US Environmental History: Inviting Doomsday

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.