The Long Road to Sustainability: The Past, Present, and Future of International Environmental Law and Policy

The Long Road to Sustainability: The Past, Present, and Future of International Environmental Law and Policy
by: Alexander Gillespie (Author)
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Publication Date: 1 Feb. 2018
Language: English
Print Length: 294 pages
ISBN-10: 019881951X
ISBN-13: 9780198819516
Book Description
For the last few thousand years, humanity has struggled to achieve sustainable development. Gillespie sees the problem as multi-faceted: a three legged stool of economic, social, and environmental conundrums have stalled the quest for the long term viability of both our species and the ecosystems in which we reside. Gillespie moves from the low life expectancy, excessive deforestation, and wetland drainage of the medieval period, through the species loss, coal burning, free trade, and poor waste management of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and to the more recent concerns of climate change, unsustainable fisheries, and chemical pollutants. By delivering a comprehensive examination of human survival over the past millennium, Gillespie illustrates that the challenges we face are not new – that we now have the means to counter them, is.

About the Author

Book Description An examination of humanity’s quest for sustainable development over the last millennium About the Author Alexander Gillespie is Professor of International Law at the University of Waikato, and Rapporteur for the World Heritage Convention. He is author of several books, and has been awarded a Rotary International Scholarship, Fulbright Fellowship, Rockerfeller Fellowship, and the New Zealand Law Foundation International Research Fellowship. Gillespie has also been the lawyer/expert on a number of international delegations and advised the New Zealand government on multiple matters of international concern. Gillespie was the first New Zealander to be named Rapporteur for the World Heritage Convention, involving international environmental diplomacy under the auspices of UNESCO. Gillespie has also been engaged in policy formation for the United Nations, the Commonwealth Secretariat, and governmental, commercial, and non-governmental organizations in New Zealand, Australia, United States, United Kingdom, Ireland and Switzerland.