Geneva Sustainability Week, March 20-24

With Spring comes the yearly Geneva Sustainability Week, and we put a small selection of titles on display at the entrance of the Library to celebrate this event. The environment and sustainable development belong to the main topics covered by the Library over the past decades. Our dedicated collection is characterised by a large scope of subjects and perspectives of study, covering topics like climate change, natural resources and conflict, among others.

The concept of sustainability is defined, in the Brundtland report completed in 1987 by the World Environmental Commission, as a development” that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. It tried to answer the question of how to achieve a development that allows everyone to have a decent life while respecting the natural environment.

This was the culmination of a long process of reflection and awareness raising that gained momentum in the 1960s and 1970s with seminal works such as Silent Spring of Rachel Carlson. The conclusion of all this process is that the world has to make changes in the way we produce food and consumption goods but also in the way humans relate to the environment and to others. For some experts the solutions come from technology and science while others suggest deeper changes in the paradigm of production, in governance and in the relationship between humans and nature.

This transition requires efforts of all: international governance institutions that create legal instruments such as the Kyoto or Nagoya Protocols and that coordinate and follow up actions at the level of national governments, NGOs and social movements that raise the problems to be solved at the level of national and international bodies, companies that have to think about new ways of producing and each of us who have an ecological footprint on our planet.

To go deeper into the subject or simply look for inspiration to act, hereunder a selection of books available at the library or online:

Environmental movements in the 60-70’s:

Silent spring revolution : John F. Kennedy, Rachel Carson, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, and the great environmental awakening. 574(73) HEIA 130492
Silent Spring. 632 HEIA 116489

International governance / legal instruments

The Brundtland Commission’s report 10 years. 338.927 HEIA 44339
The Kyoto Protocol : a guide and assessment. 349.6 HEIA 23324
Fixing the Climate: Strategies for an Uncertain World. On line
Nature in Common : Beyond the Nagoya Protocol. On line

Political ecology

Down to earth : politics in the new climatic regime. 304.2 HEIA 124338
On fire : the (burning) case for a green new deal. 577.22 HEIA 125882
What every environmentalist needs to know about capitalism : a citizen’s guide to capitalism and the environment. 338.927 HEIA 80831
Nature is a battlefield : towards a political ecology. 304.2 HEIA 115559
L’âge productiviste: Hégémonie prométhéenne, brèches et alternatives écologiques. On line
La cité écologique: Pour un éco-républicanisme. On line

Means of action / Footprint

How Bad Are Bananas? The Carbon Footprint of Everything. 577.22 HEIA 126115
Drawdown the most comprehensive plan ever proposed to reverse global warming. 577.22 HEIA 122249
There is no Planet B : a handbook for the make or break years. 577.22 HEIA 125164
Recycling. 628 HEIA 127973
Looking behind the label: global industries and the conscientious consumer. 381.3 HEIA 110943
Surviving collapse : building community toward radical sustainability. On line

NGOs and environmental social movements

The Right to Nature: Social Movements, Environmental Justice and Neoliberal Natures. On line
The Role of Non-State Actors in the Green Transition : Building a Sustainable Future. 338.927 HEIA 130240

Changes on production systems

Dirty gold : how activism transformed the jewelry industry. On line
Rethinking food systems : structural challenges, new strategies and the law. 641 HEIA 112784
Sustainable fashion and textiles in Latin America. On line

Atlas (environmental data)