ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a review of the academic field of queer ecology and the important role it can play in re-shaping views of environment and nature and of human and nonhuman species. Queer ecology brings queer theory and method into the realm of environmental discourse, disrupting categorical boundaries and heteronormative values that are projected onto nature. The chapter applies a queer ecological lens to aspects of the 'mainstream sustainability movement' (MSM), focusing on the underlying heteronormativity in its discourses and policies. Sexuality is reduced to heteronormative production of children, which must be limited through family planning efforts, in order to protect the environment from human impact. Moving away from theoretical critiques of the MSM, the chapter explores how these queer ecological critiques can highlight the unchallenged heteronormativity that shapes actually existing environmental policies. A queer sustainability is one that is deeply sceptical of categorizations of nature and yet still works to support ecological communities through care, solidarity, and communal valuation.
