Environmental Skepticism : Ecology, Power and Public Life

The material resources all come from nature, yet ecology is usually underappreciated in international relations as a source of power. This title examines the political implications and processes of environmental skepticism in the context of critical international relations theory and global ecological justice propositions.

''Environmental skepticism'' describes the viewpoint that major environmental problems are either unreal or unimportant. In other words, environmental skepticism holds that environmental problems, especially global ones, are inauthentic. Peter Jacques describes, both empirically and historically, how environmental skepticism has been organized by mostly US-based conservative think tanks as an anti-environmental counter-movement. This is the first book to analyze the importance of the US conservative counter-movement in world politics and its meaning for democratic and accountable deliberation, as well as its importance as a mal-adaptive project that hinders the world''s people to rise to the challenges of sustainability. Specific consideration is given to the threat of the counter-movement to marginalized people of the world and its philosophical implications through its commitment to a ''deep anthropocentrism''.