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

Caldwell, Lynton Keith

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0521331528 ISBN 13: 9780521331524

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1990

Synopsis

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.

About this title

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

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.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 1990
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0521331528
• ISBN 13: 9780521331524
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 239