This article offers a critical analysis of environmental science that develops the argument that science has itself become an obstacle for the transformations that are needed to ensure human-ecological well-being. Due to dominant norms and conceptualizations of what science is, how it should relate to policy and society, and what it is that science should contribute to, environmental science is set to continue to serve vested interests and seems unable to break free from this pattern. This deadlock situation is related to persistent patterns of inequality and marginalization in science that keep these dominant norms and conceptualizations in place and that marginalize alternative forms of knowledge, including critical social sciences and humanities, that are better equipped to support transformation. Inspired by feminist and anti-colonial scholarship, I suggest that transforming environmental science will require explicit refusal of dominant norms of science and conceptualizations of the environment, and a commitment to justice and pluralism. •Environmental science has become an obstacle for transformative change for people and nature.•Its underlying worldview that separates humans and nature enables exploitation and environmental destruction.•Norms of neutrality and relevance result in environmental science serving vested interests and marginalizing alternatives.•A better knowledge is possible if environmental science’s priorities and practices put justice and pluralism center stage.