Land, Water, Air and Freedom

This ground-breaking book makes visible the global counter-movement for environmental justice. Combining 500 in-depth empirical analyses of environmental conflict with expansive theorising in ecological economics and political ecology, Joan Martínez-Alier reveals that though grassroots movements for socio-economic sustainability are deeply diverse, there are profound global patterns of environmental action and empowerment.

Using rich personal and community stories of conflict drawn from the Atlas of Environmental Justice , Martínez-Alier analyses the commonalities shared by environmental defenders and offenders respectively. Each narrative is set within a cohesive framework, emphasising the diverse vocabularies, iconographies, and valuation languages of poor and indigenous activists without losing sight of the global scale of climate action and biodiversity loss. Revealing the circularity gap at the centre of the industrial economy, the book focuses on the frontiers of commodity extraction and waste disposal. Alongside exploring diverse geographies of resistance and protagonists of conflict, chapters delve into commodity extraction, corporate irresponsibility, unequal trade, and feminist neo-Malthusianism.

Land, Water, Air and Freedom will be essential reading for students and scholars of environmental social sciences and humanities, anthropology, geography, international relations, and ecology. It will also guide activists seeking to understand their place in the movements for environmental justice and environmental sustainability.