Fight for the Bay
Why a Dark Green Environmental Awakening is Needed to Save the Chesapeake Bay
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- $31.99
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- $31.99
Publisher Description
In this important new book on the declining health of one of America's leading environmental treasures, Howard Ernst reveals a Chesapeake bay that has become functionally dead. He argues that the Chesapeake Bay succumbed to a 'light green' environmental movement that has too often adopted a philosophy of compromise over confrontation and that has fueling a 'political dead zone' where political leaders posture but fail to make the hard decisions needed to achieve real improvement in the Bay's health. While blunt in his evaluation of past and present failures to restore the Bay, Ernst believes that there is still time to turn the restoration effort around and sets out new 'dark green' strategies to do so. In the concluding chapter, five long-time bay activists provide first-person accounts of their battles and hopes for the future. Hailed by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as 'a must read for anyone concerned about environmental protection,' this challenging book provides a wake-up call for everyone concerned about the future of the Chesapeake Bay and other ecological treasures through out America.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In 2003, Hunt, a political science professor at the U.S. Naval Academy, issued a wakeup call with his polemic Chesapeake Bay Blues, arguing that "politics as usual" was leading to "continued environmental degradation." Six years later, the situation is worse; Chesapeake Bay is "functionally dead," and the problem has gone global. Distinguishing between the more confrontational approach of the "Dark Greens" and the moral arguments of the "Light Greens," Ernst argues that differences in the movement have contributed to the ability of opposing "Cornucopians" to push an agenda of pure economic self-interest. The largest environmental interest group in the Bay region, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, refuses to engage in electoral politics while the Bay's biggest polluters, such as the poultry industry, use their money to get pro-industry candidates into office: "the Perdue family alone spent more in one recent election... than the combined spending of all environmental groups across the three key Bay states during the same period of time." Still, there are many individuals and organizations doing important work, and Ernst chronicles their struggles in detail. A passionate call to action from a longtime activist (Ernst is currently in his 80s), this read will shock and inspire a range of concerned citizens, from homeowners to journalists to lawmakers.
