Beyond sustainability: Environmental management for the Anthropocene Epoch

Journal of Public Affairs

Volumn 12, Issue 3, 2012, Pages 181-194

  Robinson, Nicholas A ^a  

^a PACE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 84864299937     PISSN: 14723891     EISSN: 14791854     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1002/pa.1432     Document Type: Article

References (28)

1. Agenda 21, paragraph?1.1, United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, UN Doc. A/CONF.151/26 (four volumes, 1992)
2. Nicholas A. Robinson (Editor), Agenda 21: Earth's Action Plan (Oceana Publications, 1993).
3. This paper manuscript is based on a Keynote address to the Ashridge International Research Conference held on 10-12 June 2011 entitled 'The Sustainability Challenge: Organization Change and Transformational Vision'. It was delivered in the Concluding Panel on Public Policy Dimensions of Sustainability.
4. The Economist no 8735, cover and (May 28, 2011).399p. 11
5. Will Steffen, Paul J. Crutzen, and John R. McNeill, 'The Anthropocene: Are Humans Now Overwhelming the Great Forces of Nature?' Ambio, vol. 36. No 8, Dec. 2007.
6. Anthropocene Working Group of the Subcommission on Quaternary Statigraphy of the International Commission on Statigraphy
7. The Economist, vol. 399, no 8735 (May 28, p. 11, 2011).
8. James Gustave Speth and Peter M. Haas, Global Environmental Governance (2006), p. 44, On the 'Underlying Drivers of Deterioration'.
9. Martin Holdgate, The Green Wed-A Union for World Conservation (1999), p. 181
10. Barbara Lausche, Weaving A Web Of Environmental Law (2008) p. 207.
11. UN Commission on Environment and Development, Our Common Future, Chapter 1, (, Oxford University Press), also known as the Brundlund Commission report, named after its chairperson, the Prime Minister of Norway, Mme. Gro Harlem Brundlund.1987
12. Will Steffen, Paul J. Crutzen, and John R. McNeill, 'The Anthropocene: Are Humans Now Overwhelming the Great Forces of Nature?' Ambio, vol. 36. No 8, Dec. 2007].
13. The report of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment or the reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change document of such altered conditions. For example, the Antarctic ice core reveals 420?000?years of climate conditions. The current levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are higher than at any time in this record. Already the Dutch government's Rhine Delta Commission has begun implementing a 200-year plan to protect the Netherlands from the effects of sea-level rise and the deeper fluctuations of floods and droughts and temperatures.
14. Gunter Pauli, The Blue Economy: 10 Years, 100 Innovations, 100 Million Jobs (2010).
15. Peter Ackroyd, London Under (2011).
16. START (Global Change SysTem for Analysis, Training and Research in Southeast Asia, ), Critical States, (Chiang Mai University, Malaysia, Unit for Social & Environmental Research, 2009).
17. Our Common Future, supra note viii, at Chapter 2, p. 43.
18. Consider the complex manipulations of 'cap and trade' market mechanisms relevant to controlling pollution. See Nicholas A. Robinson, 'Hedging against Wider Collapse: Lessons from the "Meltdowns"', in Lin-Heng Lye, Janet E. Milne, Hope Ashiabor, Larry Krieser and Kurt Deketelaere, Critical Issues in Environmental Taxation, (vol. VII, 2009) at 625-663.
19. Quotes from author's interview in with Albert L. Albertsson, Dep. CEO, HS Orka hf, Brekkustig 36, 260 Reykjanesbæ, Iceland.2011
20. Not all principles are equally fundamental or accepted. The most fundamental principles are often taken for granted. Other principles relevant to sustainable development are important but not as fundamental as the two discussed here. For example, there are many other principles from the 1992 Rio Declaration that will support sustainability, such as Principle 10, public participation in environmental decision making, and Principle 17, on environmental impact assessment, expressed in the UN Declaration on Environment and Development. The Earth Charter synthesizes these and other principles into a holistic ethical framework that may appropriately guide environmental management techniques in meeting the challenges of the Anthropocene. Another principle endorsed by the European Parliament in is the Principle of Non-regression, which would prevent governments from reverting to environmentally destructive acts once they have been banned by law; repeals of environmental safeguards would be prohibited.2011
21. A Cooperative Species-Human Reciprocity and its Evolution (Princeton University Press, 2011).
22. For example, in The Analects (Book 15, chapter 23) of Confucius, it is written: 'Is there one word which may serve as a rule of practice all one's life?' The Master said, 'Is not reciprocity such a word?'
23. Mark Pagel, Wired for Culture: The Natural History of Human Co-operation (Allen Lane, 2011).
24. B. Walker & D. Salt, Resilience Thinking.
25. B. Walker, S.R. Carpenter & A. Kinzig, 'Resilience, Adaptability & Transformability in Socio-Ecological Systems,' Ecology & Society (9) (2), which may be accessed at ), and the studies of the Resilience Alliance, at Stockholm University, at
26. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and the UN Development Programme (UNDP)
27. George Pring and Catherine Pring, Greening Justice: Creating and Improving Environmental Courts and Tribunals (2009).
28. The Asian Development Bank has been a leader in exploring how such courts can be effective. The courts implement Principles 10 (public participation) and 17 (environmental impact assessment) in the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, which are being realized in Asian cities.1992