Numerous scientists provide the global community with the latest data on the current environmental situation. However, the involvement of common people in the process aimed at reducing the risks of environmental crisis is still very low. Such situation is considered an obstacle on the way to promoting environmental issues.
Citizen Participation in Global Environmental Governance (2012) is a unique book edited by Mikko Rask, Richard Worthington, and Minna Lammi. By analyzing the experiences and lessons from World Wide Views on Global Warming (WWViews) project meeting and presenting numerous studies on the specifics of this project and its role in creation of effective global environmental policy, the book encourages the readers to take part in further investigation and promotion of the discussed issues.
The main topic of the book is the possible impact of lessons of WWViews on the process of promoting the participation of ordinary people in global environmental governance. The book is divided into several parts, which include research articles presenting information about certain issues related to WWViews project.
The first part draws attention to the story of the project and its main objectives. The following two parts explore the trend of international deliberation on the example of Denmark and evaluate the WWViews process and results by specifying particular processes in Germany and Austria.
Other chapters discuss cultural variation and local engagement of expertise based on the evidence from Canada, India, Uruguay, and Saint Lucia and study policy and media impacts based on the evidence from Finland, Australia, and The United States. The conclusions present the vision of future steps towards creating effective global governance of environmental issues.
The ground-breaking event that encouraged the creation of this book dates back to 2009 when ordinary citizens held meetings in 38 countries to discuss the issues related to climate change. The authors of the contributions to the book include numerous researchers and practitioners from the whole world (Rask, Worthington, & Minna 2012, p. 4).
All of them were involved in organizing and studying the national WWViews deliberations. To reach the goal of creating the valuable source of information of the highest quality, the creators of the book held two international meetings and worked hard during the editorial process.
The book results from a voluntarily activity of people from all over the world who are eager to share their ideas about promoting global citizens deliberation based on the experience of WWViews project (Rask, Worthington, & Minna 2012, p. 4). The book is aimed at providing valuable information about the outcomes of the project and practical lessons on how to encourage the global community to participate in the projects of such type.
In my opinion, the main goal of the authors of the book is to encourage common people to take part in the process of regulation of environmental crisis instead of regarding it as the duty of official institutions. The book raises the consciousness of global community and calls for effective cooperation on environmental issues.
The target audience of the book includes both ordinary people and professionals, whose area of activity is connected with environmental questions. The book appears to be very informative, as it presents unique well-grounded data on the topic that is not efficiently covered in the literature.
The authors use deductive reasoning to lead the readers to certain conclusions based on the numerous statements presented in research articles. This book presents a complex research on WWViews project and helps to define its role in the creation of effective global environmental policy. The book marks the beginning of the process of promoting a new kind of environmental activities and encourages the readers to get involved in them.
Reference
Rask, M, Worthington, R & Minna, L 2012, Citizen participation in global environmental governance, EarthScan, Sydney.