Cambridge University Press Between Two Worlds: Science, the Environmental Movement and Policy Choice (Cambridge Studies in Environmental Policy)

The focus of this book is on changes in the human situation wrought by unprecedented changes in science-based technology and expanding populations. Increasing scientific information concerning these changes and their consequences is beginning to alter people's perceptions, thus providing a rational basis for a worldwide environmental movement. This movement - complex and differentiated - works through political and educational means to establish new social priorities consistent with scientific findings and the sustainability of life on Earth. The success of this effort would signify a new phase of social development. The thesis of this book is that human-made changes in the condition of the Earth, accompanied by the changing attitudes and values implicit in the environmental movement, constitute an historical discontinuity. The present era represents a transition between the assumptions and conditions that have hitherto characterized the modern world, and those of the post-modern world that is emerging. Science and technology, so vividly symbolized in the view from outer space, are fundamentally changing our traditional beliefs about human opportunities and limitations - and these changes are slowly being reflected in international policies and laws. If humanity today succeeds in establishing a sustainable relationship to Earth, a higher level of civilisation will have been achieved. This thought-provoking view will interest students and professionals in the science and politics of the environment. Review 'This book is a pioneering synthesis of what has been learned about environmental problem-solving over roughly the last two decades.' Colorado Journal of International Law and Policy Book Description Poses the question 'Will humans adapt their ways of life to conserve the natural systems on which their future and the living world depend?' From the Back Cover This book addresses the changing relationship of mankind's world to nature's Earth. The change is a consequence of interactions between population growth, technological advancement, scientific discovery, and a rising consciousness throughout society that the world of the historical past cannot persist into the changing conditions of the future.