Environment and society
The interaction between society and the natural environment is an important area of sociological research.
In our industrialised world, it is sometimes hard to remember that we are a part of nature. Even in mega-cities, such as Beijing or London, the natural environment influences how we behave, from the availability of the food we eat to the safety of the places in which we live.
Human beings inevitably influence what happens to the environment. For instance, most scientists agree that human behaviour is responsible for the climatic changes we are now experiencing. As we expand our economies and urbanise our societies we displace more of nature’s resources and risk irreversibly changing the way the environment behaves.
The Olympic Games is a mega-event that has become an important part of our world culture. However, hosting such a colossal event places huge demands on the natural environment and has the potential to contribute to environmental problems such as climate change, pollution, and over use of natural resources. In an age of environmental concern, critics may ask if we can justify environmental destruction for a sporting event.
Proponents of sustainable development may argue that if handled in an environmentally sensitive way, the Olympics can help the environment by providing resources to the host city and by spreading positive environmental messages throughout society.
The concept of sustainable development, allied to the potential benefits of resourcing an Olympic Games infrastructure, can provide an answer. As the World Commission on the Environment suggested in 1987, sustainable development 'meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs' through a careful balance of economics, society and the environment.
Some consider the concept of sustainable development to be a new form of environmentalism in that it does not concern itself solely with environmental problems, aiming instead to expand developing economies whilst maintaining an equitable pattern of resource use.
Those interested in issues of sustainability around the London 2012 Games might be interested in a number of reports by the Commission for a Sustainable London 2012. These reports are available to download via their website:
Getting started with the British Library's collections
Sustainable urban design: an environmental approach edited by Adam Ritchie and Randall Thomas, London: Taylor and Francis, 2009
London Reference Collections shelfmark: YK.2009.b.7782.
DS shelfmark: 4542.282000
Cudworth, Erika. Environment and society London: Routledge, 2002
London Reference Collections shelfmark: YC.2003.a.6114
DS shelfmark: m02/42070
Diamond, Jared. The rise and fall of the third chimpanzee
London Reference Collections shelfmark: YK.1991.b.2697
Dresner, Simon. The principles of sustainability
London Reference Collections shelfmark YK.2009.a.3172
Goudie, Andrew and Viles, Heather. The earth transformed: an introduction to human impacts on the environment
London Reference Collections shelfmark: YC.1998.b.3607
; DS shelfmark: 99/17857 DSC
Kerski, Joseph and Ross, Simon. The essentials of the environment Hodder Arnold, 2005.
London Reference Collections shelfmark: YK.2006.a.18814
Light, Andrew and Rolston III, Holmes (eds.) Environmental ethics: an anthology
DS shelfmark: 2107.591000 19
Lomborg, Bjørn The skeptical environmentalist: measuring the real state of the world
Cambridge University Press, 2001.
London Reference Collections shelfmark: YC.2001.b.1594
Pepper, David. The roots of modern environmentalism
Croom Helm, c1984.
London Reference Collections shelfmark: X.529/66784
DS shelfmark: 84/32187 DSC