New Books in Environmental Studies

The relationship between humans and the environment in the United States reflects tales of countless contrasting and overlapping trends, movements, and tensions. Law has cultivated both the planet’s biggest environmental threats and its most creative innovations for protecting human and ecological health. U.S. laws have driven both exploitation and temperance; destruction and restoration; and resistance and adaptation.

Lessons for a Warming Planet: A Vital History of US Environmental Law (NYU Press, 2026) showcases the fundamental role the law has served in reckoning with environmental harm in the United States. Authors Alejandro E. Camacho and Brigham Daniels explore the full arc of U.S. environmental legal history across five major periods in the United States, reaching as far back as North America’s colonization and ending with the present. Through this rich history, the book considers the ways leadership, social movements, political coalitions, information, and technologies have both been catalyzed by the law and have advanced environmental change.Camacho and Daniels provide a fascinating and insightful history of environmental law. They ask readers to consider: What lessons can we draw from environmental legal history for contemporary challenges like climate change, AI, and emerging biotechnologies? In looking to the past, Lessons for a Warming Planet illustrates how prior generations each used legal imagination to navigate seemingly insurmountable environmental threats.
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Savage: The Making of Modern Dogs in British Hong Kong
(Cornell University Press, 2026) explores the dark side of colonial
modernity through canine eyes, showing the many ways that dogs
involuntarily contributed to the modernization of twentieth-century Hong
Kong. Dr. Catherine S. Chan follows the piecemeal transplantation of
British animal humanitarianism as pedigree dogs accompanied hardening
class differences, dogmeat became a contested racial issue, and dogs
were roped into the long list of undesirables fabricated in the
so-called golden era of reforms following the social disturbances of the
1960s.

Dr.
Chan reveals a fragmented civilizing project that constructed dogs as
dangerous, filthy, and unnecessary nuisances in a burgeoning city,
rationalizing the slaughter of tens of thousands of dogs alongside
paradoxical criticism of the native population for perpetrating animal
cruelty and the promotion of British animal humanitarianism. Departing
from anthropocentric perspectives in understanding the use of
Britishness in the molding of modern cities, Savage
restores the presence and agency of dogs to encourage a rethinking of
the patchiness of British colonial governance and the long-lasting
repercussions that modernity can have on our relationship with animals.

This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book
focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty
negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative
analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find
Miranda’s interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. 
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In
a matter of decades, a spectacular cold-water paradise thirty million
years in the making is succumbing to warming oceans. Kelp forests are
largely out of sight, hidden under the ocean’s surface, yet they are one
of Earth’s most wondrous and underappreciated marine habitats. It’s
an ethereal light-infused realm of sharks, otters, eels, sea stars,
crabs, rockfish, and myriad other species vital to a functioning ocean
and the countless coastal communities that make their living from the
sea. Unlike coral reefs, whose similar plight plays out in tropical
waters highly visible to vacationing tourists, kelp forests thrive along
cold-water coastlines far from tourist centers. What will it take to
stop the decline before these underwater playgrounds bursting with
colorful life become vast fields of lifeless urchin barrens?

For readers who know kelp only as tangles on the ocean surface or smelly mounds of seaweed littering beaches, Forest of the Sea: The Remarkable Life and Imperiled Future of Kelp (Princeton University Press, 2026) reveals a thriving three-dimensional underwater world of color
and beauty whose loss if allowed to happen will reverberate in
unimaginable ways for both nature and humans. David Helvarg, a veteran
journalist and accomplished scuba diver, takes us on a memorable journey
beneath the waves through kelp’s natural and human history, the
billions of dollars of products and services it contributes to our
global economy, the unwitting human activities that threaten its
survival, and the hopeful movements around the world to restore kelp
habitat. Helvarg introduces us to Indigenous leaders promoting sea otter
reintroduction, out-of-work urchin fisherman,
documentary filmmakers, and ocean scientists all working in an unlikely
collaboration to restore and protect kelp forests while promoting a
growing range of uses for food, medicine, and energy.

Forest
of the Sea is the first book to document what is at stake if we lose
these irreplaceable marine jewels, helping readers to understand how
these natural systems might adapt and survive.

This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book
focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty
negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative
analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find
Miranda’s interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. 
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/environmental-studies

A gentle yet powerful blend of ancient wisdom and modern wellness that shows how seasonal living can enrich your days.

In
the Chinese Five Element system, which links nature’s cycles to our
emotional, physical, and spiritual selves, there are five seasons:
spring, summer, late summer, fall, and winter. You can feel the energy
of that fifth season when the air gets cooler, the light turns golden,
and we enjoy a few weeks of transition from the active energy of spring
and summer to the calming, restorative energy of fall and winter.

Leda
Elliott grew up in Japan and has long been a student of the dialogue
between East and West, between body and spirit. Drawing from decades of
experience in holistic practices, Leda has developed a unique method for
embracing the lessons we can learn from each season—late summer brings
grounding, fall brings release, winter brings stillness, spring brings
vision, and summer brings joy. Incorporating rituals, meditations, and
exercises attuned to each season’s energy can help us feel more aligned.
Things like the foods we eat, the colors we wear, and where we focus
our attention can all deepen our sense of connection to ourselves and
the world.

Leda’s peaceful spirit radiates onto the page in a book
offering tips and exercises, personal stories, illustrations, and
testimonials from her students. These heartfelt narratives demonstrate
how ancient practices can meet the challenges of modern life, providing
support for those navigating grief, stress, and fatigue.

The Five Seasons Method: A Gentle Path toward Emotional and Spiritual Balance (Scribner,
2026) will help readers of all ages and abilities get their energy back
into balance, one breath and one season at a time.

Leda Elliott
is a Tai Chi Master, Reiki Master, and the creator of The Five Seasons
Method, a wellness program that integrates Tai Chi, QiGong, breathwork,
and seasonal energy principles to help individuals cultivate balance,
vitality, and inner harmony. She trained under legendary Tai Chi
Grandmaster Bow Sim Mark and is the owner of A Thousand Cranes Studio,
where she offers in-person classes, private coaching, Reiki healing, and
global online workshops. For more information please visit this website.

Elizabeth
Cronin, Psy.D., is a clinical psychologist and certified mindfulness
meditation teacher in Norwood, MA. You can find her on Youtube or visit her website.
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In Democracy in Power: A History of Electrification in the United States (University of Chicago Press, 2024), Sandeep Vaheesan recounts the rather overlooked story of how electricity spread across the U.S. economy during the 20th century. This book sheds careful light on the varied institutions and interests mediating the process, including investor-owned utilities and the rural electric cooperative. Vaheesan does not hesitate to critique the successes and failures cropping up along the way; rather, he lays them all bare in service of paving an actionable path toward the decarbonization and democratization of power.

Sandeep Vaheesan is the legal director at the Open Markets Institute. He leads their legal research and advocacy, including the amicus program. He has written and spoken widely on antimonopoly law and policy and building a fair economy. Previously, he worked at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and American Antitrust Institute.

Anna Olteanu is a senior in the College of Social Studies at Wesleyan University, where she focuses on intellectual history. Her interests include political ecology, the history of economic thought, and literary criticism.
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