One way that people can educate themselves is by reading your forthcoming book, The Intersectional Environmentalist: How to Dismantle Systems of Oppression to Protect People + Planet. Could you please tell us more about that? Displacement due to climate change is already a growing phenomenon expected to increase exponentially as temperatures rise. It already disproportionately affects vulnerable areas in the Global South. Between 2008 and 2015, the UNHCR estimates climate related events displaced 22.5 million people. The Intersectional Environmentalist: How to Dismantle Systems of Oppression to Protect People + Planet I cannot give enough praise to the "pledge breakouts" and "chapter discussion questions" at the end of each chapter. They capture the readership in an active stance of reflexive learning which helps to highlight meaning in all the significant educational concepts. Through the pledges, the author reaches out to the just nature of humanity in her readership and in this way appeals to them to think rationally about how both human inhabitants of the planet need as much healing as the environment because both have been hurt for a very long time. Through the pledge breakouts a significant call to everyone’s commitment is made. The pledge breakouts have been strategically placed at the end of the chapters after the reader has been given all the information and left in no doubt that the logical and just thing to do is unite in advocating for the justice of all humanity and the environment. The interactive end of chapter discussion questions would also be helpful to educators who might choose to use this book as an instructional text for Environmental Justice, Social Justice or even Legal Studies.

The LGBTQ+ community are also likely to suffer more from the consequences of climate-related disasters. For example, being denied relief and facing discrimination. During hurricane Katrina trans people faced discrimination in emergency shelters including being turned away. I think having that context would be really important because the way that it was taught to me was like, ‘there was this environmental movement and it just happened,’ but no kind of nod to the civil rights movement. There was not much exploration into the environmental justice movement either, which didn’t receive a whole lot of attention, and I think that it should. Fighting for oppressed communities is not an optional add-on to environmentalism but needs to be at the very core of it. Mostly because of course we should protect these groups but also because we need these groups within the movement: Climate activism has much to learn from history’s most successful social movements for example the civil rights movement, the suffragettes and the LGBT rights movement. Indigenous experience and wisdom gives us knowledge which can elevate and add to what we learn from science. Diverse teams have also been proven to be smarter and lead to better decisions-making, and studies have found that when women are involved in group decisions, there are more likely to be wins for conservation. Taking Action It should come as no surprise that the richest, whitest countries are the most responsible for the climate crisis and yet suffer the consequences of it the least. It is also the same systems of extraction and exploitation fuelled by capitalism and colonialism that fuel both the climate crisis and oppression and inequality. I've been waiting forever to read this book...to further my knowledge of the shit we do to the BIPOC community. I started to pay attention more when the Flint water crisis happened, and then, Covid happened, which made me question things. Then, the cancer cluster started dominating local Houston news for the 5th Ward residents. Now, I wanted to know more.

Displacement may be caused directly by extreme weather events such as flooding, hurricanes and droughts, but also due to secondary events driven by climate instability like conflict, economic failure and political unrest. Estimates vary but it has been suggested there may be 200 million climate migrants by 2050. More protection and recognition of climate refugees is essential for the future. Alongside empathy and fair solutions from the countries in the Global North rather than heightening hostility. Women Before colonialism, indigenous communities were living in balance with the land, sustaining both themselves and nature for thousands of years without the requirement for harmful extractive processes. As indigenous peoples live closer to the land, they are often the first to recognise the effects of climate change and feel the brunt of impacts the hardest, it can threaten their very existence. Few countries recognise indigenous land rights, with ancestral land often being used without proper consultation for damaging industries such as mining, logging, pipelines, large scale agriculture and more. The Intersectional Environmentalist] shares data in an accessible, compelling, and engaging manner, and explores a variety of topics, including ableism, veganism, green energy, representation and more. It’s dense, but not overwhelming, and it also provides a “tool kit” and a supplementary reading list, to help you expand your knowledge once you finish this book. The Intersectional Environmentalist is at once a call to action, a guide to galvanize change, and a way to empower all people towards the betterment of the planet."— She Does the City Intersectionality was a term coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989 in her article Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex, which you can read more about here. Crenshaw also helped create critical race theory, which is a theory that examines how race and identity intersect with power structures. There are two recurring arguments to critical race theory:

This book is really a history book in some ways; it talks about eco-feminism and intersectional theory. It talks about the ‘father’ and ‘mother’ of the environmental justice movement. Readers will hear from diverse people around the world about how they practice environmentalism and explore these perspectives from a nuanced approach. Each chapter ends with discussion questions and an Intersectional Environmentalism pledge, urging readers to think critically about the information presented and how they may use it going forward. The Intersectional Environmentalist gave me a much better understanding of the scope of intersectional environmentalism, and how I can be more intersectional in my advocacy and work. Thomas brings in her own experience and perspective, and reaches out to bring in the voices of activists from other BIPOC and queer communities. In addition to bringing in multiple voices and viewpoints, Thomas also provides an expansive tool kit with resources to learn more about specific issues and communities. I want them to know that ‘all talk’ isn’t good enough anymore. Honestly, I’ve been really jaded with policy and these big events. I went to another climate event, and they brought the CEO of Shell onstage. I was like, this is not what I signed up for. There are a lot of corporate interests that are involved at these climate events. I would encourage world leaders to just work with on-the-ground activists before they work with Shell, for instance, and try to give them a redemption arc. The term began to emerge in the 1980s after the civil rights and Earth Day movements from Hazel M. Johnson and Dr. Robert Bullard.One day I hope that when people think of an environmentalist, they'll automatically envision a person who cares very deeply about both people and planet" Important content, poor execution. Every once in a while, I read a NetGalley that makes me wonder if the corrected book will be an improvement over the ARC. Intersectional Environmentalist is one of those for me—the insets, discussion guides, and content didn’t come together in a fluid way, which may be improved upon final print. The content in this book is SO important, but I disliked the writing. I felt like I was reading a middle school primer on intersectional environmentalism, aimed at a young, naive reader, rather than a smart, informed adult. When I rate a book like this poorly, I feel a sense of guilt because I’m not rating the content or topic poorly (and don’t want to be judged as doing so), but the writing and the book itself.