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SUMMARYAfter outlining recent developments and the scope, target audience, and structure of the book, we review the literature on globalisation and environmental policy, especially the impact of globalisation on the environment and changes in environmental governance in relation to increasingly global spheres of infl uence. This is followed by a succinct representation of the essential points of all contributions to this volume. While each chapter has its own distinct focus and perspective, we identify common themes in major outcomes and future directions: the delicate and multifaceted relation between economic globalisation and environmental protection, shifts in domestic environmental issues, evolving governance mechanisms, dealing with changed sovereignty, the promotion of self-enforcing mechanisms, prospects for existing and new policy instruments, and fi nding a new balance between globalisation and national environmental policy.

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Soils are an essential element in sustainable food systems and vital for ecosystem services. Soils are degrading, because of urbanization, poor soil management, depletion and mining, over-use of inputs and impacts of climate change. Poor soil management resulted from short-term yield maximization caused by changes in land tenure, property rights and land use. We argue for soil protection based on the concept of soil telos defined as the combined purposefulness in agricultural production and terrestrial ecosystem optimization. It includes the right of mankind to use soils, provided norms and values are respected based on the soil’s usefulness, its natural purposefulness and its right to be protected (including its physical, chemical and biological cycles). Finding a sustainable balance between these values and rights on the one hand and the need to use living soils for agricultural production on the other hand requires a new approach to soil management based on widely accepted norm- and value-driven decisions on unavoidable trade-offs. Reconciling man-made telos and natural telos, requires (i) empowering the soil to achieve its man-made telos (e.g., by restoring degraded soils); (ii) empowering the soil to achieve its natural telos (e.g., by restoring water courses); (iii) raising awareness about the need to reconcile these two teloi (e.g., by acknowledging rights of soils); and (iv) monitoring tools to assess successful reconciliation (e.g., by evaluating soil health).

Comparison of sustainability levels of societies has been difficult, as there is no framework that integrates its three main aspects: environment, economy, and social security. A concept is presented defining five levels of sustainability, characterized by growing awareness of and responsibility for the impacts of our actions in space and time. Examples of indicators comprising an Environmental Index, a Social Index, and an Economic Index are given and an overall sustainability index is tentatively calculated for 24 Nations. Differences in sustainability levels are shown, Sweden being the most and Sierra Leone the least sustainable nation.