Understanding Environmental Policy

About this book

To what extent do environmental problems and the policy approaches we take reflect the ways in which we value ecosystems as compared with the value we place on material consumption? What public policies are needed to reduce environmentally damaging behaviors? Do we have the capacity to manage the environmental policies we develop? Formulating sound, effective environmental policies requires attention to a broad range of political, scientific, management, and moral issues.

In Understanding Environmental Policy, Steven Cohen integrates these various facets to develop an innovative, multidimensional framework for analyzing and improving environmental policy. He applies this framework to four case studies that reflect challenges faced by local, national, and international environmental policymakers.

Cohen discusses New York City's garbage crisis, the problem of leaks from underground storage units, toxic waste contamination and the Superfund program, and global climate change. His analysis reveals the successes, failures, and development of environmental policies. It also provides an up-to-date discussion of the George W. Bush administration's responses to current environmental crises.

Contents

Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments

Part I. Developing a Framework
Chapter 1. Understanding Environmental Policy
Chapter 2. A Framework for Understanding Environmental Policy

Part II. Applying the Framework
Chapter 3. Why New York City Can't Take Out the Garbage
Chapter 4. Why Companies Let Valuable Gasoline Leak Out of Underground Tanks
Chapter 5. Have We Learned How to Clean Up Toxic Waste Sites, and Can We Afford It?
Chapter 6. Have We Made the Planet Warmer, and If We Have, How Can We Stop?

Part III. Critiquing the Framework
Chapter 7. What Have We Learned from the Framework About Environmental Problems, and What Else Do We Need to Know?
Chapter 8. Conclusions: Improving Environmental Policy

References
Index

Customer Reviews

Biography

Steven Cohen is director of the Master of Public Administration Program in Environmental Science and Policy at the School of International and Public Affairs and the Earth Institute at Columbia University. He is the author of five other books, including The Effective Public Manager: Achieving Success in Changing Government (with William Eimicke).