North, South, and the Environmental Crisis

Simon Dalby is an assistant professor of geography at Carleton
University in Ottawa.

This book outlines the interconnectedness of global environmental
problems and the intractability of many of the dilemmas that face
decision-makers. Some of the difficulties are obviously related to a
failure of communication among specialists, politicians, journalists,
and the wider public. Rodney White has opened the channels of
communication by producing a book for the non-specialist who requires
somewhat more technical detail than journalistic accounts provide.
North, South, and the Environmental Crisis clearly explains the
ecological disruptions of modern industrialization and the consequences
of the broadening wealth disparities between North and South.

In nontechnical language, the book initially sets out the basic
approaches of ecology and systems analysis to global problems. The
emphasis is on economic activities and their wide-ranging environmental
effects. Among the topics addressed in these straightforward chapters
are global climate change, ozone depletion, acid rain, problems of ocean
management, land resources for agriculture and energy supplies, global
fresh water supplies, urban management, and waste disposal. The book
repeatedly makes the important point that “Northern” consumption of
fossil fuels and “Southern” minerals, timber, and agricultural
resources are often substantially to blame for environmental
difficulties in the South.

White’s conclusions are considerably more radical than the measured
tone of his prose would suggest, but they flow logically from the
analysis. The final chapters suggest that more than the conventional
political organization of the nation-state is needed to deal with the
challenges presented by the twin problems of overdevelopment and
poverty, as well as to achieve global cooperation on environmental
protection and economic reform. The book’s conclusion that the 1992
Earth Summit was just the beginning of a long process of coming to terms
with the global predicament seems all too well confirmed by the
subsequent lack of substantial progress on these issues.