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Recent debates emphasize the urgency of making environmental movements more inclusive, yet they do so without deeper scrutiny of the core tenets of environmentalism. Despite efforts by some groups, there is little acknowledgment of the continuing failure of the movement in addressing environmental injustices experienced by racial minorities. Decolonizing Environmentalism makes visible the simplifications and erasures of mainstream environmental movements, while reimagining our collective commitment to environmental stewardship in a way that builds on the knowledge and praxis of indigenous people, racial minorities, and rural communities.The authors deconstruct popular ideas, such as ''green consumption'' and ''sustainable development'' to show how these concepts rest on misleading assumptions which are based on colonial conceptualizations of conquering nature and European Modernity''s view of there being a fundamental separation between nature and society. The authors showcase alternative imaginations of environmentalism founded on materialist environmentalism that draws on indigenous living traditions of nature-society integration, with insights from contemporary movements such as The La Via Campesina Movement for Food Sovereignty, grassroots movements in Puerto Rico in response to Hurricane Maria, and the Fossil Free Movement among others.>
List of contents
Chapter 1: Unpacking Mainstream Environmentalism: Heroic and Mundane
Chapter 2: Decolonizing Environmentalism: What do we mean? Why Now?
Chapter 3: Planet-Hacking Environmentalism in the Anthropocene
Chapter 4: Seductions of Sustainability in Contemporary Environmentalism
Chapter 5: How Not to Decolonize: Instrumentalizing Indigenous Rights and Wisdom
Chapter 6: Youth Climate Movements: Accomplishments, Challenges, and Transformations
Chapter 7: Forging Solidarities for Emancipatory and Regenerative Environmentalisms
About the author
Prakash Kashwan is Associate Professor of Environmental Studies and an affiliated faculty at the Heller School of Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University, Waltham. He is the author of Democracy in the Woods: Environmental Conservation and Social Justice in India, Tanzania, and Mexico (Oxford University Press 2017), Editor of Climate Justice in India (Cambridge University Press 2022), Editor of the journal Environmental Politics (Taylor & Francis), and co-founder of Climate Justice Network.
Report
Decolonizing Environmentalism dismantles the assumptions of mainstream Western environmentalism, offering a powerful critique in clear and accessible language. It goes beyond critique, however, by providing a valuable roadmap for building more inclusive and equitable environmental movements. Amitav Ghosh, author The Nutmeg's Curse (2021)
