of the area. This step
would have increased public opposition and fear, had not been planned for,
and would have been at huge cost.
Publication of the book is timely given the renewed debate over energy
production, climate change, and the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
However, if considering nuclear energy as the answer, we have to consider its
economic costs (capital costs are particularly large), the risk of accident and
failure, the need for emergency response under those circumstances, and
ongoing problems such as that of radioactive waste treatment and storage. In
that context, it is interesting to note that the agship of the British nuclear

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Book Reviews

industry, the THORP plant at Sellaeld, has, for its 10 years of operation, been
dogged by accident and technical failures and is far from being the protmaker predicted.
MARY MORRISON
University of Southampton

Agrarian Dreams the Paradox of Organic Farming in California by Julie

Guthman. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2004. Pp. 250; index.
US$21.95 (paperback). ISBN 0 520 24095 2
This book has been long awaited by those who are concerned with the political
economy of organic food production. Guthman is the author of what has come
to be known as the conventionalisation thesis that organic agriculture has
come to parallel the techniques and marketing routes of conventional
agriculture, because of the demands of capitalism. After advancing this
argument through a range of journal articles Guthman has now extended this
argument to book length and added a huge amount of detail.
This book is rmly in the same row as earlier studies by Friedland (lettuces)
and Wells (strawberries) who both focused on the importance of horticulture in
instilling capitalist relations of production into agriculture. Written in a
popular tone and with a wealth of empirical research underpinning it, this is
the rst major monograph on the contemporary organic agriculture sector and
movement. For many readers it will provide not only an excellent primer into
the dynamics of the sector but also an introduction to some of the debates
around the political economy of farming.
Guthman contends that California is the leading edge of capitalist relations
in agriculture and as such may be setting the trends for the rest of the world.
She nds that the way in which organic agriculture is practised in the state, the
conguration of the market for its produce and the use of production
standards have gradually eroded the counter-cultural thrust of the organic
movement, leaving it to exist in parallel to conventional, chemically based
agriculture. Although critical she is not despondent, considering that limited
state support and community-based marketing schemes could help refresh and
even realise the challenge organic agriculture has put forward.
Given that this is the rst book on the sector and that it is based on excellent
eldwork it will, justly, establish itself as a key text on the topic. If the study of
agriculture, organic or not, is to break out and be discussed more widely then
the scholarship, popularity of tone and unerring eye for stirring a debate
oered by this work are crucial.
How well some of her analyses will travel beyond the west coast of the
United States is a matter of some controversy. Guthman is heavily focused on
the importance of land values in a market economy and how they create the
forces that undermine the critical challenge of organic agriculture. Many will

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571

be critical of how well that dynamic pertains to other areas. Not many other
areas of the world oer the same mix of a range of ecosystems, an open market
in agricultural land, low-level or little state support and a ready supply of
cheap, casual labour overseen by a politically weak organic movement. Her
picture of the sunshine state may be suitably and accurately one of an agrarian
noir, but it may not be an accurate picture of other places.
MATT REED
University of Exeter

Food Wars: the Global Battle for Mouths, Minds and Markets by Tim Lang and
Michael Heasman. London: Earthscan, 2004. Pp. xvi + 357; index. 55.00
(hardback); 19.99 (paperback). ISBN 1 85383 701 6 and 1 8538 3702 4
This book is a timely publication concerning one of the most important
challenges facing the world at the beginning of the 21st century: how not
merely to feed the bellies of people but also to make sure that the food they get
is nutritionally sound, fresh and wholesome, while at the same time ensuring
that the methods of food production, food processing and packaging are
sustainable and do not ultimately beggar the Earth. Its remit is primarily about
the future of food as drawn up along the battle lines laid down in the mature
economies of the world. However, given the facts of globalisation, it also
necessarily touches on some of the issues which face developing countries as
they, too, are caught up with the realities of the food-producing and foodconsuming habits which dominate the economically advanced nations in the
world.
The books real focus is identifying three competing paradigms regarding
food production and food consumption in the industrialised West: the
productivist, the life sciences integrated and the ecologically integrated
paradigms. The rst emerged in the 1930s and gathered pace after the Second
World War, when its emphasis on yield backed up by articial fertilisers served
well the needs of the time. However, this model is now on the wane, though not
moribund. Its place may yield to one of the two recently arrived competitors.
Which will triumph? The authors have no real crystal ball; neither has this
reviewer. However, if one were a betting person, one would be tempted to put
money on the life sciences integrated paradigm, on the grounds that it is
backed by some of the most powerful groups and lobbies in the world today.
Furthermore, in scientic as well as philosophical terms it is akin to the
productivist paradigm as both are essentially reductionist in outlook. For the
majority of scientists the move from the one to the other is just an incremental
step the latter is based on Mendelian genetics and its technology of doublecross hybridisation while the former is based on molecular genetics/molecular
biology and their technology of genetic engineering using DNA sequences. In

