New Books in Environmental Studies

Kenneth O'Reilly, "Asphalt: A History" (U Nebraska Press, 2021)

22 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In Asphalt: A History (U Nebraska Press, 2021), Kenneth O’Reilly provides a history of this everyday substance. By tracing the history of asphalt—...

Gavin Van Horn et al., "Kinship: Belonging in a World of Relations, 5-Volume Set" (Center for Humans and Nature, 2021)

22 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

From The Center for Humans and Nature, Kinship: Belonging in a World of Relations is a five-volume collection of essays, interviews, poetry, and sto...

Josep M. Coll, "Buddhist and Taoist Systems Thinking: The Natural Path to Sustainable Transformation" (Routledge, 2021)

19 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

I recently sat down with Josep M. Coll to discuss his new book Buddhist and Taoist Systems Thinking: The Natural Path to Sustainable Transformation ...

Climate Change and Individual Moral Duties

17 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The global trends of increasing climate change are predicted to intensify over the next few decades. General consensus remains that climate change is ...

J. Shapiro and J-A. McNeish, "Our Extractive Age: Expressions of Violence and Resistance" (Routledge, 2021)

16 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Judith Shapiro and John-Andrew McNeish's book Our Extractive Age: Expressions of Violence and Resistance (Routledge, 2021) emphasizes how the spect...

Nancy Langston, "Climate Ghosts: Migratory Species in the Anthropocene" (Brandeis UP, 2021)

15 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In her new book Climate Ghosts: Migratory Species in the Anthropocene (Brandeis UP, 2021), environmental historian Nancy Langston explores three “...

Jordan Salama, "Every Day the River Changes: Four Weeks Down the Magdalena" (Catapult, 2021)

12 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Jordan Salama’s Every Day the River Changes: Four Weeks Down the Magdalena (Catapult Press, 2021) is a travelogue for a new generation about a jou...

Jen Corrinne Brown, "Trout Culture: How Fly Fishing Forever Changed the Rocky Mountain West" (U Washington Press, 2017)

12 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

From beer labels to literary classics like A River Runs Through It, trout fishing is a beloved feature of the iconography of the American West. But as...

Chris McLaughlin, "Mississippi Barking: Hurricane Katrina and a Life That Went to the Dogs" (UP of Mississippi, 2021)

10 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

On August 29, 2005, the worst natural disaster in the history of the United States devastated the city of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast of Louisiana ...

Andrew Leigh, "What's the Worst That Could Happen?: Existential Risk and Extreme Politics" (MIT Press, 2021)

10 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Did you know that you're more likely to die from a catastrophe than in a car crash? The odds that a typical US resident will die from a catastrophic e...

Julia E. Ault, "Saving Nature Under Socialism: Transnational Environmentalism in East Germany, 1968-1990" (Cambridge UP, 2021)

09 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

When East Germany collapsed in 1989-1990, outside observers were shocked to learn the extent of environmental devastation that existed there. The comm...

Todd LeVasseur, "Climate Change, Religion, and our Bodily Future" (Lexington Books, 2021)

03 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In Climate Change, Religion, and our Bodily Future (Lexington Books, 2021), Todd LeVasseur explores the interface of bodies and religion by investig...

Gero Leson, "Honor Thy Label: Dr. Bronner's Unconventional Journey to a Clean, Green, and Ethical Supply Chain" (Portfolio, 2021)

02 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Supply chains - and, especially, their points of failure - have become a global hot topic, encouraging us all to take a closer look at how goods move ...

Bronwyn Adcock, "Currowan: A Story of Fire and a Community During Australia's Worst Summer" (Black Inc., 2021)

29 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The Currowan fire – ignited by a lightning strike in a remote forest and growing to engulf the New South Wales South Coast – was one of the most t...

Wonders of the Mekong: Rethinking Sustainable Development and Resilience in Cambodia’s Tonle Sap Lake

28 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Cambodia’s Tonle Sap is the largest inland lake in Southeast Asia. Each year, during the monsoon, this freshwater lake experiences an incredible hyd...

Dina Gilio-Whitaker, "As Long As Grass Grows: The Indigenous Fight for Environmental Justice from Colonization to Standing Rock" (Beacon Press, 2019)

27 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Through the unique lens of “Indigenized environmental justice,” Indigenous researcher and activist Dina Gilio-Whitaker explores the fraught histor...

