Paul Steinberg most recent book, titled Who Rules the Earth? How Social Rules Shape Our Planet and Our Lives covers as it suggests: The social rules in place that shape how the world functions, whether we like it or not. Some of these social rules are implied, such as being decently covered in public, whereas others are more explicit in function, such as not stealing or breaking any other law. When it comes to the environment, the social rules currently in play have us on the way to ruin with over-exploitation of resources, regulations on construction, and current cultural thoughts. This book is divided into four sections, each covering a different aspect of the social rules that dictate how we lead ourselves to ruin.
Steinberg starts out hopeful, trying to find solutions to basic problems. As he says on page 18, “I try to combine the activist’s sense of urgency with the scholar’s professional skepticism”. He promotes going against armchair activism, and instead encouraging action alongside critical though of possible reproductions. Alongside this, he encourages dissection of reality, finding the social rules that allow nature’s beauty to remain that way, whether it be national park boundaries or demanding that certain areas along a beach are accessible to everyone, and encouraging the people at the beach to keep it so everyone else enjoys it. Finally, he mentions that current reality is not as far as our world can go. with collaboration, new ideas can spread and be implemented, making a new, better reality. The largest part of getting a new idea in place is figuring out who has the final say, also known as the owner or leader. In the case of the Earth, it belongs to all inhabitants, humans, flora, fauna, every nation, and every market. In a way, the world is just one place, shared by a diverse group of inhabitants who needs all need to be factored into each and every decision, and we need to work together to fix the mess we made out of our home. Steinberg also argues that a perpetual change in the rules is good, forcing reformation and transformation and using sports announcing as a metaphor “We instead celebrate the creative use of those boundaries for achieving great feats” (241). Finally, he covers how rules are made and how they are changed; formed with certain leverage or authority, and changed the same way, specific leverage as a person who is currently negatively affected by a rule, since with every rule, we are, as Steinberg puts it “either on the menu or at the table”.
Most of the points from this book I can apply to my personal and academic life. This book reinforces the thought that I’ve had since the start of ENVS160: everything is interconnected in its own way and those connections run deep. This serves as a reminder for me in my personal life that I need to keep my lens wide, instead of getting tunnel vision like I normally do.
Source
Steinberg, Paul F. 2015. Who Rules the Earth: How Social Rules Shape Our Planet and Our Lives. New York: Oxford University Press.