Corporate Power and the Environment

Corporate Power and the Environment
Author: George A. Gonzalez
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Total Pages: 159
Release: 2001-05-16
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0742575381
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Environmental policy is broadly viewed as an oasis of democracy, unspoiled by crass capitalism and undominated by corporate interests. This book counters that view. The focus of Corporate Power and the Environment focuses on how U.S. economic elites—corporate decisionmakers and other individuals of substantial wealth—shape the content and implementation of U.S. environmental policy to their economic and political benefit. The author uses the management of the national forests and national parks, as well as wilderness preservation policies and federal clean air policies, as case studies to show corporate power in action in even the 'purest' of policy arenas.

How Local Politics Shape Federal Policy

How Local Politics Shape Federal Policy
Author: Sarah S. Elkind
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
Total Pages: 285
Release: 2011
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0807834890
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Focusing on five Los Angeles environmental policy debates between 1920 and 1950, Sarah Elkind investigates how practices in American municipal government gave business groups political legitimacy at the local level as well as unanticipated influence over

Will Big Business Destroy Our Planet?

Will Big Business Destroy Our Planet?
Author: Peter Dauvergne
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 160
Release: 2018-05-04
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1509524045
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Walmart. Coca-Cola. BP. Toyota. The world economy runs on the profits of transnational corporations. Politicians need their backing. Non-profit organizations rely on their philanthropy. People look to their brands for meaning. And their power continues to rise. Can these companies, as so many are now hoping, provide the solutions to end the mounting global environmental crisis? Absolutely, the CEOs of big business are telling us: the commitment to corporate social responsibility will ensure it happens voluntarily. Peter Dauvergne challenges this claim, arguing instead that corporations are still doing far more to destroy than protect our planet. Trusting big business to lead sustainability is, he cautions, unwise — perhaps even catastrophic. Planetary sustainability will require reining in the power of big business, starting now.

Monopolized

Monopolized
Author: David Dayen
Publisher: The New Press
Total Pages: 441
Release: 2020-07-21
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1620975424
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From the airlines we fly to the food we eat, how a tiny group of corporations have come to dominate every aspect of our lives—by one of our most intrepid and accomplished journalists "If you're looking for a book . . . that will get your heart pumping and your blood boiling and that will remind you why we're in these fights—add this one to your list." —Senator Elizabeth Warren on David Dayen's Chain of Title Over the last forty years our choices have narrowed, our opportunities have shrunk, and our lives have become governed by a handful of very large and very powerful corporations. Today, practically everything we buy, everywhere we shop, and every service we secure comes from a heavily concentrated market. This is a world where four major banks control most of our money, four airlines shuttle most of us around the country, and four major cell phone providers connect most of our communications. If you are sick you can go to one of three main pharmacies to fill your prescription, and if you end up in a hospital almost every accessory to heal you comes from one of a handful of large medical suppliers. Dayen, the editor of the American Prospect and author of the acclaimed Chain of Title, provides a riveting account of what it means to live in this new age of monopoly and how we might resist this corporate hegemony. Through vignettes and vivid case studies Dayen shows how these monopolies have transformed us, inverted us, and truly changed our lives, at the same time providing readers with the raw material to make monopoly a consequential issue in American life and revive a long-dormant antitrust movement.

Corporate Power, Oligopolies, and the Crisis of the State

Corporate Power, Oligopolies, and the Crisis of the State
Author: Luis Suarez-Villa
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Total Pages: 380
Release: 2014-12-09
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1438454872
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The largest, wealthiest corporations have gained unprecedented power and influence in contemporary life. From cradle to grave the decisions made by these entities have an enormous impact on how we live and work, what we eat, our physical and psychological health, what we know or believe, whom we elect, and how we deal with one another and with the natural world around us. At the same time, government seems ever more subservient to the power of these oligopolies, providing numerous forms of corporate welfare—tax breaks, subsidies, guarantees, and bailouts—while neglecting the most basic needs of the population. In Corporate Power, Oligopolies, and the Crisis of the State, Luis Suarez-Villa employs a multidisciplinary perspective to provide unprecedented documentation of a growing crisis of governance, marked by a massive transfer of risk from the private sector to the state, skyrocketing debt, great inequality and economic insecurity, along with an alignment of the interests of politicians and a new, minuscule but immensely wealthy and influential corporate elite. Thanks to this dysfunctional environment, Suarez-Villa argues, stagnation and a vanishing public trust have become the hallmarks of our time.

Ecocide

Ecocide
Author: David Whyte
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Total Pages: 207
Release: 2020-09-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1526146975
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We have reached the point of no return. The existential threat of climate change is now a reality. The world has never been more vulnerable. Yet corporations are already planning a life beyond this point. The business models of fossil fuel giants factor in continued profitability in a scenario of a five-degree increase in global temperature. An increase that will kill millions, if not billions. This is the shocking reality laid bare in a new, hard-hitting book by David Whyte. Ecocide makes clear the problem won’t be solved by tinkering around the edges, instead it maps out a plan to end the corporation’s death-watch over us. This book will reveal how the corporation has risen to this position of near impunity, but also what we need to do to fix it.

