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Title: A Pocket Guide to Environmental Bad Guys by James Ridgeway, Jeffrey St. Clair ISBN: 1-56025-153-0 Publisher: Thunder's Mouth Press Pub. Date: 01 March, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $10.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.5 (8 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A WHO'S WHO OF ENVIRONMENTAL VANDALS
Comment: In one thin volume, the reader can survey a detailed history of environmental degradation in North America:
Who were the original perpetrators and who continue, in the name of progress and profit, to be chiefly responsible for the catastrophic destruction of America's natural environment?
The following are typical passages from the book's section on American forests: "It's said that the hardwood forests of the Eastern United States -- one of the most diverse ecosystems outside the tropics -- were so dense with oak, maple, and beech trees that an intrepid squirrel could scamper from the Carolinas to the Mississippi River without ever touching the ground.
"By the time the Mayflower set sail for Plymouth, nearly 90 per cent of England's [ancient] forests had already been wiped out and the Black Forest of Germany had been turned into a manicured wood lot by Bavarian forest meisters.
"If the Puritans saw the American forest as an impediment, the British Navy seized upon the American forest as a vital strategic resource. In 1689, Britain decreed that all lands capable of producing masts and other materials be reserved for the Royal Navy as 'naval stores'."
The rather extensive section ends with charges of environmental destruction against a Who's Who of contemporary "bad guys": "After losing $280 million in 1993, because of a downturn in paper and pulp prices, Scott Paper hired Al Dunlap [as CEO], who immediately fired 11,000 employees, logged off the last of the company's old-growth timber, sold off most of the company's mills and forest lands (and eventually the company itself to Kimberly-Clark), moved its factories to Mexico, and returned the company to profitability. Dunlap, himself, made $100 million in 1995."
Topic by topic, James Ridgeway and Jeffry St. Clair name names accompanied by photos for identifying which Chief Executive Officers of which corporate polluters committed which crimes against the environment. The occasional black and white photos of the Bad Guys resemble those seen in Wanted posters put up in post offices.
The book is organized into three major sections: Part 1. Resource-Depleters (Energy, Timber, Hard-Rock Mining, Agriculture); Part 2. Polluters (Garbage, Nuclear, and Major Polluters); Part 3. Behind-the-Scenes Players (Lobbyists, and Environmental Groups); Glen Canyon Dam; Resources and an Index. Each subject is so specifically well-presented with details, tables and photos, and so expertly written that it is a bit disappointing to be provided with a sprinkling of literature references throughout the book.
There is sufficient specific information in this inexpensive pocket guide to track down authoritative sources for verifying the train of charges. But the Pocket Guide to Environmental Bad Guys should have added a few more pages for references to make this a practical reference work. Just before the Index, there is one page with the heading Resources. But this page contains the names and summaries of only one governmental and four NGO institutions from which reliable environmental information can be obtained.
A Pocket Guide to Environmental Bad Guys serves its purpose by providing a detailed overview of which companies are causing the greatest harm to the environment and what they are doing, not to improve their environmental record, but rather sparing no expense to improve their environmental image -- "greenwashing" their image. Many detailed examples of this new activity are given. The latter takes a lot of talent and money, all of which is recorded in this book.
A Pocket Guide is neither a happy nor optimistic book. Indeed, if you already have emotional scars from your awareness of the destruction of the earth's environment, then this book will cause you to have white knuckles as you read it. However, it rather thoroughly exposes who are the worst culprits responsible for these crimes against nature. Possibly, in good time, the "Bad Guys" will be brought to justice and the rest of humanity, in particular future generations, may have some hope of getting their natural environment back.
Rating: 5
Summary: Wanted, Dead or Alive
Comment: Although it lacks scholarly citation and in-depth analysis, this book sizzles. Sometimes a small, compact, hard-hitting, concisely-worded book is exactly what the doctor ordered. If you are sick of theoretical softies telling you the environment is this or that, look no farther. This book takes dead aim at actual polluters and the stinky cloud of facts that surround them. Bull's Eye!!!
Rating: 5
Summary: A Rap Sheet for the Big Polluters
Comment: Here in northern Nevada we live in an ecological ruin, courtesy of the big mining companies, which have gouged out the mountains and poisoned what pass for rivers in these parts. But who owns these companies? And how do they keep getting away with it? This book will tell you. I was surprised to learn that one of the biggest mining companies in Nevada, American Barrick, was actually a Canadian company and the former President George Bush served on its board. And it's not just mining firms. This little book gives you the lowdown on big timber, the chemical firms and the oil giants. It names names, telling you who their lawyers and lobbyists are, how much money they sluice into the pockets of their favorite politicians and how many times they've been caught violating the law. An incredible bargain.
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Title: Washington on $10 Million a Day: How Lobbyists Plunder the Nation by Ken Silverstein ISBN: 1567511376 Publisher: Common Courage Press Pub. Date: 01 March, 1998 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
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