JUDICIOUS USE OF OUR NUCLEAR ADVANTAGE WOULD HAVE SAVED UNTOLD DAMAGE:

Environmentalism is often traced to 19th-century Romanticism or Theodore Roosevelt-era conservationism. But Allitt chooses to start his timeline with the arrival of the atomic bomb at the end of World War II. The Bomb represented something new: Previous apocalyptic specters were thought to be the work of God, or chance; but with the Bomb, the prospect of a purely man-made apocalypse had come of age. Environmentalism, Allitt suggests, became a free rider to this new anthro-apocalyptic mood, as media sensationalism combined with the desire of environmental scientists to get a piece of the action. Add to this mix the "crisis entrepreneurs" (my term) of environmental activism, and the subsequent bureaucracy created around it, and you have all the pieces in place for the bitterly polarized world of today.  

Allitt decries the extreme polarization over the environment while affirming the importance of environmental problems. He gives good summary accounts of the main episodes and figures of early modern environmentalism, from the deadly 1948 smog siege of Donora, Pennsylvania, to the Cuyahoga River fires of the 1950s and '60s--along with sketches of Rachel Carson, Paul Ehrlich, Garrett Hardin, and Barry Commoner, among others. But early on, he lays out the ground for discounting the central outlook of environmentalists without directly calling them to task for their intellectual errors. 

For example, Allitt writes: "History also demonstrates that there is a vital link between industrialization, wealth, and environmentalism. Only wealthy societies practice environmental protection on a significant scale." Moreover, the developing world has not the luxury of adhering to the whims of wealthy Western environmentalists precisely because environmentalism is a luxury good: "In the early stages, however, it is much better to have 'dirty' industrialization than none at all. Industrialization is the only way for societies to overcome mass poverty." 

He pours subtle scorn on Paul Ehrlich and the population bomb crowd, recalling some embarrassing statements of regret that malaria had been conquered and shocking indifference to the human rights violations that China's one-child policy requires. He also notes the "authoritarian overtones" that accompany many environmental enthusiasms.

These and other hard-won truths have gained grudging acceptance among many environmentalists, and one of Allitt's stronger points is his tribute to the many figures who contested the simple-minded Malthusianism of environmentalism but who also tend to be ignored or slighted in most histories. It is long past time for the more complete recognition Allitt gives to the trenchant criticisms and revisions of environmental thought from Julian Simon, Petr Beckmann, Wilfred Beckerman, Aaron Wildavsky, and Ben Wattenberg. Allitt also offers some subtle treatments of the nonconforming thoughts of figures inside the environmental establishment, such as Daniel Botkin and William Cronin.

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