International Environmental Movement Research Articles

ENERGY EFFICIENCY AS A FACTOR OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN KAZAKHSTAN

The principles of sustainable development and the green economy are aimed at improving energy efficiency. Kazakhstan’s joining the international environmental movement testifies to the country's desire to reduce the energy intensity of the economy and to carry out practical actions aimed at sustainable development. This is confirmed by target indicators in the field of energy efficiency, which are reflected in the documents of the State Planning System of the Republic of Kazakhstan and are aimed at increasing energy security, labor productivity, the rational use of budget funds, as well as improving the health and welfare of citizens. The current energy balance of Kazakhstan is dominated by coal, used primarily by thermal power plants to generate electricity. Therefore, GDP’s high energy intensity is indicative of irrational energy consumption, which is accompanied by an increase in environmental pollution. This paper gives a review of some aspects of the energy saving sphere and the international energy saving experience, as well as analyzes the current situation with regard to the implementation of energy efficiency policies in Kazakhstan. The study shows that the domestic economy has a significant energy saving potential in key sectors of the economy, identifies energy efficiency problems, and proposes solutions to them.

Re(con)figuring Alliances: Place Membership, Environmental Justice, and the Remaking of Indigenous-Environmentalist Relationships in Canada's Boreal Forest

Critical observers of the international environmental movement have found that indigenous-environmentalist alliances have often been predicated upon reproductions of an asymmetrical political status quo, thereby perpetuating indigenous peoples' systemic disadvantages and predestining promising partnerships for eventual disintegration. Spotlighting the relationship between Grassy Narrows First Nation and Rainforest Action Network, this article describes how indigenous-environmentalist alliances are being constructively re(con)figured in the context of recent anti-clearcutting activism in northwestern Ontario. An analysis of the positive interpersonal relationships cited by participants as key to the coalition's success reveals the significance of (1) a social setting conducive to imagining membership in a diverse community united by an emplaced interest in boreal forest protection and (2) a transformed conceptual framework that redefines the environment to include human activities and concerns. I argue that this dynamic socio-discursive context not only facilitated the development of a strong alliance and an effective conservation campaign, but may also ultimately empower indigenous communities to participate in environmental protection on terms that are closer to their own. When environmentalists refigure the categories that guide their relationships to the places they seek to protect, they also reconfigure the power structures underpinning their alliances with the indigenous groups who call those places home.

INFOTERRA: THE INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION SYSTEM

In the 1960's man woke up to the fact that the human species, as it multiplies and relentlessly consumes, may at some not too distant future become a plague infesting this globe of ours-stripping it of 1ts freshwater, its so1l, its natural resources, and its flora and fauna and biodiversity, and thereby condemning it to death. This realization gave rise to a shared concern of our common future, and of the future of our ONLY ONE EARTH. This shared concern gave rise to the international environmental movement, and part of the resulting concerted efforts to safeguard our globe is the sharing of our environmental experiences, environmental data and environmental information included.

The Promise and Peril of Ecological Restoration: Why Ritual Can Make a Difference

Writing in 1992, biologist E. O. Wilson prophesied, Here is the means to end the great extinction spasm. The next century will, I believe, be the era of restoration in ecology.2 This statement has become the rallying cry for advocates of ecological restoration, an emerging international environmental movement focused on the renewal of damaged or destroyed ecosystems.3 The benefits promised by ecological restoration are manifold. In addition to its primary ecological goals of replenished biodiversity and improved ecosystem functioning, restoration fosters intimate, participatory kinds of community between practitioners and their local environments.4 More over, the idea that we can heal our environments rather than just minimize the damage we do to them is a much-needed positive message in the midst of our ongoing environmental crisis. The many benefits of restoration do not come for free, however. Aside from the painstaking work that it entails, restoration presents profound challenges to environmental thought and to environmental culture at large.5 One way to

Biodiversity, people and places

The international environmental movement is readying itself to celebrate its 40th anniversary since the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment (1972). During these four decades, while conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity has become accepted as a necessary condition for sustainable development, local and context-specific performance for integrating conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity remains fragmented and unable to meet globally-set performance targets. The origin and evolution of the UNESCO (United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization) Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme and its World Network of Biosphere Reserves (WNBR) is analysed to draw insights that explain and help improve the mismatch between the rates of global evolution of ideas and local evidence-based performance to integrate conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. The World Network of Biosphere Reserves of the UNESCO MAB Programme, now comprises 564 sites in 109 countries. This UN asset could serve as a platform for international cooperation and sharing of lessons learned from efforts to integrate conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity with the socio-economic and environmental wellbeing of humans.

