The production of hazardous pollutants is part of everyday life for most every human; the problem is that the degree of production per person today is greater than it has ever been – and only getting worse. We all participate in this process, but not equally. We are currently in a moment of geologic history where something living is now the single largest driver of planetary change: humans. In the process of creating this change we are also creating substantial and unnecessary human health hazards, what I call environmental violence. Environmental violence (EV) encompasses many activities and processes – but certainly not everything – that humans do, particularly processes of consumption and production that exceed well past meeting basic needs. In this chapter I work through the theoretical threads that underpin the concept of EV and work to situate EV in human evolutionary and geologic history. I also chart out the rest of the book, providing a roadmap of where we are going and the materials, evidence, case studies, and methods that I will employ along the journey.

Humans can see the world around them, imagine how it might be different, and translate those imaginings into reality ‥ or at least try to. This ability plays a significant role in our lineage’s evolutionary success. Meaning, imagination, and hope are as central to the human evolutionary story as are bones, genes, and ecologies. Paleoanthropological, archaeological, and biological data make it abundantly clear that the human lineage, over the last 2 million years, has undergone specific morphological changes alongside less easily measurable, but significant behavioral and cognitive shifts as it has forged and been shaped by a new niche, a highly distinctive way of being in the world – a human niche, a niche in which imagination is a key factor. This chapter offers a brief overview of this history and highlights how developmental processes of the human body and brain evolve as a system that is always in concert with, and mutually co-constitutive of, the linguistic, socially mediated and constructed structures, institutions, and beliefs that make up key aspects of the human niche.