Environmental movements are among the most vibrant, diverse, and powerful social movements occurring today, across all corners of the globe. They range dramatically from government lobbyists raising campaign funds to save the North American spotted owl; to “Green Warriors” engaging in guerrilla conflict in the mountains of the Philippines; to small landholders and indigenous peoples vowing to die by meeting the waters of the Narmada River in India as it rises due to its damming. 

Drawing on his primary fieldwork in six countries, environmental researcher Timothy Doyle argues that there is, in fact, no one global environmental movement; rather, there are many, and the differences among them far outweigh their similarities.  Movements in the third world—such as those in India and the Philippines —tend to be oriented around issues of human health, shelter, food security, and survival; while those of the developed world—for example, the United States, England, Germany, and Australia —can afford to focus on post-materialist issues such as wilderness concerns and animal rights. Doyle also demonstrates that the consequences of these campaigns are as wide-ranging as their motives and methods.

Taking a much-needed step beyond the wealth of nation-centered accounts of environmentalism, this book makes an important contribution to studies concerned with global environmental problems and politics.

Timothy Doyle is reader in the geographical and environmental studies department at the University of Adelaide. He has written on a wide variety of topics concerned with environmental politics and policy-making and is most recently the co-author of Environmental Politics and Policy Making in Australia; Environment and Politics; and Green Power.

This is a marvelous book. Timothy Doyle provides exactly the right balance of evidence and critical judgement to show how environmental movements differ across the globe. More importantly he shows why this matters and does so in an accessible and informative way.