{"product_id":"a-climate-of-crisis-america-in-the-age-of-environmentalism-penguin-history-american-life-9781594204661","title":"A Climate of Crisis: America in the Age of Environmentalism (Penguin History American Life)","description":"\u003cp\u003eA provocative history of the environmental movement in America  showing how this rise to political and social prominence produced a culture of alarmism that has often distorted the facts Few issues today excite more passion or alarm than the specter of climate change. In A Climate of Crisis  historian Patrick Allitt shows that our present climate of crisis is far from exceptional. Indeed  the environmental debates of the last half century are defined by exaggeration and fearmongering from all sides  often at the expense of the facts.  In a real sense  Allitt shows us  collective anxiety about widespread environmental danger began with the atomic bomb. As postwar suburbanization transformed the American landscape  more research and better tools for measurement began to reveal the consequences of economic success. A climate of anxiety became a climate of alarm  often at odds with reality. The sixties generation transformed environmentalism from a set of special interests into a mass movement. By the first Earth Day in 1970  journalists and politicians alike were urging major initiatives to remedy environmental harm. In fact  the work of the new Environmental Protection Agency and a series of clean air and water acts from a responsive Congress inaugurated a largely successful cleanup.  Political polarization around environmental questions after 1980 had consequences that we still feel today. Since then  the general polarization of American politics has mirrored that of environmental politics  as pro-environmentalists and their critics attribute to one another the worst possible motives. Environmentalists see their critics as greedy special interest groups that show no conscience as they plunder the earth while skeptics see their adversaries as enemies of economic growth whose plans stifle initiative under an avalanche of bureaucratic regulation.  There may be a germ of truth in both views  but more than a germ of falsehood too. Americas worst environmental problems have proven to be manageable; the regulations and cleanups of the last sixty years have often worked  and science and technology have continued to improve industrial efficiency. Our present situation is serious  argues Allitt  but it is far from hopeless. Sweeping and provocative  A Climate of Crisis challenges our basic assumptions about the environment  no matter where we fall along the spectrumreminding us that the answers to our most pressing questions are sometimes found in understanding the past.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45647155953717,"sku":"ByrdShop_1594204667","price":73.38,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9781594204661.jpg?v=1781689492","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/a-climate-of-crisis-america-in-the-age-of-environmentalism-penguin-history-american-life-9781594204661","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}