Environmental Studies

The Environmental Uncanny: A Phenomenology of the Loss of the World

Brian Irwin

The Environmental Uncanny argues that the increasing destitution of our world is the result of a certain we have forgotten that the basis of our knowledge is not calculative reason, but our participation in the natural world. The modern built environment is exemplary of this forgetfulness, and induces an uncanniness that can help us to understand the nature of our environmental crisis. This book offers a unique interdisciplinary perspective on the global environmental crisis. Ranging from traditional phenomenology, including substantial discussion of both Merleau-Ponty and Heidegger, to philosophy of biology, to architectural and urban design theory, to landscape photography, it makes illuminating connections to paint a multifaceted picture. Tracing the root causes of dwindling biodiversity, deforestation and suburban sprawl, we can find how might we mark the path back toward a mode of rich inhabitation in a contemporary age. In charting out how it is that we are losing our world, Irwin offers a thought as to how we might regain it.

Environmental Affectivity: Aesthetics of Inhabiting

Omar Felipe Giraldo, Ingrid Fernanda Toro

Following Spinoza's lead, this book imagines an embodied environmental ethics based on the relations between sentient beings and sustained by affections, sensibility, the senses, and contact. Engaging embodied, cognitive, phenomenological, and psychoanalytic aspects of affectivity, Omar Felipe Giraldo and Ingrid Fernanda Toro help us understand how places inhabit us, and therefore, how places transformed lovingly have the immense capacity to modify the body, to redirect desire, to clarify our sensibility – in order to create an affectivity in a direction opposite to the regime imposed by this ecocidal society. Beginning with a discussion of environmental epistemology on ontological monisms and dualisms, Giraldo and Toro question theoretical approaches that correctly challenge Cartesian dichotomies but which they claim continue to examine the environmental problem from two culture versus nature, the human versus the non-human. The environmental crisis is more than a technological or economic problem. In this book, Giraldo and Toro argue that it is a threat to survival inscribed in the deepest foundations of our body, in the intimacy of our skin, in the intensity and tone of our affections, in our desires, in our perceptions, and in our sensory-motor capacities.

A Philosophical View of the Ocean and Humanity: Second Edition

Anders Omstedt

This book is about the ocean and about the future. It is written in two modes, a concerned analytical scientific mode and an intuitive artistic mode in which the ocean is given a voice. The disconnect in the relationship between human dependency on and feelings about the ocean is examined in a dialogue between these two modes. The book illustrates how science and the arts can be connected to increase our awareness of the state of the ocean and support behavioural change.  This book is intended for everyone who would like to contribute to the sustainable use of the ocean. Includes forewords by Alice Newton, University of Algarve, Portugal and Martin Visbeck, GEOMAR, Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research, Kiel, Germany.

Paul Ricoeur and Environmental Philosophy

David Utsler

Paul Ricoeur and Environmental Philosophy expands the scope of Ricoeur's philosophy, especially his hermeneutics, to issues of environmental philosophy and our contemporary environmental crisis. David Utsler argues that, although Ricoeur himself was not an environmental philosopher, his work provides frameworks to reconsider our way of being-in-the-world as it pertains to our relationship with the environment. The unprecendented environmental crisis can be thought of as the result of interpretations—bad ones—and the crisis we now face requires the task of new and creative interpretation. This book discusses the ways in which Ricoeur's hermeneutics has the potential to restructure the discourse and dialogue surrounding environmental issues, and to creatively mediate the many conflicting interpretations that call for resolution. Utsler does not claim this text to be a comprehensive application of Ricoeur's work to environmental philosophy, as he believes there is still a great deal more of Ricoeur's philosophy from which to draw to enrich the growing field of environmental hermeneutics.

