Exploring Apocalyptica: Coming to Terms with Environmental Alarmism

by Frank Uekotter (Editor)

Overview

Environmental alarmism has long been a political bellwether. Tell me what you think about the green apocalypse, and I'll tell you where you stand on the issues. But as the environmental heydays of the 1970s move into perspective, the time has come for a reassessment. Horror scenarios create a legacy whose effects have largely escaped attention. Based on case studies from four continents and the North Atlantic, ExploringApocalyptica argues for a reevaluation of familiar clichés. It shows that environmentalists were less apocalyptic than commonly thought, and other groups were far more enthusiastic. It traces an interconnection with Cold War fears and economic depressions and demonstrates how alarmism faced limits in the Global South. It also suggests that past horror scenarios impose constraints on ongoing debates. At a time when climate change turns from a scenario into an experienced reality, this book charts paths for an age that may have already moved beyond the peak apocalypse.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780822945239
Publisher:	University of Pittsburgh Press
Publication date:	08/14/2018
Edition description:	1
Pages:	232
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Frank Uekötter is a reader in environmental humanities at the University of Birmingham, UK. He is the author of The Age of Smoke: Environmental Policy in Germany and the United States, 1880-1970 and The Greenest Nation? A New History of German Environmentalism. He is also the editor of The Turning Points of Environmental History.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments xii

Introduction The Apocalyptic Moment: Writing About Environmental Alarmism Frank Uekötter 1

1 Power Politics, and Protecting the Forest: Scares About Wood Shortages and Deforestation In Early Modern German States Bernd-Stefan Grews 12

2 Grassroots Apocalypticism: The Great Upcoming Air pollution Disaster In Postwar America Frank Uekötter 36

3 "A Computer's vision of Doomsday": On The History Of The 1972 Study The Limits To Growth Patrick Kupper Elke Seefried 49

4 The Sum Of All German Fears: Forest Death, Environmental Activism, And The Media In 1980s Germany Frank Uekötter Kenneth Anders 75

5 The Endangered Amazon Rain Forest In The Age Of Ecological Crisis Kevin Niebauer 107

6 Greenpeace And The Brent Spar Campaign: A Platform For Several Truths Anna-Katharina Wöbse 129

7 A Landscape of Multiple Emergencies: Narratives of The Dal Lake In Kashmir Shalini Panjabi 150

8 The Adivasi Versus Coca-Cola: A Local Environmental Conflict And Its Global Resonance Bernd-Stefan Grewe 169

Notes 195

Contributors 216

Index 265

Editorial Reviews

Past praise for Turning Points of Environmental History:

"Uekötter has achieved superb editorial success, selecting quality authors and assuring germaneness to the subject matter. This book has thematic unity that merits reading as a whole. It is potentially stimulating for historians, particularly those who wonder what new periodization environmental history can suggest. The clarity of the essays makes it approachable for students, and it can well be used as a source of readings in environmental history courses." —Environmental History

From the Publisher