Thursday, February 5, 2009

Palestine or Global Environmental Governance

Palestine: The Special Edition

Author: Joe Sacco

An expanded edition of one of the all-time classic graphic novels.

Joe Sacco's breakthrough novel of graphic journalism is widely hailed as one of the great graphic novels of all-time. Since its original publication in the mid-1990s, it has won an American Book Award (1996), sold over 50,000 copies, been added to university curriculums worldwide, led to a Guggenheim Fellowship for Sacco, and firmly ensconced Sacco in the pantheon of great cartoonists. Despite this, the book has never been published in hardcover. Until now.

Fantagraphics Books is pleased to present, for the first time, the definitive, expanded, hardcover collection of Sacco's landmark of comics journalism. Palestine: The Special Edition is more than a new edition: consider it the "Criterion" Palestine. In addition to the original, 288-page graphic novel and introduction by the late Edward Said, The Special Edition includes a host of unique supplemental material never-before-published, including many of Sacco's original background notes, sketches, photographic reference, and much more. The book also includes a new, introductory interview with Sacco about the making of the book as well as a new cover and design. Palestine: The Special Edition will be a cornerstone of any serious comic collection.

With the Middle East's role in contemporary world politics, Sacco's Palestine has never been more relevant or more valuable to a country desperate to understand this long-running conflict. Based on several months of research and an extended visit to the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the early 1990s (where he conducted over 100 interviews with Palestinians andJews), Palestine was the first major comics work of political and historical nonfiction by Sacco, whose name has since become synonymous with this graphic form of New Journalism.

Sacco's insightful reportage takes place at the front lines, where busy marketplaces are spoiled by shootings and tear gas, soldiers beat civilians with reckless abandon, and roadblocks go up before reporters can leave. Sacco interviewed and encountered prisoners, refugees, protesters, wounded children, farmers who had lost their land, and families who had been torn apart by the Palestinian conflict.



New interesting book: Jungle Travel Survival or How People Heal

Global Environmental Governance

Author: James Gustave Speth

Today's most pressing environmental problems are planetary in scope, confounding the political will of any one nation. How can we solve them? Global Environmental Governance offers the essential information, theory, and practical insight needed to tackle this critical challenge. It examines ten major environmental threats-climate disruption, biodiversity loss, acid rain, ozone depletion, deforestation, desertification, freshwater degradation and shortages, marine fisheries decline, toxic pollutants, and excess nitrogen-and explores how they can be addressed through treaties, governance regimes, and new forms of international cooperation. Written by Gus Speth, one of the architects of the international environmental movement, and accomplished political scientist Peter M. Haas, Global Environmental Governance tells the story of how the community of nations, nongovernmental organizations, scientists, and multinational corporations have in recent decades created an unprecedented set of laws and institutions intended to help solve large-scale environmental problems.The book critically examines the serious shortcomings of current efforts and the underlying reasons why disturbing trends persist. It presents key concepts in international law and regime formation in simple, accessible language, and describes the current institutional landscape as well as lessons learned and new directions needed in international governance. Global Environmental Governance is a concise guide, with lists of key terms, study questions, and other features designed to help readers think about and understand the concepts discussed.



Table of Contents:
Ch. IIntroduction : toward planetary stewardship1
Ch. IIGlobal-scale environmental challenges12
Ch. IIIFrom Stockholm to Johannesburg : first attempt at global environmental governance52
Ch. IVEnvironmental accord : treaties and international environmental law82
Ch. VKey actors, expanding roles : the United Nations, international organizations, and civil society107
Ch. VIPaths of the future : a second attempt at global environmental governance?125

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