cover image The Green Crusade: Rethinking the Roots of Environmentalism

The Green Crusade: Rethinking the Roots of Environmentalism

Charles T. Rubin. Free Press, $22.95 (312pp) ISBN 978-0-02-927525-2

Since the publication more than 30 years ago of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring , most people have accepted the need to protect the environment. Yet, claims Rubin, a political science professor at Duquesne University, there is an alarming aspect to the environmental movement. Analyzing the major literature on the subject, he suggests a disquieting political agenda. He finds that an environmental utopia as envisioned by such leading writers in the field as Paul Ehrlich ( The Population Bomb ), Barry Commoner ( The Closing Circle ) and others would lead to a totalitarian state. He charges that Carson deliberately misrepresented some of her findings and that the Club of Rome's The Limits to Growth was part of a PR campaign. He also examines the writings of those who have challenged environmental popularizers, including Julian Simon ( The Ultimate Resource ), James Lovelock ( Healing Gaia ) and Richard John Neuhaus ( In Defense of People ) . Rubin's argument that many environmentalists have failed to recognize the utopian and totalitarian character of their principles is engrossing and provocative. (Apr.)