Who Rules the Earth?

How Social Rules Shape Our Planet and

OurLives
Paul F. Steinberg
Oxford UP 2015
338 pages
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Rating

9 Applicability
8 Innovation
8 Style

Take-Aways
Environmental degradation threatens life on the planet.
Governments create and change the civic rules and laws that concern the environment.
Social rules, which determine how people and organizations act, also affect the Earth.
Some rules and laws lead to ecological damage, but all rules are subject to change.

Focus

People should unite to change rules and laws that harm the planet. First, take aim at the

Leadership & Management

Governments wield this power. Direct your main efforts at senior and elected officials.

Strategy
Sales & Marketing
Finance
Human Resources
IT, Production & Logistics
Career & Self-Development
Small Business
Economics & Politics
Industries
Global Business

super rules that dictate the making or elimination of other rules.

Dont rely on one base of power. Build multiple layers of support, so your initiatives
dont evaporate at the first sign of trouble or when the government changes hands.

Enlist the participation and advice of people who know the system and the players, who
can navigate the bureaucracy, and who understand how things get done.

Industry often opposes environmental regulation. The toughest rules can generate the
greatest benefits by forcing corporations to innovate.

Seek win-win solutions in changing the rules. The more stakeholders who benefit, the
easier the path to change will be. People must act big, act together and move fast.

Concepts & Trends

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Relevance

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What You Will Learn
In this summary, you will learn:r1) How social rules and civic regulations work, 2) Why rules are necessary, 3) Which
rules are dangerous and susceptible to improvement, and 4) How to change the rules or create new ones to benefit
the environment.
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Review
Sustainability professor Paul F. Steinberg studies social rules and civic governance in terms of how they affect
the environment. He alerts readers to something vitally important hiding in plain sight: Nations, regions, local
administrations and society itself create and change the formal and informal rules that protect or exploit the Earth.
These rules and regulations affect natural resources, deforestation, polluting emissions, pesticides, recycling, water
rights, and much more. Such rules dont appear spontaneously. Organizations, people and coalitions debate and fight
for them fiercely. Many rules seem perverse and most citizens believe they cant do anything to change them. But
they can. Rules are mutable and, Steinberg says, people must work to change them in order to save the planet.
getAbstract recommends Steinbergs overview to executives, futurists, concerned citizens, and current or potential
activists frustrated with the pace of change.
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Summary

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We learn that glaciers
are melting and sea
levels are expected
to rise due to global
warming and in
response we are
advised to ride a
bicycle to work.
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The transition to
sustainability requires
transforming the rules
we live by.
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Rules Can Change

Organized society would collapse quickly without rules. If you doubt it, try living in a
country that has few rules or that enforces them randomly and arbitrarily. Rules operate for
good or bad, but you have the power to change them.
Nations, regions and towns create and change rules to protect natural resources, and to
prevent pollution and destruction. Such rules dont appear spontaneously. Organizations,
people and coalitions fight for them. Corporations hire lawyers and lobbyists and contribute
to political campaigns. People and coalitions protest, write letters and meet with lawmakers.
Yet only a few citizens participate in collective activism. Instead, most people take isolated,
individual action; they recycle, ride a bike to work or install solar panels. Working in
harmony, they make a difference. However, sustainability wont come from individual
actions, but from changing social rules so everyones behavior changes. People must act
big, act together and move fast.
Are Pesticides OK?
Country doctor June Irwin lives in the Canadian town of Hudson near Montreal, Qubec.
In 1985, she became convinced that pesticides harmed her patients and everyone else in
Hudson. She petitioned the town council and persisted for six years until a sympathetic
mayor took office. In 1991, Hudson enacted a municipal-wide ban on nonessential use of
pesticides. Lawn care and pesticide company lawyers argued that towns had no right to ban
pesticides. Ultimately, the Supreme Court of Canada upheld Hudsons new rules. Towns
and cities across Canada passed similar and even stricter rules. By 2010, legislation keeping
areas pesticide free protected 75% of Canadian citizens. Stunned by the Canadian court
decision, a coalition of pesticide interests in the US convinced all but a handful of US
states to enact preemptive laws that forbid local governments from even trying to control
pesticides. As a result, many American children play in toxic parks and on poisoned lawns.

