Week 2 History

PS536, Global Environmental Law and Policy 

Spring Semester 2008

Session Outline - Week 2 

History of International Environmental Policy

cars per capita, country comparisons

I.  Introduction

•     How far back should we go?

    What should we include in this history?

• • Breakthoughts in Environmental Thought/Perspectives

  • Scientific Projects and Findings

  • Environmental Events/Developments

  • Institutional and Legal Developments

II.  Waves of Environmental Concern

• Late 1960s and early 1970s

• Late 1980s and early 1990s

• 2005-present?

III.  Breakthroughs in Environmental Thought/Perspectives

• Individual Thinkers

                Thomas Malthus  (1800)

                George Perkins Marsh  (Man and Nature, 1864)

                V.I.  Vernadsky--idea of "biosphere"  (1920s)

                Rachel Carson    (Silent Spring--1962)

                Barbara Ward (Spaceship Earth--1966)

                Kenneth Boulding ("The Economics of the Coming Spaceship Earth"-1966)

                Garret Hardin  ("Tragedy of the Commons"--1968)

                Paul Ehrlich (The Population Bomb--1969)

                Lester Brown (preeminent neo-Malthusian)

                Herman Daley  (steady-state economics)

                E.F. Schumacher (Small is Beautiful--1973)

                William Ophuls  (Ecology and the Politics of Scarcity--1977)

                Bill McKibben  (The End of Nature--1989, 1999)

           (skeptics)

                Julian Simon  (The Ultimate Resource, 1981)

                Bjørn Lomborg  (The Skeptical Environmentalist--2001)  (critiques) 

•     Major Group Reports

              Club of Rome (The Limits to Growth--1971)

              Carter Administration (The Global 2000 Report--1980)

              Brundtland Commission (Our Common Future--1987)

    Millenium Ecosystem Assessment   (2005)

IV.     Scientific Projects/Findings 

International Geophysical Year (1957-58) 

Svante Odén's "Insidious Chemical Warfare"  (1968) 

Rowland/Molina theory on CFCs and the Ozone Layer (1974)

            World Climate Program (1980-present) 

  International Geosphere Biosphere Program (1986-present) 

  International Human Dimensions Program (1989-present) 

  Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (1988-present)

V.  Environmental Events/Developments

                London Killer Smog (1954) 

                Minamata disease--Japan  (1950s and 1960s) 

               Torrey Canyon disaster (1967) 

                Spread of "forest death" in Europe  (late 1970s to present) 

      Bhopal disaster (1984)

                Antarctic Ozone Hole announced (1985) 

                Chernobyl disaster (1986) 

                Hurricane Mitch (1998) 

                European heat wave (2003) 

                Asian Tsunami  (2005) 

                Hurricane Katrina  (2005)

VI.    Institutional/Legal Developments

• Major International Conferences

            UN Conference on the Human Environment (Stockholm, 1972)

            World Population Conferences  (1974, 1984, 1994)

            World Food Conferences (1974, 1996)

            Human Settlements Conferences (1976, 1996)

            World Climate Conferences (1979, 1980)

           UN Conference on Environment and Development (Rio, 1992)

           World Summit on Sustainable Development (2002) 

• International Institutions

            UN Environment Program  (1973)

            Global Environment Facility  (1990)

            UN Commission on Sustainable Development (1993) 

• International Treaties/Conventions

            Limited Test Ban Treaty (1963)

            Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (1973)

            Convention on the Law of the Sea (1982)

            Montreal Protocol (1987)

            Treaty on Biological Diversity (1992)

            Framework Convention on Climate Change (1992)

            Kyoto Protocol  (1997)

            Cartagena Protocol on Biological Safety (2000)

            Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (2001)