Thinking Ecologically: The Next Generation of Environmental Policy

Front Cover
Yale University Press, Jan 1, 1997 - Political Science - 271 pages
Twenty-five years ago, the Cuyahoga River in Ohio was so contaminated that it caught fire, air pollution in some cities was thick enough to taste, and environmental laws focused on the obvious enemy: large American factories with belching smokestacks and pipes gushing wastes. Federal legislation has succeeded in providing cleaner air and water, but we now confront a different set of environmental problems--less visible and more subtle. This important book offers thought-provoking ideas on how America can respond to changing public health and ecological risks and create sound environmental policy for the future.

The innovative thinkers of the Next Generation Project of the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy--experts from business, government, nongovernmental organizations, and academia--propose reforms that balance environmental efforts with other public needs and issues. They call for new foundations for environmental law and policy, adoption of a more diverse set of policy tools and strategies (economic incentives, ecolabels), and new connections between critical sectors (agriculture, energy, transportation, service providers) and environmental policy. Future progress must involve not only officials from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and state environmental protection departments, say the authors, but also decision-makers as diverse as mayors, farmers, energy company executives, and delivery route planners. To be effective, next-generation policy-making will view environmental challenges comprehensively, connect academic theory with practical policy, and bridge the gaps that have caused recent policy debates to break down in rancor. This book begins the process of accomplishing these challenging goals.

 

Contents

Overcoming Policy Fragmentation
19
Ecosystem Management and Economic Development
37
The Forgotten Agenda
60
Sorting Out a ServiceBased Economy
76
Globalization Trade and Interdependence
91
MarketBased Environmental Policies
105
Privately Financed Sustainable Development
118
Technology Innovation and Environmental Progress
136
Foundations for Analysis
150
Toward Ecological Law and Policy
170
Coexisting with the Car
189
Energy Prices and Environmental Costs
217
A Vision for the Future
231
Contributors
248
Index
263
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