The concept of environmental security, drawing on the widely understood notion of international strategic interdependence (in facing, for example, threats of nuclear war or economic collapse) is gaining currency as a way of thinking about international environmental management.In 1989, the Institute for World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Marine Policy Center of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution instituted a joint project to exami...

Bjorn Lomborg argues that many of the elaborate and staggeringly expensive actions now being considered to meet the challenges of global warming ultimately will have little impact on the world’s temperature. He suggests that rather than focusing on ineffective solutions that will cost us trillions of dollars over the coming decades, we should be looking for smarter, more cost-effective approaches (such as massively increasing our commitment to green energy R&D) that will allow us to deal n...

This eloquent, rage-inciting polemic about the global failure to deal with climate change will appeal to readers of Tim Flannery, George Monbiot and Bill McKibben - and anyone concerned with the economic and environmental future of our planet.Kyoto, 1997. Montreal, 2005. Copenhagen, 2009. Cancun, 2010. In Fools Rule, Marsden illustrates how inefficient and short-sighted political negotiations have become despite mounting scientific evidence that immediate action is...

The law of the sea provides for the regulation, management and governance of the ocean spaces that cover over two-thirds of the Earth's surface. This book provides a fresh explanation of the foundational principles of the law of the sea, a critical overview of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, and an analysis of subsequent developments including the many bilateral, regional and global agreements that supplement the Convention.The book takes as its focus the ...

The Earth has entered a new age—the Anthropocene—in which humans are the most powerful influence on global ecology. Since the mid-twentieth century, the accelerating pace of energy use, greenhouse gas emissions, and population growth has thrust the planet into a massive uncontrolled experiment. The Great Acceleration explains its causes and consequences, highlighting the role of energy systems, as well as trends in climate change, urbanization, and environmentalism.More th...

Russia holds more Arctic territory than any other state, yet unlike other Arctic states it does not have a unified strategy identifying economic and political aims for the North. Russia's policies on the North are dispersed across a variety of fields from domestic migration politics to oil and gas development. This volume engages the disparate elements of Russian northern policy and illustrates how the centralized, relatively economically strong and politically assertive Russia of today de...

Alaska pollock is everywhere. If you're eating fish but you don't know what kind it is, it's almost certainly pollock. Prized for its generic fish taste, pollock masquerades as crab meat in california rolls and seafood salads, and it feeds millions as fish sticks in school cafeterias and Filet-O-Fish sandwiches at McDonald's. That ubiquity has made pollock the most lucrative fish harvest in America—the fishery in the United States alone has an annual value of over one billion dollars. But ...

Climate change and rising oil prices have thrust the Arctic to the top of the foreign policy agenda and raised difficult issues of sovereignty, security and environmental protection. Improved access for shipping and resource development is leading to new international rules on safety, pollution prevention and emergency response. Around the Arctic, maritime boundary disputes are being negotiated and resolved, and new international institutions, such as the Arctic Council, are mediating deep...

This timely volume presents the key concepts, issues, and debates surrounding environmental security, illustrating through a range of examples and cases how global environmental matters and international security are closely linked.Issues of climate change, dwindling resources, natural disaster, and disease that comprise environmental security are at the forefront of global politics and the media today. Environmental Security: A Guide to the Issues is a primer for anyone a...

In this thought-provoking new book, career U.S. State Department negotiator Richard J. Smith offers readers unprecedented access to the details about some of the most complex and politically charged international agreements of the late and immediate post Cold War era. During his nine years as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, Smith led U.S. negotiations on many significant international agreements. In Negoti...

Just as people schedule regular check-ups with physicians, our planet needs regular check-ups to catch issues as early as possible, before they become more serious and harder to heal. That is the much-needed service provided on a global scale by the Worldwatch Institute in this new book, Vital Signs 2012.By taking stock of global consumption, Vital Signs 2012 offers the facts that need to guide our stewardship of the Earth's resources-and some of these facts are s...