So far this semester, we have mainly focused on four books: Why We Disagree About Climate Change: Understanding Controversy, Inaction and Opportunity by Mike Hulme, Making the Modern World: Materials and Dematerialization by Vaclav Smil, Austerity Ecology & the Collapse-Porn Addicts: a Defense of Growth, Progress, Industry, and Stuff by Leigh Phillips, and Paul Steinberg’s Who Rules the Earth? How Social Rules Shape Our Planet and Our Lives. These four books cover a very diverse range of ecological issues and help guide students towards a future in the environmental studies major. Though the books differ on ideology there are many common ideas that intertwine between some of these books. One of the common themes is a call for action and this idea arises in the books of Smil, Phillips, and Steinberg. Another one of the common ideas is institutionalism, and this comes across in Steinberg’s book as well as Phillips’ books. The final idea that is intertwined between some of the books is the idea of social rules, and though this is an idea mainly planted in Steinberg’s book, Hulme uses it as well in some of his concepts.
Call for Action
Throughout Who Rules the Earth? by Paul Steinberg, the call for action is prevalent. He calls for multl-level institutional action as he deems that the best way to crate effective change. While scholars disagree on the best course of action, most agree that there needs to be action. Vaclav Smil outlines the need for action when he says “We must hope that human ingenuity and adaptability will, sooner rather than later, guide us among the right path- but even in that case that the transformation of humanity’s material uses will be a gradual and difficult process with an uncertain outcome” (Smil 2014, 180). Both authors agree that humans need to act and help to fix their self-caused ecological woes,
Institutionalism
The role of the institution is an idea that is that is not only covered in these books, but in many articles as well. Paul Steinberg, Mike Hulme, and Leigh Phillips are three authors that speak extensively about in favor of institutionalism over individualism in regards to ecological action. In Hulme’s book, he argues that we require “new global forms of governance” (Hulme 2009, 290) to make effective change. Steinberg’s book ties into this when he says that we need to “think vertically” (Steinberg 2015, 163), meaning that we need to act at multiple levels of the government, as it the best way to combat the causes of our environmental problems. (Steinberg 2015). Leigh Phillips, as a socialist, carries an institutional ideology and believes that the capitalist system, in part, is to blame for some of your ecological problems (Phillips 2015)
Social Rules
A main theme in Paul Steinberg’s Who Rules the Earth is social rules and how they affect us. He believes that social rules are deeply ingrained in our society and he shows where they come from (Steinberg 2015). Another author who talks about rules is Mike Hulme. In his book, he shows that beliefs have a profound influence on our attitudes, behavior, and politics. (Hulme 2009). By beliefs, he refers to religious and spiritual practices. Both authors agree that the government has a huge part in making rules.
Conclusion
Over the course of this class, we have had many ideas that are interconnected between scholarly articles and books. Above, I outlined three that had a major influence on my ecological thoughts: social rules, institutionalism, and the call for action. All three of those ideas have helped me better understand ecological problems and solutions in a broader sense and have motivated me to try and help create lasting change.
Bibliography
Hulme, Mike. 2009. Why We Disagree About Climate Change: Understanding Controversy, Inaction and Opportunity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Phillips, Leigh. 2015. Austerity Ecology & the Collapse-Porn Addicts: a Defense of Growth, Progress, Industry and Stuff. Winchester, UK: Zero Books.
Smil, Vaclav. 2014. Making the Modern World: Materials and Dematerialization. Chichester, West Sussex, United Kingdom: Wiley.
Steinberg, Paul F. 2015. Who Rules the Earth: How Social Rules Shape Our Planet and Our Lives. New York, NY: Oxford Univ. Press.