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This article focuses on the United States (US), looking at the
American culture war specifically as it relates to environmental issues.
Looking at the US today is a reminder that the culture wars are as overtly
political as they are culturally motivated, and they diminish social cohesion.
The term "culture wars" is defined as increases in volatility, expansion
of polarization, and obvious conflicts in various parts of the world
between, on the one hand, those who are passionate about religiously
motivated politics, traditional morality, and anti-intellectualism, and, on
the other hand, those who embrace progressive politics, cultural openness,
and scientific and modernist orientations. The article examines this
ideological war in contemporary environmental management debates. It
identif es characteristics of environmental leadership and discusses how
networks can act as environmental leaders.

"Social participation in water management and governance recently became a reality in many economies and societies. Yet the dimensions in which power regulation, social equity and democracy-building are connected with participation have been only tangentially analyzed for the water sector. Understanding the growing interest in social participation involves appreciating the specificity of the contemporary period within its historic and geographic contexts as well as uncovering larger political, economic and cultural trends of recent decades which frame participatory actions. Within a wide variety of cases presented from around the world, the reader will find critical analyses of participation and an array of political ecological processes that influence water governance. Sixteen chapters from a diverse group of scholars and practitioners examine water rights definition, hydropower dam construction, urban river renewal, irrigation organizations, water development NGOs, river basin management, water policy implementation and judicial decision-making in water conflicts. Yet there are commonalities in participatory experiences across this spectrum of water issues. The book's five sections highlight key dimensions of contemporary water management that influence, and in turn are influenced by, social participation. These sections are: participation and indigenous water governance; participation and the dynamics of gender in water management; participation and river basin governance; participation and implementation of water management and participation and the politics of water governance"--Provided by publisher.

At the turn of the 21st century, protectionist policies in Latin America were
largely abandoned for an agenda that promoted free trade and regional
integration. Central America especially experienced an increase in international,
interstate, and intraregional economic integration through trade
liberalization. In 2004, such integration was on the agenda of every Central
American administration, the U.S. Congress, and Mexico. The Plan
Puebla-Panama (PPP) and the Central America Integrated Electricity System
(SIEPAC), in particular, aimed to facilitate the success of free trade
by increasing energy production and transmission on a unifi ed regional
power grid (Mesoamerica, 2011). Meanwhile, for the United States, a free
trade agreement (FTA) with Central America would bring it a step closer
to realizing a hemispheric trade bloc while securing market access for its
products. Isthmus states considered the potential for a Central America
Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) with the United States, their largest trading
partner, as an opportunity to enter the global market on a united front.
A decade and a half on, CAFTA, PPP, and SIEPAC are interwoven, complimentary
initiatives that exemplify a shift towards increased free trade
and development throughout the region. As such, to understand one, the
other must be examined.

Water in the western United States sustains multiple purposes despite being over-allocated, over-used, and o en quality-impaired. Interstate river watersheds, where rivers pass through jurisdictional boundaries of two or more states, face particular management challenges to facilitate cooperation across multiple state and local jurisdictional boundaries. This paper focuses on mechanisms of cooperation used to manage water quality across western interstate watersheds. A range of cooperative mechanisms were examined, from meetings to watershed management and creation of memoranda of understanding. To understand different stakeholders' perceptions of successful cooperation, fortyeight watershed professionals were surveyed across six study areas. Ordinal logistic regression analysis indicated that survey respondents perceived watershed organizations, watershed partnerships, and meetings as the most successful cooperative activities for addressing water quality issues. This paper discusses the relationships between mechanisms of cooperation and additional variables examined in the study, and offers insights into regional cooperation and social cohesion over shared environmental resources. Spanish
En el oeste de los Estados Unidos, el agua tiene varios usos a pesar de su sobreasignación, sobreuso/explotación, y el frecuente deterioro de su calidad. Las "cuencas interestatales" de esta región, referidas a aquellos ríos que cruzan dos o más estados, enfrentan desafíos particulares para la cooperación a través de múltiples fronteras estatales y jurisdicciones locales. Este artículo se enfoca en los mecanismos de cooperación para manejar la calidad del agua en estas cuencas. Se examinan reuniones de trabajo, consejos/manejo de cuencas, y la creación de memorandums de entendimiento. Para comprender las percepciones de cooperación exitosa, se entrevistaron a 48 profesionales de cuencas hidrográ ficas a través de seis áreas de estudio. Los entrevistados perciben los organismos/asociaciones de cuencas hidrográ ficas y sus respectivas reuniones, como las actividades de cooperación más exitosas para abordar las cuestiones de calidad del agua. El artículo analiza las relaciones entre los mecanismos de cooperación y otras variables, y ofrece una visión sobre la cooperación regional y la cohesión social sobre los recursos ambientales compartidos. French
En dépit d'une eau souvent de mauvaise qualité et soumise à une surexploitation et une surutilisation, ce e ressource remplit de nombreuses missions dans l'Ouest des États Unis. Les bassins hydrographiques interétatiques (où les fleuves traversent les frontières juridictionnelles de deux États ou plus) rencontrent des problèmes de gestion particuliers, dont le dé fiest surtout de faciliter la coopération interétatique et les frontières juridictionnelles locales. Cet article met l'accent sur les mécanismes de coopération mis en place dans la gestion de la qualité de l'eau des bassins interétatiques de l'Ouest du pays. Un éventail de mécanismes de coopération a été examiné, allant de réunions à la gestion de bassins et la création de mémorandums d'entente. A fin de comprendre la perception d'une coopération réussie des différents acteurs, quarante-huit professionnels des bassins hydrographiques ont participé à une étude sur six cas. L'analyse de la régression logistique ordinale a révélé que les participants percevaient les organisations des bassins, les partenariats de bassins et les réunions comme les activités de coopération les plus réussies pour aborder les questions de qualité de l'eau. Cet article examine les liens entre les mécanismes de coopération et les variables additionnelles examinées dans ce e étude, et propose un aperçu de la coopération régionale et de la cohésion sociale concernant le partage de ressources environnementales.

Governments, utilities, and energy companies are increasingly looking towards energy storage technologies to extend the availability of variable renewable power sources such as solar and wind. In this Perspective, we examine these fast-shifting developments by mapping and analyzing landscapes of renewable energy storage emerging across the Western United States. We focus on the rollout of several interrelated leading technologies: utility-scale lithium-ion batteries, supported by increasing regional lithium mining, and proposals for new pumped storage hydropower. Drawing on critical resource geography, we examine energy storage as both a component of renewable transition and as its own driver of landscape transformation, resource extraction, and conflict. By mapping and interpreting emerging Western landscapes, we show that leading energy storage technologies and the materials needed to make them can require extensive surficial land use and have significant regional water impacts, and that they are generating opposition from groups concerned about environmental degradation and (in)justice. We propose an agenda for future research on energy storage aimed at rendering its development more socio-ecologically beneficial and just.