The Environmental Pendulum (eBook)

A Quest for the Truth about Toxic Chemicals, Human Health, and Environmental Protection

R. Allan Freeze (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2023
337 Seiten
University of California Press (Verlag)
978-0-520-34067-1 (ISBN)

Infos

The pendulum of environmental policy swings from one extreme to the other, depending on which camp is in power and who has the ear of the media. Underkill is followed by overkill. Concern breeds action; disillusion breeds reaction. The Environmental Pendulum provides a thoughtful and evenhanded assessment of this conflict.

Tens of thousands of sites across the country are contaminated with toxic chemicals. Environmentalists warn us that this legacy of carelessness is seriously affecting both human health and the ecological balance of nature. They point out that even improved industrial practices will not eliminate future chemical releases to the environment. Their demand for regulatory control has received wide public support and led to the passage of the Superfund legislation in 1980. Now, after twenty years, the value of the Superfund program is being challenged by corporate America, which argues that excessive cleanup costs have the potential to bankrupt the nation.

R. Allan Freeze outlines the difficulties associated with the management of hazardous waste and offers a balanced account of the controversy over the role of environmental contamination in human health. Freeze clarifies what matters and what doesn't with respect to chemical contaminants in the environment, arguing that environmental policies should be based on an accurate appraisal of the risks associated with these toxins. He concludes the book with a brilliant summation of the good news and the bad news of environmental pollution, describing what can and can't be done to bring the situation under control.


The pendulum of environmental policy swings from one extreme to the other, depending on which camp is in power and who has the ear of the media. Underkill is followed by overkill. Concern breeds action; disillusion breeds reaction. The Environmental Pe

List of Illustrations 
List of Tables 
Acknowledgments 

Prologue A Day at Smithville 

Chapter 1. The Polarization of the Environment 

Chapter 2. Blenders and Buicks: The Environmental Consequences 
of Our Engineered Way of Life

Chapter 3. Environmental Contamination: 
What Matters and What Doesn't

Chapter 4. The Unpleasant Truths about Waste Management 

Chapter 5. The Unpleasant Truths about Remediation 

Chapter 6. The Regulatory Quagmire 

Chapter 7. The Environmental Game 

Chapter 8. Solutions 

Sources 
Index

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 28.4.2023
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Natur / Technik
• Schlagworte: chemicals • civil action • conservation • Corporate America • Corporate Responsibility • dumping chemicals • Ecology • Environment • environmental contamination • Environmentalism • Environmental Policy • Environmental Regulations • Environmental Science • government policy • Green policies • groundwater • hazardous waste • Health • Legal system • Legislation • Nature • Nonfiction • Politics • Public Health • Science • social issues • Superfund • Toxic waste • toxins
• ISBN-10: 0-520-34067-1 / 0520340671
• ISBN-13: 978-0-520-34067-1 / 9780520340671