Overview

For the past two decades, scientists have urged us to abandon fossil fuels as rapidly as possible and pursue a range of other environmental reforms to avert the many crises climate change will bring. The reforms have not occurred at the expected rate, and their absence raises questions about when they might occur. In Shocks, States, and Sustainability, Thomas K. Rudel addresses this question. He outlines a theory of environmental revolutions and when they will likely occur through a comparison of radical environmental reforms throughout the 20th century. By looking at farmers in the American Dust Bowl, land-use planners in post-war England, small farmers in post-Soviet Cuba, and lobster fishers along the coast of Maine, Rudel emphasizes how sudden focusing events can spur radical reforms by providing a fresh realization about the scarcity of natural resources. Shocks, States, and Sustainability explains how earth-shaking events like droughts, depressions, and wars can provide the foundations necessary for the pursuit of global sustainability.

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9780190921019

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Reviews

Can we act quickly enough to avoid climate disaster? Rudel is one of our finest (leading) environmental scholars (thinkers, researchers). His timely analysis extracts design principles from the recent history of rapid environmental reform. He offers effective strategies to deal with the most urgent problem of our times. -Thomas Dietz, University Distinguished Professor of Sociology, Environmental Science and Policy and Animal Studies, Michigan State University By applying theory to historical case studies, Tom Rudel convincingly explains what it will take to turn things around in the current environmental crisis. His answer is both hopeful-environmental restoration is possible through a sequence of institutional changes -but also deeply worrying-radical action to counter global climate change may only take place after catastrophic climate shocks. -Eric Lambin, George and Setsuko Ishiyama Provostial Professor and Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment, Stanford University and Professor, University of Louvain Tom Rudel is literally the best in the business-the business of sifting through dense clouds of events and time to divine insights that are almost clairvoyant. In Shocks, he digs deep into his capacity for big-picture thinking and emerges with a surprising but unassailable message: hope for humanity. -William F. Laurance, Distinguished Research Professor and Australian Laureate, Centre for Tropical Environmental and Sustainability Studies, James Cook University, Australia We have tons of environmental books about why we are doomed and how society cannot change to be more sustainable. Most of our social theories don't have a mechanism for positive change. With unusual cases where reform actually did happen and an original theoretical approach, Tom Rudel has sought to address that. In short, there is no book like this one. -J. Timmons Roberts, Ittleson Professor of Environmental Studies and Sociology, Brown University

Can we act quickly enough to avoid climate disaster? Rudel is one of our finest (leading) environmental scholars (thinkers, researchers). His timely analysis extracts design principles from the recent history of rapid environmental reform. He offers effective strategies to deal with the most urgent problem of our times. -Thomas Dietz, University Distinguished Professor of Sociology, Environmental Science and Policy and Animal Studies, Michigan State University By applying theory to historical case studies, Tom Rudel convincingly explains what it will take to turn things around in the current environmental crisis. His answer is both hopeful-environmental restoration is possible through a sequence of institutional changes -but also deeply worrying-radical action to counter global climate change may only take place after catastrophic climate shocks. -Eric Lambin, George and Setsuko Ishiyama Provostial Professor and Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment, Stanford University and Professor, University of Louvain Tom Rudel is literally the best in the business-the business of sifting through dense clouds of events and time to divine insights that are almost clairvoyant. In Shocks, he digs deep into his capacity for big-picture thinking and emerges with a surprising but unassailable message: hope for humanity. -William F. Laurance, Distinguished Research Professor and Australian Laureate, Centre for Tropical Environmental and Sustainability Studies, James Cook University, Australia We have tons of environmental books about why we are doomed and how society cannot change to be more sustainable. Most of our social theories don't have a mechanism for positive change. With unusual cases where reform actually did happen and an original theoretical approach, Tom Rudel has sought to address that. In short, there is no book like this one. -J. Timmons Roberts, Ittleson Professor of Environmental Studies and Sociology, Brown University

Author Information

Thomas K. Rudel is Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Departments of Human Ecology and Sociology at Rutgers University.

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