Book re�iews476

Let me suggest two ways in which a fullerincorporation of groundwater would enrichHaddad’s work. In his enumeration of thedifficulties attending water transfers in Califor-nia, he overlooks that California separates sur-face water and groundwater not only in waterrights law but organizationally. The State WaterResources Control Board has jurisdiction to ap-prove appropriations of surface water (as well aschanges in use), but has no such authority withrespect to groundwater nor does any otherstate-level entity. Determinations of groundwaterpumping rights, to the extent they are made atall, occur on an individual basis through thecourts. Incorporating that institutional and orga-nizational separation would have clarified andreinforced Haddad’s points in at least a fewplaces.

Closer attention to groundwater would alsohave provided Haddad with some stronger casestudies. Mentioning that groundwater transfershave taken place in the Los Angeles area, hemistakenly sets them aside as involving onlyshort-term leases. The adjudicated groundwaterbasins in Los Angeles and San Bernardinocounties have quantified pumping rights and al-lowed for their permanent, as well as temporarytransfer. The permanent transfers have displayedthe patterns one might predict — pumpingrights have shifted from smaller to larger andfrom agricultural to urban, users. They are con-sistent with Haddad’s recommendation that wa-ter transfers be developed first withinwatersheds, pursuing ‘‘hydrologically simple op-portunities’’ (p. 143) before extending to large-scale inter-basin efforts.

Another recommendation is to integrate theappendices in Ri�ers of Gold into the main text.In those appendices, Haddad discusses federaland state efforts to promote water transfers,farmers’ opposition to them, and the economicand environmental advantages that could begained by them. Relegating this deftly handledmaterial to appendices suggests to readers thatthese portions of the book are optional; theyshould not be.

Haddad has given us an excellent blend of

scholarship and policy analysis. With its soundbasis in both theory and empirical research, Ri�-ers of Gold is an essential contribution to under-standing the political economy of waterresources, and how we might proceed from here.

Bill BlomquistDepartment of Political Science,

Indiana Uni�ersity,Indianapolis,

IN 46202,USA

E-mail: blomquis@iupui.edu

PII: S0921 -8009 (01 )00158 -6

Greeh Households?, Domestic Consumers, Envi-ronment and SustainabilityEdited by K.J. Noorman and T.S. UiterkampEarthscan, 1998. ISBN 1-8538-3-4823; p. 4823.

This multidisciplinary collection of studies isthe result of the Household Metabolism Effec-tively Sustainable (HOMES) project at the uni-versity of Groningen, funded by the DutchNational Foundation for Scientific Research.The research is based on the concept of ‘house-hold metabolism’, the flows of matter and en-ergy in and out of household units, usingdetailed databases on Dutch households, houses,appliances, and resource economics from 1950through 1995.

The household metabolism concept was devel-oped in order to lend dynamism to the long-term analysis of the sustainability of resourceuse in Holland. It recognizes that decisions andprocesses at the household level, often havinglittle to do with energy or fuel, neverthelesshave major long-term effects on consumptionand the generation of waste. It also requiresmultidisciplinary collaboration and a wide vari-ety of data sources. In this study it has verylittle to say about the decisions or activities thattake place within households..

Book re�iews 477

One of the major strengths of this approach isto reveal the key role of households in the overallefficiency of the economy. Due to the economiesof scale and sharing, people living in larger house-holds consume less energy and material, and pro-duce less waste than people living alone.Consequently, as a Dutch average household sizehas diminished from 4.0 to 2.4 during the last 50years, efficiency has declined. At the same timeenergy-using appliances have diffused morewidely, houses have grown, and personal con-sumption has increased. These increases are onlypartially counterbalanced by dramatic improve-ment in appliance efficiency. Here is a ‘substitu-tion effect’ with a vengeance, as all theimprovement in efficiency has been swallowed bygreater consumption. The editors conclude pes-simistically that Dutch household metabolism isunsustainable in the long run, but they stop shortof making specific recommendations for change.The excellent policy chapter by J. Ligteringendemonstrates the wide variety of Dutch govern-ment policies that have encouraged this unsustain-able direction, and the ineffective nature of recentefforts to slow it down.

The lack of strong policy recommendations is adisappointment. The study is also hampered by itsexclusive focus on the Dutch experience and localsocial science. A broader comparative focus, awider universe of theoretical tools, and a morevaried selection of social sciences that includedsome qualitative research would likely have pro-duced more robust conclusions. That said, theconcept of household metabolism has great value,and it should inspire similar projects in othercountries.

Richard WilkAnthropology Department,

Indiana Uni�ersity,Bloomington,

IN 47405,USA

PII: S 0921 -8009 (01 )00159 -8

Trade Liberalisation, Economic Growth and theEnvironmentBy M.A. Cole, Edward Elgar, 2000. ISBN 1-84064-1762; xi+144 pp., p. 160, £45.

Any reader of Ecological Economics is liable tobe interested in the topic of this book, and Iopened it with eager anticipation. If it couldsynthesise the current debates on trade, growthand environmental effects, then it would be aninteresting read indeed. Unfortunately, while thebook contains much of interest, it is more areview than a synthesis. Of its eight chapters onlyone (chap. 6) offers anything really novel, which isan application of the notion of the EnvironmentalKuznets Curve (EKC) to the estimation of theenvironmental impact of trade liberalisation.

In more detail, the book begins with a briefintroduction, Chapter 1, and then moves on to aclear and quite comprehensive overview of thehistory of GATT and the World Trade Organisa-tion (WTO). This shows how GATT initially de-veloped more or less by default, and how itsinitial aims included almost nothing on environ-mental protection. This was for two reasons: no-body much worried about the environment in1948, and GATT saw its sole aim as promotinginternational trade. With the emergence of theWTO in 1994, after the Uruguay round, the envi-ronment began to become a trade concern, espe-cially following the notorious tuna/dolphin case.

Chapter 3 looks in detail at the relationshipbetween trade liberalisation and the environment,and offers a clear and quite comprehensive surveyof this disparate literature. It points out that thepredictions on the environmental impact of tradedepend crucially on how trade liberalisation af-fects the dynamic issues of economic growth andtechnological change. The topic of growth and theenvironment is taken up in chapter 4, and offersan overview of work from Smith and Malthus,with particular stress on how the ‘Limits toGrowth’ concerns of the 1970s have given way tothe current ‘Sustainable Development’ debate. Is-sues such as ‘strong’ versus ‘weak’ sustainabilityare briefly discussed, as is the area of greeningnational accounts, and the development of alter-native social welfare indicators..