Some researchers recently have been focusing on the interactions between nature and our contemporary economic and geopolitical systems. The following are two abstracts of articles that focus on these topics. The first (see # 9) concerns an article by Theodore Panayotou in which he uses evidence to test the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis of economic development. The other abstract (see #8) concerns an article written by Simon Dalby which criticizes the paranoid writings of Robert Kaplan, who was worried that rising populations and environmental degradation would lead to social collapse.

 

Globalization has been a key part of recent  discourse concerning human-environment relations. The natural world is constantly being affected by the needs of global markets. Likewise, global markets are constantly being affected by the natural world. Abstracts 11, 12, 18, and 19 in the Abstract Filing Cabinet illustrate the relationship between globalization, global markets, and the environment.

 

It is also worth noting that Western notions of nature’s purity are often exploited by companies to attract customers. Wilk’s article entitled Bottled Water: The Pure Commodity in the Age of Branding and Carrier’s article entitled Protecting the Environment the Natural Way: Ethical Consumption and Commodity Fetishism are both excellent illustrations of these corporate strategies in practice. My abstracts for these two articles can also be found in the Abstract Filing Cabinet (#13 and 20 respectively).

 

Environmental issues have become a mainstream concern throughout the world. As such, political players will often use such concerns to appeal to voters. This can be seen in Germany, where the far-right has been appealing to such concerns to gain support. For more information, check the Abstract Filing Cabinet (see #15).