Rhetoric and Reality in Environmental Policy: The Case of the Netherlands in Comparison With Britain (Avebury Studies in Green Research)

At the historical and geographical confluence of two hundred years of industrial pollution, the Dutch are known for taking the initiative in setting goals for environmental achievements. They have drawn up domestic environmental plans which are exemplary in their willingness to take action to address the matters in hand. Britain, on the other hand, is widely known as the dirty man of Europe, and often its political and economic leaders seem to display a cynical disregard for environmental concerns. This collection of specially commissioned essays looks behind the rhetoric of reputation and public image, and compares it with feasibility and reality. There is undeniably a great chasm between the Netherlands and Britain in terms of political imagery in environmental matters, but many of those differences are more to do with political culture than with environmental reality. It is this tension between image an reality which lies at the heart of this volume.