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Water resources management: In search of an environmental ethic
Book reviews plight of developing countries, the concept of winners and losers is given little attention. Given the fact that we are dealing with a global problem the reader tends to become a little disturbed by the focus on the USA. This is partly because the book is written by US scientists, mostly using data generated in the ecosystems of the USA. The list of things which individuals could do to help solve the problem, given in the final chapter, is directed mainly at people in the USA. It is also somewhat ironic that, in the same chapter, after outlining the importance of recognizing the sorry lot of most of the world’s women and the important role that women could and do play, the authors shortly afterwards use genderinsensitive language in proposing courses on ‘man and the environment’. Some of the ‘less than positive’ comments made above should not detract from the fact that this book treats a very important topic in an effective
manner. There is a growing literature in this area and this is a valuable addition because of the interdisciplinary approach and because the need for urgent attention to the topic leaps from its pages. Apart from anything else, the concept of global change has taken on the stature of a paradigm. In this context, it is pleasing to see so many scientists from different disciplines asking, and in some cases answering, important questions that may never have been asked in the absence of our present crisis. Along the same lines, as other writers (some in this book) have pointed out, even if the General Circulation Models have given us misleading results, all the suggested actions in this book could only make this world a more pleasant and safer planet to inhabit.
David Greenland Department of Geography University of Oregon Eugene, OR, USA
US water resources - lack of strategic analysis WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT: IN SEARCH OF AN ENVIRONMENTAL ETHIC by David Lewis Feldman Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD, 7991, xi + 247 pp, $38.50 I came to this book, based solely upon its title, with enthusiasm and eagerness. I was hopeful that Feldman (a researcher in the Energy Division of Oak Ridge National Laboratory) would not only search for an environmental ethic, but find one, and then provide insights that would help infuse such an ethic into water resources policy and management. However, this was not to be. Feldman’s central purpose is a laudable one: ‘to show how our most severe water resources problems are caused by a reliance upon narrow and
GLOBAL
ENVIRONMENTAL
often inappropriate acquisitive values that are harmful to nature and to the satisfaction of a wide range of human needs . . . ’ (p 2). By pointing this out, he hopes to promote a dialogue among members of his audience, identified as ‘social scientists, environmentalists, and environmental professionals eager for a vision of how to better manage the ethical issues prompted by these environmental dilemmas’ (p x). Through nine chapters Feldman provides, in addition to his main thesis, a brief historical overview of federal involvement in US water policy; the parameters of ethical and nonethical approaches to water policy; the role played by US water law and a dominant focus on an engineering approach to water problems in preventing the development of an environmental ethic for water management; two case studies (one of the Garrison Diversion Project and the
CHANGE
June
1992
other of the Blue Ridge Pump Storage Project); the character and roles of water bureaucracies in the USA; the problems with benefit-cost analysis as the predominant criterion for policy making; the role of technocrats (principally engineers) in water resource management; and a comparison of ideals and realities in establishing an environmental ethic. There are two fundamental flaws with this book, both of which are acknowledged by Feldman in his first chapter. For readers, these combine to produce a very problematic volume. The first is that for anyone at all familiar with water policy, or with environmental issues more generally, this is all very old ground. As Feldman puts it himself, the ‘basic thesis of this book is neither new nor startling’ (p 3). This, by itself, is not fatal. However, when combined with the fact that Feldman does not go beyond stating these familiar arguments to suggesting realistic approaches for remedying the identified problems, this leads one to ask ‘so what?‘. Feldman reiterates old laments, made by others in innumerable contexts, regarding what is wrong with the current system, and identifies a few desirable objectives (also articulated with regularity by others), but never addresses the issue of how to get from here to there. These two fundamental problems are underlain with numerous additional difficulties. Let me begin with the argument itself. The description of current problems, as articulated by Feldman, is severely lacking in analysis. Rather than assessing the economic, social and political issues which underlie our problems with water resources, in most cases, problems are presented in platitudinous, bromide form. For example, ‘[o]ur current water crisis revolves around demand exceeding supply . . . and the quality of available supply becoming diminished nationwide by pollution’ (p 26). Water problems, in Feldman’s presentation, are rarely the result of conscious choices whose outcomes benefit particular, and powerful, interests. They emerge, rather, from a lack of an environmental ethic (which Feldman assumes should be immediately obvious and universally shared), which is
163
Book reviews
