New seminal environmental works. Nine review articles. - WZB

6 New Seminal Environmental Works
court it will not acknowledge, and the United Nations system it does not
adequately support are all efforts… at developing a new global contract to
contain the chaos... The ascendant market ideology claims to free us, but it
actually robs us of the civic freedom by which we control the social conse-
quences of our private choices” (p. 111).
Part III of the book (pp. 117–147) is a major analysis of the underlying
causes, the drivers of global environmental impacts, among them the well-
known IPAT drivers: population, affluence and technology, and the forces
loosed upon the world by the globalisation of the economy.
In part IV (pp. 149–201), Speth presents his own solutions to the problems
discussed. He calls his vision the “eight-fold way” – mega trends or transi-
tions we need for global environmental protection and sustainable devel-
opment (transitions 1 – 8): A stable or smaller world population; free of
mass poverty; environmentally benign technologies; environmentally hon-
est prices; sustainable consumption; ecological knowledge and learning;
good governance; and active citizenry, a transition towards culture and
honest environmental values.
This, in my mind, is the major part of the book, a genuine contribution, of-
fering many interesting and provoking ideas and suggestions – on FROG
philosophy, GEOpolity, and taking JAZZ to scale, on transitions that need
to be debated and must take place in local, national, and international insti-
tutions to enable global environmental governance to succeed.
This reviewer was especially pleased to find Gus Speth to be among the
promoters of transforming the United Nations Environment Program
(UNEP) into an effective World Environment Organisation (WEO): “Hav-
ing a well-funded World Environment Organisation… would make a major
difference” (p. 179), he says.