The tide is turning against environmentalism as the political right, industry and governments fight back. Green Backlash is a controversial expose of the anti-environmental movement. Tracing the rise of the backlash from the Wise Use movement in the USA, the author reveals its rapid spread worldwide: the anti-roads movement in the UK, forestry debates in Canada and Australia, marine resource issues in Europe, South-East Asia, and controversies such as the Brent Spar. The backlash is set to get worse as the resource wars intensify. This book offers a greater understanding of the challenges and threats facing global environmentalism, concluding that the environmental movement now has a chance to re-evaluate and change for the better to beat the backlash - a chance that must not be missed.

A reign of violence and intimidation, including arson, bombings, rape, assault and even murder has been unleashed against environmental activists and government employees by proponents of the so-called "Wise Use" movement. The War Against the Greens rips the veneer of legitimacy off this right-wing backlash that stretches from armed Militias to the halls of Congress, exposing the public lands corporations, political operatives and fringe groups who have set out to destroy America's environmental protections by any means necessary. In this updated edition, Helvarg revealed how the petroleum-heavy George W. Bush administration helped expand the backlash, bringing the same individuals and industries into alliance with big oil and the Republican Party, ending an era of bipartisan progress. This is a must-read for anyone wanting to understand the history behind the science denial, corruption, and public lands debacles that mark the Trump era.

Traces the history of the environmental movement from its beginnings as private clubs, to the activism of the 1960s and 1970s, to the corporate sellout of the 1990s. Unveils the stories behind American environmentalism's undeniable triumphs and its quite unnecessary failures.

"One of the most serious challenges to environmentalism that has emerged in the 1990s is the so-called Wise Use movement. While operating under the guise of an independent movement of small landowners, it is in reality a backlash against environmental protection measures, funded and organized by corporations with a vested interest in preventing further environmental gains. Let the People Judge collects the writings of a wide range of thinkers on the Wise Use movement and the controversies that fuel the Wise Use debate.

Publisher description

A simple investigation into environmental policy in the Sierra Nevadas turned out to be a far bigger story: Bush's environmental policy is being driven by biblical fundamentalists who believe exhausting natural resources will hasten the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.