Re: Emerging environmental issues?
Dear Beth, Last semester a student of mine wrote a very interesting paper on energy and securitization of energy. The issue can be an interest of its own in view on the recent EU initiative to adopt a common energy stratgy. However, the issue can also be viewed as an input to the climate agenda or even a future competing issue with the climate issue in view of the US strategy to develop alternatives to the Kyoto mechnisms based on clean energy technology. Besides, in line with the Copenhagen school og 'securitizationen' I have in my course this semester introduced the issue of securitization of environment as an answer to the claims on 'death of environmenalism' and the challenges facing the Stockholm-Rio environmental agende from the Millennium goals, fear of terriorism etc. Best regards, Kirsten Worm Department of Political Science, University of Copenhagen On Mon, 03 Apr 2006 17:53:26 -0400, Beth DeSombre wrote For a committee I'm on (proposing directions for a university environmental institute) I've been charged with determining what people in my research community see as emerging environmental issues. These can be based on topic/issue area (e.g. nanotechnology, nitrogen pollution), approach (e.g. market mechanisms for environmental regulation, private regulatory processes), or even thinking about other ways we might usefully consider environmental issues (e.g. consumption, sufficiency). So, if you're willing to weigh in, where do you see our field going in the not-too-distant future? What are the things we as scholars should be gearing up to try to consider? Incidentally, this shouldn't be limited to an international focus -- all scales, from very local, through national and international, are relevant. Thanks in advance to those willing to conceptualize and speculate. Beth Elizabeth R. DeSombre Wellesley College
Re: Emerging environmental issues?
Hello everyone, I thought I would take this opportunity to introduce myself, since I'm new to the list, and to chime in on Beth's question at the same time. I'm currently a postdoc at the University of Southern California's Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies. My degree (also from USC) is in political economy and public policy. I'm interested in modeling institutional change as an evolutionary process, especially in regards to the ways in which decision makers modify their beliefs and policy preferences as the costs of overexploitation manifest. In my work agents are expected to satisfice, rather than maximize, as they bargain over common pool resources. I strive to address the larger questions of whether or not effective action will be taken in time to avert irreversible events and how much retroactive attempts to deal with global environmental problems will cost if/when they occur. To date, the majority of my research has been focused on the origins of recent innovations in international fisheries management, especially the relatively new trade-based monitoring and enforcement mechanisms that have been adopted in several of the largest multilateral fisheries commissions. I've also done work in the areas of forest regulation, perceptions of beach amenities, and the role of natural vs. human resources in economic development. Given all that, I certainly hope that Armin is right and global fisheries depletion will receive more attention in the future, along with most of the other issues that have already been mentioned, particularly transparency, accountability, and measuring effectiveness. Along those lines, I'm somewhat surprised that ocean mining or farming have yet to be mentioned. As the land becomes exhausted, growing demand and technological innovations are making each more profitable. In addition, it seems like a major methodological issue that will become increasingly important is the problem of dealing with complexity, both in human and natural systems. This should entail the development of new tools for exploring non-linearity in dynamic systems, such as agent based models, as well as escalation of the trend toward multi-disciplinary analysis. Lastly, new work regarding cognition and information technologies is highly pertinent to environmental studies, since both play a critical role in policy-making, institution building, and the empowerment of civil society. A better understanding of the way in which we find and process information should shed light on old problems, like the influence of activism, and growing concerns, such as our collective ability to adapt to environmental changes that we have been unable to prevent. livwell, DG Webster PS Yes, I really do go by my innitials. It may seem strange at first, but most people get used to it. Beth DeSombre wrote: For a committee I'm on (proposing directions for a university environmental institute) I've been charged with determining what people in my research community see as emerging environmental issues. These can be based on topic/issue area (e.g. nanotechnology, nitrogen pollution), approach (e.g. market mechanisms for environmental regulation, private regulatory processes), or even thinking about other ways we might usefully consider environmental issues (e.g. consumption, sufficiency). So, if you're willing to weigh in, where do you see our field going in the not-too-distant future? What are the things we as scholars should be gearing up to try to consider? Incidentally, this shouldn't be limited to an international focus -- all scales, from very local, through national and international, are relevant. Thanks in advance to those willing to conceptualize and speculate. Beth Elizabeth R. DeSombre Wellesley College
Re: Emerging environmental issues?
One recurrent theme at various intergovernmental meetings is Coordination. With a plethora of multilateral agreements, many of which are interrelated, there is frequent talk about coordinating their implementation. Synergies is a keyword in global policy discourse and an item on the formal agendas of many meetings. Similarly, the overpopulation with IGOs of overlapping mandates and jurisdiction, there are constant discussions at various fora about coordinating IGO activities. Various examples can be offered, from workshops on synergies among the Rio Conventions, to setting up a Collaborative Partnership on Forests (among 7 or so IGOs), to persistent proposals to create a grandiose environmental organization. (I mean ideas that circulate among governments, apart from the academic proposals of Esty, Biermann and others. There are have been high level meetings on this topic, involving ministers). So, there is a coordination or Governing governance theme that can be treated as an emerging issue in global environmental politics. Hope this helps, Beth. Rado Radoslav S. Dimitrov, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Department of Political Science University of Western Ontario Social Science Centre London, Ontario Canada N6A 5C2 Tel. +1(519) 661-2111 ext. 85023 Fax +1(519) 661-3904 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] On 3-Apr-06, at 5:53 PM, Beth DeSombre wrote: For a committee I'm on (proposing directions for a university environmental institute) I've been charged with determining what people in my research community see as emerging environmental issues. These can be based on topic/issue area (e.g. nanotechnology, nitrogen pollution), approach (e.g. market mechanisms for environmental regulation, private regulatory processes), or even thinking about other ways we might usefully consider environmental issues (e.g. consumption, sufficiency). So, if you're willing to weigh in, where do you see our field going in the not-too-distant future? What are the things we as scholars should be gearing up to try to consider? Incidentally, this shouldn't be limited to an international focus -- all scales, from very local, through national and international, are relevant. Thanks in advance to those willing to conceptualize and speculate. Beth Elizabeth R. DeSombre Wellesley College
RE: Emerging environmental issues?
