The Intersectional Environmentalist: How to Dismantle Systems of Oppression to Protect People + Planet was written by Leah Thomas, a young environmentalist activist who wanted to create a comprehensive guide to the world of environmental advocacy. This book serves as a substantial resource collective that describes useful terminology, creates an awareness of community spaces, and offers notable concepts and history lessons within the movement. Environmental justice is the core of broader social justice movements. This book explores how environmental justice intersects with other social justice causes, recognizing how environmental liberation is a must for everyone.
This book targets the way dialogue is constructed around environmental activism. When many people think about environmentalism or sustainability, they tend to associate it primarily with nature. People view nature as a distant reality– a concept separate from humans. Thomas offers important insight into how the foundation of environmental justice lies in the recognition of nature and humans being interconnected. As she states, “As a society we often forget that humans are a part of our global ecosystem and that we don’t exist separately from nature; we coexist with it every day (Leah 3)”. Through prevailing institutions, such as capitalism, we begin to see the damaging effects of how living in an industrial-focused world has slowly deteriorated the biodiversity of our planet. Moreover, it has fully convinced people that we can continue to live sustainably as a society without the active support the earth has to offer.
Thomas’s writing style compels a necessary sense of agency in readers. Through guided discussions and pledges, she invites critical discussion and tangible accountability to create a pipeline from theory to practice. The heart of the book is in her elaborate explanations of various issues in connection with environmentalism. For example, her first chapter discusses early feminist movements and the silence of BIPOC+ women's voices in the fight for equality. She weaves the pre-dominant environmental concept of sustainability, by illustrating the persistence of marginalized communities seeking justice, throughout all of her chapters. This prevailing theme, for example, is strongly evident in her last chapter “People Plus the Planet”. By discussing the disruption to indigenous communities to the whitewashing of plant-based living practices derived from communities of color, Thomas ultimately emphasizes the importance of seeing sustainability outside of environmental understandings and utilizing it as an advocacy tool for all social justice movements. Her sentiment is ultimately incredibly clear by demanding that people who claim to advocate for the planet without a desire to advocate for the well-being and justice of all people are doing an active disservice.
As a student interested in the intersection of sustainability and social justice, I found this book to be an incredible resource for individuals curious about beginning to learn about how sustainability plays a role in all of our lives. Even for students who are deeply invested in these topics, it ensures a robust and well-rounded foundation of intersectional environmentalism. This book left me thinking about how I can slowly turn my passions into these topics and create tangible action around me, no matter how big or small. Intersectional environmentalism is an integral concept for the future of sustainable fashion. By understanding the various ways in which fast fashion has marginalized communities, we can begin to shift away from predominant consumerist mindsets. We can finally begin to invest in slow and sustainable fashion, amplifying the beautiful and diverse local art that exists all around us.
Review Rating: 10/10
Pictured: Leah Thomas, author of the Intersectional Environmentalist
Sources
Thomas, Leah. The Intersectional Environmentalist: How to dismantle systems of oppression to protect people+ planet. Souvenir Press, 2022.
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