What is Critical Environmental Justice?

by David Naguib Pellow

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 harms mirror those experienced by marginalized groups across the planet. In this novel book, 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 the Israel/Palestine conflict and the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States. 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. Those already familiar with the discipline will find themselves invited to think about the subject in a new way. This book will be a vital resource for students, scholars, and policy makers interested in transformative approaches to one of the greatest challenges facing humanity and the planet.

Genres: Nonfiction, Environment, Theory, Politics, Sociology, Sustainability, Science

240 pages, Hardcover

Published July 28, 2025

Reviews

[Aubrey]

This book was interesting and brought up many things I have not thought of before. However, he exclaims that we should “embrace an anarchist approach to socioecological change” but does not provide an explanation for how we can do this. Would this approach exactly work?

[novelishreads]

the cover does not do the contents of this book justice at all 😭

[Tim]

Despite a weird cover, which calls back to outdated ways of thinking about environmentalism, this book puts forth a very incisive, forward looking framework for how environmental justice scholarship and activism can continue to make progress. Briefly Pellow proposes four "pillars" for critical EJ, namely (1) a focus on intersectionality, (2) multiscale studies, (3) focus on how state power reinforces inequalities, and (4) a focus on the indispensability of marginalized populations and species. The case studies he uses to illustrate this framework are especially interesting, and will stretch your understanding of both EJ and the environment.

[Shayden]

A friend shared this book with me from one of her environmental science classes. I enjoyed the thought provoking ideas brought up and the arguments shared. Critical Environmental Justice should be more studied and I appreciated all three examples that were presented. It provided me with a lot of insight on the subject matters and expanded on things I learned back when I was in school. A good educational read

[Becca]

actually pretty fascinating

[Charlotte]

A perfect book, no notes. Hoping his new edition (coming out this year) will update the Israel/Palestine chapter.

[Rubye Strickland]

Heavy on the critical part!

[Alyssa]

Whole book was a gag until you realize it's reality and in your neighborhood.

[charity ꨄ︎]

ENVS 275-01 - ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE