Americans ought to be madder than they are about the Bush administration's environmental deceit: that's the not-surprising core message of this detailed book, coauthored by Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club, and Sierra magazine editor Rauber. That citizens aren't appalled and outraged in greater measure, they write, is thanks to what they cast as the slick rhetoric, obfuscated facts, deliberate disinformation and Orwellian way with words of Bush and his pro-growth cohorts (a Clean Air Act that adds to pollution, a Healthy Forest Initiative that encourages both more logging and more forest fires). In impassioned broad strokes, Pope and Rauber report that Bush and his environment-unfriendly cabinet (Interior, Energy, Agriculture and EPA, in particular but not exclusively) have stripped 235 million wilderness acres of protection from logging and mining interests; funneled billions of dollars in subsidies to giant agribusinesses; rewritten scientific reports to excise unwelcome findings on global warming; defunded Superfund cleanup of hundreds of toxic waste dumps; given near carte blanche to polluting industries to self-regulate; and even lied about the quality of Manhattan's air in the days after September 11. But the real energy of the book comes from its accumulation of small facts to paint the picture-of obsessive secrecy, crony capitalism and (or so the authors claim) the administration's conscious, unabashed commitment to the economic exploitation of the air America breathes, the water it drinks and the earth it walks on.
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When even his staunchest allies concede that the environment is Bush's Achilles' heel, writers intent on scrutinizing the president's policies might very well stagger under a preponderance of evidence against an unabashedly antienvironment administration. So challenged, Sierra Club executives Pope and Rauber painstakingly analyze how, where, and why the Bush White House began compiling what is frequently considered the worst environmental record in presidential history. Pope and Rauber are adept at parsing Bushspeak. Unafraid of naming names, they single out specific government officials whose rhetoric does not match the reality of the administration's record of striking down legislation, rolling back regulations, and otherwise manipulating a system to favor contracts over conservation and profits over preservation. By comparing Bush's actions with his expressed environmental doctrine, the authors reveal the administration's short-term strategies and their subsequent long-term implications. Buttressed by carefully annotated and sourced references, this book present a compelling portrait of an administration with a clear-cut agenda. Carol Haggas
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Review
"A compelling portrait of an administration with a clear-cut agenda." -- Carol Haggas, Booklist
From the Inside Flap
"The Bush Administration's assault on the environment has been breathtaking in its swiftness, scope, and severity. It is the most concerted effort in our history to roll back the nation's environmental laws and regulations. In Strategic Ignorance, Carl Pope and Paul Rauber clearly dissect the Administration's agenda and methods. More than a wake-up call, this book is a call to arms for defenders of America's priceless natural heritage."--Senator Barbara Boxer
"The policies of the Bush administration pose a real danger to the quality of the environment in the United States and the world. In Strategic Ignorance Carl Pope lays out the shrewd but destructive logic through which these policies are beginning to shred the environmental safety net. Pope brings to the job the insight of a man who has been at the forefront of the environmental movement for nearly 30 years."--George Soros
"This dramatic presentation of fact will leave the reader astonished at the sheer scope of the Bush administration's self-interested and ideologically driven dismantling of a century of environmental stewardship and protection. Hopefully it will spur those who care about the kind of world left to future generations to get out there and fight for it."--Robert Redford
"Not since the Gilded Age, when the robber barons bought and sold U.S. corporations and owned the presidency, have the money powers so controlled our government. Carl Pope and Paul Rauber prove that this administration, led by the worst environmental president in history, is devouring not only our rivers, streams, and public lands, but also our democracy. I wish the book were required reading for every politician and citizen. . . ." --Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
"Carl Pope has been involved in making environmental policy for 30 years. This makes him particularly qualified to identify the myriad ways in which President Bush has undermined, sold out, and gutted our environmental laws. Pope and Rauber peer behind Bush's secrecy and slick rhetoric, revealing an environmentally bankrupt Administration." --U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg
"The harrowing accounts in this book detail nothing less than an organized and vicious attack on the laws that protect our air, water, land--and public health. Strategic Ignorance captures all the fuzzy logic and deliberate disinformation involved in the Bush administration's massive environmental shell game, and shows how knowledge and action might yet stop the ongoing industry feeding frenzy that threatens our quality of life and, ultimately, the planet itself." --John H. Adams, President, Natural Resources Defense Council.
From the Back Cover
"The Bush Administration's assault on the environment has been breathtaking in its swiftness, scope, and severity. It is the most concerted effort in our history to roll back the nation's environmental laws and regulations. In Strategic Ignorance, Carl Pope and Paul Rauber clearly dissect the Administration's agenda and methods. More than a wake-up call, this book is a call to arms for defenders of America's priceless natural heritage."-Senator Barbara Boxer "The policies of the Bush administration pose a real danger to the quality of the environment in the United States and the world. In Strategic Ignorance Carl Pope lays out the shrewd but destructive logic through which these policies are beginning to shred the environmental safety net. Pope brings to the job the insight of a man who has been at the forefront of the environmental movement for nearly 30 years."-George Soros "This dramatic presentation of fact will leave the reader astonished at the sheer scope of the Bush administration's self-interested and ideologically driven dismantling of a century of environmental stewardship and protection. Hopefully it will spur those who care about the kind of world left to future generations to get out there and fight for it."-Robert Redford "Not since the Gilded Age, when the robber barons bought and sold U.S. corporations and owned the presidency, have the money powers so controlled our government. Carl Pope and Paul Rauber prove that this administration, led by the worst environmental president in history, is devouring not only our rivers, streams, and public lands, but also our democracy. I wish the book were required reading for every politician and citizen. . . ." -Robert F. Kennedy Jr. "Carl Pope has been involved in making environmental policy for 30 years. This makes him particularly qualified to identify the myriad ways in which President Bush has undermined, sold out, and gutted our environmental laws. Pope and Rauber peer behind Bush's secrecy and slick rhetoric, revealing an environmentally bankrupt Administration." -U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg "The harrowing accounts in this book detail nothing less than an organized and vicious attack on the laws that protect our air, water, land-and public health. Strategic Ignorance captures all the fuzzy logic and deliberate disinformation involved in the Bush administration's massive environmental shell game, and shows how knowledge and action might yet stop the ongoing industry feeding frenzy that threatens our quality of life and, ultimately, the planet itself." -John H. Adams, President, Natural Resources Defense Council.
About the Author
A veteran leader in the environmental movement, Carl Pope has been Executive Director of the Sierra Club since 1992. He has also served on the boards of the California League of Conservation Voters, Public Voice, the National Clean Air Coalition, California Common Cause, Public Interest Economics, Inc., and Zero Population Growth. Pope is the author of two previous books, Sahib: An American Misadventure in India (1971) and Hazardous Waste in America (1981). Paul Rauber is a senior editor at Sierra magazine. Pope and Rauber both live in the San Francisco Bay Area.