Standing on Principle: The Global Push for Environmental Justice

Climate change, acid rain, depletion of the ozone layer, species extinction—all of these issues point to one thing: environmental health is a global issue that concerns all nations of the world. Now add environmental justice to the list. From South Bronx to Soweto, from Penang to El Paso, communities all over the world are finding commonality in their experiences and goals in seeking environmental justice. Environmental justice was defined by Robert Bullard, director of the Environmental Justice Resource Center at Clark Atlanta University, in his seminal 1990 work Dumping in Dixie: Race, Class, and Environmental Quality as “the principle that all people and communities are entitled to equal protection of environmental and public health laws and regulations.” In countries around the world, the concept of environmental justice can apply to communities where those at a perceived disadvantage—whether due to their race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, immigration status, lack of land ownership, geographic isolation, formal education, occupational characteristics, political power, gender, or other characteristics—puts them at disproportionate risk for being exposed to environmental hazards. At a global scale, environmental justice can also be applied to scenarios such as industrialized countries exporting their wastes to developing nations. In either case, “environmental and human rights have no boundaries, because pollution has no boundaries,” says Heeten Kalan, senior program officer of the Global Environmental Health and Justice Fund of the New World Foundation in New York City. “Environmental justice organizations are starting to understand that they are working in a global context.”

Global environmental governance

Today's most pressing environmental problems are planetary in scope, confounding the political will of any one nation. How can we solve them? Global Environmental Governance offers the essential information, theory, and practical insight needed to tackle this critical challenge. It examines ten major environmental threats - climate disruption, biodiversity loss, acid rain, ozone depletion, deforestation, desertification, freshwater degradation and shortages, marine fisheries decline, toxic pollutants, and excess nitrogen - and explores how they can be addressed through treaties, governance regimes, and new forms of international cooperation. Written by Gus Speth, one of the architects of the international environmental movement, and accomplished political scientist Peter M. Haas, Global Environmental Governance tells the story of how the community of nations, nongovernmental organizations, scientists, and multinational corporations have in recent decades created an unprecedented set of laws and institutions intended to help solve large-scale environmental problems. The book critically examines the serious short-comings of current efforts and the underlying reasons why disturbing trends persist. It presents key concepts in international law and regime formation in simple, accessible language, and describes the current institutional landscape, as well as lessons learned and new directions needed in international governance. Global Environmental Governance is a concise guide, with lists of key terms, study questions, and other features designed to help readers think about and understand the concepts discussed.

Worlds Apart: Globalization and the Environment

Review: Worlds Apart: Globalization and the Environment By James Gustave Speth (Ed.) Reviewed by M. Tayyeb Javed Islamabad, Pakistan James Gustave Speth (Ed.). Worlds Apart: Globalization and the Environment. Washington, DC: Island Press, 2003. 180 pp. ISBN 1-55963- 998-9 (cloth); 1-55963-999-7 (paperback). US$45.00 cloth; US$22.50 paperback. Acid-free paper. Globalization, in its simplest sense . . . refer[ring] to the widening, deepening and speeding up of global interconnectedness ... (p. 91), is one of the profound phenomena experienced in the current era, and has affected the economic, environmental, and social aspects of every nation on this globe. Due to both positive and negative effects on the life of people everywhere, it is one of the most discussed topics of this century. Worlds Apart: Globalization and the Environment, edited by James Gustave Speth, is one of the pioneer efforts on the delicate issue. This collection consists of eight essays by world-renowned scholars with the editor's short summary, as well as two opening and closing chapters by the editor. Views of globalization's opponents and supporters are very beautifully elaborated. Two themes, the rise of environmental concern on the international level and economic globalization and its impact on environmental quality are presented in an excellent manner by prominent scholars. In his opening essay Speth elaborates on the evolution of global environmental governance and the relationship between the globalization of the economy and the transition to a sustainable society. Marine biologist Dr. Jane Lubchenco discusses threats to global environmental quality that face humanity according to six global scale indicators. Maurice Strong presents the recent history of the international environmental movement. Dr. Jose Goldemberg discusses anthropogenic impacts caused by current energy systems worldwide. A global environmental mechanism to resolve environmental problems worldwide is suggested by Daniel C. Esty and Maria H. Ivaova. Globalization and transition towards sustainability is examined by Dr. Robert W. Kates. Jerry Mander, president of the International Forum on Globalization, discusses intrinsic negative effects of economic globalization through WTO, TRIPS, and IMF on the global environment and local communities. Stephan Schmidheiny, an international business leader in wood products, shares his experiences of eight major trends in the sustainable forestry. Further strengthening Mander's view, Dr. Vandana Shiva touches on other negative issues of globalization such as undemocratic treaties, unsustainable development, global trade's destruction of local

Global Social Movement(s) at the Crossroads: Some Observations on the Trajectory of the Anti-Corporate Globalization Movement

This paper examines the major structural characteristics of the anti-corporate globalization movement, its key bases and antecedents, its relationship with other global social movements (GSMs) and the key challenges it faces in the post-9/11 period. We suggest that despite the potential of the anti-corporate globalization movement to usher in major social changes, the movement faces a number of major crossroads in terms of ideology, discursive approach, and overall strategy. We argue that there has been coalescence of a good many GSMs, including the international environmental movement, under the banner of the anti-corporate globalization movement. We focus primarily on the interrelations of these two GSMs, noting that over the past decade there have been trends toward both the “environmentalization” and “de-environmentalization” of the anti-corporate globalization movement. While the defection of many mainstream environmental groups fromthe “Washington consensus” and the resulting environmentalization of the trade and globalization issue were critical to the “Seattle coalition,” there has been a signi?cant decline in the movement’s embrace of environmental claims and discourses, and a corresponding increase in its use of social justice discourses. One implication of our analysis is the hypothesis that while the current vitality of the anti-corporate globalization movement can be gauged by its having adopted an increasingly coherent ideological stance in which international inequality and global corporate dominance are targeted, to be successful the movement will need to coherently ideologically integrate social justice with environmental and sustainability agendas. The amenability of the environmental GSM to such ideological integration will have important rami?cations for the future trajectory of the anti-corporate globalization movement.

