NRES 3000/5000
Sustainability Science
Exemplary
Annotated Bibliographies
1. United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, UNFCCC, 14 January 2002, <http://www.unfccc.int> (26 February 2002).
If you don't mind the wading through a flurry of acronyms and official documents, this is "the" site to learn about "things official" in climate change negotiations. I recommend the Press section for beginners; here, you can use the filter of "what has been written" to get the skinny on recent developments, dissenting opinions (on the science) and even commentary on the participation (or lack thereof) of various countries. The more advanced reader might progress to Issues and find information as specific as "financial mechanisms" or "Matters relating to Article 3.14 of the Kyoto Protocol: minimization of adverse social, environmental and economic impacts on developing country Parties in the implementation of Annex I commitments." Experts can probably make sense of the What's New section, but I couldn't in the amount of time I had allotted.
2. George W. Bush, "Executive Summary," Global Climate Change Policy
Book, 14 February 2002, http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/02/climatechange.html
(27 February 2002).
This document carries, perhaps, more cultural (socio-political) significance than literal. This, the much-anticipated Bush administration's response to the Kyoto Protocol, an anti-solution, was unveiled this month in all of its un-glory, just prior to Bush's visit to SE Asia. Bush calls his plan aggressive but it contains little in the way of teeth. The plan rejects mandatory, government-imposed limits on greenhouse gas emissions. The plan replaces target emissions limits with 'emission intensity" targets that fluctuate with economic growth. I was interested to note the inclusion of in this plan of increased funding for the Tropical Forest Conservation Act, a carryover from the elder Bush's Enterprise for the America's policy that was expanded (but not appropriately funded) during the Clinton administration. The release of this plan spurned of flurry of commentary from press offices around the world; some feel that this plan could still make or break the Kyoto Protocol.
3. Kevin A. Baumert and Nancy Kete, "The U.S. Developing Countries, and Climate Protection: Leadership or Stalemate?" Climate Energy & Pollution Program, World Resources Institute, June 2001, http://www.wri.org/climate/us_policy.html (27 February 2002)
I found this document
to be useful in addressing the "rationale" offered by the Bush administration
for backing out of the Kyoto Protocol, specifically the reluctance to support
international climate change agreements until China, India and other developing
countries adopt emission controls. The article offers interesting statistical
analysis to support its thesis that "the U.S. should attend to curbing
its own prodigious output of greenhouse gases before asking developing countries
to do more," including the following about China's "remarkable"
actions. "China reduced its emissions, in absolute terms, by 19 percent
from 1997 to 1999 … [while its] economy grew rapidly over the same period."
Example 2: From M.S.
Promoting Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development
Gordon Conway's article Food for all in the 21st Century looks at world hunger and the global community's responsibility to better feed a growing human population. The successes and failures of the first Green Revolution are examined to better understand how to engage in a new, Doubly Green Revolution. The Doubly Green Revolution will increase agricultural yields by using new advances in biotechnology and applying better ecological practices. What makes this revolution "Doubly Green" is that it will increase yields while addressing the limits of the environment to ensure that new developments in agriculture will be sustainable. This article is critical to any study of sustainable agriculture because it confronts the two conflicting aspects of this process, the sustained use of resources within the context of sustaining the needs of a growing human population.
John Doran's article Soil Health as an Indicator of Sustainable Management addresses the issue of how to identify practices that fit within the model of sustainability. The increased degradation of our earth's soils by current agricultural practices suggests a serious lack of sustainability. As the major resource base for agriculture the quality and health of soils provide a useful indicator of sustainability. Although the need to assess the health of soils is critical for sustainable agriculture, this article suggests how these assessments can be transformed into best management practices. As the primary basis of agriculture, soils are critical for an understanding of sustainability and this article is an excellent introduction to the relationship between soils and sustainability.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) site on Exploring Sustainability in Agriculture provides readers with an introduction to sustainability in agriculture that includes the understanding that farming must be economically, environmentally, and socially sustainable. Regional differences in which practices are going to be sustainable are addressed with five examples of U.S. farmers from all across the country who all practice different forms of agriculture but are all sustainable. This is an excellent introduction to sustainable agriculture as it provides real examples of sustainability and addresses the different methods for achieving sustainability.
