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Timescales and Environmental Change
Book reviews Timescales and Environmental Change T. S. Driver and G. P Chapman (eds) Routledge, London (1996) 275~~. f50.00 hardback; f15.99 paperback Time and timescales are fundamental to studies of environmental change, yet they are frequently regarded as passive elements and seldom take centre stage in subsequent analyses. This book attempts to counter this trend by focusing specifically on issues of time that are implicit in all investigations of environmental and climatic change, and it does so by using examples from different timescales and involving an extraordinarily diverse range of material. The opening paper (Driver and Chapman) examines different notions of time including human ideas of time, time and the natural world and time and the social world. This is followed by a group of papers with a traditional ‘environmental’ (read ‘climate’) change theme which range from considerations of long-term environmental stability/instability in the tropics and subtropics (Roberts), through a discussion of the century timescale which deals mainly with the Medieval Warm Epoch and subsequent Little Ice Age (Grove), to an examination of the extent to which it is possible to identify patterns of climate change in the recent instrumental record (Clifford and McClatchley). The next group of contributions are orientated to future change and include, inevitably, the topic of global warming and the possible ways in which ecosystems and society might adapt to projected temperature changes (Wallis), an Australian perspective on ways in which the short-term decision-making process of democratic politics might confront the threat of global warming (Taplin), and an analysis of the ways in which government (specifically the British government), non-government organizations (pressure groups) and the media may influence environ-
mental policy formulation (Gordon). In the remaining chapters, Beinart explores the notion of environmental destruction in the rangelands of the Karoo of southern Africa during the course of the present century, Fairhead and Leach argue for a radical reappraisal of our interpretation of forest history in the context of evidence from west Africa, and Chapman examines a range of issues involving economic and social development in India, and their inevitable environmental impacts. This set of papers also includes amore theoretical contribution from Faber and Proops, which argues that economic liberalism cannot be expected to cope with environmental challenges, and which therefore attempts to formulate a model for future planning which is based more on evolutionary biology than on economics. Finally, there is a resume chapter by the two editors which examines some of the key issues raised in the preceding 250 pages. My first impression of Timescales and Environmental Change was of yet another edited volume with only the vestiges of a thread running through the different contributions. I expected to be bored and to escape with a ‘speed read’. As I worked my way through the papers, however, I became more intrigued, and by the end I had become fascinated, not only because the topics that are covered and the issues that are raised are interesting in themselves, but because of the ways that the different themes cross-cut and interlink. I felt that I had been stimulated, challenged and, in places, quite excited by what I had read. I have the feeling that this book might just prove to be a very important milestone in studies of environmental change.
Mike Walker Department of Geography, University of Wales, Lampeter 245
mental policy formulation (Gordon). In the remaining chapters, Beinart explores the notion of environmental destruction in the rangelands of the Karoo of southern Africa during the course of the present century, Fairhead and Leach argue for a radical reappraisal of our interpretation of forest history in the context of evidence from west Africa, and Chapman examines a range of issues involving economic and social development in India, and their inevitable environmental impacts. This set of papers also includes amore theoretical contribution from Faber and Proops, which argues that economic liberalism cannot be expected to cope with environmental challenges, and which therefore attempts to formulate a model for future planning which is based more on evolutionary biology than on economics. Finally, there is a resume chapter by the two editors which examines some of the key issues raised in the preceding 250 pages. My first impression of Timescales and Environmental Change was of yet another edited volume with only the vestiges of a thread running through the different contributions. I expected to be bored and to escape with a ‘speed read’. As I worked my way through the papers, however, I became more intrigued, and by the end I had become fascinated, not only because the topics that are covered and the issues that are raised are interesting in themselves, but because of the ways that the different themes cross-cut and interlink. I felt that I had been stimulated, challenged and, in places, quite excited by what I had read. I have the feeling that this book might just prove to be a very important milestone in studies of environmental change.
Mike Walker Department of Geography, University of Wales, Lampeter 245