Ecotourism: Environment, Health, and Education

Wei-Ta Fang, Arba'at Hassan, Max Horng

Elgar Encyclopedia of Water Policy, Economics and Management

Phoebe Koundouri, Angelos Alamanos

This authoritative Encyclopedia provides an innovative approach to theory, reviews, applications and examples relevant to the basic concepts of water science and water management issues in order to facilitate better interdisciplinary cooperation. In light of the broadening field and study of water management, the expert contributors set the basis for a holistic approach to water science by examining the various technical, cross-disciplinary, socio-economic and policy extents. Using global case studies, elaborated in large European and global research and innovation projects, they illustrate how different approaches to modern water management issues can stem the flow of ongoing climate change and ecosystem collapse challenges to improve future decision-making and policies. Providing concise summaries and knowledge from both a theoretical and practical viewpoint, this Encyclopedia will be an invaluable resource for scholars, students, and practitioners of water policy and governance, agricultural and environmental economics, biodiversity, and marine studies. Key

Water Quality Management in the Americas

Asit K. Biswas

This study presents for the first time an independent and authoritative analysis of water quality management in North and South America, and discusses the practices and future implications of the impacts of the current practices in the different countries of the hemisphere. Includes in-depth case studies analyzing water quality management practices at country and state levels, especially in terms of their effectiveness and overall impact.

The Fluvial Imagination: On Lesotho's Water-Export Economy

Colin Hoag

"Landlocked and surrounded by South Africa on all sides, the mountain kingdom of Lesotho became the world's first "water-exporting country" when it signed a 1986 treaty with its powerful neighbor. An elaborate network of dams and tunnels now carries water to Johannesburg, the subcontinent's water-stressed economic epicenter. Hopes that receipts from water sales could improve Lesotho's fortunes, however, have clashed with fears that soil erosion from overgrazing livestock could fill its reservoirs with sediment. In this wide-ranging and deeply researched book, Colin Hoag shows how producing water commodities incites a fluvial imagination. Engineering water security for urban South Africa draws attention ever further into Lesotho's rural upstream from reservoirs to the soils and vegetation above them, and even to the social lives of herders at remote livestock posts. As we enter our planet's water-export era, Lesotho exposes the possibilities and perils ahead"--

Worlds of Gray and Green: Mineral Extraction as Ecological Practice

Sebastián Ureta

The Anthropocene has arrived riding a wave of pollution. From "forever chemicals" to oceanic garbage patches, human-made chemical compounds are seemingly everywhere. Concerned about how these compounds disrupt multiple lives and ecologies, environmental scholars, activists, and affected communities have sought to curb the causes of pollution, focusing especially on the extractive industries. In Worlds of Gray and Green, authors Sebasti�n Ureta and Patricio Flores challenge us to rethink extraction as ecological practice. Adopting an environmental humanities analytic lens, Ureta and Flores offer a rich ethnographic exploration of the waste produced by Chile's El Teniente, the world's largest underground mine. Deposited in a massive dam, the waste--known as tailings--engages with human and non-human entities in multiple ways through a process the authors call geosymbiosis. Some of these geosymbioses result in toxicity and damage, while others become the basis of lively novel ecologies. A particular kind of power emerges in the process, one that is radically indifferent to human beings but that affects them in many ways. Learning to live with geosymbioses offers a tentative path forward amid ongoing environmental devastation.

Vanishing Sands: Losing Beaches to Mining

Orrin H. Pilkey, Norma J. Longo, William J. Neal, Nelson G. Rangel-Buitrago, Keith C. Pilkey, Hannah L. Hayes

In a time of accelerating sea level rise and increasingly intensifying storms, the world’s sandy beaches and dunes have never been more crucial to protecting coastal environments. Yet, in order to meet the demands of large-scale construction projects, sand mining is stripping beaches and dunes, destroying environments, and exploiting labor in the process. The authors of Vanishing Sands track the devastating impact of legal and illegal sand mining over the past twenty years, ranging from Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean to South America and the eastern United States. They show how sand mining has reached crisis beach, dune, and river ecosystems are in danger of being lost forever, while organized crime groups use deadly force to protect their illegal mining operations. Calling for immediate and widespread resistance to sand mining, the authors demonstrate that its cessation is paramount for saving not only beaches, dunes, and associated environments but also lives and tourism economies everywhere.

