Arming Mother Nature: The Birth of Catastrophic Environmentalism

When most Americans think of environmentalism, they think of the political left, of vegans dressed in organic-hemp fabric, lofting protest signs. In reality, writes Jacob Darwin Hamblin, the movement--and its dire predictions--owe more to the Pentagon than the counterculture.

In Arming Mother Nature, Hamblin argues that military planning for World War III essentially created "catastrophic environmentalism": the idea that human activity might cause global natural disasters. This awareness, Hamblin shows, emerged out of dark ambitions, as governments poured funds into environmental science after World War II, searching for ways to harness natural processes--to kill millions of people. Proposals included the use of nuclear weapons to create artificial tsunamis or melt the ice caps to drown coastal cities; setting fire to vast expanses of vegetation; and changing local climates. Oxford botanists advised British generals on how to destroy enemy crops during the war in Malaya; American scientists attempted to alter the weather in Vietnam. This work raised questions that went beyond the goal of weaponizing nature. By the 1980s, the C.I.A. was studying the likely effects of global warming on Soviet harvests. "Perhaps one of the surprises of this book is not how little was known about environmental change, but rather how much," Hamblin writes. Driven initially by strategic imperatives, Cold War scientists learned to think globally and to grasp humanity's power to alter the environment. "We know how we can modify the ionosphere," nuclear physicist Edward Teller proudly stated. "We have already done it."

Teller never repented. But many of the same individuals and institutions that helped the Pentagon later warned of global warming and other potential disasters. Brilliantly argued and deeply researched, Arming Mother Nature changes our understanding of the history of the Cold War and the birth of modern environmental science.

"a fascinating and often disturbing history" - American Scientist

"In Arming Mother Nature, Jacob Hamblin offers a far-reaching and provocative account of just how dependent narratives of global climate change are upon the military support, apocalyptic scenarios, and political ideology that shaped the growth of the modern environmental sciences during the Cold War." -- Science Magazine

"thought-provoking" -- New Scientist

"This book advances the intriguing idea that 'catastrophic environmentalism' is not standard rhetoric warning the public about climate change and extinction of species, but a strategy developed by the Pentagon to fight the Cold War. Recommended." --CHOICE

"A well-written and -documented challenge of some of the assumptions on both sides in the debate about global warming." --Kirkus Reviews

"Jacob Hamblin's new book is a clearly and calmly told tale of the American effort to conscript nature -from the seafloor to the stratosphere -for potential active duty during the Cold War. Well researched in U.S. and European archives, it finds the roots of modern apocalyptic environmentalism in the hair-raising deeds and often hare-brained schemes of an American scientific-military complex under pressure to find ways to prevail against the USSR. It sheds new light on the old adage that is a miracle anyone survived the Cold War."

-J.R. McNeill, Georgetown University

"thought-provoking" -- New Scientist

"A well-written and -documented challenge of some of the assumptions on both sides in the debate about global warming." --Kirkus Reviews

"Jacob Hamblin's new book is a clearly and calmly told tale of the American effort to conscript nature -from the seafloor to the stratosphere -for potential active duty during the Cold War. Well researched in U.S. and European archives, it finds the roots of modern apocalyptic environmentalism in the hair-raising deeds and often hare-brained schemes of an American scientific-military complex under pressure to find ways to prevail against the USSR. It sheds new light on the old adage that is a miracle anyone survived the Cold War."

-J.R. McNeill, Georgetown University

Jacob Darwin Hamblin is Associate Professor of History at Oregon State University. His books include Poison in the Well: Radioactive Waste in the Oceans at the Dawn of the Nuclear Age, Oceanographers and the Cold War, and Science in the Early Twentieth Century: An Encyclopedia.

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Total War and Catastrophic Environmentalism

Part I Pathways of Nature

Ch. 1 War as a Clash of Civilizations

Ch. 2 Bacteria, Radiation, and Crop Destruction in War Plans

Ch. 3 Ecological Invasions and Convulsions

Part II Forces of Nature

Ch. 4 Earth Under Surveillance

Ch. 5 Acts of God and Acts of Man

Ch. 6 Wildcat Ideas for Environmental Warfare

Part III Gatekeepers of Nature

Ch. 7 The Doomsday Men

Ch. 8 Vietnam and the Seeds of Destruction

Ch. 9 The Terroristic Science of Environmental Modification

Ch. 10 Adjustment or Extinction

Conclusion The Miracle of Survival

Notes

Index