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Later this month it will be World Biodiversity Day, and we will again celebrate the remarkable contributions that biodiversity makes to the resilience and productivity of the earth's ecosystems. But it will also be a fitting time to face the continued failure of our institutions to grasp the scale of biodiversity loss. Or, if not […]

My new book is out this week (in the UK at least – but those elsewhere can read it right now online). I very much hope it will stimulate debate and discussion. Something that's really struck me over recent years is that whereas a really rich literature exists on the global justice dimensions of the […]

One of the most common arguments in debates about environmental crisis is: "it's the rising population, stupid." There are just too many human beings, using up too much stuff, leaving too little space for everyone else. The next step is often to gesture towards some kind of population control, or just to leave the issue […]

I tend to read a novel a week (53 this year). Academic friends sometimes appear amazed by that, but if I don't read 20 or 30 pages at night, I'm not going to sleep. Add 10 pages here or there during the week, and it's four a month. Here were my 10 favourites during 2023: […]

I was meant to write a post this week, but then Hamas's horrific assault on Israel happened, and now the civilian inhabitants of Gaza are once again living in fear (some of them have put themselves in the firing line; many have not). Since I have Arab friends and family, and have fond memories of […]

I'm a complete sucker for them. I don't know why: you'd think twenty-odd years as an academic would have cured me of the idea there is anything romantic or glamorous about universities. But I keep going back to the trough. Some good recent ones: Julia May Jonas, Vladimir; R.O. Kwon, The Incendiaries; Rachel Henstra, The […]

I'm off to do a talk to mark World Ocean Day, so this is posted in haste. The ocean needs advocates. It's our biggest ecosystem, probably our biggest carbon sink, a major source of oxygen. It regulates temperatures, and drives weather patterns. Hundreds of millions of people are nutritionally dependent on fish. But the ocean […]

An urgent account of the state of our oceans today--and what we must do to protect them

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- ILLUSTRATIONS -- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS -- GLOSSARY -- INTRODUCTION -- 1 THE CRUCIBLE OF LIFE -- 2 FREEDOM AT SEA -- 3 ENCLOSING THE OCEAN -- 4 REMAKING THE WORLD ORDER AT SEA -- 5 SEVEN PRINCIPLES OF OCEAN JUSTICE -- 6 PROTECTING WORKERS AT SEA -- 7 THE RIGHTS OF MARINE ANIMALS -- 8 SEA-LEVEL RISE AND SMALL ISLAND STATES -- 9 A BLUE NEW DEAL -- 10 BEYOND THE BLUE NEW DEAL -- AFTERWORD -- NOTES -- FURTHER READING -- INDEX

While many are born into prosperity, hundreds of millions of people lead lives of almost unimaginable poverty. Our world remains hugely unequal, with our place of birth continuing to exert a major influence on our opportunities. In this accessible book, leading political theorist Chris Armstrong engagingly examines the key moral and political questions raised by this stark global divide. Why, as a citizen of a relatively wealthy country, should you care if others have to make do with less? Do we have a moral duty to try to rectify this state of affairs? What does 'global justice' mean anyway - and why does it matter? Could we make our world a more just one even if we tried? Can you as an individual make a difference? This book powerfully demonstrates that global justice is something we should all be concerned about, and sketches a series of reforms that would make our divided world a fairer one. It will be essential introductory reading for students of global justice, activists and concerned citizens.

'Justice and Natural Resources' provides a systematic account of how to think about natural resources and the conflicting claims people have over them.

The British North America Act of 1867 fashioned a Canadian federation which was intended to be a highly centralized union led by a powerful national government. Soon after Confederation, however, the government of Ontario took the lead in demanding a greater share of the power for the provinces, and it has continued to press this case. Professor Armstrong analyses the forces which promoted decentralization and the responses which these elicited from the federal government. He explains Ontario's reasons for pursuing this particular policy from 1867 to the Second World War. The author's sources are the private papers of federal and provincial premiers and other contemporary political figures, government publications, parliamentary debates, and newspapers. He has identified and developed three separate but related themes: the dynamic role played by private business interests in generating intergovernmental conflicts; Ontario's policy of promoting its economic growth by encouraging the processing of its resources at home; and the tremendous influence exerted by increasing urbanization and industrialization on the growth of the responsibilities of the provinces. During the 1930s, efforts to restructure the federal system were rejected by Ontario because it preferred to maintain the status quo,and was unsympathetic to greater equalization between the regions. Consequently, Ontario took a leading part in opposing the redivision of powers recommended by the Royal Commission on Dominion-Provincial Relations in 1940. This book provides part of the historical context into which current debates on the question of federalism may be fitted. It thus will be of importance and interest to historians, students of Canadian history, and the general reader alike. (Ontario Historical Studies Series: Themes)

"Global distributive justice is now part of mainstream political debate. It incorporates issues that are now a familiar feature of the political landscape, such as global poverty, trade justice, aid to the developing world and debt cancellation. This is the first textbook to focus exclusively on issues of distributive justice on the global scale. It gives clear and up-to-date accounts of the major theories of global justice and spells out their significance for a series of important political issues, including climate change, international trade, human rights and migration. These issues are brought to life through the use of case studies, which emphasise the connection of theories of justice to contemporary politics, and 'Further Issues' sections, which discuss emerging debates or controversies that are likely to command increasing attention in the coming years."--Provided by publisher