Overview

Can environmentalism evolve into a powerful social movement that transforms human practices in ways that are ecologically sustainable? Gary C. Bryner contends that it is in our self-interest as a species to ensure that environmental movements coalesce in the service of sustainability. From the very first Earth Day to the setting of Agenda 21 for the new millennium, this book traces the actors, the issues, and the institutions involved in moving environmentalism from a loose collection of fuzzy groups and goals to a new global force for change. Will the next phase of environmental action resemble the WTO protests in Seattle, the UN Kyoto Protocols, or a Think Tank inside the Washington Beltway? Gaia's Wager shows that movements play an important role between political parties and interest groups on the domestic scene and the unruly forces of globalization internationally. Only social movements can catalyze a response to the global environmental threat that has a chance of both capturing imaginations and institutionalizing progress toward environmental sustainability. Above all, Gaia's Wager bets on the confluence of big ideas and social action to yield a more hopeful environmental future.

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Gaia's wager is a gamble that we cannot, in the long run, win, but cannot afford to lose. It is a wager with nature that human ingenuity can overcome or evade the limits to the way the world works. Modern society must adapt its goals of growth and development to those processes, relationships, and limits inherent in Gaia and beyond human ability to manage or change. The value of Gary Bryner's book is enhanced by suggestions for further reading and selected web sites for relevant issues. Strongly recommended to all persons concerned with the sustainability of our present techno-economic way of life and to all others who should be. -- Lynton K. Caldwell, Indiana University A useful and critical overview of global green politics. Future Survey Bryner's book provides a clearly written, comprehensively researched, and exhaustively detailed account of recent American and international environmental politics, public policy, and law, with a particular focus on issues related to climate change. This book would be quite a useful resource for anyone delving into the intricacies of environmental policy. Labour/ Le Tavail Professor Bryner's book does an excellent job assessing society's political capacity to make the changes necessary to achieve ecological sustainability. Those who study social movements and environmental politics within American and global contexts will find the author's work useful. -- Sheldon Kamieniecki, University of Southern California

Gaia's wager is a gamble that we cannot, in the long run, win, but cannot afford to lose. It is a wager with nature that human ingenuity can overcome or evade the limits to the way the world works. Modern society must adapt its goals of growth and development to those processes, relationships, and limits inherent in Gaia and beyond human ability to manage or change. The value of Gary Bryner's book is enhanced by suggestions for further reading and selected web sites for relevant issues. Strongly recommended to all persons concerned with the sustainability of our present techno-economic way of life and to all others who should be.--Lynton K. Caldwell

Author Information

Gary C. Bryner is director of the Natural Resources Law Center and research professor at the University of Colorado, School of Law.

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