Nicolette Hahn Niman, "Defending Beef: The Ecological and Nutritional Case for Meat" (Chelsea Green, 2021)

26 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In Defending Beef: The Ecological and Nutritional Case for Meat (Chelsea Green, 2021), Nicolette Hahn Niman makes the expanded case for large rumi...

Andrea E. Duffy, "Nomad's Land: Pastoralism and French Environmental Policy in the Nineteenth-Century Mediterranean World" (U Nebraska Press, 2019)

25 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Chronicling the retreat of mobile pastoralization from Mediterranean coastlines, Andrea Duffy's Nomad's Land: Pastoralism and French Environmental Po...

Paulina Ochoa Espejo, "On Borders: Territories, Legitimacy, and the Rights of Place" (Oxford UP, 2020)

21 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

When are borders justified? Who has a right to control them? Where should they be drawn? Today people think of borders as an island's shores. Just as ...

Patricia Newman and Annie Crawley, "Planet Ocean: Why We All Need a Healthy Ocean" (Millbrook Press, 2021)

20 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

A little more than 70 percent of Planet Earth is ocean. So wouldn’t a better name for our global home be Planet Ocean? You may be surprised at just ...

Climate Change, Oceans and Gender

20 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Oceans are inextricably linked to the climate. Today, oceans are warming far more rapidly than they have in the past 65 million years, placing the spo...

Eunice Blavascunas, "Foresters, Borders, and Bark Beetles: The Future of Europe's Last Primeval Forest" (Indiana UP, 2020)

20 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In Foresters, Borders, and Bark Beetles: The Future of Europe’s Last Primeval Forest (Indiana University Press, 2020), Eunice Blavascunas provide...

Seth M. Siegel, "Troubled Water: What's Wrong with What We Drink" (Thomas Dunne, 2020)

18 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

There’s nothing more vital to survival than water. “Water water everywhere, and not a drop to drink!”, said the Ancient Mariner, in the poem by ...

Rocio Gomez, "Silver Veins, Dusty Lungs: Mining, Water, and Public Health in Zacatecas, 1835-1946" (U Nebraska Press, 2020)

15 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In Mexico environmental struggles have been fought since the nineteenth century in such places as Zacatecas, where United States and European mining i...

Vincent Ialenti, "Deep Time Reckoning: How Future Thinking Can Help Earth Now" (MIT Press, 2020)

15 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Based on twelve years of anthropological exploration, Vincent Ialenti's Deep Time Reckoning: How Future Thinking Can Help Earth Now (MIT Press, 2020...

Elizabeth Carolyn Miller, "Extraction Ecologies and the Literature of the Long Exhaustion" (Princeton UP, 2021)

15 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The 1830s to the 1930s saw the rise of large-scale industrial mining in the British imperial world. Elizabeth Carolyn Miller examines how literature o...

Jenny Nelson, “Harnessing the Sun” (Open Agenda, 2021)

11 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Harnessing the Sun is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and Jenny Nelson, Professor of Physics and Head of the Climate C...

David B. Williams, "Homewaters: A Human and Natural History of Puget Sound" (U Washington Press, 2021)

06 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Homewaters: A Human and Natural History of Puget Sound (University of Washington Press, 2021) tells a story about exploitation and a story of hope. ...

Jaime Lowe, "Breathing Fire: Female Inmate Firefighters on the Front Line of California's Wildfires" (MCD, 2021)

06 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

A dramatic, revelatory account of the female inmate firefighters who battle California wildfires for less than a dollar an hour On February 23, 2016, ...

Milieudefensie v. Shell: A Tipping Point in Climate Change Litigation against Corporations?

06 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In May 2021, a landmark court order from a district court in the Netherlands ruled that Royal Dutch Shell, one of the largest fossil fuel companies in...

Ranae Lenor Hanson, "Watershed: Attending to Body and Earth in Distress" (U Minnesota Press, 2021)

05 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Ranea Lenor Hanson's Watershed: Attending to Body and Earth in Distress (U Minnesota Press, 2021) weaves a narrative that captures life on the wate...

Mark Maslin, “Embracing the Anthropocene: Managing Human Impact” (Open Agenda, 2021)

30 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Embracing the Anthropocene: Managing Human Impact is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and Mark Maslin, Professor of Geo...

