This book explores America’s environmental ruin, past and present. Environmental issues in the USA are more important now than ever before. The devastation inflicted by Hurricane Katrina and Deepwater Horizon, as well as growing evidence of global warming, highlight a nation caught in environmental crisis. This introduction to America’s environmental crisis shows that it is firmly rooted in the past and that today’s problems are manifestations of older systems of capitalism, technology and a catastrophe culture. It covers new environmental disasters such as Katrina and Deepwater Horizon. It identifies ‘doomsday landscapes’ including the Santa Barbara Oil Spill, the ‘Fable for Tomorrow’ town in Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962) and Nevada’s fake Doom Towns blown apart by atomic testing. It looks at whether Americans have been inviting the current situation through their long-term environmental actions. It includes 14 illustrations showing environmental destruction both real and imagined.
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AUTHOR APPROVED Explores America’s environmental ruin, past and present Environmental issues in the USA are more important now than ever before. The devastation inflicted by Hurricane Katrina and Deepwater Horizon, as well as growing evidence of global warming, highlight a nation caught in environmental crisis. While US automobile giants ply consumers with ‘fuel efficient’ cars in the ‘MPG Lounge’ of sales, and politicians talk of getting tough on polluters, anxieties gravitate around an approaching doomsday scenario, an environmental endgame, of wholesale collapse, unless something significant is done. Yet fears of doomsday are nothing new. John Wills shows how the current environmental crisis is firmly rooted in the past and that today’s problems are manifestations of older systems of capitalism, technology and a catastrophe culture. He also argues that the USA has already witnessed a range of ‘doomsday scenarios, ‘ both real and imagined. Key Features Covers new environmental disasters such as Hurricane Katrina and Deepwater Horizon Identifies past ‘doomsday landscapes’ including the Santa Barbara Oil Spill, the ‘Fable for Tomorrow’ town in Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962) and Doom Towns in Nevada blown apart by atomic testing in the 1950s Asks if Americans have been inviting doomsday through their long- term environmental actions Includes 14 illustrations highlighting environmental change John Wills is a Senior Lecturer in American History and American Studies at the University of Kent. He is author of /Conservation Fallout/ (2006) and, with Karen Jones, /Invention of the Park/ (2005) and /The American West/ (2009).
About the Author
John Wills is a Lecturer in American History at the University of Kent.
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