International Encyclopedia of Environmental Politics.

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