The Carbon Fix ─ Forest Carbon, Social Justice, and Environmental Governance

Written by a diverse group of anthropologists, geographers, environmental researchers, and policy-makers, The Carbon Fix offers a cautionary tale of the contemporary practice of carbon sequestration, in which developed countries and global commercial interests pay less-developed countries to sequester carbon in return for the right to trade carbon emissions on the market. The authors argue that the obsession with carbon sequestration has displaced many of the varied social and ecological values that have otherwise guided conservation and environmental policy, with deleterious effects on some of the world’s poorest peoples. The book

-provides a succinct overview of political, economic, and ethical issues associated with climate change;
-brings together experts from academia and both non-governmental and governmental organizations to examine aspects of the most popular current model for dealing with greenhouse gasesthe carbon sequestration modelin order to provide a deeper understanding of its strengths and weaknesses;
-keeps issues of social justice at the center of its wide-ranging discussions of climate change;
-takes a fresh perspective on climate change that will appeal to environmental professionals and students in upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses in environmental anthropology and environmental studies.

Stephanie Paladino, Ph.D., is an environmental anthropologist with the Center for Applied Social Research, University of Oklahoma, and Co-Editor of Culture, Agriculture, Food and Environment. She researches how environmental governance strengthens equity and sustainability, most recently in the areas of carbon forestry offset markets, oil spill response, ecologically protected areas, and the Rio Grande basin. Shirley J. Fiske is an environmental anthropologist with career experience in the executive and legislative branches of the US government in ocean, climate, and natural resources management policy and governance. Most recently she worked on carbon sequestration and climate change cap-and-trade legislation in the US Senate. She is currently Research Professor at the University of Maryland and recent chair of a national task force on climate change for the American Anthropological Association (2011-2014) (www.aaanet.org).