North America in the Anthropocene

By Robert William Sandford

Examines sustainability and climate change in North America through the idea of the Anthropocene, when human activity has become a planetary environmental force.

North America in the Anthropocene begins from the premise that economic activity, energy use and consumption now operate at a scale capable of altering climate, biodiversity and other Earth systems. Robert William Sandford uses North America as a case study for asking how societies respond when environmental limits can no longer be treated as distant or external.

The book connects climate policy with sustainable development and considers the institutional, cultural and psychological barriers that slow action even when the risks are widely understood. Drawing on contemporary thought in philosophy, ethics and the social sciences, Sandford argues that information alone is unlikely to produce the scale of change required.

Canada, the United States and Mexico are considered within a shared continental context in which energy, water, consumption and governance cross borders. The book is suited to environmental studies, climate policy, sustainability and readers interested in the social dimensions of ecological change.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1771601809
• ISBN13: 9781771601801
• Release Date: November 2016
• Publisher: Rocky Mountain Books Incorporated
• Length: 168 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 4.6" x 7.1"