This textbook offers a comprehensive overview of the most prominent theories, concepts and debates in environmental political thinking. In doing so, Robert Garner – an esteemed scholar in the field – offers a foundation from which readers can better tackle perennially thorny questions such as what environmental cost can we bear for development, what do we mean by terms such as ‘sustainability’, and how might we reconcile competing interests and influences in the political sphere.

Garner concludes his introductory account by exploring the idea of a sustainable future and how society must be structured in order to achieve it, encouraging readers to consider the theoretical when considering the all-too important reality.

This text is designed for those studying environmental and green political thought, as well as readers keen to understand the development of environmental political thought over recent generations.

Robert Garner is Professor of Politics at the University of Leicester, UK. He has published numerous book and journal articles on the politics and philosophy of animal rights. His most recent books are two edited collections ‘The Political Turn in Animal Ethics’ (Rowman and Littlefield: 2016) and ‘The Ethics of Killing Animals (Oxford University Press; 2015). He is currently engaged on a Leverhulme-funded project on the intellectual history of animal rights.