Hidden Scourge: Exposing the Truth about Fossil Fuel Industry Spills

Kevin P. Timoney

This book began when Kevin Timoney noticed a suspicious pattern in data reported by the Alberta Energy Regulator. For tens of thousands of spills, recovery volumes exactly matched the reported spill volumes. In short, the data were too good to be true. And so began a search for the scientific truth about spills. In western North America crude oil and saline water spills - both small and large - occur daily and cause permanent damage to ecosystems that remains largely hidden from public view. Hidden Scourge takes the reader on a journey into a covert world of energy industry spills with environmental incident data from over 100,000 spills in Alberta, Saskatchewan, North Dakota, Montana, and the Northwest Territories. Timoney evaluates the truthfulness of regulatory reporting in light of evidence from peer-reviewed scientific data, original field observations, industrial and government reports, interviews, and documents obtained under freedom of information. In stark contrast to a halcyon picture of prosperity and world-class environmental management, the reality is rampant destruction of biodiversity, persistent soil contamination, failed reclamation, and thousands of undocumented spills. Hidden Scourge grounds existential debates about climate and ecological crises in evidence of how hydrocarbon-based economies change the ecosystems where fossil fuels are extracted. The science is clear: the industry consistently damages ecosystems wherever it operates. If energy-industry regulators cannot act independently, honestly, and in the public interest, they profoundly undermine democratic institutions. The result is a legacy of contaminated sites that will burden future generations with great uncertainty and cost.

Clean Energy Nation: Freeing America from the Tyranny of Fossil Fuels

Jerry McNerney, Martin Cheek

In the vein of ôAn Inconvenient Truth,ö a sobering assessment of our nationÆs energy policies and a stirring call for change.Dangerous CO2 emissions, massive oil spills, dwindling suppliesùthe problems with fossil fuels are driving a long-overdue reassessment of our nationÆs energy policies. U.S. Congressman Jerry McNerney, a renewable energy engineer and the first representative with expertise in energy independence, leads the way to change. In Clean Energy Nation, he and journalist Martin Cheek make an impassioned argument for drastically reducing dependency on fossil fuels and developing sustainable, readily available energy sourcesùsolar, wind, biofuel, geothermal, and hydrogen-based power. Bringing together a rare combination of scientific knowledge, political savvy, and insightful journalism, the authors reveal the pros and cons of alternative energy sources and examine how our nation became addicted to fossil fuels in the first place. The book reads like the dramatic story it is, complete with dire projections about peak oil and grim scenarios of rising oceansàkeen insights into policies and players that have stalled progress on climate change and favored big oilàand astute recommendations for building a clean energy economy and a prosperous, stable future.

Red Gold: The Managed Extinction of the Giant Bluefin Tuna

Jennifer E. Telesca

Illuminating the conditions for global governance to have precipitated the devastating decline of one of the ocean’s most majestic creatures The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) is the world’s foremost organization for managing and conserving tunas, seabirds, turtles, and sharks traversing international waters. Founded by treaty in 1969, ICCAT stewards what has become under its tenure one of the planet’s most prominent endangered fish: the Atlantic bluefin tuna. Called “red gold” by industry insiders for the exorbitant price her ruby-colored flesh commands in the sushi economy, the giant bluefin tuna has crashed in size and number under ICCAT’s custodianship. With regulations to conserve these sea creatures in place for half a century, why have so many big bluefin tuna vanished from the Atlantic? In Red Gold, Jennifer E. Telesca offers unparalleled access to ICCAT to show that the institution has faithfully executed the task assigned it by international law: to fish as hard as possible to grow national economies. ICCAT manages the bluefin not to protect them but to secure export markets for commodity empires—and, as a result, has become complicit in their extermination. The decades of regulating fish as commodities have had disastrous consequences. Amid the mass extinction of all kinds of life today, Red Gold reacquaints the reader with the splendors of the giant bluefin tuna through vignettes that defy technoscientific and market rationales. Ultimately, this book shows, changing the way people value marine life must come not only from reforming ICCAT but from transforming the dominant culture that consents to this slaughter.

Design by Fire: Resistance, Co-Creation and Retreat in the Pyrocene

Emily Schlickman, Brett Milligan

Across the world, the risks of wildfires are increasing and expanding. Due to past and current human actions, we dwell in the age of fire – the Pyrocene – and the many challenges and climate adaptation questions it provokes. Exploring our past and current relationships with fire, this book speculates on the pyro futures yet to be designed and cared for. Drawing upon fieldwork, mapping, drone imagery, and interviews, this publication curates 27 global design case studies within the vulnerable and dynamic wildland-urban interface and its adjacent wildlands. The book catalogs these examples into three those that resist the creative and transformative power of fire and forces of landscape change, those that embrace and utilize those forces, and those that intentionally try to retreat and minimize human intervention in fire-prone landscapes. Rather than serving as a book of neatly packaged solutions, it is a book of techniques to be considered, tested, and evaluated in a time of fire.

Africa's Path to Net-Zero: Exploring Scenarios for a Sustainable Energy Transition

Samuel Chukwujindu Nwokolo, Rubee Singh, Shahbaz Khan, Anil Kumar, Sunil Luthra

This book provides a comprehensive analysis of the challenges and opportunities for achieving a net-zero energy transition in Africa. With a focus on policy, technology, financing, and socio-political factors, the book presents four potential scenarios for a sustainable energy transition in the continent. The scenarios presented highlight the importance of balancing economic growth with environmental sustainability and social development. While foreign investments in renewable energy could be beneficial, they must be carefully monitored and regulated to prevent exploitation and ensure accountability. The book also emphasizes the need for collaboration and a calculated transition to ensure that all stakeholders are involved in the process. Additionally, the challenges of achieving self-sufficiency and export-free energy are discussed, with the importance of setting limitations and regulations to prevent a vicious cycle of poverty and dependency on foreign aid. With a deep understanding of Africa's environmental, socio-political, and socio-cultural complexities, “Africa's Path to Net-Zero” offers valuable insights for policymakers, investors, and anyone interested in promoting a sustainable energy future for the continent.

Coping with Climate Change: Principles and Asian Context

Ramesha Chandrappa, Sushil Gupta, Umesh Chandra Kulshrestha

The Environmental and climatic issues varies from continent to continent and is unique to Asia. Understanding the issues does need lot of research and study material which students may not be able to gather due to shortage of time and resources. Hence an effort is made by authors gathering there experience and academic input from renowned universities of world. Climate change is real and coping with it is major concern in coming days. Most of the books written and sold in the past need updating and customizing. The general description of climate change and world will not help the professionals and students. It needs to seen area wise as a professional will work in specific geographic area. Hence an effort is made to collect data from Asia which host most populated countries along with ecological hot spots.

Water Politics in Northern Nevada: A Century of Struggle, Second Edition

Leah J. Wilds

In northwestern Nevada, the waters of the Truckee, Carson, and Walker river systems are fought over by competing agriculture, industry, Native Americans and newer residents, and environmentalists. Much of the conflict was caused by the Newlands Project, completed in 1915, the earliest federal water reclamation scheme. Diverting these waters destroyed vital wetlands, polluted groundwater, nearly annihilated the cui-ui and the Lahontan cutthroat trout, and threatened the existence of Pyramid Lake. Water Politics in Northern Nevada examines the Newlands Project, its unintended consequences, and decades of litigation over the abatement of these problems and fair allocation of water. Negotiations and federal legislation brought about the Truckee River Operating Agreement in 2008. This revised edition brings the reader up to date on the implementation of the agreement, including ongoing efforts to preserve and enhance Pyramid Lake. The second edition now also includes a discussion of the Walker River basin, following a major project undertaken to address concerns about the health and viability of Walker Lake. The approaches taken to save these two desert treasures, Pyramid Lake and Walker Lake, are offered as models for resolving similar water-resource conflicts in the West. Leah J. Wilds’s study is crucial reading for students and scholars of water politics and environmental issues, not just in Nevada but throughout the western United States.

Gardeners of Eden: Rediscovering Our Importance to Nature

Dan Dagget, Tom Bean

Dan Dagget believes that humanity can have a positive effect on the land.  He demonstrates case after case of positive human engagement in the environment and of managed ecosystems and restored areas that are richer, more diverse, and healthier than unmanaged ones. Much of pre-Columbian America, he contends, was not a pristine wilderness but an ancient garden managed over millennia by native peoples who shaped the plant and animal communities around them to the mutual benefit of all. Dagget recommends a new kind of environmentalism based on management, science, evolution, and holism, and served by humans who enrich the environment even as they benefit from it. His new environmentalism offers hopeful solutions to the current ecological crisis and a new purpose for our human energies and ideals. This book is essential reading for anyone concerned with the earth and anyone seeking a viable way for our burgeoning human population to continue to live upon it.