The Political Power of Global Corporations

The Political Power of Global Corporations
Author: John Mikler
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 178
Release: 2018-02-12
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0745698492
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We have long been told that corporations rule the world, their interests seemingly taking precedence over states and their citizens. Yet, while states, civil society, and international organizations are well drawn in terms of their institutions, ideologies, and functions, the world's global corporations are often more simply sketched as mechanisms of profit maximization. In this book, John Mikler re-casts global corporations as political actors with complex identities and strategies. Debunking the idea of global corporations as exclusively profit-driven entities, he shows how they seek not only to drive or modify the agendas of states but to govern in their own right. He also explains why we need to re-territorialize global corporations as political actors that reflect and project the political power of the states and regions from which they hail. We know the global corporations' names, we know where they are headquartered, and we know where they invest and operate. Economic processes are increasingly produced by the control they possess, the relationships they have, the leverage they employ, the strategic decisions they make, and the discourses they create to enhance acceptance of their interests. This book represents a call to study how they do so, rather than making assumptions based on theoretical abstractions.

Corporate Power and the Environment

Corporate Power and the Environment
Author: George A. Gonzalez
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 164
Release: 2001
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780742510852
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Environmental policy is broadly viewed as an oasis of democracy, unspoiled by crass capitalism and undominated by corporate interests. This book counters that view. The focus of Corporate Power and the Environment is on how U.S. economic elites--corporate decisionmakers and other individuals of substantial wealth--shape the content and implementation of U.S. environmental policy to their economic and political benefit. The author uses the management of the national forests and national parks, as well as wilderness preservation policies and federal clean air policies, as case studies to show corporate power in action in even the purest of policy arenas. Visit our Web site for sample chapters!

Regime of Obstruction

Regime of Obstruction
Author: William K. Carroll
Publisher: Athabasca University Press
Total Pages: 526
Release: 2021-04-23
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1771992891
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Rapidly rising carbon emissions from the intense development of Western Canada’s fossil fuels continue to aggravate the global climate emergency and destabilize democratic structures. The urgency of the situation demands not only scholarly understanding, but effective action. Regime of Obstruction aims to make visible the complex connections between corporate power and the extraction and use of carbon energy. Edited by William Carroll, this rigorous collection presents research findings from the first three years of the seven-year, SSHRC-funded partnership, the Corporate Mapping Project. Anchored in sociological and political theory, this comprehensive volume provides hard data and empirical research that traces the power and influence of the fossil fuel industry through economics, politics, media, and higher education. Contributors demonstrate how corporations secure popular consent, and coopt, disorganize, or marginalize dissenting perspectives to position the fossil fuel industry as a national public good. They also investigate the difficult position of Indigenous communities who, while suffering the worst environmental and health impacts from carbon extraction, must fight for their land or participate in fossil capitalism to secure income and jobs. The volume concludes with a look at emergent forms of activism and resistance, spurred by the fact that a just energy transition is still feasible. This book provides essential context to the climate crisis and will transform discussions of energy democracy. Contributions by Laurie Adkin, Angele Alook, Clifford Atleo, Emilia Belliveau-Thompson, John Bermingham, Paul Bowles, Gwendolyn Blue, Shannon Daub, Jessica Dempsey, Emily Eaton, Chuka Ejeckam, Simon Enoch, Nick Graham, Shane Gunster, Mark Hudson, Jouke Huizer, Ian Hussey, Emma Jackson, Michael Lang, James Lawson, Marc Lee, Fiona MacPhail, Alicia Massie, Kevin McCartney, Bob Neubauer, Eric Pineault, Lise Margaux Rajewicz, James Rowe, JP Sapinsky, Karena Shaw, and Zoe Yunker.

How to Avoid a Climate Disaster

How to Avoid a Climate Disaster
Author: Bill Gates
Publisher: Vintage
Total Pages: 201
Release: 2021-02-16
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0385546149
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#1 NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • In this urgent, authoritative book, Bill Gates sets out a wide-ranging, practical—and accessible—plan for how the world can get to zero greenhouse gas emissions in time to avoid a climate catastrophe. Bill Gates has spent a decade investigating the causes and effects of climate change. With the help of experts in the fields of physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, political science, and finance, he has focused on what must be done in order to stop the planet's slide to certain environmental disaster. In this book, he not only explains why we need to work toward net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases, but also details what we need to do to achieve this profoundly important goal. He gives us a clear-eyed description of the challenges we face. Drawing on his understanding of innovation and what it takes to get new ideas into the market, he describes the areas in which technology is already helping to reduce emissions, where and how the current technology can be made to function more effectively, where breakthrough technologies are needed, and who is working on these essential innovations. Finally, he lays out a concrete, practical plan for achieving the goal of zero emissions—suggesting not only policies that governments should adopt, but what we as individuals can do to keep our government, our employers, and ourselves accountable in this crucial enterprise. As Bill Gates makes clear, achieving zero emissions will not be simple or easy to do, but if we follow the plan he sets out here, it is a goal firmly within our reach.