CHAPTER COMMENTARY

The chapter on environmental issues forms part of a block of related chapters covering
globalization and social change (Chapter 4), human-environment relations (Chapter 5),
large-scale human settlement in cities and urban environments (Chapter 6), and global
economic interconnections (Chapter 7). This gives Sociology a very solid historical and
developmental foundation underpinning the discrete specialisms that make up the rest of
the book.

The chapter opens with an analysis of the 2011 Japanese tsunami disaster in order to
illustrate the consequences of its global reach. The environment qualifies as a sociological
issue by virtue of the fact that, (a) natural disasters affect people in unequal ways poor
individuals and poor countries are more vulnerable (b) many environmental threats are in
part the result of human behaviour and sociology makes sense of that human behaviour,
and (c) sociology can help us to evaluate policy proposals aimed at tackling environmental
problems. Taken together, these provide a convincing justification of why sociologists
should regard the environment as of concern to them after all, many of the problems and
solutions discussed in the chapter are primarily social. The text continues with a discussion
of key terms including nature and environment, showing how their meanings are related to
social contexts. In particular, changes in the dominant meaning of nature occurred alongside
urbanization and industrialization as more people became distanced from an everyday
connection with animals and farming practices. Sociological work on environmental issues
has tended to be polarised between social constructionist and critical (or environmental)
realist approaches. Social constructionists explore the history of environmental issues, the
various discourses about them, the ways in which arguments are put together and which
social groups and individuals are involved. In short, constructionists focus on environmental
claims-making and claims-denying activity. By contrast, critical realists aim to get beneath
the surface appearance of things to provide causal explanations of environmental problems.
The polarization may not be insurmountable though as only at the extreme ends of each
perspective is there a fundamental conflict of approach.

From here we move on to specific environmental bads that combine social interactions
with natural phenomena. These are air pollution from industrial and domestic sources,
water pollution (especially in the developing world) and the very tangible impact of solid
Polity Press 2013
This file should be used solely for the purpose of review and must not be otherwise stored,
duplicated, copied or sold
 The Environment

waste, much of which goes to landfill. Of a somewhat different nature is the depletion of a
resource that is to a greater or lesser extent renewable: water insecurity and its
(un)equitable location and distribution which disproportionately affects the worlds poorest.

The final part of this subsection begins to relate environmental issues to the related theme
of risk, which pervades contemporary sociology. The concept of a risk society was
introduced in Chapter 3. Two features of this risk society are reviewed as illustrations of its
worldwide reach. The first example is the controversy over the use of genetically modified
organisms (GMOs). A very thorough explanation of the issues worldwide is provided in the
next few pages and some evaluation provided. The second is global warming, usually taken
to be the rise in average temperature at Earths surface, partly caused by human activities,
especially those associated with modern, industrial societies. An account is provided of the
basic science of global warming and evidence collected by the IPCC over recent years
showing an anthropogenic contribution is discussed and debated including sceptical voices
and the CimateGate affair. The potential impact of unchecked climate change of this kind
are rising sea levels, new deserts, famine and increasingly unpredictable climatic conditions.
The political responses to these alarming projections are discussed, with a particular focus
on the Kyoto Protocol, Copenhagen and Cancun UN conferences. Again, many of the same
global inequalities are brought into sharp relief by these problems.

The next section brings together sociological theories of contemporary societies and
concerns for the long-term viability of human life and the planets natural ecology. Theories
of consumerism and the consumer society help to explain the continuous quest for novelty
and the impact of the throwaway society on the natural environments capacity for
recovery. The notion that economic growth cannot go on indefinitely on a planet with finite
natural resources is the basic premise of the limits to growth thesis, first outlined and
tested in the 1970s and repeated since then with fresh assumptions. The Limits models
are discussed as a Classic Study here, though many now see them as unnecessarily
pessimistic. The most widespread and influential perspective in this field is that of
sustainable development (SD), which can be traced back to the Bruntland Report (1987). SD
combines two aims, namely reducing the impact of industrial societies to ecologically
sustainable levels and enabling the societies of the developing world to make economic and
social progress without encountering the same problems associated with industrial
development. Becks very influential risk society thesis is presented as a modern classic
study. In a period when environmental risks and problems are coming to be seen as global in
character, Beck suggests that the old Marxist two-class model is redundant. When the
wealth cake is found to be poisoned, how much of it we get becomes a secondary
consideration. Beck argues that new sociological theories will be required to get to grips
with this new situation. The final theory to be discussed is ecological modernization, which
looks for practical ways to generate environmentally sensitive forms of growth and
modernization. Ecological modernization puts great store in new green technologies as well
as price mechanisms, state intervention, social movement pressure and ecological
ideologies to bring about this somewhat utopian outcome.