Bob Quinn and Liz Carlisle, "Grain by Grain: A Quest to Revive Ancient Wheat, Rural Jobs, and Healthy Food" (Island Press, 2019)

27 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

How can farmers adapt to climate changes? How can regenerative farmers have livelihoods that nourish themselves and their communities? How can we brea...

Laura Paskus, "At the Precipice: New Mexico's Changing Climate" (U New Mexico Press, 2020)

23 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

At the Precipice: New Mexico's Changing Climate (U New Mexico Press, 2020) explores the question many of us have asked ourselves: What kind of world ...

Forces of Production, Climate Change, and Canadian Fossil Capitalism

22 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

As we see in the news every day, climate change is already upon us. The climate crisis is no longer a bridge to be crossed in the future. It must be d...

Gonzalo Lizarralde, "Unnatural Disasters: Why Most Responses to Risk and Climate Change Fail But Some Succeed" (Columbia UP, 2021)

22 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Unnatural Disasters: Why Most Responses to Risk and Climate Change Fail But Some Succeed (Columbia UP, 2021) offers a new perspective on our most pre...

Ihnji Jon, "Cities in the Anthropocene: New Ecology and Urban Politics" (Pluto Press, 2021)

22 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Climate change is real, and extreme weather events are its physical manifestations. These extreme events affect how we live and work in cities, and su...

Bruce Clarke, "Gaian Systems: Lynn Margulis, Neocybernetics, and the End of the Anthropocene" (U Minnesota Press, 2020)

17 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Often seen as an outlier in science, Gaia has run a long and varied course since its formulation in the 1970s by atmospheric chemist James Lovelock an...

Princeton UP's "Pedia" Series: Beautiful, Short Books About Big, Important Subjects

17 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Today I talked to Robert Kirk, the publisher of Princeton University Press's "Pedia" book series. Encyclopedic in nature and miniature in form, the...

Robin Globus Veldman, "The Gospel of Climate Skepticism: Why Evangelical Christians Oppose Action on Climate Change" (U California Press, 2019)

17 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Why are white evangelicals the most skeptical major religious group in America regarding climate change? Previous scholarship has pointed to cognitive...

Ann Vileisis, "Abalone: The Remarkable History and Uncertain Future of California's Iconic Shellfish" (Oregon State UP, 2020)

15 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

From rocky coves at Mendocino and Monterey to San Diego’s reefs, abalone have held a cherished place in California culture for millennia. Prized for...

Andy Hoffman, “Saving the World at Business School (Part 2)” (Open Agenda, 2021)

13 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Saving the World at Business School (Part 2) is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and Andy Hoffman, Holcim Professor of ...

Andy Hoffman “Saving the World at Business School (Part 1)” (Open Agenda, 2021)

10 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Saving the World at Business School (Part 1) is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and Andy Hoffman, Holcim Professor of S...

Katy Borner, "Atlas of Forecasts: Modeling and Mapping Desirable Futures" (MIT Press, 2021)

10 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

To envision and create the futures we want, society needs an appropriate understanding of the likely impact of alternative actions. Data models and vi...

Emily O'Gorman, "Wetlands in a Dry Land: More-Than-Human Histories of Australia's Murray-Darling Basin" (U Washington Press, 2021)

08 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In the name of agriculture, urban growth, and disease control, humans have drained, filled, or otherwise destroyed nearly 87 percent of the world's we...

Stephen J. Pyne, "The Pyrocene: How We Created an Age of Fire, and What Happens Next" (U California Press, 2021)

08 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Stephen J. Pyne's new book The Pyrocene: How We Created an Age of Fire, and What Happens Next (U California Press, 2021) tells the story of what hap...

Emma Marris, "Wild Souls: Freedom and Flourishing in the Non-Human World" (Bloomsbury, 2021)

08 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In Wild Souls: Freedom and Flourishing in the Non-Human World (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2021), Emma Marris wrestles with big ethical questions facin...

Ken Meter, "Building Community Food Webs" (Island Press, 2021)

08 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Our current food system has decimated rural communities and confined the choices of urban consumers. Even while America continues to ramp up farm prod...

Arnab Dey, "Tea Environments and Plantation Culture: Imperial Disarray in Eastern India" (Cambridge UP, 2021)

07 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In Tea Environments and Plantation Culture: Imperial Disarray in Eastern India (Cambridge UP, 2021), Arnab Dey examines the intersecting role of la...

