Product Overview
Why are our environmental problems still growing despite a huge increase in global conservation efforts? Peterson del Mar untangles this paradox by showing how prosperity is essential to environmentalism. Industrializationdrove peopleto look for meaning in nature even as they consumed its products more relentlessly. Hence England led the way in both manufacturing and preserving its countryside, and the United States created a matchless set of national parksas it becamethe world's pre-eminent economic and militarypower.
Environmentalmovements have produced some impressive results, including cleaner air and the preservationof selected species and places. Butagendasthat challenged western prosperity and comfortseldom made much progress, and many radical environmentalists have been unabashed utopianists.Environmentalism considers a wide range of conservation and preservation movements and less organized forms of nature loving (from seaside vacations to ecotourism) to argue that these activities have commonlydistracted us from the hard work of creating a sustainable and sensible relationship with the environment.
