Learning to Manage Global Environmental Risks

Review: Learning to Manage Global Environmental Risks By The Social Learning Group Reviewed by Umar Karim Mirza Pakistan Institute of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Pakistan The Social Learning Group. Learning to Manage Global Environmental Risks. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2001. 2 vols. Vol. 1: A Comparative History of Social Responses to Climate Change, Ozone Depletion, and Acid Rain. 376 pp. ISBN 0-262-19444-9 (cloth) ; 0- 262-69238-4 (paperback). US75. 00 cloth; US30. 00 paperback. Recycled alkaline paper. Vol. 2: A Functional Analysis of Social Responses to Climate Change, Ozone Depletion, and Acid Rain. 226 pp. ISBN 0-262-19445-7 (cloth) ; 0- 262-69239-2 (paperback) US60. 00 cloth; US24. 00 paperback. Recycled alkaline paper. This two-volume book contains 22 chapters contributed by 37 scholars of the Social Learning Group. They include among others university teachers, scientists, researchers, doctoral students, and journalists. The scholars represent nine different nations from Europe and North America. Dr. Bert Bolin, former chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has written the foreword to this book. Volume 1 comprises 14 chapters in all, divided into two parts. The first part provides an introduction to the volume and the historical overview of the problems of acid rain, ozone depletion, and climate change. The second part contains individual country studies and the role of coordinated regional or international efforts to combat these environmental problems. An appendix gives short an introduction for each contributing scholar while the volume ends with author and subject indices. The indices cover Volume 2 also. There are eight chapters in Volume 2, again divided into two parts. Part One, consisting of seven chapters, signifies the importance of risk assessment and monitoring, and discusses the option assessment goal and strategy formulation, implementation, evaluation, and knowledge and action in the management of global environmental risks. The last chapter forms the second part and describes the conclusions drawn and the implications for the future. The first of the two appendices explains the research protocol of the project while the second one is a repeat of the Volume 1 appendix about contributing scholars. Author and subject indices are there to mark the end