Environment and Society: An Introductory Analysis

This short introductory and interdisciplinary text analyzes the wide range of issues that have come to be known collectively as "the environment question" and have now entered the mainstream of public affairs. Without assuming any previous knowledge of physics, chemistry, and biology, the first three chapters introduce the topics of ecology, population, resources, and pollution. Chapter 4 summarizes "the environment debate." Here the authors review the major positions different participants in the debate have taken on the causes of environmental problems and on strategies for dealing with them. The two following chapters examine environmental problems from the viewpoint of social science. The authors focus on the political economic processes by which decisions affecting the environment are made and analyze the main strands of thought in current environmental policy-making: the use of taxes, subsidies, cost-benefit analyses and legislation. The concluding chapter concentrates on the longer term. Do the responses to environmental problems point to the evolution of a "post-industrial" society? Can examination of the forces that seem to have shaped previous cultural change give insights into the likely development of present systems? Can an "alternative society" be envisaged which is not based on economic growth and high technology? Contemporary thinking about these issues is surveyed, and questions are posed about the constitution of future society.