The world witnessed again the historic “Stockholm Moment” at the 50th anniversary (2–3 June 2022) of the 1972 United Nations (UN) Conference on the Human Environment (Stockholm). Notwithstanding the marathon global environmental regulatory processes; instruments and institutions; the global environmental crisis propelled the UN Secretary-General to raise alarm bells, especially for the “triple planetary crises” of climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss which threaten our planet, peace, and prosperity in the Anthropocene epoch. It is in this context that the book, Our Earth Matters, edited by Professor Bharat H. Desai of Jawaharlal Nehru University, provides a pathbreaking, cutting-edge scholarly understanding of the predicament of human progress at this critical juncture.
The book contains twenty-one chapters by twenty-three outstanding scholars and practitioners from around the world. It explores a range of issues comprising international lawmaking processes, intergenerational equity, an earth system approach, and common prospects for a better common environmental future amidst the existential planetary crisis. The exemplary work, zest, and vision of the editor are reflected in the sheer range of issues, the organization of the book, and efforts to provide a futuristic gaze.
The work is organized into four parts: prognoses, processes, problematique, and prospects. In its first part, four chapters provide a prognosis of the planetary trust for present and future generations; an evolving earth system law with an Earth-centric approach, and suggestions for a new ecological law to face the current socio-ecological crisis. The four chapters in the second part scan the global regulatory process concerning the usage of the global conferencing technique in international environmental lawmaking; the possible reframing of environmental law with allocative efficiency through social-economic processes; the renewed role of the UN General Assembly for global environmental conferencing; and the proposal for a “new environmental charter”. The third part covers seven chapters that comprise variable issues of the global problematique in the realms of climate change, biodiversity, natural resources, marine resources, water resources, environmental crimes, armed conflict, and the environment. The last part of the book takes a look ahead into the future in five chapters with Palme's vision for the global environment, with a new look at international environmental governance: a revival with a new mandate for the environment and global commons for the UN Trusteeship Council; the elevation of the UN Environment Programme into a “specialized agency”; and the role of international courts and tribunals as new environmental sentinels, including the creation of an international environmental court.
Desai, an outstanding international law scholar from the Global South, has curated this remarkable volume with a robust message that Our Earth Matters. The book provides a strong futuristic and ideational echo in the class of the 1972 classic Only One Earth (by Barbara Ward and René Dubos). The work holds significance in placing the instrumentality of international law at the forefront to provide solutions for global environmental problems. Because of the sheer depth and high quality of scholarly contributions and suggestions for a better common future, this book would be an excellent tool for international law scholars, governmental decision-makers, the UN system, and other international organizations engaged in the future of life on planet Earth in the 21st century and beyond.
Competing interests
The author declares none.