The chapter ends with a brief discussion of environmental justice and ecological citizenship.
Environmental justice movements seek to bring to light and resolve some of the worst
environmental issues facing working class groups and communities. For example, many have
concentrated on the re-siting of toxic dumps and waste incinerators close to housing
estates. Ecological citizenship is seen by some as the next stage of citizenship, following the
civil, political and social forms. It would impose new obligations on people to consider not
just their own needs and rights, but those of other animals, the natural environment and

38
 The Environment and Risk

future generations of people. One possible element of this would be the introduction of a
precautionary principle, which states that when considering new developments, the onus
should be on the developers to demonstrate that they would not compromise animal
welfare, ecological integrity or future generations.

TEACHING TOPICS
1. Nature under threat
This topic is concerned with the details of the tangible threats to the environment, most
notably certain forms of pollution and the global water supply. Particular attention is paid to
the science and politics of these, and an attempt made to evaluate them conceptually and
empirically.

2. People and environment in a risk society

Here, the aim is to examine the concept of the risk society and also to explore empirically
some of the main threats to the global environment and their implications for social
organization.

ACTIVITIES
Activity 1: Nature under threat
A. Read the section Environmental issues.

1. Write down three types of natural resources and the extent to which they are presently
being undermined.
2. What is it about the world patterns of consumption and production that create such
problems?

B. Now look at these extracts from the original Club of Rome report.

Although we can here express only our preliminary views, recognizing that they still
require a great deal of reflection and ordering, we are in agreement on the
following points:

1. We are convinced that realization of the quantitative restraints of the world

environment and of the tragic consequences of an overshoot is essential to the
initiation of new forms of thinking that will lead to a fundamental revision of human
behaviour and, by implication, of the entire fabric of present-day society.
2. We are further convinced that demographic pressure in the world has already
attained such a high level, and is moreover so unequally distributed, that this alone
must compel mankind to seek a state of equilibrium on our planet.
3. We recognize that world equilibrium can become a reality only if the lot of the
so-called developing countries is substantially improved, both in absolute terms and
relative to the economically developed nations, and we affirm that this
improvement can be achieved only through a global strategy.

39
 The Environment

4. We affirm that the global issue of development is, however, so closely interlinked
with other global issues that an overall strategy must be evolved to attack all major
problems, including in particular those of mans relationship with his environment

5. we believe that the predominantly quantitative approach used in this report is
an indispensable tool for understanding the operation of the problematique and
a mastery of its elements.

[from D. Meadows et al., The Limits to Growth, London: Earth Island Limited, 1972,
pp. 1913.

1. What do you think is meant by a state of equilibrium in the context of the Club of Rome
report? What kind of implications do you think this might have?
2. The Factor Four report cites seven good reasons for resource efficiency. Look at each in
turn and decide if it is a moral or material reason. Justify your answers.
3. Hold a workshop in which you construct your own six-point plan to arrest the decline of
the worlds natural resources. Place them in rank order of urgency and then be prepared
to justify your choice.

Activity 2: People and environment in a risk society

A. Read the account in the chapter on the controversy over GM Foods. What do you think
this tells us about the way we receive information about risks and how we try to make
judgements about them?

B. Now study this final passage, in which Ulrich Beck introduces the distinctive nature of the
risk society:

Can the concept of risk carry the theoretical and historical significance which is
demanded of it here? Is this not a primeval phenomenon of human action? Are not
risks already characteristic of the industrial society period, against which they are
being differentiated here? It is also true that risks are not an invention of
modernity. Anyone who set out to discover new countries and continents like
Columbus certainly accepted risks. But these were personal risks, not global
dangers like those that arise for all of humanity from nuclear fission or the storage
of radioactive waste. In that earlier period, the word risk had a note of bravery
and adventure, not the threat of self-destruction of all life on Earth.

