8 - Conclusion
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
Summary
It has to start somewhere.
It has to start sometime.
What better place than here?
What better time than now?
– Rage Against The Machine, Guerilla RadioThis book has covered what might seem to be an eclectic array of topics and information: current thinking on the world's oil supply and why ethanol is a problematic transitional fuel, carbon offset forests as an unrealistic and unfair response to climate change, the influence that a few corporations have over much of our food supply, the volume and effects of e-waste on less economically developed countries, the cocktail of toxins we all carry in our bodies, and limitations of assuming resource scarcity leads to armed conflict to name a few issues. Many of the topics examined in this book spill across the chapter headings. The discussion of plastic water bottles, for instance, is in the chapter on garbage and waste, but it is also relevant for oil and energy as well as toxins. The Mexican tortilla riots were discussed in the chapter on oil and energy and mentioned in the chapter on resource conflicts, but clearly these events pertain to food security as well. Diacetyl, the butter flavoring in microwave popcorn, was discussed in the chapter on toxins, but clearly it is also an issue for food security. The book has demonstrated a two-fold approach that assesses power dimensions shaping the way we think (or do not think) about environmental issues and that focus our attention on (or away from) particular spatial scales.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Environmental PoliticsScale and Power, pp. 201 - 207Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010