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Book Reviews

contrast, the ecologically integrated paradigm is non-reductionist/holistic in

character; its methodological and philosophical orientations are less familiar
to, and resisted by, those who work within the reductionist framework,
especially by those in a position of power to determine research agendas
through funding them. It is also not an approach backed in any substantial
way by lobby groups with real political power.
However, it matters seriously which of these two competitors will win this
unequal race, for the outcome will have an impact on our daily lives. The life
sciences integrated paradigm, as the authors point out, conceives health as an
individual personal matter of consumer choice the market using the latest
biotechnological and nutrigenomic techniques can and will deliver healthier
foods but at a premium to those who may wish to take advantage of such
benets and who can aord them. The ecologically integrated paradigm,
resting on the new understanding of the centrality of biology to life, sees health
not as a mere matter of individual choice but as something that is intrinsic to
each stage of the growing and distribution process (p.39); health is, also
therefore, a collective responsibility. Furthermore, intrinsic to its concerns are
the impacts which food production and consumption have not solely on the
health of the individual person, but also on the health of the environment, in
terms of their demands on soil, water, air, energy, biodiversity, ecological
integrity and so on. It is a great merit of this book that it draws such skilful,
clear and detailed attention to the issues facing us at this crucial point in time.
KEEKOK LEE
Lancaster University

Feed or Feedback: Agriculture, Population Dynamics and the State of the Planet
by A. Duncan Brown. Utrecht: International Books, 2003. Pp. 431; index.
17.95 (paperback). ISBN 9 0572 7048 X
Duncan Browns Feed or Feedback is a timely book that adds to the mounting
literature sounding the alarm against the ecocidal nature of our modern
agricultural regime. Grounded in the realm of ecology, Brown posits that the
source of todays environmental disruption must be traced back to the
Neolithic Revolution, when agriculture and animal husbandry permitted a
dynamic interface between human population and its food supply. Such an
interaction generated a succession of self-destructive feedback loops which
explains humankinds perilous surpassing of its own carrying capacity.
The practice of agriculture represents the constant simplication of an
ecosystem to increase the proportion of biomass available as human food.
Though in itself a system in a state of positive feedback, the sustainability of
any agricultural regime is premised on the extent to which the bio-geo-chemical
cycle manages to be closed. The attainment of a cyclic (as distinct from linear)

