Today, the judge, the citizen, the politician, and the entrepreneur are concerned with the sustainability of our development.

A practical, bipartisan call to action from the world’s leading thinkers on the environment and sustainability Sustainability has emerged as a global priority over the past several years. The 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change and the adoption of the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals through the United Nations have highlighted the need to address critical challenges such as the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, water shortages, and air pollution. But in the United States, partisan divides, regional disputes, and deep disagreements over core principles have made it nearly impossible to chart a course toward a sustainable future. This timely new book, edited by celebrated scholar Daniel C. Esty, offers fresh thinking and forward-looking solutions from environmental thought leaders across the political spectrum. The book’s forty essays cover such subjects as ecology, environmental justice, Big Data, public health, and climate change, all with an emphasis on sustainability. The book focuses on moving toward sustainability through actionable, bipartisan approaches based on rigorous analytical research.

The environmental movement is plagued by pessimism. And that’s not unreasonable: with so many complicated, seemingly intractable problems facing the planet, coupled with a need to convince people of the dangers we face, it’s hard not to focus on the negative But that paints an unbalanced—and overly disheartening—picture of what’s going on with environmental stewardship today. There are success stories, and Our Once and Future Planet delivers a fascinating account of one of the most impressive areas of current environmental experimentation and innovation: ecological restoration. Veteran investigative reporter Paddy Woodworth has spent years traveling the globe and talking with people—scientists, politicians, and ordinary citizens—who are working on the front lines of the battle against environmental degradation. At sites ranging from Mexico to New Zealand and Chicago to Cape Town, Woodworth shows us the striking successes (and a few humbling failures) of groups that are attempting to use cutting-edge science to restore blighted, polluted, and otherwise troubled landscapes to states of ecological health—and, in some of the most controversial cases, to particular moments in historical time, before widespread human intervention. His firsthand field reports and interviews with participants reveal the promise, power, and limitations of restoration. Ecological restoration alone won’t solve the myriad problems facing our environment. But Our Once and Future Planet demonstrates the role it can play, and the hope, inspiration, and new knowledge that can come from saving even one small patch of earth.

NASA Astrobiologist and renowned scientist Dr. David Grinspoon brings readers an optimistic message about humanity's future in the face of climate change. For the first time in Earth's history, our planet is experiencing a confluence of rapidly accelerating changes prompted by one species: humans. Climate change is only the most visible of the modifications we've made--up until this point, inadvertently--to the planet. And our current behavior threatens not only our own future but that of countless other creatures. By comparing Earth's story to those of other planets, astrobiologist David Grinspoon shows what a strange and novel development it is for a species to evolve to build machines, and ultimately, global societies with world-shaping influence. Without minimizing the challenges of the next century, Grinspoon suggests that our present moment is not only one of peril, but also great potential, especially when viewed from a 10,000-year perspective. Our species has surmounted the threat of extinction before, thanks to our innate ingenuity and ability to adapt, and there's every reason to believe we can do so again. Our challenge now is to awaken to our role as a force of planetary change, and to grow into this task. We must become graceful planetary engineers, conscious shapers of our environment and caretakers of Earth's biosphere. This is a perspective that begs us to ask not just what future do we want to avoid, but what do we seek to build? What kind of world do we want? Are humans the worst thing or the best thing to ever happen to our planet? Today we stand at a pivotal juncture, and the answer will depend on the choices we make.

