Global Environmental Sustainability: Case Studies and Analysis of the United Nations’ Journey toward Sustainable Development

Front Cover
Global Environmental Sustainability
Copyright Page
Dedication
Contents
List of Figures
List of Tables
List of Boxes
List of Appendixes
Preface
Acknowledgments
1 Introduction: Sustainable development—a preliminary reflection
	1.1 The rise and fall of sustainable development: A historical perspective
	1.2 Reemergence of sustainable development: The United Nations environmental protection initiatives
	1.3 The ethics of sustainable development
	1.4 Structure of the book
2 The United Nations' journey to global environmental sustainability since Stockholm: An assessment
	2.1 Introduction
	2.2 The United Nations’ journey to global environmental sustainability: The evolution of the Stockholm green era
	2.3 The Stockholm impediment and the Founex Report
	2.4 The Stockholm Conference and the North–South greening conflicts
	2.5 Outcomes of the Stockholm Conference
	2.6 The Cocoyoc Symposium
	2.7 The Stockholm Conference and the emergence of global environmental regimes
	2.8 The Stockholm environmental impacts: Some remarks
	2.9 The postStockholm era: The second wave of United Nations engagement with environmentally sustainable development
		2.9.1 The first World Climate Conference (1979)
		2.9.2 Stockholm+10 (1982) and the Brundtland Report (1987)
		2.9.3 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (The Earth Summit, 1992)
		2.9.4 The Earth Summit II: Review of Agenda 21
		2.9.5 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
		2.9.6 Convention on biological diversity and biodiversity conservation
		2.9.7 The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and Convention on Biological Diversity: Some remarks
	2.10 The United Nations' journey to environmental sustainability 2001 and beyond: The third wave
		2.10.1 The United Nations Millennium Summit
		2.10.2 The United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development or Rio+10 (2002)
	2.11 United Nations environmental efforts in the postRio+20
		2.11.1 World Summit (2005)
		2.11.2 Millennium Development Goals Summit (2010)
		2.11.3 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development or the Rio+20: The next milestone (2012)
		2.11.4 Global millennium development goals conference (GMC) (2013)
		2.11.5 UN Sustainable Development Summit (2015)
		2.11.6 The sustainable development goal Summit (2019)
	2.12 The United Nations’ journey to environmental sustainability: Some comments
	2.13 Concluding remarks
3 The United Nations’ journey to global environmental sustainability since Stockholm: The paradox
	3.1 Introduction
	3.2 Global environmental status since Stockholm: An overall view
	3.3 Forest conservation and deforestation: An empirical assessment
		3.3.1 Forest conservation: The raison d’être
		3.3.2 The United Nations forest protection initiatives
	3.4 Global forest tracking: Food and Agriculture Organization versus Global Forest Watch
		3.4.1 Forest: Some basic concepts and definitions
		3.4.2 Food and Agricultural Organization forest tracking methodology: Some basic facts
		3.4.3 Global Forest Watch forest tracking methodology: Some basic facts
		3.4.4 Food and Agricultural Organization and Global Forest Watch forest trackings: Some remarks
	3.5 Global forest loss: An empirical analysis
	3.6 Country-specific case studies
		3.6.1 South America—the Big-4 (Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, and Bolivia)
			3.6.1.1 Brazil: National forest protection initiatives
			3.6.1.2 The Brazilian Amazon forest: The reality
			3.6.1.3 Argentina, Bolivia, and Paraguay: The political wills of forest protection
			3.6.1.4 The state of forest in Argentina, Bolivia, and Paraguay
		3.6.2 Africa: Democratic Republic of Congo
			3.6.2.1 Democratic Republic of Congo forest protection initiatives
			3.6.2.2 Democratic Republic of Congo: The state of forests
		3.6.3 Indonesia: National forest policies
			3.6.3.1 Indonesia: The state of forests
		3.6.4 Other Southeast Asian countries
			3.6.4.1 Malaysia
			3.6.4.2 The Philippines
			3.6.4.3 Thailand
			3.6.4.4 Vietnam
	3.7 Global forest conservation: A bleak picture
	3.8 Biodiversity conservation: United Nations’ ecological conservation initiatives in retrospective
	3.9 Biodiversity conservation and environmental degradation: The global reality in general
	3.10 Biodiversity conservation in the tropical rainforest region (specific case study): The status quo
		3.10.1 The Brazilian Amazon: The status of biological diversity
		3.10.2 Biodiversity conservation in Brazil
		3.10.3 The state of biodiversity in Brazil
		3.10.4 The Brazilian Atlantic forest ecosystem dilemma—a human-induced ecological tragedy
	3.11 Africa
		3.11.1 The Democratic Republic of Congo: The status of biological diversity
		3.11.2 Democratic Republic of Congo biodiversity conservation policies
		3.11.3 The state of biodiversity in Democratic Republic of Congo
		3.11.4 The African status of biological diversity in general
		3.11.5 The African biodiversity protection initiatives in brief
		3.11.6 The state of biodiversity in Africa in general
			3.11.6.1 Elephant: The poaching crisis
			3.11.6.2 The plight of the African rhino
			3.11.6.3 The African wildlife crisis in general
			3.11.6.4 Transboundary PAs: The W-Arly-Pendjari Parks Complex
	3.12 Southeast Asia
		3.12.1 The United Nations environmental protection initiatives and its implications on the ASEAN-5’s environmental conserva...