Collapsing Gracefully: Making a Built Environment that is Fit for the Future

Emilio Garcia, Brenda Vale, Robert Vale

This innovative book investigates the concept of collapse in terms of our built environment, exploring the future transition of modern cities towards scenarios very different from the current promises of progress and development. This is not a book about the end of the world and hopeless apocalyptic scenarios. It is about understanding change in how and where we live. Collapse is inevitable, but in the built environment collapse could imply a manageable situation, an opportunity for change or a devastating reality. Collapsing gracefully means that there might be better ways to coexist with collapse if we learn more about it and commit to rebuild our civilisations in ways that avoid its worst effects. This book uses a wide range of practical examples to study critical changes in the built environment, to contextualise and visualise what collapse looks like, to see if it is possible to buffer its effects in places already collapsing and to propose ways to develop greater resilience. The book challenges all agents and institutions in modern cities, their designers and planners as well as their residents and users to think differently about built environment so as to ease our coexistence with collapse and not contribute to its causes. .

Climate Change and Food Security in Asia Pacific: Response and Resilience

Md Saidul Islam, Edson Kieu

Using an interdisciplinary approach, this book evaluates the complex nexus between climate change and regional food security in Asia Pacific. Feeding the planet puts a lot of stress on the environment. The fundamental challenges we are facing today include how to grow more from less in a sustainable manner; how to optimize the entire food value chain from field to fork to reduce the carbon footprint, protect the environment and support biological diversity, cause less water pollution and soil erosion, raise levels of nutrition, improve agricultural productivity, better the lives of rural populations and contribute to the growth of the world economy. With a robust multi-site study in Southeast Asia, Pacific Island Forum and South Asia, this book examines the regional initiatives on, the current state of, and the future prospects for mitigations and resilience regarding climate change and food security vis-à-vis other regions of the world.

Routledge Handbook of Gender and Water Governance

Tatiana Acevedo-Guerrero, Lisa Bossenbroek, Margreet Zwarteveen, Irene Leonardelli, Seema Kulkarni

This handbook provides a comprehensive overview of the field of gender and water governance, exploring how the use, management and knowledge of water resources, services and the water environment are deeply gendered. In water there is a recognized gender gap between water responsibilities and water rights and bridging this gap is likely to help achieve not just goals of equity but also those of sustainability. Building on a rich legacy of feminist water scholarship, the Routledge Handbook of Gender and Water Governance is a collection of reflections and studies that can be used as a prismatic lens into a thriving and ever proliferating array of feminist water studies. It provides a clear testimony of how hydrofeminism has evolved from rather instrumental gender and water studies to scholarship that uses feminist tools to pry open, critically reflect on and formulate alternatives to water development-as-usual. The book also shows how the community of feminists interested in studying water has diversified and expanded, from often white female scholars studying projects and gender relations in the so-called Global South, to a varied mix of scholars and activists theorizing from diverse geographical and political locations – prominently including the body. It is organized into five interconnected Part Positionality and embodied waters Part Revisiting water diplomacy, security, justice and heritage Part Sanitation stories Part Precarious livelihoods Part New feminist futures Each of these parts brings out the gendered nature of water, shedding light on the often neglected care and unpaid labour of women and its relationship with extractivism and socioeconomic inequalities. The overall aim of the handbook is to apply social science insights to water governance challenges, creating synergies and linkages between different disciplines and scientific domains. The Routledge Handbook of Gender and Water Governance is essential reading for students, scholars and professionals interested in water governance, water security, health and sanitation, gender studies and sustainable development more broadly.

