Ecological Security: An Evolutionary Perspective on GlobalizationRowman & Littlefield, 2004 - 285 pages Global environmental politics has emerged from its initial incarnation in the arena of 'low politics' and is rapidly becoming a 'high politics' concern. Concern over water pollution, air pollution, deforestation, and related basic environmental issues is giving way to a broader ecological security agenda. In this pathbreaking book, Dennis Clark Pirages and Theresa Manley DeGeest argue for dramatically broadening the context in which security priorities are established in an age of increasing globalization. Addressing the very fundamental question of the sources of premature human deaths and associated insecurity, both historically and in the contemporary world, the authors observe that in the twentieth century starvation killed nearly as many people as did military conflict. But disease was responsible for killing nearly fourteen times as many people as was warfare. And in the contemporary world of the twenty-first century, environmental terrorism and biological warfare are blurring the traditional distinctions between natural disasters, accidental deaths, and military casualties. Ecological Security moves the analysis of global environmental and resource issues to the next level by developing an 'eco-evolutionary' perspective for analyzing emerging problems associated with rapid globalization. Preserving future ecological security will depend upon maintaining dynamic equilibriums among human populations, and between them and pathogenic microorganisms, other species, and the sustaining capabilities of nature. This eco-evolutionary framework is used to anticipate and analyze emerging demographic, ecological, and technological discontinuities and dilemmas associated with rapid globalization. The authors conclude by stressing the need for new kinds of global public goods to mitigate the harshest impacts of these rapid and interrelated changes. |
Contents
Demographic Change and Ecological Insecurity | 45 |
An Assault on the Global Commons | 55 |
Cycles of Insecurity | 81 |
Copyright | |
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Ecological Security: An Evolutionary Perspective on Globalization Dennis Pirages,Theresa Manley DeGeest No preview available - 2004 |
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Africa agreements agricultural animals areas barrels biological biotechnology capita challenges China Climate Change conflict consumption continue coun creating crisis crops cultural Data decades decline demographic demographic transition drugs eco-evolutionary ecological security economic growth ecosystems energy Environment environmental estimated ethnic European European Union example exports farming food production Foreign fossil fuels future global governance global public Global South global warming greenhouse growing HIV/AIDS Homo sapiens impact important increase increasingly India Industrial Revolution insecurity intellectual property International invasive species issues Kyoto Protocol less industrialized countries levels living long-term microorganisms million moving nature nomic North oil prices OPEC Organization ozone pathogens percent petroleum political pollution poor countries population growth potential problems progress protection rapid regions requires result Science significant social societies sociocultural evolution species spread sustainable development technological innovation technologies threats tion trade transformation United Nations University Press Washington Post worldwide York