New book on ecocide co-authored by Martin Crook is published

• Tuesday, May 10, 2022

Martin Crook, Roehampton lecturer in Sociology and International Relations, has released a new co-authored book entitled The Genocide-Ecocide Nexus.

In a world gripped by an ever-worsening ecological crisis there are present and increasing genocidal pressures on many culturally distinct social groups, such as indigenous peoples. This is where the genocide-ecocide nexus presents itself. The destruction of ecosystems, ecocide, can be a method of genocide if, for example, environmental destruction results in conditions of life that fundamentally threaten a social group's cultural and/or physical existence. Given the looming threat of runaway climate change, extinction of species, destruction of habitats, ecological collapse and the dependency of the human race on our bio-sphere, ecocide (both natural and manmade) will become a primary driver of genocide.

Through nine chapters of cutting-edge research, the book examines specific case studies in settings such as Iraq, Sudan, Nigeria and Brazil to highlight and analyse the crucial connections and vectors of the genocide-ecocide nexus. It will be of great value to students and researchers interested in the ecological crisis, environmental justice, the political economy of genocide and ecocide as well as environmental human rights.

On its release, Martin Crook said: “This book I co-edited signals an important shift in the genocide studies field, representing a burgeoning ‘environmental turn’ that recognises the key role that ecological destruction and degradation plays as a vector of genocide in the epoch of the Anthropocene and the era of climate breakdown. I am proud to play a leading role in this environmental turn.”