Nayanika Mathur, "Crooked Cats: Beastly Encounters in the Anthropocene" (U Chicago Press, 2021)

07 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Big cats—tigers, leopards, and lions—that make prey of humans are commonly known as “man-eaters.” Anthropologist Nayanika Mathur reconceptuali...

Joanna Haigh, “Solar Impact: Climate and the Sun” (Open Agenda, 2021)

06 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Solar Impact: Climate and the Sun is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and Joanna Haigh, Professor Emerita of Atmospheric...

Camelia Dewan, "Misreading the Bengal Delta: Climate Change, Development, and Livelihoods in Coastal Bangladesh" (U Washington Press, 2021)

03 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Climate change is one of the key challenges of our time and large amounts of development aid are allocated towards adaptation in the Global South. Yet...

Jessica Fanzo, "Can Fixing Dinner Fix the Planet?" (Johns Hopkins UP, 2021)

03 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

How can consumers, nations, and international organizations work together to improve food systems before our planet loses its ability to sustain itsel...

Keith Pluymers, "No Wood, No Kingdom: Political Ecology in the English Atlantic" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2021)

03 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Pushing back against the traditional narratives assuming that the American colonies served as resource “windfalls” which released Europe from the ...

Jemma Wadham, "Ice Rivers: A Story of Glaciers, Wilderness, and Humanity" (Princeton UP, 2021)

01 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The ice sheets and glaciers that cover one-tenth of Earth’s land surface are in grave peril. High in the Alps, Andes, and Himalaya, once-indomitable...

Katherine Wiltenburg Todrys, "Black Snake: Standing Rock, the Dakota Access Pipeline, and Environmental Justice" (U Nebraska Press, 2021)

01 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The controversial Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) made headlines around the world in 2016. Supporters called the pipeline key to safely transporting Ame...

Paul Sabin, "Public Citizens: The Attack on Big Government and the Remaking of American Liberalism" (Norton, 2021)

31 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In the 1960s and 1970s, an insurgent attack on traditional liberalism took shape in America. It was built on new ideals of citizen advocacy and the pu...

Andrew Flachs, "Cultivating Knowledge: Biotechnology, Sustainability, and the Human Cost of Cotton Capitalism in India" (U Arizona Press, 2019)

27 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Cultivating Knowledge: Biotechnology, Sustainability and the Human Cost of Cotton Capitalism in India by Andrew Flachs (University of Arizona Press, ...

Kirsten A. Greer, "Red Coats and Wild Birds: How Military Ornithologists and Migrant Birds Shaped Empire" (UNC Press, 2020)

25 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Remapping empire, nature, and scientific enquiry beyond the simple binary exchange between periphery and metropole, Dr. Kirsten Greer demonstrates how...

Jonathan E. Robins, "Oil Palm: A Global History" (UNC Press, 2021)

17 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Oil palms are ubiquitous—grown in nearly every tropical country, they supply the world with more edible fat than any other plant and play a role in ...

Benjamin R. Cohen et al., "Acquired Tastes: Stories about the Origins of Modern Food" (MIT Press, 2021)

17 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The modern way of eating—our taste for food that is processed, packaged, and advertised—has its roots as far back as the 1870s. Many food writers ...

Lee McIntyre, "How to Talk to a Science Denier" (MIT Press, 2021)

17 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Climate change is a hoax--and so is coronavirus. Vaccines are bad for you. These days, many of our fellow citizens reject scientific expertise and pre...

Alexander Menrisky, "Wild Abandon: American Literature and the Identity Politics of Ecology" (Cambridge UP, 2020)

16 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Despite the proliferation of scientific ecology in the second half of the 20th C emphasizing the interconnection between environment and humanity, Wi...

Karen Sanctuaries: Memory, Biodiversity and Political Sovereignty

13 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Seeds, plants and food can act as repositories of memory and identity, thus countering the alienation caused by displacement. How does this manifest i...

Margarita M. Balmaceda, "Russian Energy Chains: The Remaking of Technopolitics from Siberia to Ukraine to the European Union" (Wilson Center, 2021)

13 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Margarita Balmaceda’s Russian Energy Chains: The Remaking of Technopolitics from Siberia to Ukraine to the European Union (Columbia University Pre...

Beronda L. Montgomery, "Lessons from Plants" (Harvard UP, 2021)

10 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In Lessons from Plants (Harvard University Press, 2021), Dr. Beronda Montgomery connects the science of plants to the behavior of people. She unpa...

