The central point of political ecology, the crucial role of power and inequality, has proven essential in unraveling our environmental challenges. This deep, smart volume provides the state of the art in political ecology.

- Josiah Heyman, University of Texas at El Paso,

This book gives a powerful and critical view of the anthropocene from a political ecology perspective. This historically grounded analysis reveals the urgent need to address the social and global inequalities in current discussions of the climate crisis.

- Kristín Loftsdóttir, professor of Anthropology, University of Iceland,

Humanity’s future may rest on how we deal with climate change, environmental problems, and their impacts on society. Terrestrial Transformations: A Political Ecology Approach to Society and Nature recognizes that such problems have social, political, and cultural contexts, and that politics, money, and power have physical impacts on nature and society that cannot be ignored. This book brings together a set of chapters that provide an overview of the political ecology approach, illustrating its theoretical underpinnings, central concepts, methods, and major interests. The authors examine the political contexts of a broad range of environmental and social problems, drawing attention to the political and economic forces driving environmental and ecological problems, how societies are transformed as they attempt to cope and adapt to a changing nature, and who pays the price.

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Drawing on a broad range of case studies, the contributors to Terrestrial Transformations explore the political and economic forces entangled in environmental and ecological problems and look at humanity’s future in light of climate change and existing environmental problems.

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AcknowledgmentsIntroductionThomas K. Park and James B. GreenbergChapter 1. The Anthropocene and other noxious conceptsThomas K. Park and James B. GreenbergChapter 2. The Political Ecology of Climate ChangeJames B. Greenberg and Thomas K. ParkChapter 3. Digital Sensing and Human-Environment Relationships in the Face of Climate Variability in Senegal and MauritaniaThomas K. Park, Aminata Niang and Mamadou BaroChapter 4. The Political Ecology of Languagelessness of the Southwest North American Region: Case Studies in the Linguistic Commoditization of Mexican Origin PeopleCarlos Vélez-IbáñezChapter 5. Political Ecology of Guitars and their TonewoodsJames B. GreenbergChapter 6. Indigenous responses to colonialism in an island state: a geopolitical ecology of Kanaky-New CaledoniaSimon Batterbury, Séverine Bouard, and Matthias KowaschChapter 7. An Everyday Politics of Access: The Political Ecology of Infrastructure in Cape Town’s Informal SettlementsAngela StoreyChapter 8. Land Tenure Issues and Socio-Political Challenges in MauritaniaMamadou BaroChapter 9. Complicity and Resistance in the Indigenous Amazon: Economia Indigena Under SiegeAlaka WaliChapter 10. Dolphin Hunters or Dolphin Saviors: Cultural Identity Choices Under Intensifying Sea Level Rise, Cash-Dependence, and a New Eco-Christian ConservationSarah Keen MeltzoffChapter 11. When Pachamama is Left Hungry: Healing and Misfortune in the Atacama DesertAnita CarrascoChapter 12. Place Matters: Tracking Coastal Restoration after the Deepwater HorizonDiane Austin and Victoria PhaneufChapter 13. Practicing Political Ecology in the New Restoration EconomyRavic P. NijbroekChapter 14. Nature conservation and the ambiguous human-nature relationshipYlva UgglaChapter 15. Hope and Possibility for Transformation in Ordinary Acts of Well-Being on a Bicycle-Pedestrian TrailLisa L. GezonConclusionJames B. Greenberg, Thomas K. Park, Simon Batterbury, Casey Walsh, Edward LiebowReferencesIndexAbout the Editors & Contributors

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