ABSTRACT
To many mainstream environmentalists and environmental policy-makers the link between sexuality and the environment may not be immediately obvious. However, by just scratching the surface of mainstream environmental theory and policy, the importance of sexuality is illuminated, albeit often framed through a Malthusian anxiety about overpopulation and limited resources. This chapter, from a queer perspective, demonstrates the ways in which (hetero)sexuality and environmental policy are problematically interconnected. Ultimately, through a queer eco-critique, this chapter argues that the heteronormative underpinnings of contemporary international environmental policy discourses work counter to combating environmental degradation through their reliance on Western heterosexualized idea(l)s of coupling and family life. Alternatively, I argue, a queer ecological approach offers a new way to conceptualize human-nature dynamics in service of improved inter-human and inter-species relations.
