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Title: And the Waters Turned to Blood: The Ultimate Biological Threat by Rodney Barker, Boyd Gaines ISBN: 0-671-57559-7 Publisher: Simon & Schuster (Audio) Pub. Date: March, 1997 Format: Audio Cassette Volumes: 2 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.27 (22 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Be scared. Be very scared.
Comment: Barker's AND THE WATERS TURNED TO BLOOD is a whooping good, well-told true story of thoughtful, good-natured people being screwed by egomanical, backside-covering bureaucrats and scientists who certain reviewers on-line would rather believe aren't really such bad guys. I, for one, am wholly convinced by Barker's careful investigation and analysis and am wholly sympathetic to the obvious Good Guys in this book.
To what degree were everyday Germans responsible for the Nazi Holocaust? Similarly, to what degree are the recalcitrant American media responsible for not covering wildly important stories such as the Pfiesteria plague, wholly preventable if greedy industries were forced to comply with precepts of human decency by being fined heavily for polluting? (Only a self-interested beaureacratic bimbo would deny the link between industrial pollution and the explosion of Pfiesteria blooms.)
Last week the Chesapeake Bay area was decimated by fishkills and Pfiesteria. Next week it will be some place else. Meanwhile, the media largely ignores the topic to avoid "mass hysteria" and to keep the profits flowing. To what degree are you, dear reader, responsible for not learning more about Pfiesteria by reading this book and then by making some irate phone calls and writing some irate letters because you'd enjoy a healthy America for future generations?
Our greatest living novelist, Kurt Vonnegut, suggests in an essay that carved on a Grand Canyon wall in great big letters for the flying-saucer people who arrive in a hundred years and find a dead planet with no people should be these messages: "WE PROBABLY COULD HAVE SAVED OURSELVES BUT WERE TOO DAMNED LAZY TO TRY VERY HARD. AND TOO DAMNED CHEAP." Rodney Barker's superlative book certainly supports this idea.
Richard Rhodes' DEADLY FEASTS, about the American Med-Cow disease cover-up, also supports Vonnegut's idea: we are too lazy and cheap to save ourselves
Rating: 4
Summary: A scientific mystery and political thriller
Comment: Rodney Barker's And the Waters Turned to Blood is a scientific mystery and political thriller. It is a non-fiction account of the events surrounding the discovery of Pfiesteria piscicida, "the cell from hell", in the estuaries (inlets of sea reaching into rivers) of North Carolina.
The first two-thirds of the book constitutes the scientific mystery. It begins with unexplained fish kills in the tanks of North Carolina State veterinary school. Unable to solve the mystery themselves, the fish biologist called on a young North Carolina State aquatic botany professor, Dr. JoAnn Burkholder. Eventually she and her assistants make an amazing discovery of a new and extremely dangerous organism. I found this portion of the book to be very engaging and exciting. I had a hard time putting it down until the mystery was solved. In addition to the mystery, the reader receives a crash course in the world of college politics.
Approximately the final third of And the Waters Turned to Blood examines the political controversy surrounding the environmental protection of North Carolina's waterways. Because of her fame after the discovery of "the cell from hell", Dr. Burkholder joined several of the state's water committees. This portion of the book details her fight for recognition of environmental problems and her fight for funding to study Pfiesteria piscicida. I found this section less interesting than the first, simply because I am not as interested in politics as I am in scientific research.
Still overall, I found the book to be very interesting and educational. It will definitely make anyone think about what we are doing to our environment and what our environment might be doing to fight back. I recommend this book to anyone interested in biological research or the environment.
Rating: 4
Summary: And the Waters Turned to Blood
Comment: Rodney Barker did an excellent job at enlightening his readers of the dangers of pollution, the devastating effects of Pfiesteria, and the power of a political machine. The tale developes the story of one dedicated scientists fighting to make the world aware of the rise of a toxic dinoflagellate. A professor at North Carolina State University, Dr. JoAnn Burkholder never imagined being presented with such a massive problem on her hands. After identifying the morphing dinoflagellate as Pfiesteria piscicida, Burkholder realized that her troubles would not stop at trying to identify characteristics of the organism; Burkkholder's biggest obstacle was trying to gain support for research from her peers, concerned citizens, and the North Carolina Department of Environmental Management. Eventually, fellow colleagues would believe her claim but the government only saw Burkholder as an annoyance needed to be silenced. At the same time, Pfiesteria was reeking havoc with numerous fish kills and reports of human symptoms including short-term memory loss and severe mood swings.
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Title: DEADLY FEASTS: Tracking The Secrets Of A Terrifying New Plague by Richard Rhodes ISBN: 0684844257 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 22 May, 1998 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: The Whale and the Reactor: A Search for Limits in an Age of High Technology by Langdon Winner ISBN: 0226902110 Publisher: University of Chicago Press Pub. Date: January, 1988 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: The "Racial" Economy of Science: Toward a Democratic Future (Race, Gender, and Science) by Sandra Harding ISBN: 0253208106 Publisher: Indiana University Press Pub. Date: October, 1993 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: MAD COWBOY: Plain Truth from the Cattle Rancher Who Won't Eat Meat by Howard F. Lyman, Glen Merzer ISBN: 0684854465 Publisher: Scribner Pub. Date: 02 August, 2001 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance by Laurie Garrett ISBN: 0140250913 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: October, 1995 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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