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Rules and routines
allow us to move
through a complex
world without
subdividing our
attention to the point of
mental paralysis.
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If rules are to
last, rather than be
jettisoned at the first
sign of waning support,
the new rules must
enjoy the support of
diverse constituencies.
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The race to save the
Earth will be won or
lost one country at
a time, as a result of
political decisions
made in almost 200
sovereign nations and
their willingness and
ability to implement
reforms.
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What we see might
be a farmer in Brazil
setting fire to a patch of
forest to make way for
cattle. But underlying
this seemingly local and
personal decision is
an elaborate system of
national rules shaping
the farmers decisions.
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LEED: Improving Building Design

The potential for change is real and substantial. Large-scale social reform is possible.
Consider the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standard, referred to as
LEED. Builder David Gottfried wanted to build environmentally friendly buildings. After
working with the American Association of Testing and Materials (ASTM) for five years,
he left and, with other leaders, formed the US Green Building Council, which developed
the LEED standard in 1998. Builders around the world adopted it quickly. By 2010, onethird of all commercial buildings built in the US adhered to LEED requirements.
Five years of effort means spending a lot of time to get something done. People,
governments and organizations often prefer not to devote that much dedication and money
to matters that benefit others. Persuading people, organizations and government officials
to get on board may require offering them incentives or showing how acting to protect the
environment would benefit them.
The legacy of existing processes and rules creates a barrier against change even when
change makes rational sense. Entrenched bureaucracy, standard operating procedures and
habitual behavior prevent organizations from generating reforms or moving very quickly.
Businesses resist change and cling to the idea that weve always done it this way.
Governments institute rules to address one-off problems, but rarely address underlying
issues. Despite the tendency of those in power to resist change, reformers can succeed
through organized, collective efforts. They must align their desired changes with the selfinterests of those who influence or make the rules.
Conflicting Interests Can Stymie Change
Sustained environmental protection needs the teeth of social rules, as well as laws and
regulations. Most people, despite their good intentions, cant keep activist momentum going
forever. After successful change, most reformers return to their normal activities instead of
safeguarding their gains. Activists must institutionalize changes by establishing rules and
laws that may be difficult to pass but that would be more difficult to undo. The visionaries
responsible for the US Bill of Rights, for example, saw the need for societal rules to protect
citizens rights. Enshrining the rules in fundamental law ensured their lasting influence.
The paths of migratory birds, such as the cerulean warbler, illustrate the international tangle
of rules that affect birds, people and the environment. The tiny blue warblers journey north
from their winter home in Peru through the rain forests of Columbia and Central America,
encountering both deforestation and bird sanctuaries, depending on the jurisdiction. By the
time they cross the Gulf of Mexico, they form part of a massive cloud of migratory birds
more than one million each day that cross into the US. There, myriad rules affect the
warblers environment as they fly to their breeding grounds in West Virginia.
Lax environmental rules there mean sparse tree cover, and that is hastening the loss of
cerulean warblers worldwide. Despite a 75% decline in the birds population since 1975,
authorities in the US wont enforce existing laws to preserve it. Ironically, powerful industry
groups remove West Virginia judges and politicians who fail to protect the interests of
powerful, local coal companies.
Innovative Solutions
The odds seem stacked against environmental reform, yet advocates and their government
allies often succeed by using persistence and innovation. For example, in the late 1970s,
after decades of citizen activism, the US government determined that leaded gasoline

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The old adage to think
globally and act locally
is just plain wrong.
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Placing a solar panel
on your home is a
positive step; placing
a requirement for
renewable energy in
government legislation
is an outright sprint.
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drastically harms the environment and peoples health. The government imposed gradually
increasing limits on leaded gasoline along with tradeable permits that allowed the
producers who reduced their usage most quickly to sell their permits to laggards. This winwin strategy gave producers an incentive to go quickly beyond mere compliance. By using
clever incentives and enlisting industry to police itself, the government saved hundreds
of millions of dollars.
Governments use citizen activism to help enforce environmental rules. For example, in
the US and South Africa, any citizen can sue anyone, including government agencies,
for violating or failing to enforce the law. Now, US citizens bring three-quarters of all
environmental court cases.
Rules Do Work
Good laws enable commerce to operate smoothly, while corrupt governments impede
business. In Peru and Kenya, democracy and capitalism struggled for decades. In contrast,
professional, capable civil services vaulted Singapore and South Korea into prosperity.
Even in advanced economies, however, rules often create perverse incentives. For example,
the price of gas in the US doesnt factor in the cost of stationing troops in the Middle East
to protect oil transports. Likewise, the cost of electricity doesnt pay for the environmental
damage that coal mining causes, including the emissions from burning coal. If consumers
paid these costs directly, they would have an immediate, pressing incentive to switch to
alternative energy sources.
Oil, gas and other industries fight regulations, arguing that the compliance costs harm them
unfairly. But regulations can spur innovation that benefits industry in the long run. New laws
may spur fresh production methods that save money and make businesses more competitive.

