This long-awaited two-volume book examines how the interplay of ideas and actions applied to environmental problems has laid the foundations for global environmental management. It looks at how ideas, interests, and institutions affect management practice; how management capabilities in other areas affect the ability to deal with specific environmental issues; and how learning affects society's approach to the global environment.
Learning to Manage Global Environmental Risks focuses on efforts to deal with climate change, ozone depletion, and acid rain from 1957 (The International Geophysical Year) through 1992 (the UN Conference on Environment and Development). The settings include Canada, Germany, Hungary, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, the former Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, the United States, and international environmental organizations. Topics include problem framing, agenda setting, issue attention, risk assessment, monitoring, option assessment, goal and strategy formulation, implementation, and evaluation. Volume 1 provides an overview of the project, of global environmental management in general, and of the three central environmental issues studied; it also contains the individual country studies. Volume 2 contains the management function studies and Learning to Manage Global Environmental Risks's conclusion.
The Social Learning Group comprises thirty-seven scholars from ten nations. This book was edited by William C. Clark and Nancy Dickson, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University; Jill Jager, International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change, Germany; and Josee van Eijndhoven, Rathenau Institute for Technology Assessment and Utrecht University, the Netherlands.
"[...] vast, dense, and richly engaging."
- Ken Conca, Environmental Change & Security Project Report
" [...] very valuable additions to our body of environmental management knowledge."
- Robert John Klancko, Environmental Practice
"This two-volume set identifies, explores, and maps an exciting new frontier in the social science of global environmental politics."
- Renald B. Mitchell, Global Environmental Politics
"With these volumes, our understanding of the geography of global atmospheric problems expands considerably."
- Elizabeth R. Desombre, American Political Science Review