Cancer Hazards: Parathion, Malathion, Diazinon, Tetrachlorvinphos and Glyphosate: The 2015 IARC Classifications: Implications for Regulation, ... Environmental Studies and Sciences Series)

Martha Richmond

This book focuses on a monograph published in 2017 by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), an agency of the World Health Organization (WHO), discussing its carcinogen hazard classification of four parathion, malathion, diazinon, and tetrachlorvinphos as well as the herbicide glyphosate. The monograph provided a detailed discussion of considerations and conclusions made by a group of experts who met in 2015 to evaluate these compounds. Although not universally true, many of these substances, from the time of their commercial introduction to their present-day use, have spread significantly in the environment, affecting animals and plants in the larger ecosystem, the overall health of the environment, and human health. This book develops each of these issues before turning to the IARC review process, both the general process and its evolution over time, and compound selection criteria and deliberations regarding the substances discussed in the 2017 monograph. Final book sections detail scientific and private sector reactions to and implications of the IARC classifications. Hazard identification is contrasted with various models of quantitative risk assessment. The last chapters highlight the importance of hazard identification for members of domestic and global underserved communities involved in farming and landscape work, where exposures may vary widely, are not well-regulated, and where health outcomes are often not carefully documented.

Moving Toward Net-Zero Carbon Society: Challenges and Opportunities

Hsing-Hao Wu, Wan-Yu Liu, Michael C. Huang

This open access book explores various issues concerning the net-zero emission achievement, ranging from carbon pricing, carbon trade schemes, energy transition, ecological conservation, and carbon sinks, as well as the economic and social impacts of introducing carbon neutral policies in the Asia-Pacific region. The extreme flooding and drought problems, crop yield problems, and habitat changes brought about by climate change have seriously threatened the ecosystem and human survival, forcing people to rethink environmental management policies and limits on economic development. In the post-COVID-19 era, it is indispensable to adopt a more proactive climate change adaptation policy and establish bilateral cooperation with international partners who value climate change. 2021 is a critical year, and the leaders of major industrial countries at the recently concluded G7 meeting jointly stated the common objective seeking the establishment of carbon-neutral international community by the mid of the century. Major carbon-emitting countries or entities such as the European Union, US, Japan, Korea, China, and India have proposed specific timetables for net-zero carbon emissions and carbon neutrality before or at the COP26. Policy-makers around the world would also work closely with scientists, experts, and enterprises seeking appropriate policy instruments such as the development of carbon tax, carbon pricing, carbon sinks, global or regional carbon emission trade schemes, energy transitions, and other carbon-neutral policies moving toward net-zero emission society by the mid of the century. At a time when carbon pricing policies are being formulated, climate change related laws and policies will reshape the global governance and industrial layout during the period of 2021–-2030, and it is critical to move toward energy and industrial transformation, ecological conservation, and sustainable agricultural development.

The Green Economy and the Water-Energy-Food Nexus

Robert C Brears

This book argues that a variety of policies will be required to create synergies between the water-energy-food nexus sectors while reducing trade-offs in the development of a green economy. Despite rising demand for water, energy and food globally, the governance of water-energy-food sectors has generally remained separate with limited attention placed on the interactions that exist between them. Brears provides readers with a series of in-depth case studies of leading cities, states, nations and regions of differing climates, lifestyles and income-levels from around the world that have implemented a variety of policy innovations to reduce water-energy-food nexus pressures and achieve green growth. The Green Economy and the Water-Energy-Food Nexus will be of interest to town and regional planners, resource conservation managers, policymakers, international companies and organisations interested in reducing water-energy-food nexus pressures, environmental NGOs, researchers, graduate and undergraduate students.

The Change of Climate and Ecological Environment in China 2021: Synthesis Report: Synthesis Report

Dahe Qin, Yongjian Ding, Panmao Zhai, Lianchun Song, Yong Luo, Kejun Jiang

This book analyzes China's climate and environmental change facts, impacts and vulnerabilities, and mitigation strategies. On basis of synthesis assessment, through comprehensive integration, it focuses on four climate change and ecological environment evolution, future climate change and risk prediction, technical measures and action results for adaptation and mitigation, and development path with climate resilience. In terms of change facts, it focuses on extreme climate events, large-scale factors affecting China's climate change, and the impact of climate change on China's social and economic system. In terms of future risks, it focuses on key variables such as temperature, precipitation and other key variables and the prediction of future changes in extreme climate events. Potential risks in resources, agriculture, cryosphere, ecology, human settlements, health and major projects are also discussed. In terms of adaptation and mitigation, this book systematically sorts out and summarizes the effects, policy choices and synergies of climate change adaptation and mitigation from two perspectives, global and Chinese. Finally, from the perspectives of carbon emission path, sustainable development, and building a community with a shared future for mankind, it explains the essentials of choosing a development path with climate resilience.