Hillary Angelo, "How Green Became Good: Urbanized Nature and the Making of Cities and Citizens" (U Chicago Press, 2021)

29 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

As projects like Manhattan's High Line, Chicago's 606, China's eco-cities, and Ethiopia's tree-planting efforts show, cities around the world are dev...

Michael G. Hillard, "Shredding Paper: The Rise and Fall of Maine's Mighty Paper Industry" (Cornell UP, 2021)

27 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

From the early twentieth century until the 1960s, Maine led the nation in paper production. The state could have earned a reputation as the Detroit of...

The Renewable Energy Revolution in East Asia and the Nordics

26 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The world is in a midst of a renewable energy revolution, with the price of utility scale photo-voltaic solar power falling by nearly 90% between 2009...

Michael Moore, "We Are All Whalers: The Plight of Whales and Our Responsibility" (U Chicago Press, 2021)

23 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The image most of us have of whalers includes harpoons and intentional trauma. Yet eating commercially caught seafood leads to whales' entanglement an...

From the Archives: Building a Sustainable Future through Urban Governance with Dr Sophie Webber

22 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

With two megacities and strong economic growth, Indonesia has seen dramatic rates of rural-urban migrations. According to the World Bank, nearly 70 pe...

Gina G. Warren, "Hatched: Dispatches from the Backyard Chicken Movement" (U Washington Press, 2021)

20 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Guest Gina Warren discusses her newest book Hatched: Dispatches from the Backyard Chicken Movement, published May 2021 by University of Washington P...

Stacia Ryder et al., "Environmental Justice in the Anthropocene: From (Un)Just Presents to Just Futures" (Routledge, 2021)

20 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Through various international case studies presented by both practitioners and scholars, Environmental Justice in the Anthropocene: From (Un)Just Pre...

Nicoletta Batini, "The Economics of Sustainable Food: Smart Policies for Health and the Planet" (Island Press, 2021)

13 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In The Economics of Sustainable Food: Smart Policies for Health and the Planet (Island Press, 2021), Dr. Nicoletta Batini, and co-authors, unpack t...

Aase J. Kvanneid, "Perceptions of Climate Change from North India: An Ethnographic Account" (Routledge, 2021)

12 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Aase Kvaneid’s new book explores local perceptions of climate change through ethnographic encounters with the men and women who live at the front li...

Todd M. Kerstetter, "Flood on the Tracks: Living, Dying, and the Nature of Disaster in the Elkhorn River Basin" (Texas Tech UP, 2019)

09 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

If floods are inevitable, why do humans insist on building alongside riverbanks? Todd Kerstetter, professor of history at Texas Christian University, ...

From the Archives: Supporting Sustainable Farming Practices in Cambodia with Professor Daniel Tan

08 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Improper pest management has led to significant yield loss in rice and other crop harvests in Cambodia, causing economic losses to farmers and environ...

Kristin Poling, "Germany's Urban Frontiers: Nature and History on the Edge of the Nineteenth-Century City" (U Pittsburgh Press, 2020)

08 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In an era of transatlantic migration, Germans were fascinated by the myth of the frontier. Yet, for many, they were most likely to encounter frontier ...

Jenny Price, "Stop Saving the Planet!: An Environmentalist Manifesto" (W. W. Norton, 2021)

05 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

We’ve been ​“saving the planet” for decades…and environmental crises just get worse. All this Tesla driving and LEED building and carbon tra...

Yanzhong Huang, "Toxic Politics: China's Environmental Health Crisis and its Challenge to the Chinese State" (Cambridge UP, 2020)

02 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Popular discussions of China’s growth prospects often focus on the success or failure specific industries. They might address the challenges rising ...

Tyson Yunkaporta, "Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World" (HarperOne, 2021)

30 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Although it is not described as such anywhere in the book, Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World (HarperOne, 2021) is indeed a syst...

Building Bridges Across the Seas: A Discussion of Australia-Indonesia Cooperation for the Preservation of Underwater Cultural Heritage

24 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Indonesia is the world’s largest archipelagic state, its waters home to hundreds, if not thousands, of shipwrecks. As maritime neighbours with both ...

Ecological Civilization: Chinese Dream or Global Strategy?

18 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

How seriously should take the Chinese government’s discourse about ‘ecological civilization’? Mette Hansen argues that whatever the shortcomings...