Bibliography
Conway, Gordon (2000). Food for all in the 21st Century. Environment 42 (1), 8-18
Doran, John W. (2002). Soil Health as an Indicator of Sustainable Management. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment, 88 (2), 147-52.
USDA. Exploring
Sustainability in Agriculture: Ways to Enhance Profits, Protect the Environment
and Improve Quality of Life [World Wide Web page]. Available: http://204.29.171.50/framer/1000/default.asp?realname=USDA&cc=U
S&lc=en%2DUS&frameid=1565&providerid=113&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww
%2Eusda%2Egov
Example 3: from A.H.
Title: U of MN
Pollution Prevention and Waste Abatement Policy
Location: www1.umn.edu/regents/policies/administrative/PollutionPrevention.html
Citation: University of Minnesota. U of MN Pollution Prevention and Waste
Abatement Policy. [On-line]. URL:http://www1.umn.edu/regents/policies/administrative/PollutionPrevention.html.
2-26-02.
Reasons for Selection:
This article brings the issues of waste abatement and prevention close to
home. It provides a real world example of a policy set in place by a real
business - the U of M. It also allows students to see how policy affects action.
Students can read the policy then look around and see actions at the U that
may be a result of or affected by this policy.
Title: Toward
a New Conception of the Environment-Competitiveness Relationship
Location: A Survey of Sustainable Development, pp286-289
Citation: Goodwin, Neva, ed. A Survey of Sustainable Development. Toward a
New Conception of the Environment-Competitiveness Relationship, by Michael
Porter and Claas van der Linde. Washington: Island Press, 2001.
Reasons for Selection:
This article relates regulation to business actions. Well-designed standards
can encourage innovative pollution control or prevention methods that are
not encouraged by current regulation. The article discusses briefly the current
effects of regulation and states how new regulations could encourage innovation
in pollution control and prevention. It helps clarify how policy can affect
business decisions related to environmental issues.
Title: The Corporate
Accountability Movement: Lessons and Opportunities
Location: A survey of Sustainable Development, pp. 276-280
Citation: Goodwin, Neva, ed. A Survey of Sustainable Development. The Corporate
Accountability Movement: Lessons and Opportunities, by Robin Broad and John
Cavanagh. Washington: Island Press, 2001.
Reasons for Selection:
This article provides a synopsis of the movement to encourage corporate responsibility
and accountability for environmental problems they cause. It discusses different
methods used to convince, persuade or force corporations to take accountability
for the environmental impacts of their actions. It also discusses criteria
to assess how effective different strategies for corporate accountability
are. It sums up methods and measures of corporate accountability.
Title: 3M Environmental
website
Source: http://www.3m.com/about3m/environment/index.jhtml
Citation: 3M Corporation. Our Environment. [On-line]. URL: http://www.3m.com/about3m/environment/index.jhtml.
2-26-02.
Reasons for Selection:
This provides a good overview of the environmental policy of a large corporation.
While 3M is a bit more pro-active than many companies, this provides a good
example of a successful corporate environmental policy. It discusses goals,
policy, and mechanisms. It also discusses the successes of these.
Example 4: from J.A.
ARTICLE ONE: Changes to Community-Based Sustainable Development
This Article brings up the point that sustainability is dependent upon addressing the combinations of factors, which contribute to degradation of the environment within each community. The practice of describing sustainability, as a balance between community resources needs and resource supply is not an adequate approach for long-term success. Acknowledging that each person's participation in their role in the sustainability movement is based on each person's perceptions will aid in tailoring effective education programs and finding means to effectively raise public awareness. Effectively addressing community diversity will likely result in more reliable participation of each member of society, which in turn will increase progress towards a sustainable social practice.
