Robert Emmet Hernan

Presents fifteen environmental disasters of the last sixty years, describing their victims and the impact on land and water resources, from the chemical pollution of Japanese fishing waters, to the Treasure oil spill off the coast of South Africa.

Lessons from the Fifteen Worst Environmental Disasters Around the World

This Borrowed Earth

Over the last century mankind has irrevocably damaged the environment through the unscrupulous greed of big business and our own willful ignorance. Here are the strikingly poignant accounts of disasters whose names live in infamy: Chernobyl, Bhopal, Exxon Valdez, Three Mile Island, Love Canal, Minamata and others. And with these, the extraordinary and inspirational stories of the countless men and women who fought bravely to protect the communities and environments at risk.

Lessons from the Fifteen Worst Environmental Disasters around the World

Bill McKibben

The twentieth century brought technological advances that led to improved quality of life for millions. But technology also brought devastation at Chernobyl, Bhopal, Minamata, Love Canal, and other places throughout the world now synonymous with the dark side of technology and human action. Vulnerable on this Earth is the first comprehensive book to explore the causes and consequences of fifteen major manmade environmental disasters in the twentieth century. Author Robert Emmet Hernan tells the story of toxic materials dumped into the sea, buried on land, and discharged into the air; of polluters recklessly advancing their own financial interests and ignoring dangers to others; and above all, of the determination and dignity of ordinary people who heroically fought for justice and change. Â From the preface by Bill McKibben: "In the years to come, the line that Hernan draws between natural and environmental disasters will blur. . . . What will remain the same, however, is human vulnerability. That vulnerability endangers us, of course-but it is closely related to the love, the shared concern, that might save us yet." Â Robert Emmet Hernan is an assistant attorney general in the Environmental Protection Bureau of the New York State Department of Law and has served as trial counsel in numerous toxic waste cases, including the Love Canal case. Â Bill McKibben is the author of The End of Nature and Wandering Home . A prolific writer on environmental issues, McKibben is a scholar in residence at Middlebury College.

Robert Emmet Hernan

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