In the popular politics of hazardous waste, Andrew Szasz finds an answer, a scenario for taking the most pressing environmental issues out of the academy and the boardroom and turning them into everyone's business. This work reconstructs the growth of a powerful movement around the question of toxic waste. Szasz follows the issue as it moves from the world of "official" policy-making, onto television and into popular consciousness, and then into neighbourhoods, spurring on the formation of thousands of local, community-based groups. He shows how, in less than a decade, a rich infrastructure of more permanent social organizations emerged from this movement, expanding its focus to include issues like municipal waste, military toxics, and pesticides. Szasz identifies the force that pushed environmental policy away from the traditional approach - pollution removal - toward the superior logic of pollution prevention. He discusses the conflicting official responses to the movement's evolution, revealing that, despite initial resistance, law-makers eventually sought to appease popular discontent by strengthening toxic waste laws. In its success, Szasz suggests, this movement may even prove to be the vehicle for reinvigorating progressive politics.

Populism, Eco-populism, and the Future of Environmentalism analyzes the history and language of populism in order to fully comprehend the threat of eco-fascism – paradoxically revealing that it is possible for there to be both progressive eco-Populist and right-wing sham eco-Populist discourses. The book highlights the harrowing prospect that the crises of democracy now confronting countries such as the United States may culminate in forms of eco-fascism in a world increasingly divided over issues of economic and social inequality, immigration, and competition for dwindling resources. The author reveals that there is a language of eco-populism that accompanies Populist and sham Populist discourses of the left and right as ecological crises have assumed a more prominent role in national and global politics. These crises are exacerbated by the willingness of the fossil fuel industry to destabilize democracy in order to forestall government-imposed limits on carbon emissions and elimination of fossil fuel subsidies that threaten their profits. The book, primarily a work of political and ecological theory, draws on the history of populism as well as the history of conservation and modern environmental movements to make an innovative argument – that a radical form of right-wing sham eco-populism that emerged out of the crucible of the energy crisis and recession of the 1970s has substantially contributed to the crises we now face. The author maintains that the only plausible solution to current political and ecological crises is a progressive eco-populism that combines environmental justice and sustainability with economic and social justice, and offers resources that can help construct a democratic and inclusive movement and culture. A progressive eco-Populist vision has led to proposals for a Green New Deal and the development of the Build Back Better Act currently being considered by the U.S. Congress, but the stalemate between progressive and conservative Democrats over the bill reveals both the compromised state of U.S. representative democracy and the need for a stronger movement to hold politicians and government accountable. This book will be of great interest to students, scholars, and researchers of environmental politics, environmental history, and environmental philosophy, as well as sociology, political science, and history.

Water potential is a significant natural wealth of most parts of the Balkans, and it has given rise to a surge in hydropower investments unparalleled across Europe. As part of the process, a dam was planned to be built on the Una River, which runs through the Bosnian town of Bihać. This prospect alarmed the city’s residents, culminating in a protest in 2015. The book begins with this protest, and it explores how the threat of dam construction transformed the seemingly apolitical love of the river into a powerful political force around which thousands of people mobilized: riverine citizenship. The book is based on interviews with participants, archival research, and over twenty years of ethnographic research. Azra Hromadžić focuses on the tension between ecological sustainability efforts in favor of renewable energy, on the one hand, and citizens’ historically shaped, deeply-felt, love for the river, on the other. She shows how the language and promises of green transition can mask the forces of capitalist accumulation that drive this change — whether in the form of building hydroelectric dams or promoting eco-tourism — and thus set in motion another cycle of environmental degradation, social dispossession, and economic exploitation.

"This book is based on research and observations undertaken for the author's PhD thesis at the National University of Ireland, and represents a case study of national and regional campaigns against both the Irish state's Regional Waste Management Plans and the corporate sector's attempts to develop waste incinerators or dumps in various parts of Ir

Green Culture: An A-to-Z Guide explores the on-going paradigm shift in culture and lifestyles toward promoting a sustainable environment. After years of discussion about the environment dating back to the 1960s counter-culture, the recent explosion of green initiatives has induced the general public to embrace all things green, from recycling in the home to admiring green celebrities. This volume assesses the green cultural transformations by presenting some 150 articles of importance to students of sociology, history, political science, communications, public relations, anthropology, literature, arts and drama. Presented in A-to-Z format, the articles include appealing topics from green Hollywood to green spirituality, green art, and green restaurants. This work culminates in an outstanding reference available in both print and electronic formats for academic, university, and public libraries. Vivid photographs, searchable hyperlinks, numerous cross references, an extensive resource guide, and a clear, accessible writing style make the Green Society volumes ideal for classroom use as well as for research.

"Over 15 chapters, Dunaway transforms what we know about icons and events. Seeing Green is the first history of ads, films, political posters, and magazine photography in the postwar American environmental movement. From fear of radioactive fallout during the Cold War to anxieties about global warming today, images have helped to produce what Dunaway calls "ecological citizenship," telling us that "we are all to blame." Dunaway heightens our awareness of how depictions of environmental catastrophes are constructed, manipulated, and fought over"--Publisher info.