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Print Price: $149.99

Format:
Paperback
352 pp.
15 tables and figures, 6" x 9"

ISBN-13:
9780195415087

Copyright Year:
2002

Imprint: OUP Canada

Environmental Politics in Canada

Managing the Commons into the 21st Century

Judith McKenzie

The concept of natural resources as 'commons' has been with us since 1968, when Garrett Hardin used that metaphor to draw attention to the human tendency towards overconsumption. In Environmental Politics in Canada McKenzie examines Canada's efforts to avert the tragedy that Hardin foresaw. At the same time she offers a broader perspective on the ways in which 'environmental issues' are viewed and managed. In addition to addressing specific issues--diminishing natural resources, genetically modified foods, water contamination, global warming, endangered species protection--McKenzie presents detailed overviews of green political thought and the evolution of environmentalism, as well as the complex political and economic contexts, both domestic and international, within which Canadian environmental policy is made.

Reviews

"Environmental Politics in Canada, which has been designed as an undergraduate course text, poses a number of important questions in the book's preface including: Why are governments reluctant to legislate on behalf of the environment? Why have some groups and individuals been listened to at the expense of others? In attempting to answer these questions, Judith McKenzie seeks to explain the roots of natural resources and environmental mismanagement by reference to the domination of liberal economic and political thought over the greener political visions. In this ideational context, she argues, environmental groups have been unable to wrest control of the politival agenda from economic interests, often with regrettable results in terms of the environment and public health."

--Debora L. Vannijnatten (Wilfrid Laurier University), Canadian Journal of Political Science, issue 36:3

List of Tables, Figures, and Boxes
Preface
Introduction: Managing the Commons into the Twenty-First Century
1. Green Political Theory
The Liberal Democratic Tradition in Canada
Vision One--Green Thought within the Liberal Democratic Tradition
Vision Two--Deep Ecology
Currents within Ecological (Dark Green) Political Thought
Aboriginal Perspective on Nature
Other Theoretical Influences on Green Political Thought
Conclusions
2. Environmentalism as a Social Movement
Social-Movement Theories
Waves of Environmentalism
Towards a Typology of Green Organizations in Canada
Environmentalism Values and Beliefs
Conclusions
3. The Governmental Role in Environmental Policy
Constitutional Ambiguity and Political Jurisdiction
The Three Eras of Federal and Provincial Environmental Policy Making
Environmental Policy Making
Anatomy of a Policy--Protecting Species at Risk
Conclusion
4. Natural Resources in the Canadian Commons
The Three Perspectives on Natural Resources
The Fish Resource
Mineral Resources
The Agricultural Resource
The Forestry Resource
Water--Resource or Commodity?
5. The Health and Security Imperatives
The Health Imperative
Transboundary and International Environmental Issues with Implications for Health
The Security Imperative
Conclusions on the Health and Security Imperatives
6. Multilateral Environmental Agreements, Trade Liberalization, and the Environment
Multilateral Environmental Agreements in Canadian Sovereignty
International Environmental Agreements Prior to Stockholm
The Stockholm Conference of 1972
Trade and the Environment
Conclusion
Epilogue
Notes
References
Index

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Prior to attending graduate school at the University of Toronto, McKenzie practised for eight years as an urban planner in both the public (municipal and provincial) sector and private sector. This practical experience has informed McKenzie's work as an academic writing in the field of environmental politics.

Making Sense in the Social Sciences - Margot Northey, Lorne Tepperman and Patrizia Albanese

Special Features

Includes focus boxes
Contains end-of-chapter study questions
Begins with an examination of environmental thought both in a Canadian and world context through the lens of political ideology, particularly in terms of how nature has been viewed as a dimension of political theory
Looks at the specifics of both the federal and provincial roles in environmental policy and regulation
Examines Canada's role in the international arena as a participant in the movement toward international protocols on issues such as ocean pollution and acid rain and offers some views on whether Canada is on the right track in moving towards the sustainability of the commons and the prudent management of our natural resources