Defending the Environment - A Strategy for Citizen Action by Joseph Sax Alfred A. Knopf 1971 4th Printing

Title: Defending the Environment - A Strategy for Citizen Action

Author: Joseph Sax

Format: Hardcover

Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf 1971

Edition: 4th Printing

ISBN 10: 0394423518

Size: 6 X 8.5 * 252, vi pages

Synopsis: From the Jacket: It is too late to rely on the promises of the politicians. Our lakes, streams, beaches, and forests--the air we breathe--are being systematically endangered, polluted, even destroyed. The nation's leading expert on environmental law makes clear why it is necessary and possible for citizens to reassert their right to determine the fate of their own environment--to take decisions out of the hands of the bureaucrats and into their own. He demonstrates how this can be done by carrying the battle into the courtrooms of the nation and restoring democracy to environmental disputes.

Mr. Sax, Professor of Law at the University of Michigan, begins his argument by showing how even those upon whom we have learned to rely have abdicated their public responsibility. Examining the breakdown of governmental process in the case of an apartment developer's attempted exploitation of valuable land on the banks of the Potomac, he shows how those individuals charged with protecting the environment (in this case, the Interior Department under Stewart Udall) were incapacitated by their susceptibility to the "insider perspective" -a term the author uses to indicate the calcifying, corrupting, and largely unavoidable effect of bureaucracy. He shows how the official afflicted with the "insider perspective," no matter how capable and well-intentioned he may be, tends to lose sight of beneficial ends and pursues a conciliatory, even hands-off, administrative policy. When even our best friends in government cannot discharge their assigned duties, the author concludes, it is imperative that citizens look elsewhere.

What we must do, Professor Sax maintains, is take environmental controversies into the courts. And he shows conclusively how these battles can be fought, and won-by the effective use of certain established procedures already at the judiciary's disposal; by the creative application of basic legal principles to specifically ecological matters; and by the passage and utilization of the model law for citizens' environmental rights that the author himself has written. Professor Sax's milestone "strategy for citizen action" transcends the limited effectiveness of the pamphleteering approach to change, and demonstrates how concrete action can be taken to save our air, save our water, save our trees, and, in the end, save our democracy by bringing real decisions-and power-back to the people.

Overall Condition: Good + The book has been read but is in good condition. It has no issues to the cover, including scuff marks, holes or tears. The dust jacket has some wear and is included. The binding has minimal wear. The pages are undamaged with no creasing or tearing or highlighting of text; only a few pages have very limited pencil underlining of text or brackets in the margins. There are no missing pages; see images.

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