Rauber, Paul

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RAUBER, Paul

PERSONAL: Male.

ADDRESSES: Office—Sierra Club National Headquarters, 85 Second St., 2nd Fl., San Francisco, CA 94105.

CAREER: Journalist and author. Sierra magazine, senior editor; columnist for East Bay Express.

WRITINGS:

(With Carl Pope) Strategic Ignorance: Why the Bush Administration Is Recklessly Destroying a Century of Environmental Progress, Sierra Club Books (San Francisco, CA), 2004.

Contributor to periodicals, including Sierra and East Bay Express. Scriptwriter for film Counting Sheep.

SIDELIGHTS: Journalist and author Paul Rauber frequently writes on topics such as the environment, national politics, travel, and food. He worked for many years as a columnist for the California alternative weekly newspaper East Bay Express, then became a senior editor at Sierra, the national magazine of the Sierra Club. He has also worked with Green TV, writing the script for the film Counting Sheep, which tells the story of the Sierra Nevada, bighorn sheep.

In 2004, Rauber cowrote the book Strategic Ignorance: Why the Bush Administration Is Recklessly Destroying a Century of Environmental Progress with Carl Pope, the Sierra Club's executive director. In it the authors claim that the administration of President George W. Bush is responsible for deliberately neglecting environmental concerns in the United States. Rauber and Pope cite numerous examples to support their claim, as well as present ten solutions to heal the environmental damage they argue has been caused by the Bush administration.

Critics had much to praise about Strategic Ignorance. Some recognized the book's well-founded arguments as one major asset. "One might suspect that a Sierra Club book would be biased, but its arguments are well supported and logically presented, with few editorial asides or coaching," wrote Nancy Moeckel in a review for the Library Journal. Other critics noted the authors' ability not only to examine the big picture, but also to find and present the little things that factor into this environmental problem. "The real energy of the book comes from its accumulation of small facts to paint the picture," observed a Publishers Weekly contributor.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, May 1, 2004, Carol Haggas, review of Strategic Ignorance: Why the Bush Administration Is Recklessly Destroying a Century of Environmental Progress, p. 1528.

E, September-October, 2004, Katherine Hartley, "The Wrecking Crew," p. 62.

Library Journal, June 15, 2004, Nancy Moeckel, review of Strategic Ignorance, p. 93.

Publishers Weekly, March 29, 2004, review of Strategic Ignorance, p. 49; April 26, 2004, Judith Rosen, "Bushed," p. 29.

Sierra, September-October, 1993, Paul Rauber, "Coyotes and Town Dogs," p. 132; November-December, 1993, Paul Rauber, "Always Getting Ready," p. 104; May-June, 1994, Paul Rauber, "Not in Our Backyard," p. 82; September-October, 1994, Paul Rauber, "The Geography of Childhood," p. 78; November-December, 1994, Paul Rauber, "Fields of Greens," p. 100; September-October, 1995, Paul Rauber, "Losing Ground," p. 90.