Environmental Skepticism: Ecology, Power and Public Life / Edition 1

by Peter J. Jacques

Overview

'Environmental skepticism' describes the viewpoint that major environmental problems are either unreal or unimportant. In other words, environmental skepticism holds that environmental problems, especially global ones, are inauthentic. Peter Jacques describes, both empirically and historically, how environmental skepticism has been organized by mostly US-based conservative think tanks as an anti-environmental counter-movement. This is the first book to analyze the importance of the US conservative counter-movement in world politics and its meaning for democratic and accountable deliberation, as well as its importance as a mal-adaptive project that hinders the world's people to rise to the challenges of sustainability. Specific consideration is given to the threat of the counter-movement to marginalized people of the world and its philosophical implications through its commitment to a 'deep anthropocentrism'.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780754671022
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	03/28/2009
Series:	Global Environmental Governance
Edition description:	1
Pages:	234
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 9.30(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Peter J. Jacques is Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Central Florida, USA

Table of Contents

Introduction; Chapter 1 Science, Nature, and Environmental Skepticism; Chapter 2 World Politics and Political Ecology; Chapter 3 Civic-Ontological Implications of Environmental Skepticism; Chapter 4 Biopolitics and Representation of the Other: Skepticism, Violence and Disposal; Chapter 5 Environmental Skepticism and the Dynamics of Collapse; Chapter 6 The Ecological Demos; Chapter 101 Terms and Propositions;

Editorial Reviews

'Environmental scepticism is a blunt weapon wielded by desperate and self-interested apologists to perpetuate an archaic system predicated on the destruction of the Earth and her communities. Peter Jacques provides us with the powerful and nuanced conceptual tools required to disarm the skeptics, mount a robust defence and safeguard our common future.’ William Hipwell, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand 'Peter Jacques has written the most comprehensive and deep work on environmental skepticism I know. Jacques does not just refute the environmental skeptics. He surrounds them, demonstrates their anchoring in industrial capitalism, dissects their worldview, explores the ontological ground of their discourse - and points the way forward to a better alternative. A necessary book about a subject that must be confronted.' Joel Kovel, author of The Enemy of Nature and editor of Capitalism Nature Socialism '...a book that will serve as a provocative, important and well-documented resource for upper-level undergraduates, graduate students and scholars.' Environmental Politics 'If you've ever wondered who the proverbial "They" is, then you might want to spend time with Peter J. Jacques's thoughts on the environmental countermovement. The book is a broad synthesis of literature from the environmental movement, the countermovement of Environmental Skepticism, and the literature describing the world'stage where these two fronts collide.' Journal of Environmental Practice '...Environmental Skepticism is an excellent and timely book, well above the average, not only in environmental studies, citizenship studies, and political science, but it draws on ethics, media, and cultural studies as well. Academics, undergraduates, and environmental skeptics will certainly learn from this admirable synthesis as well. The author's style is lively, accessible, and always clear...essential for academic and public libraries, and should serve as an essential reference in its

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