Leach, M., Mearns, R. Scoones, & I. (1997). Challenges to Community-Based Sustainable Development. IDS Bulletin, 28, 4 (1997), 4-14.
ARTICLE TWO: The Corporate Accountability Movement: Lessons and Opportunities
Changing actions of individuals on a daily basis is only the beginning of an approach to sustainability. Often, those who are impacting environmental degradation in a larger capacity are corporations that deal in high volume and high profit. Many of these corporations have not been held liable for the externalities they have produced and have gleaned a considerable profit margin by manufacturing with environmentally irresponsible practices. There is no place for these corporations and their practices in sustainable societies, however, their practices will not change unless the public becomes involved by the following ways; with-holding purchases of irreputably made products, supporting those companies which make specific efforts to manufacture in earth friendly ways and finally by becoming active in democratic processes by which institutional guidelines and constraints of local, national and international levels can be implemented to convince the corporations resistant to change to comply with efforts toward a sustainable social practice.
Broad, R. & Cavanagh, J. (1999). The Corporate Accountability Movement: Lessons and Opportunities. Fletcher Forum of World Affairs, 23, 2 (Fall 1999).
WEB SOURCE ONE: The Sustainable Earth Exchange Link For Educators
This web site has an entire network access built in to its home page. There are options for listings of organizations, recently published topics and other publications relating to sustainability practices and issues. The network is user friendly and well organized. Subjects are broken up into categories and range form agriculture to wilderness with all manner of specifics in between. A key benefit to this web site is a free speech online option. This provides opportunities for multiple viewpoints on controversial and key issues.
Sustainable Earth Exchange Link For Educators Web Site: http://www.class.csupomona.edu/earth.html
WEB SOURCE TWO: Education For Sustainability
The Education For Sustainability Organization has produced an agenda for action available on their home page. This agenda offers step-by-step approaches for incorporating supporting actions for sustainable practices. It covers alternative ways to approach key issues such as diversity by providing multicultural perspectives. It also touches on two key points for our presentation, education within the essential learning's chapter and public awareness within the chapter of that title. Information on this web site is not presented in such a way that is overwhelming. Perspectives presented may be limited due to the briefness of its topic information; however, I am convinced its simplicity adds to the retention of pertinent information.
Education For Sustainability Web Site: http://www.gcrio.org/edu/pcsd/toc.html
Example 5: from A.B.
Literary Review
Descano, Linda and Bradford Gentry. "Communicating Environmental Performance to the Capital Markets". Corporate Environmental Strategy: The Journal of Environmental Leadership, Spring 1998. (http://sbn.netforchange.com/frame.html)
This article discusses the notion that strong financial performance in corporations and strong environmental performance are not mutually exclusive. It discusses the importance of analysts treating environmental factors in their review of a company's performance. Since this is not currently done, a company's environmental policies have a limited impact on their appearance to capital markets. The article discusses ways to change this status quo towards a more environmentally responsible orientation.
Harris, Jonathan
et. al. A Survey on Sustainable Development. Washington DC: Island Press,
2001:
The Corporate Accountability Movement: Lessons and Opportunities - Broad &
Cavanagh: pp 276-279.
This article discusses a new movement in global corporations towards accountability. It discusses the entire spectrum of the argument; from having governments penalize corporations that do not advance the public good, to boycotting such corporations, to simply increasing public awareness of corporations that are not environmentally or socially responsible. It also discusses criteria for success and challenges for the future.
Toward a New Conception of the Environment-Competitiveness Relationship - Porter & van der Linde: 286-289.
This article discusses the apparent discrepancy between corporate profits and environmental responsibility. It assumes that there is a competitive relationship between the two, but discusses ways to make this apparent dichotomy a non-issue. It talks about how regulation and companies going beyond the requirements of regulation can actually help improve profitability.
Sustainability and the Accountable Corporation - Allen White: pp 292-296.
This article discusses the history of environmental regulation, as well as the pros and cons of voluntary versus mandatory compliance. It discusses methods to achieve more transparent corporations that have their eye on accountability and sustainability.