		3.12.2 Indonesia: Biodiversity conservation efforts
		3.12.3 Indonesia: The state of biological diversity
		3.12.4 Malaysia: Biodiversity conservation efforts
		3.12.5 Malaysia: The state of biological diversity
		3.12.6 The Philippines: Biodiversity conservation efforts
		3.12.7 The Philippines: The state of biological diversity
		3.12.8 Thailand: Biodiversity conservation efforts
		3.12.9 Thailand: The state of biological diversity
		3.12.10 Vietnam: Biodiversity conservation efforts
		3.12.11 Vietnam: The state of biological diversity
		3.12.12 ASEAN transboundary regional environmental protection initiatives: The Heart of Borneo
		3.12.13 The Heart of Borneo: The state of environment
	3.13 China’s environmental protection and biodiversity conservation
		3.13.1 China’s environmental protection initiatives
		3.13.2 The paradox of China’s environmental sustainability: Water pollution
		3.13.3 The Three Gorges environmental dilemma
	3.14 Global biodiversity outlook: Some comments
	3.15 The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, carbon dioxide emissions, and atmospheric concentration: A ...
	3.16 Carbon emission country-specific case studies: China versus the United States
	3.17 China’s decarbonization initiatives: The road to Paris Accord
	3.18 China’s pathways to decarbonization: The arduous journey
		3.18.1 China’s journey to becoming the carbon dioxide emission monster
		3.18.2 The Mao era of economic transformation and carbon dioxide emission
		3.18.3 Economic performance during Deng Xiaoping’s reform period and post-Deng era
		3.18.4 Industrialization and carbon dioxide emission in the Post-Deng era
		3.18.5 China: The paradox of climate change policies
		3.18.6 The reversal of China’s climate change paradox? President Xi Jinping’s green factors
	3.19 Carbon dioxide emissions and climate change: The American “carbon curse” and Donald Trump’s anti- environmental attitu...
		3.19.1 The American carbon dioxide emission trends
		3.19.2 The breaking of the American carbon curse: The Barack Obama decarbonization legacy and the Donald Trump environmenta...
		3.19.3 The return of the American carbon curse: Donald Trump’s environmental protection rollback
		3.19.4 Donald Trump’s environmental philosophy: The contemporary Francis Bacon
	3.20 The United Nations’ road to global environmental sustainability: Some United Nation success stories
		3.20.1 Mauritania—environmental mainstreaming, sustainable resource management and poverty reduction
		3.20.2 Project Predator and policing the global illegal wildlife trade—Tiger
		3.20.3 Sustainable forest management in Nepal: Community Forestry Development Programmes
	3.21 The United Nations’ success stories: Some remarks
	3.22 Global environmental sustainability, biodiversity conservation and climate protection: The missing links
	3.23 Concluding remarks
4 Greening for a sustainable future: The ethical connection
	4.1 Introduction
	4.2 Environmental ethics and environmental sustainability: A theoretical assessment
		4.2.1 Anthropocentrism: A conceptual analysis
		4.2.2 Biocentrism
			4.2.2.1 Albert Schweitzer’s ethics of reverence for life
			4.2.2.2 Paul Taylor’s ethics of egalitarianism
			4.2.2.3 Peter Singer’s ethics of animal liberation
			4.2.2.4 Tom Regan’s animal rights
			4.2.2.5 Biocentrism: Some comments
	4.3 Ecocentrism and Aldo Leopold’s land ethic
	4.4 Albert Schweitzer’s reverence for life ethic: The Leopold connection and its implication for a pragmatic unification of...
