ABSTRACT
Elements of environmental politics include scale, both spatial and temporal, actors, and the role of science. Spatial scale includes political jurisdiction but also area, distribution, and three-dimensional volume such as layers of the atmosphere. Actors focus on a range of spatial scales and issues. Examples include territorial states and their governments, transnational corporations, citizens’ rights groups. Power is not distributed evenly across actor groups, and some groups have more influence on environmental agendas, decisions, and outcomes at particular points in time. Science, in its rich diversity, can support different, simultaneous agendas.
