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 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.