Scorched Earth: Environmental Warfare as a Crime against Humanity and Nature
- ISBN-10
- 0691189013
- ISBN-13
- 9780691189017
- Series
- Scorched Earth
- Category
- History
- Pages
- 538
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2021-01-12
- Publisher
- Princeton University Press
- Author
- Emmanuel Kreike
Description
A global history of environmental warfare and the case for why it should be a crime The environmental infrastructure that sustains human societies has been a target and instrument of war for centuries, resulting in famine and disease, displaced populations, and the devastation of people’s livelihoods and ways of life. Scorched Earth traces the history of scorched earth, military inundations, and armies living off the land from the sixteenth to the twentieth century, arguing that the resulting deliberate destruction of the environment—"environcide"—constitutes total war and is a crime against humanity and nature. In this sweeping global history, Emmanuel Kreike shows how religious war in Europe transformed Holland into a desolate swamp where hunger and the black death ruled. He describes how Spanish conquistadores exploited the irrigation works and expansive agricultural terraces of the Aztecs and Incas, triggering a humanitarian crisis of catastrophic proportions. Kreike demonstrates how environmental warfare has continued unabated into the modern era. His panoramic narrative takes readers from the Thirty Years' War to the wars of France's Sun King, and from the Dutch colonial wars in North America and Indonesia to the early twentieth century colonial conquest of southwestern Africa. Shedding light on the premodern origins and the lasting consequences of total war, Scorched Earth explains why ecocide and genocide are not separate phenomena, and why international law must recognize environmental warfare as a violation of human rights.
Get the book
Other editions
-
- 2022-10-25
- 544 pages
- Paperback
- Princeton University Press
-
- 2021-01-12
- 538 pages
- Paperback
- Princeton University Press
-
- 2022-04-12
- 160 pages
- Ebook
- Verso Books
Similar books
-
Scorched Earth: Beyond the Digital Age to a Post-Capitalist World
By Jonathan CraryRefusing the digital world of late capitalism In this uncompromising essay, Jonathan Crary presents the obvious but unsayable reality: our “digital age” is synonymous with the disastrous terminal stage of global capitalism and its ...
-
Scorched Earth: How the Fires of Yellowstone Changed America
By Rocky BarkerIn Scorched Earth, Barker, an environmental reporter who was on the ground and in the smoke during the 1988 fires, shows us that many of today's arguments over fire and the nature of public land began to take shape soon after the Civil War.
-
The Scorched Earth
By Drew Karpyshyn. The journey is complicated by unnerving ambiguity, grim imagery, and pessimistic overtones, as if Michael Moorcock’s decadence were filtered through J.R.R. Tolkien’s heroism.”—Publishers Weekly “If you’re a fan of fantasy and ...
-
Scorched Earth: The Military's Assault on the Environment
By William ThomasScorched Earth: The Military's Assault on the Environment
-
Scorched Earth: A Novel
By David L. RobbinsFrom David L. Robbins, bestselling author of The End of War and War of the Rats, comes a novel of searing intensity and uncompromising vision.
-
This Scorched Earth: A Novel of the Civil War and the American West
By William Gear[This book] depict[s] a family's journey from devastation to rebirth following the American Civil War"--Amazon.com.
-
Scorched Earth: Legacies of Chemical Warfare in Vietnam
By Fred A. WilcoxScorched Earth is the first book to chronicle the effects of chemical warfare on the Vietnamese people and their environment, where, even today, more than 3 million people—including 500,000 children—are sick and dying from birth defects ...
-
Scorched Earth
By Dame Darcy, Shane RichesSomething wants to watch the world burn...
-
Tom Clancy's Op-Center: Scorched Earth
By George GaldorisiGeneral Bob Underwood is en route to Syria when a rocket-propelled grenade strikes the side of his Humvee and the heavily armored convoy comes under attack.
-
Scorched Earth: Restoring the Country after Obama
By Michael SavageThe other hope? As Dr. Savage explains in some of his most heartfelt and passionate words, it is we, the people: the ordinary "Eddies," as he calls them-motivated, roused, and engaged. This book is about much more than an election.