Book Review Essay: Looking at global environmental governance with a lens of liberal environmentalism

Abstract

Global environmental governance is centered around actor, issue, and norms that affect environmental and human security on a trans-planetary scale. A study on differing perspectives of how our environmental governance has been changed can direct us moving forward while confronting environmental problems such as climate change. This book review will discuss five books on global environmental governance. The first book is the main book of the review, The Compromise of Liberal Environmentalism by Dr. Steven Bernstein, whose focus is on norms and discourses. The second book is The Environment and International Relations by Dr. Kate O’Neill, a book that contains a theoretical framework on global environmental governance. The third book is Environmentalism of the Rich by Dr. Peter Dauvergne, a narrative stance on mainstreamed environmentalism of current days. The fourth book is Power in a Warming World by Dr. David Ciplet et al., which calls for a radical shift of historic bloc on the direction of global climate governance. The fifth book is Ending the Fossil Fuel Era edited by Dr. Thomas Princen et al., which discusses that fossil fuels are the origins of social and ecological problem beyond their impacts on climate change. The book review will discuss different perspectives on global environmental governance with an analytical framework of methodology, tone, and scale of governance actors and see if these perspectives are heterogenous in guiding on our direction with insights on environmental issues. I choose these elements to discern if Bernstein’s style was effective in capturing both realistic practicality and conceptual contribution to the existing literature. The book review is composed of several parts. First, I will describe the summary of the main book by Dr. Bernstein, including its key features and arguments. Second, based on my reaction to the first book, I will link my arguments to the key themes and perspectives of the other four books. I argue that all five books employ different methodologies in supporting their argument. I also explain that all five books have different perspectives and tone in discussing global environmental governance. Then, I propose that each of five books centered around different scales of governance. Finally, I will bring five books together and discuss their implications as the conclusion. The conclusion will include the prospect for global environmental governance based on five books with differing perspectives and methodologies and lessons that can be drawn from their discussion and analysis.