Who Rules the Earth by Paul F. Steinberg covers a variety of topics all in relation to the environmental movement and individual or public effort to combat climate change. He delves into different movements in the past that has created legislation on environmental protection and the action of individuals in these situations. Steinberg also goes on to analyze who exactly is running the institutions that control resources and how their inner workings affect how we take action today. His main argument in this book is that we need to ‘scale up’ and make societal and institutional change so as to have a real effect on our climate.
The belief that individual action can make a change is naive when looking at the large scale of the issue. He states “solutions that promote green consumerism and changes in personal lifestyles strike many of us as strangely out of proportion with enormous problems like climate change, urban air pollution, and the disappearance of tropical forests.” (Steinberg, 2015). This directly hits at the classic environmentalist view and tears down its foundations. Due to the recent publishing of this book in 2015, it makes sense that the contemporary viewpoint would be the one supported. The contemporary view is that institutional change is what will make the difference. Honestly, this reminds me of the saying “Ignorance is bliss”. When individual action was all that it took to solve the planet’s issues, it felt so much more manageable. I find it daunting that we can scarcely achieve world peace let alone have to work together to save the planet. These seemingly would be things that we would all agree one. However, it is often where we vary the most.
If Steinberg is correct, this means that even if we may disagree with our governments or political systems, we have to work all the harder to make sure that they help the environment, because small-scale action just won’t cut it. This can be a double-edged sword though. Steinberg notes that “If you dig down and examine the roots of environmental successes and failures that populate our landscape, you will find that politics is never far below the surface.” (Steinberg, 2015) The impact of failure is becoming much more dramatic as the environment becomes more delicate. Politics seems to be a necessary evil in creating rules that can help or hurt. He seems to suggest that the best way to ensure for positive environmental legislation, we must change our mindset from small-scale action and become more involved in supporting institutional change. Many readers could have taken this as a prompt to change or destroy or system, but Steinberg seems to encourage finding a way to work within it while creating a societal mind shift. This makes it easier because to rebuild a political system when trying to save the environment may just be a bit too much for humanity.
Overall, this book was a rollercoaster when it came to creating hope for the environment. While it tore down our previous conceptions about our effect on the environment, Steinberg allowed for us to work within the system we have already created to find a solution. From a logical standpoint, what Steinberg proposes isn’t overly shocking. It’s when humans try to overemphasize their importance or look for solutions that aren’t necessary that we find the difficulty.
Works Cited
Paul F. Steinberg. 2015. Who Rules the Earth?: How Social Rules Shape Our Planet and Our Lives. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.