Environmental Politics

Catalog description

Citizens around the world are demanding a cleaner and healthier world as well as more just access to, and benefits from, the environment, in what some call the greening of international environmental politics. Problems such as air pollution, deforestation, famine, access to clean water, and loss of biodiversity pose numerous problems for states and policymakers, including, but not limited to, the increased potential for conflict. Unfortunately, creating effective governance regimes and negotiating such policies is difficult given the disparity between the political and economic power of various national and international actors, access to information, large number of diverse stakeholders, and disparate national priorities. Some multi-national corporations, small businesses and consumers are also actively involved in international environmental issues through the decisions they make in production and consumption of consumer items. While some critics argue that such activity is merely greenwashing, other supporters argue that business can and should play a more active role in global environmental sustainability. This course examines many of these problems central to the challenges of global environmental politics and enables students to identify and analyze their own values regarding these problems.