Environmental philosophy in desperate times By JustinPack, Peterborough: Broadview Press. 2022. 186 pages. $26.50 (paperback). ISBN: 97815548145364

Environmental philosophy in desperate times is written as a handbook for students or instructors in the field, introducing the basics of environmental philosophy. It outlines the leading theorists and provides a snapshot of the essential arguments surrounding environmental issues while exploring the philosophies that have led to the present climate crisis. Justin Pack aptly contextualizes contemporary environmental thought by guiding the reader through the foundational texts that have shaped it, such as Indigenous metaphysics, epistemology and ethics, ecofeminism, deep ecology, food ethics, animal liberation, and ecocentrism. Environmental philosophy provides a literature review that offers the reader a simple understanding of its theories and movements, organized into three different sections: “The Death of the cosmos,” “Environmental theories,” and “Environmental movements.” Pack provides the reader with some hope as he walks us through the field's evolution without losing sight of the urgency of the current situation. He gives a summary of seminal conversations, from Rachel Carson's Silent spring (1962), which spoke to the malpractice of then-modern chemical agriculture, to Arne Naess's (1986) Eight principles for deep ecology, which called for spiritual and philosophical reform of our epistemic relation to ecosystems; and Peter Singer's (1975) Animal liberation that critiqued speciesism and called for a utilitarian approach to end animal exploitation. The book also addresses current climate change debates, proposing an optimistic discourse that questions our Western-centric view of the universe, including the economic privilege that exploits the commons. Pack analyzes the intersection of racism with geographies of ignorance to explain how this line of linking or lack thereof contributes to thoughtlessness and a lack of ethical consideration for the Earth, highlighting the overall need for greater education on environmental issues. Pack calls out this general ambivalence of humanity's anthropocentric terracide "killing the Earth without fearing and hating nature" (p. 140). On page 121, he provides the reader with Faye Lessler's list of not-for-profits to get involved in different environmental movements for readers who wish to break through their indifference (Green Dreamer, 2012). Overall, the book is an ambitious undertaking, but Pack delivers the essential touchstones from critical thinkers across the discipline, providing an excellent primer for the field. Furthermore, Pack does an excellent job analyzing how Western colonial thought has led to the current environmental state. He details the critiques of Deloria Jr. and other formative Indigenous scholars of the denigration of Indigenous thought through anthropological thinking, how epistemic oppression has marginalized Indigenous science, and how diverse Indigenous epistemologies demonstrate relationships to the more than human world through place and can provide renewed ethical guidelines. Missing, though, is an acknowledgement of some more recent contributions of Indigenous and BIPOC communities to environmental theoretical discourse. The environmental movement, philosophy, and theory are being radically rethought through Indigenous knowledge generation, disruption, and activism. The last two sections of this book lack this vital context. Absent from the book are discussions of newer developments surrounding decolonial thinking, the coloniality of climate change, and concepts such as two-eyed seeing, for example—the only fault in an otherwise thorough introduction to this subject.

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