Environmental issues in the US are more important now than ever before. The devastation inflicted by Hurricane Katrina, growing evidence of global warming, & 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 & politics, he argues that America has already witnessed a range of 'doomsday scenarios, ' both real & imagined.