Too rapidly rising carbon taxes or the introduction of subsidies for renewable energies induce owners of fossil fuel reserves to increase their extraction rates for fear of their reserves becoming worthless. Fossil fuel use is thus brought forward. The resulting acceleration of global warming and counter-productivity of well-intended climate policy has been coined the Green Paradox. This volume presents a range of studies extending the basic analysis to allow for clean energy alternatives, dirty energy alternatives, and the intricate strategic issues between different countries on the globe.

The Jevons Paradox, which was first expressed in 1865 by William Stanley Jevons in relation to use of coal, states that an increase in efficiency in using a resource leads to increased use of that resource rather than to a reduction. This has subsequently been proved to apply not just to fossil fuels, but other resource use scenarios. For example, doubling the efficiency of food production per hectare over the last 50 years (due to the Green Revolution) did not solve the problem of hunger. The increase in efficiency increased production and worsened hunger because of the resulting increase in population. The implications of this in todays world are substantial. Many scientists and policymakers argue that future technological innovations will reduce consumption of resources; the Jevons Paradox explains why this may be a false hope. This is the first book to provide a historical overview of the Jevons Paradox, provide evidence for its existence and apply it to complex systems. Written and edited by world experts in the fields of economics, ecological economics, technology and the environment, it explains the myth of efficiency and explores its implications for resource usage (particularly oil). It is a must-read for policymakers, natural resource managers, academics and students concerned with the effects of efficiency on resource use.

"This highly innovative book is a multidisciplinary study of green and its significance from multiple perspectives: aesthetic, architectural, environmental, political, and social. It is centered on the Kingdom of Bahrain, the smallest and greenest of the Arab states in the Persian Gulf, where green has a long and deep history appearing cooling, productive, and prosperous--and a radical contrast to the hot, hostile desert. As is the case with cities around the world, green is often celebrated as a counter to gray urban environments, yet green has not always been good for cities. To have the color green manifested in arid environments is often in direct conflict with 'green' from an environmental point of view; this paradox is at the heart of the book. Given the resources required to maintain green in arid areas, including cities, the provision of green often bears significant environmental costs. In arid environments such as Bahrain, this contradiction becomes extreme and even unsustainable. Based on long-term ethnographic fieldwork, Gareth Doherty explores the landscapes of Bahrain where green represents a plethora of implicit human values and lives in dialectical tension with other culturally and environmentally significant colors and hues. The book's six chapters focus on: Blue, Red, Date-palm Green, Grass Green, Beige, and White. Implicit in his book is the argument that concepts of color and object are mutually defining and thus a discussion about green becomes a discussion about the creation of space and place"--

This is the eBook of the printed book and may not include any media, website access codes, or print supplements that may come packaged with the bound book. Updated in its 6th edition, The Environmental Policy Paradox provides an introduction to the policy-making process in the United States with regard to air, water, land use, agriculture, energy, and waste disposal, while introducing readers to both global and international environmental issues and institutions. The text explains why some environmental ideas shape policy while others do not, and illustrates that even when the best short- and long-term solutions to environmental problems are identified, the task of implementing these solutions is often left undone or is completed too late. Readers are presented with a comprehensive history of the environmental movement paired with the most up-to-date account of environmental policy available today.

A leading economist develops a supply-side approach to fighting climate change that encourages resource owners to leave more of their fossil carbon underground. The Earth is getting warmer. Yet, as Hans-Werner Sinn points out in this provocative book, the dominant policy approach—which aims to curb consumption of fossil energy—has been ineffective. Despite policy makers' efforts to promote alternative energy, impose emission controls on cars, and enforce tough energy-efficiency standards for buildings, the relentlessly rising curve of CO2 output does not show the slightest downward turn. Some proposed solutions are downright harmful: cultivating crops to make biofuels not only contributes to global warming but also uses resources that should be devoted to feeding the world's hungry. In The Green Paradox, Sinn proposes a new, more pragmatic approach based not on regulating the demand for fossil fuels but on controlling the supply. The owners of carbon resources, Sinn explains, are pre-empting future regulation by accelerating the production of fossil energy while they can. This is the “Green Paradox”: expected future reduction in carbon consumption has the effect of accelerating climate change. Sinn suggests a supply-side solution: inducing the owners of carbon resources to leave more of their wealth underground. He proposes the swift introduction of a “Super-Kyoto” system—gathering all consumer countries into a cartel by means of a worldwide, coordinated cap-and-trade system supported by the levying of source taxes on capital income—to spoil the resource owners' appetite for financial assets. Only if we can shift our focus from local demand to worldwide supply policies for reducing carbon emissions, Sinn argues, will we have a chance of staving off climate disaster.

The perseveration of our natural environment has become a critical objective of environmental scientists, business owners, and citizens alike. Because we depend on natural resources to survive, uncovering methods for preserving and maintaining these resources has become a focal point to ensure a high quality of life for future generations. Natural Resources Management: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications emphasizes the importance of land, soil, water, foliage, and wildlife conservation efforts and management. Focusing on sustainability solutions and methods for preserving the natural environment, this critical multi-volume research work is a comprehensive resource for environmental conservationists, policymakers, researchers, and graduate-level students interested in identifying key research in the field of natural resource preservation and management.

This timely Handbook draws together insightful analyses of natural resource management challenges and solutions in the face of sustainable development targets and a changing global climate.