Republicanism Approach to Environmental Citizenship A Critique on the Book “Green Citizenship, Democracy, and Green Justice”

The main purpose of this article is to review the book "Citizenship, Democracy and Green Justice" written by David E. Lowry and others. The book contains articles about environmental problems, human health and the environment, household consumption basket and environmental pollution, and green justice. The main idea of ​​the collection of articles in the book is that sustainable development is not possible without citizenship, democracy, and green justice. The assumption of these articles is that green citizenship can be established based on ethical recommendations and changing laws and regulations. It seems that the humanistic and legalistic approach leads to a thin green citizenship.  On the other hand, this article shows that the approach of civil society (republicanism) has more potential for building green citizenship. According to this approach, moral commitment and responsible action towards the environment requires, above all, belonging to a new society (inclusive natural civil society) in which the relations of citizens are not based on social contracts but on civil friendship. In practice there are serious obstacles to the formation of environmental citizenship: including competition for economic development and growth; Hardening of national identity; and Reducing human action to utilitarian action, especially against nature.