International Encyclopedia of Environmental
Politics.
by VanNijnatten, Debora L.
International Encyclopedia of Environmental Politics
John Barry and E. Gene Frankland, eds. 2002. Routledge, London and
New York. ISBN 0-415-20285-X $150.00 (US) 513 pp.
This first edition of the International Encyclopedia of
Environmental Politics represents a Herculean effort to provide a
"map of international environmental politics from A to Z." One
of the Encyclopedia's editors likened the process of handling the
165 contributors to "driving a bunch of hogs to market, with them
running off in all kinds of different directions." Yet Barry and
Frankland's administrative ordeal has surely benefited the rest of
us; the Encyclopedia places at the disposal of those in the
environmental policy community information on an impressive range of
issues (see, for example, "factory farming" or the
"Gorleben controversy"), concepts (including
"monkey-wrenching" and "externalities"), countries
and regions (from Luxembourg to Amazonia), people (take a look at the
interesting entries for Petra Kelly and Sara Parkin), the environmental
movement (I had never heard of "MOVE") and environmental
thought (every strain is represented here).
To get a sense of whether the Encyclopedia would be of use to
academics and analysts, as well as activists, I subjected the book to a
few weeks of reference 'tests.' I came to the conclusion that
the Encyclopedia was excellent in terms of concepts, green parties and
environmental thought, probably less helpful in terms of trends in the
use of different environmental policy instruments. The country and
regional overviews were generally helpful (although the entry for North
Africa and the Middle East region was decidedly disappointing).
A student meandering into my office, wanting to know where to start
on a term paper dealing with sustainable development in India, initiated
a first search through the thematic entry list at the front (the themes
relate mainly to countries, issues/concepts and people). The country
overview for India was highly informative and contained numerous links
to other references as well as additional reading.
I suppose it is unavoidable, in a reference work such as this, that
some of the entries are a tad frivolous. A look at one of my alarmingly
elevated fuel bills encouraged me one evening to consult the more
detailed Index at the back for "energy conservation." The
entry provided a brief overview of "the rational use of
energy" and exhorted me to replace incandescent with fluorescent
lighting. Only one source for further reading was provided.
However, it was most telling that every time I picked up the
Encyclopedia to look up one entry, I ended up flipping around to read
others as there was so much of interest. The Encyclopedia contains much
for the uninitiated, perhaps even more for the expert who wishes to have
all manner of environment-related information within easy reach.
Retailing at US $150, the International Encyclopedia of
Environmental Politics is unlikely to be a required course purchase,
although I would strongly recommend that those teaching environmental
politics and environmental studies make sure that students have access
to this reference work in their institutional library. The Encyclopedia
also would be a valuable resource for smaller environmental libraries
(in government or NGO offices). It is certainly an invaluable addition
to my own reference materials on environmental politics.
Reviewed by Debora L. VanNijnatten, Department of Political
Science, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
COPYRIGHT 2003 Wilfrid Laurier
University Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.
Copyright 2003, Gale Group. All rights
reserved. Gale Group is a Thomson Corporation Company.
NOTE: All illustrations and photos have been removed from this article.