The Politics of the Environment brings together 25 classic essays on the political theory of the environment, ranging across environmental philosophy and political, social, legal and economic aspects of environmental action.

Part 1 Environmental ethics: attitudes to nature, John Passmore; should trees have standing? - toward legal rights for natural objects, Christopher D. Stone; the rights of animals and unborn generations, Joel Feinberg; ways not to think about plastic trees - new foundations for environmental law, Laurence H. Tribe; on preserving the natural environment, Mark Sagoff; ideals of human excellence and preserving natural environments, Thomas E. Hill; faking nature, Robert Elliott; the shallow and the deep, long-range ecology movement - a summary, Arne Naess; duties of preservation, Donald H. Regan; nature, self and gender - feminism, environmental philosophy and the critique of rationalism, Val Plumwood. Part 2 Environmental action: the tragedy of the Commons, Garrett Hardin; the environmental crisis - a critique of neo-Hobbesian responses, K.J. Walker; a blueprint for survival, Edward Goldsmith et al; bioregionalism - a new way to treat the land, Kirkpatrick Sale; new social movements - challenging the boundaries of institutional politics, Claus Offe; ecosabotage and civil disobedience, Michael Martin; ecology and discursive democracy - beyond liberal capitalism and the administrative state, John S. Dryzek; technological politics, Langdon Winner; Buddhist economics, E.F. Schumacher; the economics of the coming spaceship Earth, Kenneth E. Boulding; the post-war literature on externalities - an interpretative essay, E.J. Mishan; prices as regulatory instruments, Thomas C. Schelling; the conservation criterion, Talbot Page; the social discount rate, Derek Parfit; international ethics and the environmental crisis, Robert E. Goodin.