The Politics of the Earth

This text provides an introduction to thinking about the environment by looking at the way people use language on environmental issues. John Dryzek helps make sense of the diverse developments in environmental politics by analyzing the main discourses which have dominated the area during the last three decades, and which are likely to be influential in the future. The first discourse, "Survivalism", is based on the contention that the Earth has a limited stock of resources and prescribes drastic, multidimensional action to prevent global disaster, receiving a reply from Prometheans who deny such limits exist. "Environmental Problem Solving" recognizes the existence of ecological problems but views them as tractable within the basic framework of industrial society. The concept of "Sustainability" is defined by imaginative attempts to dissolve the conflicts between environmental and economic values, whilst the "Green Radicalism" discourse rejects the basic structure of industrial society and the way the environment is conceptualized, and promotes transformation in human consciousness, economics, and politics.
Dryzek provides an assessment of these various perspectives, their rise and fall, their interaction and impacts, and their strengths and weaknesses. His analysis of these discourses leads up to a concluding argument for a reinvigorated ecological democracy.