Green Delusions - CL

Eco-extremists threaten the environment, Lewis argues, by fueling the anti-environmental countermovement. A professor of geography at George Washington University, he analyzes and sharply criticizes radical environmentalism, charging that it is founded on erroneous ideas fabricated from questionable scholarship and that its proponents ignore history and willfully dismiss economics. He profiles the principal groups of radical greens, pointing out the weaknesses and dangers of their agendas. A liberal moderate, Lewis advocates a Promethean rather than Arcadian approach to environmentalism; he would rely on technology, urbanizaton and Third World development to restore and protect the planet. Such primary problems as population growth and poverty, he argues, cannot be solved by poltical extremism. lewis makes a strong case for solar power and a globally integrated economy in this controversial book, which is likely to stir up a hornet's nest of debate. (Oct.)