Book Reviews

573

ow of nutrient elements is in turn largely determined by the absolute size of

the human population, and its proportional distribution between town and
country.
Against this analytic framework, Brown claims that the adoption of
subsistence agriculture did not signicantly disrupt the biosphere; populations
were kept relative to the produce of the farm and nutrients were in good
measure recycled. The production of increasingly greater amounts of
agricultural surpluses, contrastingly, posed a greater menace to the environment. In encouraging the development of human settlements (towns and cities)
away from the centres of food production (farms), the dynamics of nutrient
ows were altered for good. Food wastes and human excrement were no longer
returned to the farm but piled up in the city. This signied a shortage of
nutrients on the arable land (for many centuries compensated with the
application of manure) and a worsening of urban sanitation which prompted
the engineering of sewerage. Ecologically speaking, this urban infrastructure
consolidated the human species role as an agent for transferring nutrient
elements from the soil to the sea, which in time spawned an interconnected
array of ecocidal sequels: water pollution, loss of biodiversity, eutrophication,
toxic interferences in the food chain, stresses on the sh population and the
further impoverishment of nutrient elements in the farm.
As to the missing nutrient elements, Brown directs special attention to both
phosphorous and nitrogen they are essential participants in the biochemistry
of every organism. Their ongoing absence brought a potential crisis for
European agriculture in the 19th and 20th centuries. To be sure, phosphorous
and nitrogen were made readily available in the form of fertilisers from the
systematic mining of phosphate deposits and the industrial synthesis of
ammonia a chemical feat achieved by Fritz Haber for which he was awarded
the Nobel Prize in 1918. The problematic linear ow of nutrients being far
from resolved, populations continued to swell and so did the need for greater
agricultural produce. Pressing demands on water supply instigated the
steadfast tapping of groundwater, often resulting in the salination of sources,
and the ongoing construction of dams. Further deforestation was also required
to make more arable land available.
Western farming in its current industrial phase provides greater densities of
population at the cost of ecosystem collapse. Economic eciency is turning
elds into mechanised monocultures only maintainable with heavy supplies
of fertilisers, water and energy. The subsequent export of agribusiness to the
agrarian countries accelerated in the 1960s with the Green Revolution has
brought the planet into a worrisome critical state. If we were serious about
sustainability and genuinely concerned with the prospective collapse of the
worlds population, our systems of production ought to be redesigned so that
intensive recycling of nutrients is rendered possible again. In Browns opinion,
such a remodelling is tantamount to the conversion of giant agribusinesses into
smaller organic farms, and the relocation of population around the centres of
agricultural production. Rich in empirical cases and written in an elegant but

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Book Reviews

accessible style, this narrative should appeal to human ecologists, environmentalists, policy makers and anyone concerned with the ecological future of the
planet.
RUTH THOMAS-PELLICER
University of Surrey

Kulturmilj. Mellem Forskning og Politisk Praksis [Cultural Environment.

Between Research and Political Practice]. Edited by Nicolai Carlberg and Sren
Mller Christensen. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum, 2003. Pp. 180; index.
DK175 (hardback). ISBN 8 7728 9871 2
The culture landscape is an essential part of our identity. However, it is also a
very complicated concept. I am an anthropologist and on a very general level I
consider reality to be a cultural construction, although there are, of course, also
constructions given by nature. In this way it is possible to say that we are seeing
reality through a lter, and this lter is our culture; but this culture varies on
many levels.
So it is also with the landscape: it is very much shaped or at least inuenced
by mankind. In Denmark cultural landscape is an analytical concept for the
development of landscape, and cultural heritage is an administrative concept
for getting a rm grip on the administrative and political process concerning
the protection of valuable objects. It is to be added to this denition that most
ethnologists and anthropologists take the view that there no longer exist pure
nature landscapes because all so-called nature landscapes are inuenced in
some way by mankind. This conceptual understanding informs the book under
review.
But on a more detailed level there is no consensus about the concepts in this
book. Some of the writers (see Abildtrup Hansen and Lofgren) nd that what
is interesting is the individuals subjective perceptions of the landscape, whereas
others (Porsmose and Hjrup) look at the collective values and the common
history. I want to add that there is a complex interplay between these levels.
Thomas Hjrups contribution, From memory to experience in the cultural
heritage and cultural environment of Denmark (reviewers translation), is
about how cultural practice the political and cultural use of landscapes as
symbols is actively used to construct life modes. His point of departure is the
active management of history in contemporary Berlin. He uses in this Danish
text the German word Denkmal because he think that it is better than the
Danish word mindesmrke. He probably prefers Denkmal in its meaning as
denk noch wiedermal (consider once again). Denkmal is in this way more active
than the English word memorial. But these words in Danish and English are
looking to the past while the German verb denken and the English verb
consider are looking more forwards. Here is perhaps the advantage with
Denkmal. But Hjrup ought to have explained his usage.

Book Reviews

575

Landscapes are changing as well as society in general. In the pre-modern age

churches and castles were, in most west European countries, a dominating
feature in the landscape. Today they compete with other features, such as
bridges and windmills. The concept of cultural landscape may be used to
analyse these changing landscapes and the planning process for cultural
heritage.
OLE RUD NIELSEN
Abo Akademi University