The global emergencies facing the inhabitants of our planet - climate change, biodiversity meltdown, ocean acidification, overfishing, land degradation and more - are symptoms of a common problem: the world is full. Humanity has already exceeded several planetary boundaries. The situation is without precedent and its manifestations are numerous. Ethics for a Full World argues that our dominant culture's anthropocentrism - our human-focused thinking - is an underlying cause of the world's problems, threatening life as we know it. The blights that endanger our planet are experienced by many today, particularly those who care about other species, as deeply personal tragedies. So why are we not acting to save the world? Some say that humans won't do anything until we feel the repercussions ourselves - but by then it would be too late. This book takes an uncompromising view on our culture, our democracy and us as human beings, and examines why it is so difficult to save the world from ourselves.In a globalized world, the most urgent issues are the ones that exhibit tipping points, as they are the ones that it may become too late to fix. Burkey argues that non-anthropocentric ethics and the people who hold them, could be key to turning the tide.In a cry for meaningful and effective engagement, he proposes a concrete first step to connect concerned individuals. This is a book for people who want to be part of the solution, and who aren't fooled by the feeble attempts for change that have been made so far.

Environmental writing is an increasingly popular literary genre, and a multifaceted genre at that. Recently dominated by works of 'new nature writing', environmental writing includes works of poetry and fiction about the world around us. In the last two decades, universities have begun to offer environmental writing modules and courses with the intention of teaching students skills in the field of writing inspired by the natural world. This book asks how students are being guided into writing about environments. Informed by independently conducted interviews with educators, and a review of existing pedagogical guides, it explores recurring instructions given to students for writing about the environment and compares these pedagogical approaches to the current theory and practice of ecocriticism by scholars such as Ursula Heise and Timothy Morton. Proposing a set of original pedagogical exercises influenced by ecocriticism, the book draws on a number of self-reflexive, environmentally-conscious poets, including Juliana Spahr, Jorie Graham and Les Murray, as creative and stimulating models for teachers and students.

In a long and versatile career spanning thirty-five years, Ramachandra Guha has produced a vast body of work. Each time, he has broken new ground-his pioneering environmental histories of India and his still-relevant work on ecology and equity; his social histories of Indian cricket; his monumental history of the Indian republic; his biographies of Verrier Elwin and Gandhi; his anthologies of ecological, social and political thought in India; and his collections of biographical and political essays. Sparked by Guha's wide-ranging and important work, A Functioning Anarchy is a collection of essays by historians, social scientists, ecologists and journalists.

Exploring the ways in which culture, systems of value, and ethics impact agriculture, this volume addresses contemporary land questions and conditions for agricultural land management. Throughout, the editors and contributors consider a range of issues, including pressure on farmland, international and global trade relations, moral and ethical questions, and implications for governance. The focus of Finance or Food? is land use in Australia, Canada, and Norway, chosen for their commonalities as well as their differences. With reference to these specific national contexts, the contributors explore political, ecological, and ethical debates concerning food production, alternative energy, and sustainability. The volume argues that recognition of food, finance, energy, and climate crises is driving investments and reframing the strategies of development agencies. At the same time, food producers, small farmers, and pastoralists facing eviction from their land are making their presence felt in this debate, not just locally, but in national policy arenas and international fora as well. This volume investigates the many ways in which this process is occurring and draws out the cultural implications of new developments in global land use. An important intervention into a timely debate, Finance or Food? will be essential reading for both academics and policymakers.

How do we talk about climate grief in the church? And when we have found the words, what do we do with that grief? There is a sudden and dramatic rise in people experiencing a profound sense of anxiety in the face of our dying planet, and a consequent need for churches to be better resourced pastorally and theologically to deal with this threat. Words for a Dying World brings together voices from across the world - from the Pacific islands to the pipelines of Canada, from farming communities in Namibia to activism in the UK. Author royalties from the sale of this book are split evenly between contributors. The majority will be pooled as a donation to ClientEarth. The remainder will directly support the communities represented in this collection. Contributors include Anderson Jeremiah, Azariah France-Williams, David Benjamin Blower, Holly-Anna Petersen, Isabel Mukonyora, Jione Havea, and Maggi Dawn.

Based on research conducted over two decades, this accessible and deeply felt book provides a provocative comparative history of environmentalism in two large ecologically and culturally diverse democracies--India and the United States. Ramachandra Guha takes as his point of departure the dominant environmental philosophies in these two countries--identified as "agrarianism" in India and "wilderness thinking" in the U.S. Proposing an inclusive "social ecology" framework that goes beyond these partisan ideologies, Guha arrives at a richer understanding of controversies over large dams, state forests, wildlife reserves, and more. He offers trenchant critiques of privileged and isolationist proponents of conservation, persuasively arguing for biospheres that care as much for humans as for other species. He also provides profiles of three remarkable environmental thinkers and activists--Lewis Mumford, Chandi Prasad Bhatt, and Madhav Gadgil. Finally, the author asks the fundamental environmental question--how much should a person or country consume?--and explores a range of answers.
"Copub: Permanent Black"

