ABSTRACT
Although economies and the environment are interlinked, the nature of their crises is different; the economic crisis of 2007-08 was a sudden crash affecting the world economy within days and producing immediate action by the G8 group of rich nations, whereas the environmental crisis, while it has a global impact on world weather patterns and serious and immediate
consequences for millions in the poor world hit by more frequent famines and widespread fl ooding, appears to be more of a slow motion crisis, despite its likely impact being much more severe (indeed, some would say that it will be catastrophic if global temperatures exceed a rise of 2°C). This chapter takes the environment, in the widest sense, as its theme, and introduces some of the new social and environmental thinking, relating it where possible to social policy.
