The Climate War: True Believers, Power Brokers, and the Fight to Save the Earth
*Starred Review* Had they been told in 1970 that 40 years later the U.S. still would not have a cohesive climate policy, the observers of the first Earth Day would have recoiled in disbelief. Yet while administration after administration has either tried and failed to enact legislation, or worse yet, hasn't seen the need for such regulation in the first place, the world has spun inexorably closer to environmental disaster. Of course, the denialosphere sees it differently, and therein lies the crux of Pooley's engrossing behind-the-scenes exposé of the multifactioned confrontation over climate. With hot air spewing from special interest groups like so much smog over Los Angeles, and a contentious political firestorm burning like the once toxic Cuyahoga River, blistering hypocrisy and blustering hyperbole pit dedicated enviros against dithering politicians to the point of mind-numbing inertia. As he parses the ecology-versus-economy debate waged in Capitol Hill back rooms and Wall Street boardrooms, Pooley peppers his meticulously researched insider account with aha! moments of revelation and populates it with a Machiavellian cast of characters. Accomplishing the impossible, Pooley makes policymaking fascinating, if frustrating. --Carol Haggas