Reseñas proporcionadas por Syndetics

School Library Journal Review

YA-- In the summer of 1988, brutal heat, widespread pollution on northeastern beaches, and fear of the greenhouse effect marked a turning point for American environmental policy. Vig and Kraft have edited a series of 17 articles in order to analyze ``important developments . . . over the past two decades and to analyze the issues ahead.'' The NIMBY (``Not In My Back Yard'') factor is examined as well as the process by which specific issues become part of the political agenda. The role of the courts in setting environmental policy is considered and an alternative to litigation is examined in balanced detail. The final section is devoted to the ethics, values, and future of this crucial area. Detailed, clear charts are included on major congressional committees and their responsibilities, as well as the responsibilities of the executive branches. There is also a listing of all federal laws on the environment, with key provisions, since 1969. Every article ends with an average of 45 notes and bibliographic references. A very fine resource.-- Barbara Weathers, Duchesne Academy, Houston (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

CHOICE Review

This revision of Environmental Policy in the 1980s (1984) is a welcome addition to the spate of environmental policy books for undergraduates and shifts attention from the Reagan era's inattention to environmental concerns to such challenges as the "institutionalization" of policy, local and state "Not-in-My Backyard" syndrome issues, comparative and international environmental problems (environmental regulation in Western Europe and environmental pressures in developing countries), and environmental ethics. The contributions are replete with references to current scholarship and relevant government reports. There is a balance between academics and contributors from research institutes and consulting enterprises involved in the "trench warfare" of environmental policy-making. As in any collection that attempts to cover a great deal of material in a relatively small space, insufficient opportunity is provided for discussing environmental controversies from contending perspectives. Greater attention could have been devoted to important, emerging issues in the area of environmental ethics other than those felt significant by the contributors. Discussions of eco-feminism, animal rights controversies, regional and intergenerational equity exemplified by nuclear and hazardous wastes and global climate change would have been valuable as well. -D. L. Feldman, Oak Ridge National Laboratory