BEYOND THE “ENVIRONMENT"

ENVIRONMENTAL GEOGRAPHY AND CRITICAL THINKING

Abstract

The illustrious professor and an eminent figure in Brazilian geographic thought, Marcelo Lopes de Souza, brings important reflection on Environmental Geography and critical thinking. For him, critical thinking is dynamic, plural and should not be reduced to one or a few currents. In order to clarify what Environmental Geography is, it presents ten theses or propositions, among which it claims to be an approach, a look derived from Ecogeography and Sociogeography, based on the dialogue of knowledge and on epistemic transversality. It is a new beginning, however, supported by roots as old as geographic science itself. In this sense, it privileges not only interdisciplinarity, as well as Political Ecology, being able to immunize it against sociologism and, in turn, immunize Environmental Geography against positivism and conservatism. There is a consideration of the totality of the environment, that is, the first nature transformed and retransformed through social relations. It is also observed that the trap of the “anthropic factor” can lead to neo-Malthusianism and eco-fascism. However, the focus of Environmental Geography is based on the dialogue of knowledge beyond intra- and interdisciplinarity, as it includes traditional knowledge.