US environmental history : inviting doomsday / John Wills.

Introduction -- Prologue : the invitation -- Killing in the wilderness -- The end of the (old) world -- The Armageddon experiment : Doom Town USA -- Chemical dystopia and Silent spring -- Black days : the Santa Barbara oil spill and Deepwater horizon -- The disaster city and Hurricane Katrina -- Disney/disnature and the end of the organic -- Conclusion : the doomsday machine -- Epilogue : the doomsday seed.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Environmental issues in the USA are more important now than ever before. The devastation inflicted by Hurricane Katrina and Deepwater Horizon, growing evidence of global warming, and a struggling national energy supply highlight the unfolding crisis. Fears gravitate around a fast-approaching doomsday scenario unless something is done. Yet fears of doomsday are nothing new. John Wills shows how the current crisis is firmly rooted in the past. As well as showing how today's problems are manifestations of older systems of economics, culture and politics, he argues that America has already witnessed a range of 'doomsday scenarios', both real and imagined.