only prevented from coming into being because citizens’ ‘true’ interests and ‘public spiritedness’ have somehow atrophied, or are continually thwarted by the ‘system’ (never specified). The whole issue of power (political, economic or otherwise) is treated very lightly, and only in connection with the ongoing influence of ‘technocratic elites’, such as the US Army Corps of Engineers. Another set of problems surrounds Feldman’s notion of an ‘environmental ethic’. He provides a definition which states that in addition to, or in place of, the criterion of economic efficiency, public policies (for water or other issues) should include ‘the equitable distribution of natural resources; the protection of flora and fauna; political feasibility; and finally the fulfillment of human needs, ranging from mere survival to an enlightened existence in a just community’ (p 2). However, as with the statement of problems, description predominates over analytic depth. The utility of such an ethic is asserted rather than demonstrated, the problems of implementing it are never addressed, and the issue of its universal acceptance (in the form presented by Feldman) receives no attention from the author. Throughout the volume, too many problematic terms and concepts (eg national needs, genuine social good, intuitive concepts of justice) are never analysed. Problems of who defines such issues, and on what criteria are never addressed. I was hopeful that a number of these concerns would be rectified in the final chapter, entitled ‘Ideals and reality in establishing an environmental ethic’. Unfortunately, I was again disappointed. The chapter suggests that we need to return to a regional, hydropolitical system for managing water (and related, land) resources, d la US River Basin Commissions, and offers an abbreviated case study of the French system for managing water quality as a possible model. However, the case description does not really offer enough detail to allow readers to assess its relevance and utility for the US situation, and again fails to address issues of implementation. There is no assessment of why the
164
River Basin Commissions and the Water Resources Council went out of business, nor of what measures would be necessary to resuscitate these approaches. Finally, the chapter presents a very pedestrian and superficial critique of capitalist views of nature and resources, and an uneven admixture of concepts from bioregionalism, deep ecology, biocentrism and ecofeminism, but again without strategies. Even if many people were to agree with Feldman’s prescriptions (and we are far from that point), what strategies can be offered to move in these directions? Other problems are also apparent, and seem to result, at least in part, from a careless preparation. In many places, the volume is egregiously out of date (especially in its treatment of salinity issues on the Colorado River, and in a short section on water marketing, which relies on only one reference, a National Water Commission report of 1968). In addition, the relevance of the two main case studies (which were published previously) to the central theme is not immediately evident. Feldman should have reworked these considerably so that they could be used more effectively to bolster his arguments. There are also frequent, and annoying typos throughout. In the final analysis, the volume is pervaded by an unrelenting political naivety. Perhaps this is because, as Feldman puts it himself, ‘The desire for justice . . should take precedence over consideration of the practical means of achieving these policy goals’ (p 7). Unfortunately, in the ‘real world’ this is not sufficient. We have plenty of documentation of what the problems are and where they come from. What we do not have, and what this book fails to provide, is any realistic prescription of what to do about them.
Marvin Waterstone Department of Geography and Regional Development University of Arizona Tucson, AZ USA
GLOBAL
Managing and preserving wetlands WETLANDS: A THREATENED LANDSCAPE edited by Michael Williams Basil Blackwell, 4 19 pp, $79.95
Oxford,
1990, x +
This book brings together two divergent points of view. Before the 1960s the general attitude was that the only good wetland was a drained wetland converted to some economic benefit. Beginning in the 1960s there was the realization that there are a variety of benefits associated with a natural wetland. Conversion still goes on, but demands for wetland conservation and non-use have greatly increased. The purpose of the book is threefold. In the first place, it aims to explore and explain the occurrence, composition and evolution of wetlands, and to identify and illustrate the physical and biological dynamics of this unique ecosystem. The editor takes the view that any human activity in a wetland will induce some level of impact. A second purpose is to consider the impacts imposed on wetlands by agriculture, industry, urbanization, and recreation. This reviewer could include education. Class or natural in their desire to history groups, understand, can trample a wetland by repeated visits. The third purpose is to examine what steps are being and should be taken to manage and preserve wetlands. The stated emphasis throughout the text is to be global and generic in outlook. The text is arranged in a cultural perspective, in which examples from the USA are presented first because that is where the greatest amounts of research and conservation effort have been carried out. Western Europe follows with improving but lesser efforts. In the Third World countries, conversion of wetlands to some economic effort (largely agri-
ENVIRONMENTAL
CHANGE
June
1992
manner. There is a growing literature in this area and this is a valuable addition because of the interdisciplinary approach and because the need for urgent attention to the topic leaps from its pages. Apart from anything else, the concept of global change has taken on the stature of a paradigm. In this context, it is pleasing to see so many scientists from different disciplines asking, and in some cases answering, important questions that may never have been asked in the absence of our present crisis. Along the same lines, as other writers (some in this book) have pointed out, even if the General Circulation Models have given us misleading results, all the suggested actions in this book could only make this world a more pleasant and safer planet to inhabit.