Forests have also been dying for some centuries now first through being
transformed into fields, then through reckless overcutting. But the death of forests
today occurs globally, as the implicit consequence of industrialization with quite
different social and political consequences. Heavily wooded countries like Norway
and Sweden, which hardly have any pollutant-intensive industries of their own, are
also affected. They have to settle up the pollution accounts of other highly
industrialized countries with dying trees, plants and animal species.

It is reported that sailors who fell into the Thames in the early nineteenth century
did not drown, but rather choked to death inhaling the foul-smelling and poisonous
fumes of this London sewer. A walk through the narrow streets of a medieval city
would also have been like running the gauntlet for the nose. [] It is nevertheless
striking that hazards in those days assaulted the nose or the eyes and were thus

40
 The Environment and Risk

perceptible to the senses, while the risks of civilization today typically escape
perception and are localized in the sphere of physical and chemical formulas (e.g.
toxins in foodstuffs or the nuclear threat).

Another difference is directly connected to this. In the past, the hazards could be
traced back to an undersupply of hygienic technology. Today they have their basis
in industrial overproduction. The risks and hazards of today thus differ in an
essential way from the superficially similar ones in the middle ages through the
global nature of their threat (people, animals and plants) and through their modern
causes. They are risks of modernization. They are a wholesale product of
industrialization, and are systematically intensified as it becomes global.

[Ulrich Beck, Risk Society, London: Sage, 1992, pp. 201]

1. Compare Becks thesis with the other theories outlined in the final section of the
chapter. What features do you detect that are identified by some, most or all of these?
2. Think about what possible actions you could take as an individual to reduce the risks
identified in this chapter. Do you already do these? If not, what do you think prevents
you from doing so? Which of the theories is better at explaining many peoples
reluctance to engage in environmentally benign actions
3. Several writers have used the term reflexive modernization to describe the conditions
under which these new risks emerge. Find the word reflexive in the dictionary. Using
the text and the readings, try and explain what you think it means in this context.

REFLECTION & DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Nature under threat
At what point might a renewable resource become non-renewable?
Is science or politics to blame for the despoliation of the environment?
Do we have the right to preserve forests in the developing world now that we have
destroyed our own during industrialization?

People and environment in a risk society

Isnt it inconsistent to interfere with nature to preserve habitats but not to increase
food production using GM?
Do we know enough about the process of global warming to calculate the likely effects
of our response?
Can the individual make a difference in an era of global risks?

ESSAY QUESTIONS
1. Are the issues raised in The Limits to Growth report still salient in the twenty-first
century?

2. What can sociologists contribute to understanding and solving environmental problems?

3. Sustainable development has become a catch-all concept that is virtually meaningless.

How far is this assessment accurate?

41
 The Environment

4. Risks display a social boomerang effect in their diffusion: even the rich and powerful are
not safe from them (Ulrich Beck). Explain and evaluate this statement with reference to
the chapters evidence on global warming.

MAKING CONNECTIONS
Nature under threat
For some historical appreciation of the way humans have interacted with nature at different
times and in different places one could look to material on types of society in Chapter 4 and
in Chapter 6, the impact of urban living on the environment is explored.

People and environment in a risk society

The increasing significance of the environment as an issue can be gauged through an
analysis of the main social movements described in Chapter 22, though the theme of risk
recurs across the book.

SAMPLE SESSION

People and environment in a risk society

Aims: To introduce and explore the concept of risk society in the context of ecological
crisis and reflexive modernization.

Outcome: By the end of the session the student will be able to:
1. Explain the terms greenhouse gases, global warming and genetic modification.
2. State how risk today is different from risk in the past.
3. Explain the concept risks of modernization.
4. Define reflexive modernization.

Preparatory tasks
1. Read the section Living in the risk society and the Beck extract from Task B of the
Activity.
2. Complete Task B, Question 3: definitions of reflexive and reflexive modernization.

Classroom tasks
1. Tutor-led feedback of preparatory work clarifying key terms and the changing
dimensions of risk. (15 minutes)
2. Split class into pairs to consider possible action individuals can take to reduce risk. (15
minutes)
3. Tutor-led feedback from the pairs highlighting the relationship between the individual,
social groups and global risk. (15 minutes)
4. Tutor-led feedback from preparatory tasks on definition of reflexive and reflexive
modernization. (15 minutes)

Assessment task
Essay: Drawing on relevant evidence and theories, should we be aiming for a sociology of
the environment or an environmental sociology?

42