Synopsis

My research on environmental policy and climate change has had a number of different foci and initially grew out of prior work on the social dimensions of risk. I pursued some of the early efforts to formulate—and then critique—the theory ecological modernization that developed in Europe during the 1990s as a technocratic approach for improving energy and materials efficiencies and advancing clean production strategies. I then became preoccupied during the first presidential term of George W. Bush in appraising the administration’s environmental policy agenda which was, at least from my perspective, scientifically flawed and deeply misguided. In due course, I became involved in exploring a number of other issues including research on the establishment of some carbon-trading initiatives, the institutionalization of the field of industrial ecology, and the debates that ensued around a provocative essay published in 2004 on the “death of environmentalism.” My most recent work has contributed to ongoing discussions about the efficacy of carbon rationing which—in one form or another—is likely to be the only truly effective way of reducing greenhouse-gas emissions to safe levels.

Related Book Chapters and Journal Articles

2016 (forthcoming)

The Relationship Between Science and Policy in the United States, in Andre Martinuzzi, Gerd Scholl, and Michel Sedlacko, Eds., Knowledge Brokerage for Sustainable Development, Sheffield: Greenleaf

2010

Is the UK Preparing for ‘War’? Military Metaphors, Personal Carbon Allowances, and Consumption Rationing in Historical Perspective, Climatic Change 104(2):199–222

2008

Environmental Policies in Their Cultural and Historical Contexts, in J. Boersema and H. Reijnders, Eds., Principles of Environmental Sciences, Berlin: Springer

2006

The Death of Environmentalism: An Introduction to the Symposium, Organization & Environment 19(1):74–81

Ecological Modernization and its Discontents: Can the American Environmental Movement Overcome Its Resistance to Technology? Futures 38(5):528–547

Success and its Price: The Institutional and Political Foundations of Industrial Ecology, Journal of Industrial Ecology 10(1):79–88 (with Jeff Howard)

The Roots of Sustainability Science: A Tribute to Gilbert F. White, Sustainability: Science, Policy, & Practice 2(2):1–3

2005

California RECLAIM’s Market Failure: Lessons for the Kyoto Protocol, Climate Policy 4(4):427–442 (with Anne Egelston)

2004

George W. Bush and the Environmental Protection Agency: A Midterm Appraisal, Society and Natural Resources 17(1):69–88

2003

The Bush Administration and Climate Change: Prospects for an Effective Policy Response, Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning 5(4):315–331 (with Anne Egelston)

2000

Ecological Modernization, Environmental Knowledge, and National Character: A Preliminary Analysis of the Netherlands, Environmental Politics 9(1):77–106

Sustainable Development and Ecological Modernisation: National Capacity for Rigorous Environmental Reform, in Denis Requier-Desjardins, Clive Spash, and Jan van der Straaten, Eds., Environmental Policy and Societal Aims, Dordrecht: Kluwer

1998

Science and the Environment: Assessing Cultural Capacity for Ecological Modernization, Public Understanding of Science 7(2):149–167

Evidence of a New Environmentalism: Investor and Consumer Activism as Expressions of Postmaterial Values, pp. 111–140 in Michael Pollitt and Ian Jones, Eds., The Role of Business Ethics in Economic Performance, Basingstoke: Macmillan Press

Related Media

2015

Fighting Back Against Climate Change, The New York Times, 24 February

2014

While Fracking Ban Marks Important First Step, Comprehensive Measures Need to Be Enacted, Town Topics (Princeton, NJ), 13 August

2009

Environmental Commission Role Needs Recasting, Princeton Packet, 30 July

Last updated February 12, 2016