Scorched Earth makes the case that international law should treat environmental destruction due to warfare, known as “ecocide,” as a human-rights violation. Through his 16th- to 20th-century global history, Kreike documents how military forces have strategically targeted the environment as a means of displacing people from their home or causing famine and disease in this total-war strategy. As Kreike unfolds the horrible ecocides of the past, he also reminds readers that these human-rights atrocities are still present today.