Hey Beth (and I hope your new campus-wide initiative will provide us all with ample funds to work on these things), I have one micro and one more macro suggestion: 1. Nanotechnology: in my mind this could be GMOs on steroids as an environmental threat; in many ways, I see the same kind of responses nationally and internationally: a. A feckless operationalization of the precautionary principle; b. Inadequate assessments of potential impacts in the face of huge prospective profits and the dazzling packaging to date of its applications; c. Very little public engagement, and most of that extremely ill-informed; 2. Macro issue: developing indicators to assess the ecologically effectiveness of treaty regimes and to facilitate the development of benchmarks. In the wildlife arena, where I work the most, regimes e.g. CMS and CBD are just beginning to grapple with this critical issue. I also agree with Radoslav that treaty congestion, or whatever metaphor one prefers, has become a very hot topic, again evinced by substantial amounts of time being devoted at the meetings of the parties in regimes such as Rotterdam, CBD, CMS, Barcelona Convention. wil Wil Burns Associate Professor International Environmental Policy Program Monterey Institute of International Studies 460 Pierce Street Monterey, CA. 93940-2659 USA 831.647.7104 (Phone) 831.647.4199 (Fax) [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.miis.edu/gsips-progs-maiep.html _ In the end we will conserve only what we love; we will love only what we understand; and we will understand only what we are taught. Baba Dioum -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Radoslav Dimitrov Sent: Monday, April 03, 2006 3:10 PM To: Beth DeSombre Cc: gep-ed@listserve1.allegheny.edu Subject: Re: Emerging environmental issues? One recurrent theme at various intergovernmental meetings is Coordination. With a plethora of multilateral agreements, many of which are interrelated, there is frequent talk about coordinating their implementation. Synergies is a keyword in global policy discourse and an item on the formal agendas of many meetings. Similarly, the overpopulation with IGOs of overlapping mandates and jurisdiction, there are constant discussions at various fora about coordinating IGO activities. Various examples can be offered, from workshops on synergies among the Rio Conventions, to setting up a Collaborative Partnership on Forests (among 7 or so IGOs), to persistent proposals to create a grandiose environmental organization. (I mean ideas that circulate among governments, apart from the academic proposals of Esty, Biermann and others. There are have been high level meetings on this topic, involving ministers). So, there is a coordination or Governing governance theme that can be treated as an emerging issue in global environmental politics. Hope this helps, Beth. Rado Radoslav S. Dimitrov, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Department of Political Science University of Western Ontario Social Science Centre London, Ontario Canada N6A 5C2 Tel. +1(519) 661-2111 ext. 85023 Fax +1(519) 661-3904 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] On 3-Apr-06, at 5:53 PM, Beth DeSombre wrote: For a committee I'm on (proposing directions for a university environmental institute) I've been charged with determining what people in my research community see as emerging environmental issues. These can be based on topic/issue area (e.g. nanotechnology, nitrogen pollution), approach (e.g. market mechanisms for environmental regulation, private regulatory processes), or even thinking about other ways we might usefully consider environmental issues (e.g. consumption, sufficiency). So, if you're willing to weigh in, where do you see our field going in the not-too-distant future? What are the things we as scholars should be gearing up to try to consider? Incidentally, this shouldn't be limited to an international focus -- all scales, from very local, through national and international, are relevant. Thanks in advance to those willing to conceptualize and speculate. Beth Elizabeth R. DeSombre Wellesley College
Re: Emerging environmental issues?
My list includes three obvious issues -- accelerating climate change and its effects, biodiversity loss and global fisheries depletion, plus two that seem to have gotten less attention than they deserve, land degradation in Africa and scarcity of fresh water in Africa and Asia. armin Quoting Beth DeSombre [EMAIL PROTECTED]: For a committee I'm on (proposing directions for a university environmental institute) I've been charged with determining what people in my research community see as emerging environmental issues. These can be based on topic/issue area (e.g. nanotechnology, nitrogen pollution), approach (e.g. market mechanisms for environmental regulation, private regulatory processes), or even thinking about other ways we might usefully consider environmental issues (e.g. consumption, sufficiency). So, if you're willing to weigh in, where do you see our field going in the not-too-distant future? What are the things we as scholars should be gearing up to try to consider? Incidentally, this shouldn't be limited to an international focus -- all scales, from very local, through national and international, are relevant. Thanks in advance to those willing to conceptualize and speculate. Beth Elizabeth R. DeSombre Wellesley College