Environmental Impacts of Shale Gas Development in China: Assessment and Regulation

Meiyu Guo, Jianliang Wang

This book features a comprehensive analysis of the development of shale gas resources in China, with a focus on the potential environmental impacts that may result. China has the world’s largest shale gas resources, which it is keen to develop to alleviate air pollution and successfully transition to a low-carbon energy future. However, one significant obstacle standing between the ambition and reality is the potentially serious environmental impacts of shale gas production. This book offers a systematic assessment of these potential impacts, including the risk of water contamination, ecological disruption due to the huge consumption of water and methane leakage. It presents valuable first-hand data collected from the authors’ fieldwork in Sichuan and Chongqing and the latest information on China’s current shale gas operations and also includes a set of models and methods developed to quantify the impacts. It allows readers to gain a deeper understanding of environmental regulatory management systems regarding shale gas production in China by examining whether the existing monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) systems and environmental regulations can effectively prevent adverse impacts from shale gas production. Providing a detailed study of shale gas development in China based on an unprecedented primary dataset, the book is a valuable resource for scholars, engineers and students who are interested in the energy development and environmental risks.

Climate Change in Regional Perspective: European Union and Latin American Initiatives, Challenges, and Solutions

Andrea Ribeiro Hoffmann, Paula Sandrin, Yannis E. Doukas

This Open Access book addresses climate change in Europe and Latin America from a comparative regionalism studies (CRS) perspective. Written by an international team of scholars and experts, chapters critically analyze proposals for mitigating climate change while contributing to the mutual understanding about the issues at stake across regions. The book is divided into three main sections. In the first section, authors discuss EU and Latin American cooperation, negotiations, and perspectives on climate change, exploring their agendas, the interests and key challenges at the global, regional and interregional levels. The second section focuses on the challenges to finance development and a greener economy. The third section explores new green solutions to climate change in the agriculture sector and initiatives such as nature-based solutions to climate change and best practices. Providing policy oriented solutions for combatting regional climate change at a critical juncture, this volume will be of interest to researchers and students of international relations, international law, and environmental politics, as well as public officials and climate change activists.

Environmental Governance and Greening Fiscal Policy: Government Accountability for Environmental Stewardship

Murray Petrie

This book addresses the increasingly urgent How can governments be made more accountable for the quality of their environmental stewardship? It The book combines in-depth assessment of the latest climate/green budgeting literature and country practices with discussion of how to implement green fiscal policies. The framework is deliberately ambitious given the severity, scale, and urgency of climate change and biodiversity loss. The book will be of interest to ministry of finance, budget, and planning officials, to environment sector agencies, oversight institutions, international organizations, civil society organizations, and to academics and students in the fields of environmental studies, development studies, economics, public finance, and public policy.

Reproductive Health and the Environment

Polyxeni Nicolopoulou-Stamati, Luc Hens, C.V. Howard

This book reviews recent trends and developments in the study of the impact that the environment has on human reproduction. It thoroughly examines these issues, using the most modern techniques and methods available, to analyze the manner in which both male and female fertility can be affected and assessed. Coverage examines such diverse factors as toxic environmental contaminants, air pollution, and exposure to medical drugs.

Property Price Impacts of Environment-Friendly Transport Accessibility in Chinese Cities

Linchuan Yang

This book seeks to shed light on the role of environment-friendly transport accessibility in determining property prices in Chinese cities. Many environment-friendly transport modes, including walking, metro, bus rapid transit (BRT), and bus are examined. Spatial econometric models, quantile regression models, and machine learning techniques are used. This book contributes to people's understanding of the relationship between environmental-friendly transport accessibility and property prices. Moreover, it is of value to policymakers, including (1) informing urban planners/designers to plan/design cities with an adequate level of environment-friendly transport accessibility; (2) offering an evidence-based approach to implementing value capture schemes for financing investments in urban infrastructure; and (3) providing the basis for mitigating the negative externality of proximity to the transit corridor, jointly constructing comprehensive hospitals and other compatible amenities, and so forth.