In his provocative book "Refounding Environmental Ethics: Pragmatism, Principle, and Practice", Ben Minteer challenges this dominant perspective in the field of environmental ethics with its emphasis on nonanthropocentrism and the intrinsic value of nature. He argues that the near-exclusive focus on these issues has left the field isolated and largely irrelevant at a time when environmental problems are crying for ethical guidance.

"Flammable" tells the story of Villa Inflamable (translated and referred to in the text as ‘Flammable’), a shantytown on the edge of Buenos Aires, hemmed in by a petrochemical complex and the festering waters of the Río de la Plata, and which was named for a ship explosion just offshore. It is, as Auyero and Swistun tell it, a story of urban relegation and environmental suffering, of people whose lives are shaped in profound and permanent ways by the toxic environment in which they live, and by the confusion, longing, and resignation produced by indifferent state bureaucracy, duplicitous corporations, and prying journalists (and, it must be said, researchers).