United States
£ GBP
The Chesapeake Bay restoration effort has been touted as the nation's premier environmental restoration program. Yet the Bay and the living systems it supports remain in dismally poor condition, with fisheries in decline and drinking water in danger. This book addresses the Chesapeake Bay as a political problem and reveals how the political process has worked against the interests of science, the public, and environmental advocates all at once. Author Howard Ernst shows that the forces driving environmental degradation are sown deeply into the political soul of America, posing menacing challenges to those fighting to restore large ecosystems like the Chesapeake Bay. The book serves as a political roadmap for the future, suggesting how a different course of policy action is needed to 'Save the Bay.'
I The Chesapeake Bay and Environmental Politics
Chapter 1 The Chesapeake Bay: Management of North America's Largest Estuary
Chapter 2 The Chesapeake Bay as a Political Dilemma: Understanding the Political Barriers to Environmental Policy
II Nutrient Management and Bay Politics
Chapter 3 Swimming against the Tide: Nutrient Reduction Efforts in the Bay Watershed
Chapter 4 The Political Fight of Nutrient Management Policy: The Case of Agricultural Regulation
III The Blue Crab and Bay Politics
Chapter 5 All You Can Eat? The Difficult Task of Protecting the Blue Crab
Chapter 6 Battling Over the Blue Crab: The Politics of Crab Management in Virginia and Maryland
IV Learning from the Past
Chapter 7 Toward a Brighter Future for the Chesapeake Bay
Chapter 8 Appendix: Nutrient Management and the Bay
Howard R. Ernst is an assistant professor of political science at the United States Naval Academy.
"Chesapeake Bay Blues cuts through the rhetorical muck, which, like the algae that blooms in the bay, tends to shut out the light."
– The Washington Post
"Ernst has written a book that is packed with information on the politics and science behind the past, present, and future management of the Chesapeake Bay. He digs deep into the exterior and interior layers of policy and procedure that surround Chesapeake Bay protection measures. Ernst presents complex ideas and concepts in detail while still making them accessible to beginning students or interested lay readers – no small task. Backed by a plethora of cited references, Ernst goes further than most authors and provides a detailed "Notes" section on interesting and necessary background and "See also" information for each chapter. A wise choice for all academic libraries as well as for all public libraries."
– Library Journal
"Chesapeake Bay Blues should motivate a wake-up call for all Bay lovers. A reading must for all concerned."
– former Maryland state senator Bernie Fowler
"Howard Ernst paints a stunning portrait of the Chesapeake Bay with a broad brush, yet fills the canvas with documented details of challenges to water quality, living resources and management programs. The text is written with energy and conviction without being melodramatic. A most valuable contribution to a growing library on the Bay."
– Gerald L. Baliles Baliles, former Governor of Virginia
"Howard Ernst's book is an original and needed view of the long struggle to restore the Chesapeake Bay to health. It's readable and thoughtful. I'd recommend it to anyone interested in the Bay, or in environmental restoration in general."
– Tom Horton
"Chesapeake Bay Blues is an exceptionally rich and insightful analysis of how the nation's largest estuary fell victim to human greed, economic expansion, and pollution. Ernst skillfully surveys the multiple causes of the Bay's deterioration, with appropriate attention both to environmental science and public policy issues. The book offers a highly readable and well-informed account of threats to the Bay's health and what might be done to restore both the ecosystem and the enormous economic values it brings to the region."
– Michael Kraft, University of Wisconsin, Green Bay
"Howard Ernst, author of Chesapeake Bay Blues, has made quite a splash in the environmental community."
– The Annapolis Capital
"I hope Chesapeake Bay Blues is widely read and debated, because business as usual – even tweaked a bit – isn't going to cut it for restoring the Chesapeake."
– Tom Horton; Baltimore Sun
"Ernst has made some bold conclusions and in doing so, he's bucking the conventional wisdom espoused by the conglomeration of interests involved in the Bay restoration effort."
– Bay Weekly
"Ernst has provided an excellent history of natural resource preservation. He does a marvelous job of accurately defining the Chesapeake Bay and its physical, chemical, and biological inputs and outputs. Ernst has done a good service for all of us interested in the Chesapeake Bay by telling its fascinating story."
– The Heartland Institute
"This splendidly written, carefully documented account of the ecological and economic devastation of one of the nation's great resources is a sad commentary on the human race."
– Ecology
"A very important book. The book is an eye-opening exploration into the 'inability of the political process to adequately address environmental problems.'"
– Spinsheet
"Very well writtern and provides an easily understandable description of the political challenges faced by those proposing new or more stringent enviornmental regulations or programs."
– Journal Of Environmental Quality
"Anyone who claims to care about the Chesapeake Bay should read Chesapeake Bay Blues by Howard R. Ernst, a Naval Academy political science professor. [Chesapeake Bay Blues] is the first serious look at the Chesapeake that targets with precision what Ernst considers the real problem: politics, and the unwillingness of the public, business, industry, science, environmentalists or the government at any level to acknowledge the complexity and severity of the issues and deal with them realistically."
– The Washington Post
"Very well written and provides an easily understandable description of the political challenges faced by those proposing new or more stringent environmental regulations or programs."
– Roger A. Burke; Journal Of Environmental Quality