New Screens for Simplification and Power Saving of Screening Process

As an international environmental protection movement rising, power saving has been one of the major subjects to be concerned for the stock preparation field for paper board and de-inking in these several years. And today, there is an another strong requirement of power saving according to the background of the international agreement for CO2 reduction, and also for improvement of cost reduction in order to cope with global price competition and so on. For the waste paper treatment, as el known that the screening process occupies a large portion of energy consumption. It is estimated that the power consumption of screen process is 3 to 3.5kW/ton for the stock preparation of the paper board. and 4 to 6kW/ton for the deinking plant. This paper reports about new screens, which are called as “Screen-One, Two and Three”, “GFD GranFlow” and “CanisterScreen” With these screens, the screening system is simplified and dramatic power saving can be achieved.

The Institutional Architecture of Extractive Reserves in Rondônia, Brazil

This paper examines the evolution and development of institutions involved in the establishment of extractive reserves. It focuses on the different actors, organizations and projects concerned with extractive reserves in Rondônia in western Amazonia, Brazil. Extractive reserves are widely seen as a means of integrating forest conservation and local socio‐economic development. As such, they have gained the support of the international environmental movement, multilateral and state development organizations, and grassroots community and producer organizations. These institutions represent a vast array of diverse interests which range from conservation of biodiversity, economic and social cohesion, and regional and national development. Whilst the various actors and institutions claim mutual and complementary interests, they form shifting alliances and coalitions in order to further their interests. This paper maps these institutions and interests and describes how alliances have been formed and broken, and how this has contributed to the currently observed implementation of extractive reserves. The paper argues that extractive reserves are constrained by the dissonance or misfit in discourses and underlying worldviews, reflected by the aims and objectives, of the institutions which promote, oppose and lose and benefit from their implementation. This misfit is overcome, in part, by alliances formed between the different institutions, and in part by the creation of new institutions and projects.

The GATT and Environmental Policy: An Analysis of Potential Conflicts and Policy Reforms

The emergence of a worldwide environmental movement in the early 1960s accompanied an international expansion of economic activity and applied technology. The principal medium through which this expansion progressed was trade. In 1947, following World War II, a series of international agreements were negotiated to regularize international relations in finance, monetary policies, and trade. The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was negotiated without anticipation of an international environmental movement and new policies at the national level that did not reflect, and might be inconsistent with, economic values. Conflict between policies for freedom of trade and environmental protection did not immediately emerge. With the adoption of numerous environmental protection measures in the United States and many other countries after 1969, the incompatibility of some trade and environmental policies became political issues. Trade policies are not confined to economic changes. Policy issues developing around the agreement and environmental protection are complex, and frequently involve technological issues, as in the Mexican tuna controversy discussed in this paper.

Evoking the ecological self

“Deep ecology” is a term coined in 1973 by the Norwegian philosopher Arne Naess. It has become the central label for an increasingly militant branch of the international environmental movement. Deep ecology rejects mechanistic assumptions about the natural world, supplanting them with the premise that at a metaphysical level, the natural world is a sacred, interrelated whole, characterized by a dynamic, ongoing process of evolutionary change. All creatures are similarly interrelated; indeed they are related as kin. Since all creatures are sacred and related, none are superior; all have intrinsic worth. Humans, therefore, ought to defend each life form and the integrity of the ecosystems they inhabit so that all creatures can fulfill their evolutionary destinies. The international deep ecology movement resists what movement activists label the human “war against nature.” Increasingly, however, deep ecologists recognize that this war is also a war against indigenous peoples and peasants whose survival is th...

Worldwatch Institute Calls For Launch Of Global Environmental Revolution

Twenty years after launching the international environmental movement in Stockholm, the United Nations this June is again convening heads of state, scientists, and activists in Brazil. This second ...

Political Aspsects of Ecologically Sustainable Development

In less than two decades, the concepts of limits to growth and of the necessity of an ecologically sustainable economic order have gained international recognition. These concepts are not yet understood by most people or most governments, but belief in the necessity for planning for a sustainable future is growing.Several lines of strategy are necessary to obtain a truly global commitment to sustainable programmes of development that will simultaneously protect The Biosphere. Among those now undertaken are the World Conservation Strategy, the international environmental education movement formalized at Tbilisi in 1977, and the World Campaign for The Biosphere.Educational efforts are necessary but insufficient to move the world into an ecologically sustainable mode of behaviour. Political action that reflects moral conviction roused by scientific information will also be necessary. Safeguarding the environmental future and The Biosphere requires a social commitment of a moral, quasi-religious character.