Our Synthetic Environment

"Our Synthetic Environment" was first published in 1962, the same year Rachel Carson's popular and alarming expose' on the detrimental effects of pesticides and herbicides, "Silent Spring", was published. Although Carson's book took the limelight, caught the world's attention, and as many proffer, started the modern environmental movement, there were many other similar expose's in circulation and with far greater indictments of the emerging corporate chemical frenzies taking place since World War II. "Our Synthetic Environment" covered not only the whole range of issues concerning pesticide and herbicide contamination of the environment, but went much further by exposing the health and environmental hazards caused by the spread of unproven medicines; the burgeoning market in untested food additives, dangerous food processing and packaging; chemically fertilized crops and the damage done to soil fertility and plants alike; air, water, land pollution; noise pollution, the health hazards of our stress-out highly mechanized life-styles; population pressures, etc., ad infinitum, ad nauseum. Bookchin summarizes our high-tech, synthetic society as becoming "anti-ecological" and far out of balance with the needs of Nature to provide a healthy, sustainable existence for all life. He proffers the collusion of government and profit driven corporations to deregulate health and safety standards is trashing our democracy. Yet he contends that one of the most damaging side-effects of our "growth" mania driven society is global warming. How many people were thinking about that in 1962? This book was reissued in 1974 with a 74 page introduction- an overview and update of the 1962 edition and the intro is worth the price of admission on it's own. The information and assessments of society are still relevant, especially to medical and science professionals. While this book does not have the flowing prose of "Silent Spring", the importance and impact of the information is monumental.