Changing Circumstances - Looking At The Future Of The Planet is an expansive presentation of international contemporary photography, video, and new media art addressing the challenges presented by global change. The book shows the works of over 30+ leading international artists, focusing on the ways in which photographic, video and digital art reflects on our relationship, as individuals and as a society, to the natural environment around us. An important aspect of this presentation is how individual artists are using their work to initiate and actively support change that seeks to correct the negative impact of human behaviour on the natural environment. The purpose of the book is to provoke, through visual art, new ways of thinking about how we see our role within the natural environment and our connection(s) to the rest of the planet - and how this affects our future. While we cannot ignore the problems of the planet today, the book will not simply be a recitation of negative prognoses. Rather it will look at ways in which artists and scientists are re-visioning our relationship with the earth and space. The artists and artworks address a broad range of issues that we understand as key challenges to the future of the earth - including climate change, migration, water, energy production, and natural resources. Many of the works present atypical uses of visual art and photography to address these changes with new media, moving image, performance, and text. Lead essays will be provided by the pioneering curator Wendy Watriss, Co-Curator of the Changing Circumstances Exhibition and Co-Founder of FotoFest International, and by FotoFest Executive Director and Co-Curator of the Changing Circumstances Exhibition, Steven Evans. The authors will look at the shifting relationships between contemporary art photography, issues of global change, and activism. Co-Founder of FotoFest International and Changing Circumstances Co-Curator Frederick Baldwin, with Watriss and Evans, will provide a philosophical overview of the project in the introduction. The Artists Amy Balkin (USA) Mandy Barker (UK) Daniel Beltrá (Spain) Atul Bhalla (India) Edward Burtynsky (Canada) Barbara Ciurej and Lindsay Lochman (USA) Pedro David (Brazil) Luis Delgado-Qualtrough (Mexico/USA) Susan Derges (UK) Nigel Dickinson (UK) Dornith Doherty (USA) David Doubilet (USA) Peter Fend (USA) Roberto Fernández Ibáñez (Uruguay) Karen Glaser (USA) Gina Glover (UK) Ingo Günther (Germany/USA) Niklas Goldbach (Germany) Lucy Helton (UK/USA) Chris Jordan (USA) Isaac Julien (UK) David Liittschwager (USA) Pablo Lopez Luz (Mexico) Evelyn Messinger and Kim Spencer (USA) Vik Muniz (Brazil) Robert Harding Pittman (Germany/USA) Meridel Rubenstein (USA) Joel Sartore (USA) Toby Smith (UK) Jamey Stillings (USA) Martin Stupich (USA) Brad Temkin (USA)

**Winner of the 2019 Sussex International Theory Prize** -- How climate change will affect our political theory - for better and worse Despite the science and the summits, leading capitalist states have not achieved anything close to an adequate level of carbon mitigation. There is now simply no way to prevent the planet breaching the threshold of two degrees Celsius set by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. What are the likely political and economic outcomes of this? Where is the overheating world heading? To further the struggle for climate justice, we need to have some idea how the existing global order is likely to adjust to a rapidly changing environment. Climate Leviathan provides a radical way of thinking about the intensifying challenges to the global order. Drawing on a wide range of political thought, Joel Wainwright and Geoff Mann argue that rapid climate change will transform the world's political economy and the fundamental political arrangements most people take for granted. The result will be a capitalist planetary sovereignty, a terrifying eventuality that makes the construction of viable, radical alternatives truly imperative.

Water is a human right: “A rousing case for what will be one of the key environmental challenges of the twenty-first century.” —Booklist The United Nations has recognized access to water as a basic human right—but there is still much work to be done to stem this growing environmental crisis. In this book, water activist Maude Barlow draws on her extensive experience to lay out a set of key principles that show the way forward to what she calls a “water-secure and water-just world.” Not only does she reveal the powerful players even now impeding the recognition of the human right to water, she argues that water must not become a commodity to be bought and sold on the open market. Focusing on solutions, she includes stories of struggle and resistance from marginalized communities, as well as government policies that work for both people and the planet. At a time when climate change has moved to the top of the national agenda and the stage is being set for unprecedented drought, mass starvation, and the migration of millions of refugees in search of water, Blue Future is an urgent call to preserve our most valuable resource for generations to come. “In a book as clear as a pristine mountain stream, Maude Barlow lays out a practical and inspiring vision for how we can defend water—the source of all life—from the forces of death.” —Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine