From Publishers Weekly
Americans ought to be madder than they are about the Bush administration's environmental deceit: that's the not-surprising core message of this detailed book, coauthored by Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club, and Sierra magazine editor Rauber. That citizens aren't appalled and outraged in greater measure, they write, is thanks to what they cast as the slick rhetoric, obfuscated facts, deliberate disinformation and Orwellian way with words of Bush and his pro-growth cohorts (a Clean Air Act that adds to pollution, a Healthy Forest Initiative that encourages both more logging and more forest fires). In impassioned broad strokes, Pope and Rauber report that Bush and his environment-unfriendly cabinet (Interior, Energy, Agriculture and EPA, in particular but not exclusively) have stripped 235 million wilderness acres of protection from logging and mining interests; funneled billions of dollars in subsidies to giant agribusinesses; rewritten scientific reports to excise unwelcome findings on global warming; defunded Superfund cleanup of hundreds of toxic waste dumps; given near carte blanche to polluting industries to self-regulate; and even lied about the quality of Manhattan's air in the days after September 11. But the real energy of the book comes from its accumulation of small facts to paint the picture-of obsessive secrecy, crony capitalism and (or so the authors claim) the administration's conscious, unabashed commitment to the economic exploitation of the air America breathes, the water it drinks and the earth it walks on. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
When even his staunchest allies concede that the environment is Bush's Achilles' heel, writers intent on scrutinizing the president's policies might very well stagger under a preponderance of evidence against an unabashedly antienvironment administration. So challenged, Sierra Club executives Pope and Rauber painstakingly analyze how, where, and why the Bush White House began compiling what is frequently considered the worst environmental record in presidential history. Pope and Rauber are adept at parsing Bushspeak. Unafraid of naming names, they single out specific government officials whose rhetoric does not match the reality of the administration's record of striking down legislation, rolling back regulations, and otherwise manipulating a system to favor contracts over conservation and profits over preservation. By comparing Bush's actions with his expressed environmental doctrine, the authors reveal the administration's short-term strategies and their subsequent long-term implications. Buttressed by carefully annotated and sourced references, this book present a compelling portrait of an administration with a clear-cut agenda. Carol Haggas
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Carol Haggas, Booklist
"A compelling portrait of an administration with a clear-cut agenda."

Book Description
George W. Bush was correct when he said that his critics "misunderestimate" him. A Texas oilman with a spotty environmental record as Texas governor, few expected him to be an "environmental president," as his father once claimed to be. Nobody, however, expected George W. to fundamentally alter the basic equation governing environmental protection in America.

What we are witnessing now, assert Sierra Club executive director Carl Pope and coauthor Paul Rauber, is something larger even than the gutting of the Clean Air Act, abandonment of endangered species, selling out public lands to loggers and oilmen, and allowing polluting industries to write the regulations. The Bush administration seeks nothing less than to overturn the consensus on natural-resource policy that developed from the time of Theodore Roosevelt through the end of the Clinton administration. In place of government as the steward and protector of our nation's natural heritage, Bush and his political allies want to restore the nineteenth-century tradition of government as coconspirator in the economic exploitation of that heritage. Their sights are firmly set on dismantling a century of environmental progress.

Brilliantly argued and full of damning evidence from the Bush administration's environmental record, Strategic Ignorance sets forth what the American public can and must do to bring a halt to Bush's radical experiment.

Download Description
George W. Bush was correct when he said that his critics "misunderestimate" him. A Texas oilman with a spotty environmental record as Texas governor, few expected him to be an "environmental president," as his father once claimed to be. Nobody, however, expected George W. to fundamentally alter the basic equation governing environmental protection in America. What we are witnessing now, assert Sierra Club executive director Carl Pope and coauthor Paul Rauber, is something larger even than the gutting of the Clean Air Act, abandonment of endangered species, selling out public lands to loggers and oilmen, and allowing polluting industries to write the regulations. The Bush administration seeks nothing less than to overturn the consensus on natural-resource policy that developed from the time of Theodore Roosevelt through the end of the Clinton administration. In place of government as the steward and protector of our nation's natural heritage, Bush and his political allies want to restore the nineteenth-century tradition of government as coconspirator in the economic exploitation of that heritage. Their sights are firmly set on dismantling a century of environmental progress. Brilliantly argued and full of damning evidence from the Bush administration's environmental record, Strategic Ignorance sets forth what the American public can and must do to bring a halt to Bush's radical experiment.

From the Back Cover
"The Bush Administration's assault on the environment has been breathtaking in its swiftness, scope, and severity. It is the most concerted effort in our history to roll back the nation's environmental laws and regulations. In Strategic Ignorance, Carl Pope and Paul Rauber clearly dissect the Administration's agenda and methods. More than a wake-up call, this book is a call to arms for defenders of America's priceless natural heritage."--Senator Barbara Boxer

"The policies of the Bush administration pose a real danger to the quality of the environment in the United States and the world. In Strategic Ignorance Carl Pope lays out the shrewd but destructive logic through which these policies are beginning to shred the environmental safety net. Pope brings to the job the insight of a man who has been at the forefront of the environmental movement for nearly 30 years."--George Soros

About the Author
A veteran leader in the environmental movement, Carl Pope has been Executive Director of the Sierra Club since 1992. He has also served on the boards of the California League of Conservation Voters, Public Voice, the National Clean Air Coalition, California Common Cause, Public Interest Economics, Inc., and Zero Population Growth. Pope is the author of two previous books, Sahib: An American Misadventure in India (1971) and Hazardous Waste in America (1981). Paul Rauber is a senior editor at Sierra magazine. Pope and Rauber both live in the San Francisco Bay Area.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"George W. Bush was correct when he said that his critics "misunderestimate" him. Few expected him - an oilman with a spotty environmental record as Texas governor - to be an "environmental president," as his father once claimed to be. Nobody, however, expected George W. to fundamentally alter the basic equation governing environmental protection in America." "What we are witnessing now, assert Sierra Club executive director Carl Pope and coauthor Paul Rauber, is something larger even than the gutting of the Clean Air Act, abandonment of endangered species, selling out public lands to oil and timber companies, and allowing polluting industries to write the regulations. The Bush administration seeks nothing less than to overturn the consensus on natural-resource policy that developed from the time of Theodore Roosevelt through the end of the Clinton era. In place of government as the steward and protector of our nation's natural heritage, Bush and his political allies want to bring back the nineteenth-century tradition of government as co-conspirator in the economic exploitation of that heritage. Their sights are firmly set on dismantling a century of environmental progress." Strategic Ignorance sets forth what the American public can and must do to bring a halt to Bush's radical experiment.

SYNOPSIS

A startling, brilliantly argued indictment of the current administration's jihad against the environmental protections Americans count on, and the natural heritage we wish to pass on to posterity.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Americans ought to be madder than they are about the Bush administration's environmental deceit: that's the not-surprising core message of this detailed book, coauthored by Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club, and Sierra magazine editor Rauber. That citizens aren't appalled and outraged in greater measure, they write, is thanks to what they cast as the slick rhetoric, obfuscated facts, deliberate disinformation and Orwellian way with words of Bush and his pro-growth cohorts (a Clean Air Act that adds to pollution, a Healthy Forest Initiative that encourages both more logging and more forest fires). In impassioned broad strokes, Pope and Rauber report that Bush and his environment-unfriendly cabinet (Interior, Energy, Agriculture and EPA, in particular but not exclusively) have stripped 235 million wilderness acres of protection from logging and mining interests; funneled billions of dollars in subsidies to giant agribusinesses; rewritten scientific reports to excise unwelcome findings on global warming; defunded Superfund cleanup of hundreds of toxic waste dumps; given near carte blanche to polluting industries to self-regulate; and even lied about the quality of Manhattan's air in the days after September 11. But the real energy of the book comes from its accumulation of small facts to paint the picture-of obsessive secrecy, crony capitalism and (or so the authors claim) the administration's conscious, unabashed commitment to the economic exploitation of the air America breathes, the water it drinks and the earth it walks on. (May) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

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