Green delusions : an environmentalist critique of radical environmentalism
Scholars, politicians, and activists worldwide are finally recognizing the severity of the global environmental crisis, yet serious threats to the environmental movement remain. Anti-environmentalists dismiss the very idea of a "crisis" as a mirage. Much less obvious, however, is the more subtle threat masquerading under the mantle of environmentalism itself. It is this threat that Green Delusions addresses. Writing from the standpoint of a committed environmentalist, Martin W. Lewis contends that many of the most devoted and strident "greens," those who propose a radical environmentalism, unwittingly espouse an ill-conceived doctrine that has devastating implications for the global ecosystem. In this book he distinguishes the main variants of eco-extremism, exposes the fallacies upon which such views ultimately flounder, and demonstrates that the policies advocated by their proponents would, if enacted, result in unequivocal ecological catastrophe. Lewis describes an environmental community deeply divided by conflicting visions of a sustainable future economy. The agenda proposed by eco-extremists, based on local economic self-sufficiency, a shunning of market exchange, and a general retreat from advanced technology, aims at a thoroughgoing reinvention of all social and economic forms. In this program, Lewis identifies the potential for monumental disruption and complete political alienation, an undermining of the very foundations on which a new and ecologically sane economic order must be built. Instead, he argues, we must move forward into the solar age - an age that will require more investment in our technological infrastructure as well as the retention of a globally integrated economy. Furthermore, in order to advance the reforms needed to change our present course, environmentalism must avoid divisive radical philosophies and try to create a broad-ranging consensus. Green Delusions - at once polemic and prescriptive - is an impassioned attempt to defend the environmental movement against extremist ideas that would lead to self-defeating political strategies and would prevent society from making the reforms it so desperately needs
viii, 288 pages ; 24 cm
9780822312574, 9780822314745, 0822312573, 0822314746
25552831
The varieties of radical environmentalism
Primal purity and natural balance
A question of scale
Technophobia and its discontents
The capitalist imperative
Third world development and population