Customer Reviews

The Greening of Central Europe

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I have seen Dr. Sutherlin speak in Europe in different conferences over the past four years. This exceptional work reflects a true dedication to undertanding sustainable development and environmental policy making in Poland and the Czech Republic. There is no work in print that captures the research and analysis of Sutherlin. This work should be required reading for all interested in Central European environmental issues.

As a member of the environmental movement in Central Europe, I was most pleased to find someone from the West that really understands what has happened in Poland and the Czech Republic since 1989. There is no comparison to what Sutherlin has accomplished in this directly written book. I hope that he follows this work with similar efforts. This book is useful for those in classes, in environmental organizations or those wanting to understand policy making in Central Europe.

Despite the work focusing on Poland and Czech, this work is useful regardless of geography. Its premise is simple: States that are both democratic AND have market economies can still have sound environmental policy if they accept the principle of sustainable development. That is a lesson for all of Europe and this hemisphere. The data assembled in this work is fascinating and the interpretation of the very technical by the author (whose background is probably the social sciences) is nothing short of remarkable. He has blended the hard sciences and the social sciences together in a way that marks the best effort to have true environmental analysis.

This work takes the perspective that 'sustainable development' is the desireable way that the transitional nations of Central Europe should travel. Then, using information he obtained in Poland and the Czech Republic along with data from various state agencies and the United Nations, Sutherlin analyzes how well each nation's environmental policy has or hasn't worked. Additionally, he uses Western Europe and the U.S. as examples of other manners for making policy. The result is somewhat surprising: both Poland and the Czech Republic are doing well in different areas due to various factors. This is a well-developed, easy to follow (despite the complexity of the subject) work that will be interesting and useful to anyone interested in the environment, in general, or Central Europe, specifically.