Full text can be accessed at
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03736245.2011.627996
Celebrity and the Environment is among the first major works that give a critical analysis
of political ecology of the celebrity industry. Drawing on a thorough media research and
extensive readings, the book takes a critical stance on the role of fame industry in shaping
global environmental politics. The main issue of this book is not only the identification of
how fame, wealth and power works to influence environmental movement but also what
celebrity conservationism might signify. On this, Brockington argues that celebrity is an
art, and the rules for its production can be taught. Meanwhile, biological nature that
celebrity seeks to conserve is a social construct. Humans are central to both nature
construction and they are also part of it, a point reinforced through the exclusion of
humans from nature by other humans in the process of producing images of nature
congenial to human consumption. The book therefore answers important questions of how
and why celebrity is brought into conservation to pursue certain agendas. These questions
are pertinent because conservation agendas are not given but are instead created by people
on behalf of nature. So, in whose image and interest are conservation agendas pursued?
Who wins, who loses from celebrity’s support for conservation causes? In answering these
questions, the book provides counter-narratives to common explanations of environmental
causes such as the noble goal of saving the planet from global warming and loss of
biodiversity. In this way, Brockington aligns his work with critical scholarship that seeks
to provide nuanced perspectives on the relationship between nature and society under
capitalism