Title: Introduction: The Political Dimension of Environmentalism
Abstract: It is only since the 1970s that the environment has become a salient political issue, and only since the latter half of the 1980s that it became a mainstream one. As a consequence, the study of environmental politics has discarded its Cinderella status. Indeed, by the late 1980s, we seemed to be entering a new Green era, where environmental concern had become the height of fashion. In the developed world at least, opinion polls revealed mounting public concern for the state of the environment; consumers demanded environmentally friendly products and producers, with varying degrees of honesty, sought to provide them; recycling centres and bottle banks flourished. Since the late 1980s, the environment has slipped down the issue agenda a little, overtaken by dramatic political and economic events. It is now established, however, as a permanently important feature of political and academic discourse. Sovereign states are now locked into a supranational structure of institutions and processes, initially set in train by the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment convened in Stockholm in 1972 and built upon at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) held at Rio 20 years later, and at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (Rio+10) held in Johannesburg in 2002.
Publication Year: 2011
Publication Date: 2011-01-01
Language: en
Type: book-chapter
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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