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Whether we choose
to notice them or not,
social rules pervade
every aspect of our
lives.
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Every business and
every community, every
religion and nonprofit
organization, every
terrorist network, taco
vendor and art museum
relies on social rules to
achieve its ends.
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Whos Got the Power?

Multinational corporations and international nonprofits play an important role in harming or
advancing environment causes, but they cannot match governments influence and power,
especially national governments, which make the rules that everyone must follow.
Top democracies often perform little better than dictatorships in protecting the environment.
A political party or rulers length of terms in office matters, because the longer a party or
regime retains power, the better the chances are that its environmental reforms will take
root. Wise activists enlist the support of many lawmakers and affected populations. For
example, officials are more likely to enforce a national governments regulation of a wildlife
preserve if local peer pressure also discourages violators. In such cases, political winds can
shift without undermining local support.
Environmental efforts wax and wane as political parties and regional authorities exchange
power. In the US, decades of environmental leadership from the 1960s to the 1990s gave
way to governments that tend to oppose environmental protection initiatives at home and
abroad. The US has become one of the developed worlds worst actors. In other nations,
short-term initiatives start and stop based on political realities revolving around gaining
and keeping power.
Action and buy-in are necessary on all levels Environmental activists must work to
influence their governments. National and international bodies should coordinate with local
and regional parties to make sure that good rules are instituted and enforced. However, at

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present, no international body has the teeth to enforce ecological or climate rulings. The
UN, Interpol, the International Criminal Court, and other bodies cant do very much when
nations simply ignore their edicts.

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Rules and creativity
are not at odds they
are, in fact, close
allies.
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The European Union

As a central government that speaks for 27 nations, the European Union represents
unprecedented international unification and cooperation. Its accomplishments include
environmental rules protecting the air and water; regulations on food, waste and toxins;
and rules setting an allowable volume of emissions. The EU represents the best hope for
improving current laws and gaining cooperation among a number of sovereign nations.
Generally, such power resides chiefly at the national level. The growing influence of
transnational bodies, such as the EU, runs concurrently with local and regional gains within
nations. National governments increasingly cede authority to these governments, so local
politics and activism play an indispensable role in conservation and sustainability.

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Lasting change
requires modifying the
very rules that societies
live by.
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Thosewho
assume that power
is unassailable
are controlled and
manipulated with great
efficiency because we
impose constraints on
ourselves, relieving
those in power of the
burden of responding
to a coordinated
challenge.
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Cooperation Is Critical
Ecologist Garrett Hardin wrote about the tragedy of the commons in 1968. He argued
that any shared resource pasturelands or ocean fisheries, for example invariably suffers
depletion. Everyone benefits individually from exploiting a resource while the overall
population suffers just as much from its destruction. People grab what they can, as fast as
they can, while they can. Hardin ignored thousands of years of successful management of
the commons mostly at the local level conducted by cooperating citizens who voluntarily
adhered to rules and quotas.
In general, local decision making seems to work. For example, in the US, state governments
take responsibility for implementing federal pollution standards and may improve them if
they wish. Two-thirds of US states voluntarily exceed federal standards, largely because of
citizen activism. Where citizens dont participate, state politicians place much less priority
on the environment. Politicians avoid risk, but they crave visible wins to maximize their
chances of re-election. As decision making devolves to local governments, local successes
will show politicians whats possible and will inspire more action.
Controlling the Rule-Making Process
Super rules determine what political bodies are empowered to discuss and change, and who
gets to speak. Before a group makes rules, its participants must agree to super rules that
determine the nature of their interaction, what they can discuss and who is allowed to speak.
Super rules outline the methods on hand for bringing about change in the world. In some
authoritarian nations, rule makers imprison, torture or even kill environmentalists. Such
governments create rigid parameters to constrain activism. Even in democracies, powerful
parties forestall challenges by withholding information or by creating preemptive rules so
issues dont surface. To attain their goals and gain a share of power, citizens must change
the super rules.

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About the Author

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Paul F. Steinberg is professor of sustainability and environmental policy at Californias Harvey Mudd College,
where he directs the Social Rules Project. He also wrote Comparative Environmental Politics and Environmental
Leadership in Developing Countries.
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