Third World Environmentalism: Case Studies from the Global South

"An impressive tour de force in its analytical and theoretical foci. It speaks with unique insight to the future of our world, forging a powerful link between ideology, politics, and the environment."—Daniel G. Zirker, University of Idaho
"Enriches our understanding of global environmental beliefs and their place among the world’s political elite. . . . Among the most theoretically based discussions of environmentalism founded on real data to date."—Steven R. Brechin, University of Michigan
Focusing on seven developing countries--India, Korea, Brazil, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Romania, and Iran (where such data are rare), Patrick Peritore presents a detailed look at the environmental attitudes and policies of leaders in government, business, and environmental groups.
The position that emerges, one considerably more optimistic than ever previously presented, rests outside old political poles of left and right thinking. Leaders in all three sectors studied hold the balance of power between the more utopian Greens and the economically inclined promoters of sustainable development. The author maintains that Third World decision makers hold international postmodern attitudes toward the environment that correspond closely to Western thought. They seek consensus and scientific information as the basis for making decisions and are risk-averse and highly concerned about the environment. In addition, he says, their awareness of these issues is far in advance of their own public, political parties, and mass media.
The author creates a model of a new international environmental politics that flies in the face of much conventional wisdom and will be of keen interest to a range of scholars and policy makers.

N. Patrick Peritore, professor of political science at the University of Missouri, Columbia, is the author of Socialism, Communism and Liberation Theology in Brazil: An Opinion Survey Using Q-Methodology and coeditor of Biotechnology in Latin America: Politics, Impacts, and Risks.