Strategic Ignorance : Why the Bush Administration Is Recklessly Destroying a Century of Environmental Progress

Published in cloth in 2004, Strategic Ignorance revealed to countless readers the true scope of the Bush administration's assault on the environment. Midway through the second Bush term, with a Supreme Court far less likely to rein in the "wrecking crew"--as the authors describe those working to dismantle environmental protections--this book will be even more important and useful.
Strategic Ignorance sets forth not only the shocking Bush record but the stories and strategies behind it. Sierra Club executive director Carl Pope and coauthor Paul Rauber brief us on the key administration figures, as well as legislators and lobbyists on the reactionary right, who strive to gut landmark laws; facilitate payback to polluters; distort, suppress, or ignore science; and invent soothing flimflam like "Clear Skies." The authors were prescient in predicting Bush's repeal of the Roadless Rule, the censoring of evidence on global warming, and the stonewalling on mercury emissions. They also foresaw the backlash now building: Congress rebelling against the EPA's "sewage blending" ploy, local opposition to coal-bed methane mining in the West, and resurgent environmental support at the polls.
Strategic Ignorance remains the indispensable guide to the Bush team's motives and tactics--and to how we can best oppose them to safeguard America's citizens, landscapes, and resources.

"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.