How To Think Like An Environmentalist (activists And Scientists Who Have Changed The Way We See The World)

By (author) Cripps, Elizabeth
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From Confucius to Greta Thunberg, this timely guide spotlights the figures at the forefront of the most important challenge facing our world.
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From Confucius to Greta Thunberg, this timely guide spotlights the figures at the forefront of the most important challenge facing our world.

What does it mean to be an ‘environmentalist’? Not necessarily what you think it does. At the heart of environmentalism lies a recognition of the essential relationship between humans and nature, as well as a determination to prevent harm – or even disaster – to the climate and environment. These concerns link figures otherwise as different as the Buddha and Marx, Aristotle and Greta Thunberg, Alexander von Humboldt and the Maori people.

For Marxists or anarchists like Edward Abbey, capitalism itself is the problem, but Conservative environmentalists like Roger Scruton saw market forces as the solution. For many others, hope lies not in revolution, but in sustainable development (and sustainable businesses), or even a steady state, zero-growth economy.

Elizabeth Cripps takes us on a whirlwind tour of more than 2,000 years of thought, from Confucius to the youth climate movement. Through concise, biographical portraits that include such diverse life stories as assassination attempts and a crocodile attack, political reform and scientific innovation, we meet those on the front line in the fight to protect our natural world.

Review quote:
Cripps proves a warm, accessible guide through a well-curated list of environmentalists'' lives, inspiring the reader to join in this great tradition of thinking like an environmentalist in today’s world. Fascinating and compelling.
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A tour de force through the global history of environmental thought, this wonderful book provides us with ample ideas about how we might keep Earth inhabitable. Erudite and systematic, it is a must read for anyone interested in past and present traditions of thinking about and caring for the environment.
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Elizabeth provides us with profound insights into what the environment is, why we should value it, and how we should protect and enhance it for ourselves and future generations.
Biographical note:

Elizabeth Cripps is a senior lecturer in Political Theory at the University of Edinburgh and former journalist who worked for the Financial Times group and freelanced for the Guardian.

As a moral philosopher, she has a global reputation in climate ethics and justice. She has written two popular philosophy books: What Climate Justice Means and Why We Should Care (Bloomsbury, 2022), and Parenting on Earth: A Philosopher’s Guide to Doing Right by Your Kids – and Everyone Else (MIT Press, 2023).

Promotional headline:
From Confucius to Greta Thunberg, this timely guide spotlights the figures at the forefront of the most important challenge facing our world.
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She has spoken at literary festivals including Hay and Oxford, and to several climate activist groups.
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There are no other books explicitly based around short and entertaining biographical portraits – this is a a really accessible way of talking about these subjects.
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Contemporary relevance – the book relates to current affairs and issues such as debates over climate change, global poverty and the economy.
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Will capture a market among activists, students of philosophy, environmental science or sustainability, as well as a much wider readership as this is such a topical subject.