ABSTRACT
This chapter contributes to clarifying the nature and shape of the global environmental movement, drawing on literature on the history of environmental protest as well as on the empirical evidence from the Global Environmental Justice Atlas. Through these narratives, as well as literatures from political ecology, environmental philosophy, eco-feminism, ecological economics, history, anthropology and sociology, the chapter aims to distill some of the core characteristics, unresolved tensions and relevant future lines of enquiry of an emerging radical and transformative global EJ movement. These include a focus on ecological justice that takes into account relations with nonhuman nature and navigates the tension between conservation and livelihoods; a global materialist perspective that questions the structural basis of the economy; and the increasing globalization and interconnectedness between struggles and their simultaneously oppositional and constructive politics. The chapter outlines defining characteristics and tensions that have endured over time, highlighting how a globalizing world has served to transform environmentalism through an emerging planetary consciousness.
