From Apocalypse to Way of Life: Environmental Crisis in the American CenturyAnnotation Environmental crisis has plagued America and the world since the midtwentieth century, and it haunts us to this day. From Apocalypse to Way of Life offers a stirring, comprehensive account of the ongoing ecological catastrophe and our changing response to it. When people first became aware of the enormity of the crisis, they responded with alarm. Books like Rachel Carson's 1961 bestseller Silent Spring, which cataloged the destructive impact of chemicals on our ecosystem, typified the initial reaction. In more recent years, however, the growing complexity of environmental devastation has produced suffocating political and cultural forces that only blunt our responses to it. Today, while we know the situation is very bad, we have in too many ways come to accept the deterioration of our planet. Detailing the hard facts about con temporary threats to human health -- deforestation, freshwater depletion, ocean pollution, biodiversity loss, synthetic hormones -- Buell challenges the complacency of those who will dismiss the bearers of contemporary environmental warnings as mere "Chicken Littles." With passion and eloquence, From Apocalypse to Way of Life shows us the crisis that is staring us in the face and explains why we can no longer see it. Book jacket |