Gavin Van Horn and John Hausdoerffer, "Wildness: Relations of People and Place" (U Chicago Press, 2017)

16 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Whether referring to a place, a nonhuman animal or plant, or a state of mind, wild indicates autonomy and agency, a unique expression of life. Yet t...

Clarence Jefferson Hall Jr, "A Prison in the Woods: Environment and Incarceration in New York’s North Country" (U Massachusetts Press, 2020)

16 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Since the mid-nineteenth century, Americans have known the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York as a site of industrial production, a place to hea...

Katrinell M. Davis, "Tainted Tap: Flint's Journey from Crisis to Recovery" (UNC Press, 2021)

09 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

After a cascade of failures left residents of Flint, Michigan, without a reliable and affordable supply of safe drinking water, citizens spent years d...

Ryanne Pilgeram, "Pushed Out: Contested Development and Rural Gentrification in the US West" (U Washington Press, 2021)

09 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

What happens to rural communities when their traditional economic base collapses? When new money comes in, who gets left behind? Pushed Out: Conteste...

Joel Alden Schlosser, "Herodotus in the Anthropocene" (U Chicago Press, 2020)

27 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Political Theorist Joel Alden Schlosser has turned his attention to Herodotus, an historian and political thinker from classical Greece, to learn how ...

Caterina Scaramelli, "How to Make a Wetland: Water and Moral Ecology in Turkey" (Stanford UP, 2021)

24 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

How to Make a Wetland: Water and Moral Ecology in Turkey (Stanford UP, 2021) tells the story of two Turkish coastal areas, both shaped by ecological ...

William D. Nordhaus, "The Spirit of Green: The Economics of Collisions and Contagions in a Crowded World" (Princeton UP, 2021)

24 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Can classical economics help figure out climate change and support policies that slow global warming? Yale Sterling Professor of Economics William N...

Deborah R. Coen, "The Earthquake Observers: Disaster Science from Lisbon to Richter" (U Chicago Press, 2013)

21 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Earthquakes have taught us much about our planet's hidden structure and the forces that have shaped it. This knowledge rests not only on the recording...

David R. Boyd, "The Rights of Nature: A Legal Revolution That Could Save the World" (ECW Press, 2017)

18 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Palila v Hawaii. New Zealand’s Te Urewera Act. Sierra Club v Disney. These legal phrases hardly sound like the makings of a revolution, but beyond...

Climate Denialism and Propaganda with Catriona McKinnon

18 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Catriona McKinnon is Professor of Political Theory at the University of Exeter. Her research focuses on climate ethics and environmental justice. Much...

David Hardin, "Standpipe: Delivering Water in Flint" (Belt, 2021)

17 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

A brief, elegant memoir of the author's work as a Red Cross volunteer delivering emergency water to residents of Flint, Michigan, Standpipe sets the...

Michelle Nijhuis, "Beloved Beasts: Fighting for Life in an Age of Extinction" (Norton, 2021)

12 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In the late nineteenth century, as humans came to realize that our rapidly industrializing and globalizing societies were driving other animal species...

Bret Gustafson, "Bolivia in the Age of Gas" (Duke UP, 2020)

03 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Evo Morales, Bolivia's first Indigenous president, won reelection three times on a leftist platform championing Indigenous rights, anti-imperialism, a...

Candace Fujikane, "Mapping Abundance for a Planetary Future: Kanaka Maoli and Critical Settler Cartography in Hawai'i" (Duke UP, 2021)

21 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In Mapping Abundance for a Planetary Future: Kanaka Maoli and Critical Settler Cartographies in Hawai'i (Duke University Press, 2021), Candace Fuj...

Allison Cobb, "Plastic: An Autobiography" (Nightboat Books, 2021)

20 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Plastic: An Autobiography (Nightboat Books, 2021) explores how technology, sprung from desire, draws all beings into its net, and asks how to live j...

R. Armstrong and R. Hughes "The Art of Experiment: Post-Pandemic Knowledge Practices for 21st-Century Architecture and Design" (Routledge, 2020)

19 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The Art of Experiment: Post-Pandemic Knowledge Practices for 21st-Century Architecture and Design (Routledge, 2020) is a handbook for navigating our ...

James Beattie, "Gardens at the Frontier: New Methodological Perspectives on Garden History and Designed Landscapes" (Routledge, 2019)

16 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Gardens at the Frontier: New Methodological Perspectives on Garden History and Designed Landscapes (Routledge, 2019) addresses broad issues of intere...