What Is Critical Environmental Justice?

Human societies have always been deeply interconnected with our ecosystems, but today those relationships are witnessing greater frictions, tensions, and harms than ever before. These dynamics mirror those experienced by marginalized communities across the planet, but they also provide a foundation for transformative thinking and action to address these challenges.

In this updated edition of his innovative contribution, David Naguib Pellow introduces a new framework for critically analyzing Environmental Justice scholarship and activism. In doing so he extends the field’s focus to topics not usually associated with environmental justice, including policing, incarceration, the Israel/Palestine conflict, and the Black Lives Matter movement. In doing so he reveals that ecological violence is first and foremost a form of social violence, driven by and legitimated by social structures and discourses. He enriches this radical approach to Environmental Justice by drawing on Indigenous Studies, the Black Radical Tradition, Disability Studies, Queer and Transgender Studies, and Multi-Species Justice, among others. Those already familiar with the discipline will find themselves invited to think about the subject in entirely new ways.

This book is a vital resource for students, scholars, and policy makers interested in innovative approaches to one of the greatest challenges facing humanity and the planet.

David Naguib Pellow is Dehlsen Chair and Professor of Environmental Studies and Director of the Global Environmental Justice Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara.