The environment in Southeast Asia is now a major issue of topical concern. First book to give analysis in depth of the political processes involved in environmental disputes. Provides a good selection of case studies in the region. Questions the assumption that the middle classes are in the vanguard of the environmental movement.

The environment is one of the defining issues of our times, and it is closely linked to questions and dilemmas surrounding economic development. Southeast Asia is one of the world’s most economically and demographically dynamic regions, and it is also one in which a host of environmental issues raise themselves. The Routledge Handbook of the Environment in Southeast Asia is a collection of 30 chapters dealing with the most significant scholarly debates in this rapidly growing field of study. Structured in four main parts, it gives a comprehensive regional overview of, and insight into, the environment in Southeast Asia. Wide-ranging and balanced, this handbook promotes scholarly understanding of how environmental issues are dealt with from diverse theoretical perspectives. It offers a detailed empirical understanding of the myriad environmental problems and challenges faced in Southeast Asia. This is the first publication of its kind in this field; a helpful companion for a global audience and for scholars of Southeast Asian studies from a variety of disciplines.

The worst chemical disaster ever could be happening right now. In India and Bangladesh between forty and eighty million people are at risk of consuming too much arsenic from well water that might have already caused one hundred thousand cancer cases and thousands of deaths. Many millions elsewhere in South-East Asia and South America may soon suffer a similar fate. Venomous Earth is the story of this tragedy: the geology, the biology, the politics and the history. It starts in Ancient Greece, touches down in today's North America and takes in William Morris, alchemy, farming, medicine, mining and a cosmetic that killed two popes.

Addressing the apparent tensions between modernity and sustainability in Southeast Asia, this book offers novel insights into the global challenge of moving towards a low carbon energy system. With an original and accessible take on social theory related to energy transitions, modernity and sustainability, Mattijs Smits argues for a reinvigorated geography of energy. He also challenges universalistic and linear assumptions about energy transitions and makes the case for ’energy trajectories’, stressing embeddedness, contingency and connections between scales. Contemporary and historical empirical examples from Southeast Asia, primarily Thailand and Laos, are drawn upon to show the importance of scale at regional, national, local and household levels. The transitions in the national power sectors here have been intimately related to discourses of modernity and state formation since the colonial era. More recently, plans for international cooperation and discourses of regional power trade have taken centre stage. Local energy trajectories are understood to be part of these transitions, but also as embedded in local social, political and spatial relations. Examining how energy practices go hand-in-hand with the dissemination of different technologies, this work shows the complexities of achieving sustainability in the context of rapidly changing energy modernities in Southeast Asia.

Religion and Ecology in India and Southeast Asia examines how Hindu and Buddhist traditions could play a crucial role in solving ecological problems in those regions. Considering these traditions from both a historical and contemporary perspective, Gosling bases his arguments on extensive fieldwork and frames it by the socio-political context of religious change in India and Southeast Asia.

Nowhere is the connection between society and the environment more evident and potentially more harmful for the future of the world than in Asia. In recent decades, rapid development of Asian countries with very large populations has led to an unprecedented increase in environmental problems such as air and water pollution, solid and hazardous wastes, deforestation, depletion of natural resources and extinction of native species. This handbook provides a comprehensive survey of the cultural, social and policy contexts of environmental change across East Asia. The team of international experts critically examine a wide range of environmental problems related to energy, climate change, air, land, water, fisheries, forests and wildlife. The editors conclude that, with nearly half of the human population of the planet, and several rapidly growing economies, most notably China, Asian societies will determine much of the future of human impacts on the regional and global environments. As climate change-related threats to society increase, the book strongly argues for increased environmental consciousness and action in Asian societies. This handbook is a very valuable companion for students, scholars, policy makers and researchers working on environmental issues in Asia.

The International Handbook of Political Ecology features chapters by leading scholars from around the world in a unique collection exploring the multi-disciplinary field of political ecology. This landmark volume canvasses key developments, topics, iss

In The Geography of Southeast Asia, Rumney discusses an area that has long been of interest to geographers and other academics. As interest in Southeast Asia has grown, particularly over the past forty years, the volume and variety of scholarly publications on the varied geographical aspects of the region have also increased. This collection is an attempt to identify, organize, and present as many of these works as possible. The region as a whole, and each individual country of the area, are covered in individual chapters. Each chapter is further systematically organized by topic, including general works, cultural-social geography, economic geography, historical geography, physical geography, political geography, and urban geography. This book presents a myriad of sources, such as atlases, books, chapters, articles, dissertations, and theses are included, as well as works written in English, French, German, and other languages, providing the reader with a thorough view of Southeast Asian geography.

First Published in 2001. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

The Politics of Environment in Southeast Asia charts the emergence of the environment as an issue of public debate in the region. Through a series of case studies the authors explore the coalescence of social forces around environmental issues, the process of alliance formation, and the role of state institutions, media and NGOs in the complex political battles over resource allocation. The volatile tensions between the winners and losers in this struggle for the environment will make Southeast Asia a focus of increased attention.