In France, the fundamental intellectual debate over ecology might best be summarized by the contrasting views of Michel Serres and Luc Ferry. In The Natural Contract, Serres calls for an end to humans' war on nature: Our world view must turn from anthropocentric to ecocentric, and our relationship to the earth must become symbiotic instead of parasitic. Luc Ferry's response to Serres in The New Ecological Order ridicules the metaphor of a natural contract, by which humans (and humanism) would no longer reign over the earth. Ferry accuses Serres and other ecological thinkers of being "premodern" and "prehumanistic"; valuing nonhuman life as much as human life evokes the ridiculous trials of five centuries ago when beetles and rats were threatened with excommunication if they did not cease their antihuman activities. After analyzing the Serres-Ferry debate, Ecocritics and Ecoskeptics examines environmental themes in novels by Michel Tournier, Stephane Audeguy, and Chantal Chawaf. It then considers the complex and evolving relationship between humans and animals as expressed in novels by Vercors and Olivia Rosenthal, and in philosophical works by Jacques Derrida, Elisabeth de Fontenay, and Peter Singer, among others. Two novels each by the humanist J.-C. Rufin and the humorist Iegor Gran provide a dose of healthy skepticism. Rufin's stories reveal the potential dark side of extreme environmentalism-authoritarianism and terrorism-while Gran's hilarious satires critique some environmentalists' piousness, opportunism, humorlessness, and antihumanism. The book concludes that environmentalism and humanism are not incompatible, if we proceed beyond the traditional humanism of Ferry and other modernists. Essays by philosophers such as Claude Levi-Strauss, Pierre Rabhi, Edgar Morin, and Michel Maffesoli demonstrate that an inclusive, ecological humanism is not only possible but necessary for our survival.

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. Climate Change Scepticism is the first ecocritical study to examine the cultures and rhetoric of climate scepticism in the UK, Germany, the USA and France. Collaboratively written by leading scholars from Europe and North America, the book considers climate skeptical-texts as literature, teasing out differences and challenging stereotypes as a way of overcoming partisan political paralysis on the most important cultural debate of our time.

Optimism demands action. Optimism is an active choice. Optimism is not naive and it is not impossible. We are living in an age of turmoil, destruction and uncertainty. Global warming has reached terrifying heights of severity, human expansion has caused the extinction of countless species, and Neoliberalism has led to a destructive divide in wealth and a polarisation of mainstream politics. But, there is a constructive way to meet this challenge, there is a reason to keep on fighting and there are plenty of reasons for optimism. Lily Cole has met with some of the millions of people around the world who are working on solutions to our biggest challenges and committed to creating a more sustainable and peaceful future for humanity. Exploring issues from fast fashion to fast food and renewable energy to gender equality, and featuring interviews with Sir David Attenborough, Sir Paul McCartney, Elon Musk and Extinction Rebellion co-founder Dr. Gail Bradbrook, Reasons for Optimism is a beacon of hope in dark times. This book is a rousing call to action that will leave you feeling hopeful that we can make a difference. We are the ancestors of our future: a generation who will either be celebrated for their activism or blamed for its apathy. It is for us to choose optimism, to make a change and to show what is possible.

Ecology and economics share a common root: the Greek word oikos, meaning a house. Ecology is the way the natural world manages its house. Economics is the way society manages its house. The contentions of this book are that the natural world is the best guide to our economic activities, that supply and demand are insufficient determinants, that profit and loss are not alternatives, that wealth cannot be created but can be lost. Ecological economics is a term that has been coined to encapsulate these ideas. We can stop throwing away food before and after it gets to the table. We can learn to deal with our pollution. We can stop wasting our resources. We must look again at our priorities. We're in a race against time. Perhaps there's not time enough, but it's in everyone's interest to try. If we keep our activities on a human scale, maybe the passengers can regain control of the runaway train.

Nature and Colonialism: A Reader provides students with a collection of classic texts on environmental thought and invites them to analyze the texts alongside the often contrarian ideas of expansion, development, and human exceptionalism. Readers are encouraged to consider early perspectives on the hierarchical power relationships between political/economic entities and nature/peoples, and whether foundational views of environmentalism supported the proliferation of colonial ideology. The collection begins with a piece by Zitkala-Sa, a Dakota Sioux activist and writer, and highlights a voice of resistance against the redefinition and reimagining of nature via colonialist thought. Students read seminal works related to nature by Charles Darwin, George Perkins Marsh, Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, and Gifford Pinchot. They are challenged to engage in sociocultural inquiry to better understand how views of the relationship between humans and nature have developed over time, as well as how they continue to shape modern thought and perspectives regarding environmentalism. Designed to stimulate critical thought and inquiry, Nature and Colonialism is an ideal supplementary textbook for courses in environmental science or philosophy, especially those with emphasis on the relationship between humans and their environment.