Johnston (anthropology, Michigan State U.) presents a revised and updated edition of a collection that explores interconnected issues of human rights, environmental quality, and social justice through a case-study approach. The volume's 18 chapters address a diverse array of situations around the world that collectively provide a sense of the complex challenges facing human populations as they seek to address dangers to the quality of human life arising out of political, social, and economic structures that are harming the ability of humans to live harmoniously with each other and in relation to natural ecosystems. Specific topics include the impact of the global economy on outer island development in Indonesia; property rights in Southwest China; wildlife conservation and conflict in Africa; nature, development, and culture in Africa's Zambezi Valley; gold mining and mercury contamination in the Amazon; regulation of organic farming; resource access, environmental struggles, and human rights in Honduras; consequences of mass tourism on the Mexican Caribbean; environmental justice, health, and safety in urban South Africa; structural violence, armed conflict, and human health in the Andes; radiation pollution and the fight for justice in the Marshall Islands; radiation pollution in Russia; climate change, cultural change, and human rights in Northeastern Siberia; and water and human rights. Accompanying these chapters are "Snapshots" offering briefer, but still case-based, elaborations on the same themes. Annotation ©2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)