David Greenland Department of Geography University of Oregon Eugene, OR, USA
US water resources - lack of strategic analysis WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT: IN SEARCH OF AN ENVIRONMENTAL ETHIC by David Lewis Feldman Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD, 7991, xi + 247 pp, $38.50 I came to this book, based solely upon its title, with enthusiasm and eagerness. I was hopeful that Feldman (a researcher in the Energy Division of Oak Ridge National Laboratory) would not only search for an environmental ethic, but find one, and then provide insights that would help infuse such an ethic into water resources policy and management. However, this was not to be. Feldman’s central purpose is a laudable one: ‘to show how our most severe water resources problems are caused by a reliance upon narrow and
GLOBAL
ENVIRONMENTAL
often inappropriate acquisitive values that are harmful to nature and to the satisfaction of a wide range of human needs . . . ’ (p 2). By pointing this out, he hopes to promote a dialogue among members of his audience, identified as ‘social scientists, environmentalists, and environmental professionals eager for a vision of how to better manage the ethical issues prompted by these environmental dilemmas’ (p x). Through nine chapters Feldman provides, in addition to his main thesis, a brief historical overview of federal involvement in US water policy; the parameters of ethical and nonethical approaches to water policy; the role played by US water law and a dominant focus on an engineering approach to water problems in preventing the development of an environmental ethic for water management; two case studies (one of the Garrison Diversion Project and the
CHANGE
June
1992
other of the Blue Ridge Pump Storage Project); the character and roles of water bureaucracies in the USA; the problems with benefit-cost analysis as the predominant criterion for policy making; the role of technocrats (principally engineers) in water resource management; and a comparison of ideals and realities in establishing an environmental ethic. There are two fundamental flaws with this book, both of which are acknowledged by Feldman in his first chapter. For readers, these combine to produce a very problematic volume. The first is that for anyone at all familiar with water policy, or with environmental issues more generally, this is all very old ground. As Feldman puts it himself, the ‘basic thesis of this book is neither new nor startling’ (p 3). This, by itself, is not fatal. However, when combined with the fact that Feldman does not go beyond stating these familiar arguments to suggesting realistic approaches for remedying the identified problems, this leads one to ask ‘so what?‘. Feldman reiterates old laments, made by others in innumerable contexts, regarding what is wrong with the current system, and identifies a few desirable objectives (also articulated with regularity by others), but never addresses the issue of how to get from here to there. These two fundamental problems are underlain with numerous additional difficulties. Let me begin with the argument itself. The description of current problems, as articulated by Feldman, is severely lacking in analysis. Rather than assessing the economic, social and political issues which underlie our problems with water resources, in most cases, problems are presented in platitudinous, bromide form. For example, ‘[o]ur current water crisis revolves around demand exceeding supply . . . and the quality of available supply becoming diminished nationwide by pollution’ (p 26). Water problems, in Feldman’s presentation, are rarely the result of conscious choices whose outcomes benefit particular, and powerful, interests. They emerge, rather, from a lack of an environmental ethic (which Feldman assumes should be immediately obvious and universally shared), which is
163
Book reviews
only prevented from coming into being because citizens’ ‘true’ interests and ‘public spiritedness’ have somehow atrophied, or are continually thwarted by the ‘system’ (never specified). The whole issue of power (political, economic or otherwise) is treated very lightly, and only in connection with the ongoing influence of ‘technocratic elites’, such as the US Army Corps of Engineers. Another set of problems surrounds Feldman’s notion of an ‘environmental ethic’. He provides a definition which states that in addition to, or in place of, the criterion of economic efficiency, public policies (for water or other issues) should include ‘the equitable distribution of natural resources; the protection of flora and fauna; political feasibility; and finally the fulfillment of human needs, ranging from mere survival to an enlightened existence in a just community’ (p 2). However, as with the