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Arming Mother Nature: The Birth of Catastrophic Environmentalism by Jacob Darwin Hamblin (Associate Professor of History, Associate Professor of History, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR) at Abbey's Bookshop,
Arming Mother Nature: The Birth of Catastrophic Environmentalism
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Jacob Darwin Hamblin (Associate Professor of History, Associate Professor of History, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR)

Arming Mother Nature

The Birth of Catastrophic Environmentalism

Jacob Darwin Hamblin (Associate Professor of History, Associate Professor of History, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR)

$56.95

Paperback

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English
Oxford University Press Inc
30 May 2013
The Cold War; Chemical & biological weapons; Mathematics & Sciences; Management of land & natural resources; Natural disasters
"When most Americans think of environmentalism, they think of the political left, of vegans dressed in organic-hemp fabric, lofting protest signs. In reality, writes Jacob Darwin Hamblin, the movement--and its dire predictions--owe more to the Pentagon than the counterculture.

In Arming Mother Nature, Hamblin argues that military planning for World War III essentially created ""catastrophic environmentalism"": the idea that human activity might cause global natural disasters. This awareness, Hamblin shows, emerged out of dark ambitions, as governments poured funds into environmental science after World War II, searching for ways to harness natural processes--to kill millions of people. Proposals included the use of nuclear weapons to create artificial tsunamis or melt the ice caps to drown coastal cities; setting fire to vast expanses of vegetation; and changing local climates. Oxford botanists advised British generals on how to destroy enemy crops during the war in Malaya; American scientists attempted to alter the weather in Vietnam. This work raised questions that went beyond the goal of weaponizing nature. By the 1980s, the C.I.A. was studying the likely effects of global warming on Soviet harvests. ""Perhaps one of the surprises of this book is not how little was known about environmental change, but rather how much,"" Hamblin writes. Driven initially by strategic imperatives, Cold War scientists learned to think globally and to grasp humanity's power to alter the environment. ""We know how we can modify the ionosphere,"" nuclear physicist Edward Teller proudly stated. ""We have already done it."" Teller never repented. But many of the same individuals and institutions that helped the Pentagon later warned of global warming and other potential disasters. Brilliantly argued and deeply researched, Arming Mother Nature changes our understanding of the history of the Cold War and the birth of modern environmental science."
By:  
Imprint:   Oxford University Press Inc
Country of Publication:   United States
Dimensions:   Height: 239mm,  Width: 162mm,  Spine: 28mm
Weight:   554g
ISBN:   9780199740055
ISBN 10:   0199740054
Pages:   320
Publication Date:  
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Primary ,  Undergraduate
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active

<br>Jacob Darwin Hamblin is Associate Professor of History at Oregon State University. His books include Poison in the Well: Radioactive Waste in the Oceans at the Dawn of the Nuclear Age, Oceanographers and the Cold War, and Science in the Early Twentieth Century: An Encyclopedia.<br>

Reviews for Arming Mother Nature: The Birth of Catastrophic Environmentalism

<br><br> Jacob Hamblin's new book is a clearly and calmly told tale of the American effort to conscript nature -from the seafloor to the stratosphere -for potential active duty during the Cold War. Well researched in U.S. and European archives, it finds the roots of modern apocalyptic environmentalism in the hair-raising deeds and often hare-brained schemes of an American scientific-military complex under pressure to find ways to prevail against the USSR. It sheds new light on the old adage that is a miracle anyone survived the Cold War. <br>-J.R. McNeill, Georgetown University <br><p><br> A well-written and -documented challenge of some of the assumptions on both sides in the debate about global warming. --Kirkus Reviews<br><p><br>


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