This book searches for the origins of modern thinking in one of the best-known stories of our cultural heritage. By applying institutional and constitutional economics to biblical interpretation, it uses new approach to reconstruct the Paradise story. The author challenges the old conceptual dualism between economics and theology/philosophy.

Originally published in 1994, Paradise Lost? is the outcome of a unique collaboration between economists and ecologists initiated by the Beijer Institute of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. The book examines how the loss of biodiversity is one of the most serious problems the world faces, and suggests that new, interdisciplinary thinking is required to safeguard both us and the biosphere from the effects of species extinction. The book examines how an integrated, interdisciplinary approach to the conservation of biodiversity can understand and tackle the issue. It provides an overview of the causes of the problem, and examines previous approaches to dealing with it. The book also addresses how the loss of biodiversity affects natural systems and provides an examination of environmental policy, while discussing how this has been affected by the ecological limits to economic activity. This book will be of interest to both academics and students of environmental sciences, economics and politics.

Computerization has generated dra­matic advances In telecommunica­tions, such as mobile telephones and video conferencing. Coupled with this are major changes in regulation, as telephone companies face new compet­itors. States are experimenting with new forms of utility regulation and de­regulation in order to cope with the demands of rising competition. Here Mueller examines in detail the results of a radical telephone regulation law.In 1986, the state of Nebraska com­pletely discarded traditional utility reg­ulation, deregulating rates and profits of its local telephone companies. The Nebraska experiment has become a benchmark for reassessing the role of state regulation In the future of tele­communications. Using comparative data from five midwestern states, Mueller shows how deregulation af­fected rates, investment, infrastruc­ture modernization, and profits. He uncovers both positive and negative results. Mueller found established telephone companies to be basically conservative, not aggressive and ex­pansionist, and concludes that new competition, not regulation or deregu­lation, is transforming the telecommu­nications industry.This book is the first systematic em­pirical study of the controversial Ne­braska law and its broader effects. It will be a significant addition to the much debated issue of telecommuni­cations deregulation. Economists, pol­icymakers, and telecommunications managers will find in this volume a substantial resource. According to Robert Atkinson, senior vice president of Teleport Communications Group: "Nebraska's experiences with telecom­munications deregulation - the good, the bad and the ugly - need to be un­derstood by all telecommunications policymakers across the country so that they can emulate Nebraska's suc­cesses and avoid its mistakes. Mueller provides the roadmap."

No detailed description available for "The Dark Side of Paradise".

SCOTT (copy 1): from the John Holmes Library collection.

Robert Rattle's new book challenges key assumptions concerning the role of Internet and communication technologies (ICTs) in globalization processes. The author argues that while globalization is predicated upon a strong, extensive, and interconnected global ICT network of products, processes, and services, the real environmental and health benefits remain far from certain. ICTs have been promoted as the next economic wave with the potential to generate jobs, wealth, and prosperity to surpass that of the industrial era. It is assumed the environmental impacts will be negligible or even beneficial in this shift toward a service economy. Rattle investigates these current and expected trends in ICTs and their potential contribution to sustainable development. His book is an indispensable overview for researchers and instructors in globalization, Internet communication technologies, and environmental anthropology or sociology, as well as a resource for policy makers in environmental protection, sustainable development, sustainable consumption, and the social role of science and technology. Book jacket.

The grim history of Nauru Island, a small speck in the Pacific Ocean halfway between Hawaii and Australia, represents a larger story of environmental degradation and economic dysfunction. For more than 2,000 years traditional Nauruans, isolated from the rest of the world, lived in social and ecological stability. But in 1900 the discovery of phosphate, an absolute requirement for agriculture, catapulted Nauru into the world market. Colonial imperialists who occupied Nauru and mined it for its lucrative phosphate resources devastated the island, which forever changed its native people. In 1968 Nauruans regained rule of their island and immediately faced a conundrum: to pursue a sustainable future that would protect their truly valuable natural resources—the biological and physical integrity of their island—or to mine and sell the remaining forty-year supply of phosphate and in the process make most of their home useless. They did the latter. In a captivating and moving style, the authors describe how the island became one of the richest nations in the world and how its citizens acquired all the ills of modern life: obesity, diabetes, heart disease, hypertension. At the same time, Nauru became 80 percent mined-out ruins that contain severely impoverished biological communities of little value in supporting human habitation. This sad tale highlights the dire consequences of a free-market economy, a system in direct conflict with sustaining the environment. In presenting evidence for the current mass extinction, the authors argue that we cannot expect to preserve biodiversity or support sustainable habitation, because our economic operating principles are incompatible with these activities.

Fully embracing the wide range of challenges liberal democracy has faced in recent years, this book offers a deepened understanding of contemporary changes and challenges to liberal democracy.

This book probes, from various angles, into the forever problematic relationship between the Middle East and Western Europe, between a revitalizing Islamic and a post-Christian civilization. In singling out the intercultural nature of events and clashes, it advances an innovative, interactive style of scholarship.