		4.4.1 The anthropo–bioecocentric ethics
	4.5 Environmental ethics and de-ethics in a real-world system: Some empirical reflections
		4.5.1 The United Nations road to global environmental sustainability: The environmental paradox revisited
		4.5.2 Anthropocentrism: The Baiji tragedy and the African common Zebra ecological quagmire
		4.5.3 The Asian environmental philosophy in a human-centered world system
		4.5.4 The American world of utility maximization: Donald Trump’s anthropocentric decimation of nature
	4.6 The Canadian “anthropocentric conquest” of nature: The power of anthropocentrism
		4.6.1 Tar sands mining: Irreversible environmental transformation, global warming, and biodiversity impoverishment
		4.6.2 The politics of anthropocentrism: The Canadian libricide
		4.6.3 The politics of anthropocentrism: Transboundary environmental degradation
		4.6.4 The Canadian anthropocentric conquest of nature: Rounding up
	4.7 Sustainable environmental governance and the ethics of sustainability: The Nexus
	4.8 Concluding remarks
5 The nexus of environmental ethics and environmental sustainability: An empirical assessment
	5.1 Introduction
	5.2 Environmental philosophy—the epistemological disputes
	5.3 Indigenous land culture in brief
	5.4 Targeted areas of study—some basic facts
	5.5 Field trip physical environmental conditions in brief
	5.6 Fieldwork and interviews
	5.7 Empirical findings and the indigenous land use philosophy: Some conceptual underpinnings
	5.8 The indigenous duty-based moral principle: The Kantian categorical imperative
	5.9 Indigenous bioecocentric environmental worldview: The nexus of values, environmental attitudes, and moral actions
	5.10 The ethics of sustainability (bio-ecocentrism): The nonindigenous people versus the “urbanized” indigenous communities
		5.10.1 The urban nonindigenous people’s view of nature
		5.10.2 Rural indigenous people and urban mainstreaming: The changing environmental face?
	5.11 Concluding remarks
6 The United Nations environmental education initiatives: The green education failure and the way forward
	6.1 Introduction
	6.2 Environmental education: The raison d’être
	6.3 Environmental education and environmental literacy: The United Nations/UNESCO initiatives
		6.3.1 Environmental literacy: Some basic concepts
		6.3.2 The United Nations’ environmental education initiatives in the 1970s and 1980s
		6.3.3 United Nations’ environmental education initiatives in the 1980s
		6.3.4 The evolution of the United Nations/UNESCO Environmental Education discourse in the 1990s
		6.3.5 The United Nations’ environmental education initiatives in the 2000s: The emergence of the Decade of Education for Su...
		6.3.6 The Decade of Education for Sustainable Development and beyond
	6.4 The United Nations/UNESCO EE discourse: The changing face
	6.5 The United Nations/UNESCO environmental education initiatives: Some critical remarks
	6.6 The United Nations/UNESCO’s global environmental education efforts: Some success stories
	6.7 The United Nations’ environmental education initiatives: Other success stories
		6.7.1 Environmental and sustainable development success stories—some remarks
	6.8 The United Nations/UNESCO education for sustainable development revisited: The return of Émile Durkheim’s philosophical...
	6.9 The foundation of environmental education
		6.9.1 The first ring of predominance mechanism
		6.9.2 The impact-oriented maxim
	6.10 From the first ring of environmental predominance to the second ring of moral essentiality
		6.10.1 The first ring of environmental education: Where do we start from here?
		6.10.2 The first ring of education: Weak anthropocentric inducement
	6.11 Environmental education in practice: An illustration
		6.11.1 Nature study and conservation practice
		6.11.2 Environmental education in practice: A step-by-step approach in nature study and conservation practice
	6.12 Environmental education: Outdoor education programmes
	6.13 Environmental education for children
	6.14 Environmental education: Some remarks
	6.15 Moral education
	6.16 Why moral education can lead to proenvironmental behavior and actions?
		6.16.1 Social facts: The moving force behind Leopold-Schweitzer environmental philosophy
		6.16.2 Collective conscience, duality of humans and moral education: The nexus
	6.17 Environmental education framework: A suggested model
	6.18 Concluding remarks
7 Summary and conclusion
	7.1 The United Nations striving for global environmental sustainability since Stockholm
	7.2 From the United Nations’ journey to global environmental sustainability to the emergence of an anthropocentric world of...
	7.3 The United Nations ethical dilemmas
	7.4 Environmental ethics
	7.5 United Nations environmental education framework: The changing face
	7.6 The United Nations’ environmental education programs: Where do we go from here?
	7.7 Environmental sustainability: The current state and future outlook
		7.7.1 The world as it is
		7.7.2 Future outlook: Mapping the way forward—the Covid-19 way
	7.8 Concluding thoughts
Bibliography
	Chapter 1
	Chapter 2
	Chapter 3
	Chapter 4
	Chapter 5
	Chapter 6
Index
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