Climate change, urban congestion, nuclear waste, deforestation, destruction of wildlife - how can we respond to these and the many other environmental problems that the world faces today? Can we trust the experts? Does technology have the answers? Should we look to governments or to markets to solve the problems? Are political solutions possible? Should we be optimistic or pessimistic about the environmental futures? To address these questions we need to look at environmental responses in an integrated way. This includes understanding the responses of environments to change, and the responses to those changes made by societies. Environmental Responses takes an innovative interdisciplinary approach to understanding the risks and uncertainties that inform our responses to environments. Featuring places such as Lake Baikal, Andalusia, Cumbria and Bhutan the book is richly illustrated drawing on examples from across the world. Among the issues covered are:
* how we might deal with environmental risk in conditions of scientific and political uncertainty
* the need to understand the technical, economic and political responses to environmental change
* finding new ways of involving citizens in decisions affecting environmental futures
* the prospects for achieving sustainable forms of development
Environmental Responses is the final book in a series entitled Environment: Change, Contest and Response that forms a large part of an Open University interdisciplinary course on environmental matters. The other books in the series are:Understanding Environmental Issues
Changing Environments
Contested Environments
Andrew Blowers OBE is Emeritus Professor of Social Sciences at the Open University. Over a long career he has been involved in the field of environmental politics and policy making as an academic, politician, government adviser, nuclear company director and prominent environmental activist. As a member of the first Committee on Radioactive Waste Management he was directly responsible for some of the UK's policy on legacy waste. The Legacy of Nuclear Power brings together his varied experience and expertise and reflects his lifetime concern with the fate of nuclear communities now and in the future.
Steve Hinchliffe is Professor of Human Geography at Exeter University, UK. He is an elected Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and author and editor of numerous books and articles on issues ranging from risk and food, to biosecurity, urban ecologies and nature conservation. He sits on the UK's Food Standards Agency Social Science Research Committee and has advised DEFRA on responses to exotic disease events.