statement of problems, description predominates over analytic depth. The utility of such an ethic is asserted rather than demonstrated, the problems of implementing it are never addressed, and the issue of its universal acceptance (in the form presented by Feldman) receives no attention from the author. Throughout the volume, too many problematic terms and concepts (eg national needs, genuine social good, intuitive concepts of justice) are never analysed. Problems of who defines such issues, and on what criteria are never addressed. I was hopeful that a number of these concerns would be rectified in the final chapter, entitled ‘Ideals and reality in establishing an environmental ethic’. Unfortunately, I was again disappointed. The chapter suggests that we need to return to a regional, hydropolitical system for managing water (and related, land) resources, d la US River Basin Commissions, and offers an abbreviated case study of the French system for managing water quality as a possible model. However, the case description does not really offer enough detail to allow readers to assess its relevance and utility for the US situation, and again fails to address issues of implementation. There is no assessment of why the
164
River Basin Commissions and the Water Resources Council went out of business, nor of what measures would be necessary to resuscitate these approaches. Finally, the chapter presents a very pedestrian and superficial critique of capitalist views of nature and resources, and an uneven admixture of concepts from bioregionalism, deep ecology, biocentrism and ecofeminism, but again without strategies. Even if many people were to agree with Feldman’s prescriptions (and we are far from that point), what strategies can be offered to move in these directions? Other problems are also apparent, and seem to result, at least in part, from a careless preparation. In many places, the volume is egregiously out of date (especially in its treatment of salinity issues on the Colorado River, and in a short section on water marketing, which relies on only one reference, a National Water Commission report of 1968). In addition, the relevance of the two main case studies (which were published previously) to the central theme is not immediately evident. Feldman should have reworked these considerably so that they could be used more effectively to bolster his arguments. There are also frequent, and annoying typos throughout. In the final analysis, the volume is pervaded by an unrelenting political naivety. Perhaps this is because, as Feldman puts it himself, ‘The desire for justice . . should take precedence over consideration of the practical means of achieving these policy goals’ (p 7). Unfortunately, in the ‘real world’ this is not sufficient. We have plenty of documentation of what the problems are and where they come from. What we do not have, and what this book fails to provide, is any realistic prescription of what to do about them.
Marvin Waterstone Department of Geography and Regional Development University of Arizona Tucson, AZ USA
GLOBAL
Managing and preserving wetlands WETLANDS: A THREATENED LANDSCAPE edited by Michael Williams Basil Blackwell, 4 19 pp, $79.95
Oxford,
1990, x +
This book brings together two divergent points of view. Before the 1960s the general attitude was that the only good wetland was a drained wetland converted to some economic benefit. Beginning in the 1960s there was the realization that there are a variety of benefits associated with a natural wetland. Conversion still goes on, but demands for wetland conservation and non-use have greatly increased. The purpose of the book is threefold. In the first place, it aims to explore and explain the occurrence, composition and evolution of wetlands, and to identify and illustrate the physical and biological dynamics of this unique ecosystem. The editor takes the view that any human activity in a wetland will induce some level of impact. A second purpose is to consider the impacts imposed on wetlands by agriculture, industry, urbanization, and recreation. This reviewer could include education. Class or natural in their desire to history groups, understand, can trample a wetland by repeated visits. The third purpose is to examine what steps are being and should be taken to manage and preserve wetlands. The stated emphasis throughout the text is to be global and generic in outlook. The text is arranged in a cultural perspective, in which examples from the USA are presented first because that is where the greatest amounts of research and conservation effort have been carried out. Western Europe follows with improving but lesser efforts. In the Third World countries, conversion of wetlands to some economic effort (largely agri-
ENVIRONMENTAL
CHANGE
June
1992