Buch, Englisch, 512 Seiten, Format (B × H): 138 mm x 216 mm
From BSE to Global Warming: Why Scares are Costing Us the Earth
Buch, Englisch, 512 Seiten, Format (B × H): 138 mm x 216 mm
ISBN: 978-0-8264-8614-1
Verlag: Continuum International Publishing Group
This book for the first time tells the inside story of each of the major scares of the past two decades, showing how they have followed a remarkably consistent pattern.
From salmonella in eggs to BSE, from the Millennium Bug to bird ‘flu, from DDT to passive smoking, from asbestos to global warming, ‘scares’ have become one of the most conspicuous and damaging features of our modern world. This book for the first time tells the inside story of each of the major scares of the past two decades, showing how they have followed a remarkably consistent pattern.
It analyses the crucial role played in each case by scientists who have misread or manipulated the evidence; by the media and lobbyists who eagerly promote the scare without regard to the facts; and finally by the politicians and officials who come up with an absurdly disproportionate response, leaving us all to pay a colossal price, which may run into billions or even hundreds of billions of pounds.
The book culminates in a chillingly detailed account of the story behind what it shows has become the greatest scare of them all: the belief that the world faces disaster through man-made global warming. In an epilogue the authors compare our credulity in falling for scares to mass-hysterias of previous ages such as the post-mediaeval ‘witch craze’, describing our time as a ‘new age of superstition’.
Autoren/Hrsg.
Fachgebiete
- Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Kultur Politische Soziologie und Psychologie
- Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Kultursoziologie
- Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Politische Soziologie
- Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Mediensoziologie
- Sozialwissenschaften Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaften Medienwissenschaften Medien & Gesellschaft, Medienwirkungsforschung
- Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Kultur Staatsbürgerkunde, Staatsbürgerschaft, Zivilgesellschaft
Weitere Infos & Material
Introduction
Part One: The Food Scares
Prologue
Chapter One: Countdown to an Explosion: How Scares Became A Disaster Waiting To Happen, 1981-8
Chapter Two: ‘Killer Eggs’: The Great Salmonella Scare 1988-9
Chapter Three: Enter the Hygiene Police: Paying The Price 1990-4
Chapter Four: ‘Listeria Hysteria’: The Lanark Blue Case 1995
Chapter Five: Mad Cows and Madder Politicians: The BSE/CJD Scare 1996-9
Chapter Six: Officials Can Kill: Meat, Cheese and E coli 1998
Chapter Seven: The £1 Billion Blunder: The Belgian Dioxins Debacle 1999
Epilogue to Part One: The Rise of the ‘Health and Safety Culture’.
Part Two: The General Scares
Prologue to Part Two: The Millennium Bug.
Chapter Eight: Sledgehammers To Miss Nuts: A Wider Look At The Scare phenomenon (DDT, Nitrate, Vitamin B6, Cockles).
Chapter Nine: The Modern Witch Craze: Ritualised Child Abuse
Chapter Ten: ‘Speed Kills: A Safety Scare That Cost Lives.
Chapter Eleven: ‘We Love Unleaded’: How Confusion Over Lead Cost Billions
Chapter Twelve: Smoke and Mirrors: How They Turned ‘Passive Smoking’ Into A Killer
Chapter Thirteen: ‘One Fibre Can Kill’: The Great Asbestos Scam.
Chapter Fourteen: ‘Saving The Planet’: The New Secular Religion
Chapter Fifteen: ‘Licensed To Kill‘: The Scare That Never Was
Epilogue: A New Age of Superstition.
