Book Reviews

Abstract

��� This intelligent, well-written and informative book provides a fresh analysis of global environmental politics and alls a soft spot in the literature by concentrating explicitly and exclusively on its political economy. Clapp and Dauvergne use a typology of four worldviews—Market Liberals, Institutionalists, Bioenvironmentalists, and Social Greens—as a framework to examine how forces in global political economy impact the environment. Each type will seem familiar to many readers but they are rendered here in greater detail and to better effect than in other texts. Market liberals focus on economic issues, believe in the positive power of markets, and believe that poverty, weak economic growth, and poorly designed and intrusive government policies are the primary source of environmental degradation. Environmental problems that do exist can be addressed by fostering economic growth and harnessing market-based incentives to promote new technologies and corporate responsibility. Institutionalists believe that current levels of environmental degradation and underdevelopment reoect ineffective global cooperation and weak domestic and international institutions. Globalization is not a villain. A global environmental crisis could develop, however, if we do not build stronger and more effective global institutions, build state capacity, distribute technology and wealth to developing countries through appropriate channels, and effectively harness globalization so it fulalls its potential to enhance human welfare. Bioenvironmentalists focus on ecosystems and ecological carrying capacity. They believe a global environmental crisis already exists, caused by human overpopulation, over-consumption, and excessive, unnecessary, and ultimately counter-productive economic growth. These problems are augmented by globalization, which drives unsustainable levels of natural resource consumption, pollution, debt and misplaced economic activity. With the earth’s carrying capacity at or even beyond its natural limits, addressing environmental and economic problems effectively will require strong action to reform the global economy, reduce consumption, limit population growth, and respect the value of non-human life.