Category Archives: Book Review

Beyond Water Privatization: Deconstructing the Public-Private Binary and Considering Alternatives

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A Review of Privatizing Water: Governance Failure and the World’s Urban Water Crisis by Karen Bakker. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2010.

In January of 2000, protests broke out in Cochabamba, Bolivia, in response to the skyrocketing price of water. Citizens saw their water bills triple or quadruple just weeks after the municipal water supply was handed over to a private company. Millions of poor city residents went on strike, shutting down Cochabamba for four days. The protesters called for universal water rights, using slogans like “Water Is God’s Gift and Not A Merchandise,” and eventually succeeded in forcing the government to revoke its hated legislation.

The Cochabamba protests are part of a global campaign for a human right to water. Vandana Shiva, a vocal opponent of water privatization, has said that “buying and selling [water] for profit … denies the poor of their human rights.” Conversely, institutions like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund have vigorously urged developing nations to privatize, asserting that market strategies can most efficiently extend water to the poor and ensure water conservation. The introduction of private management to the water sector during the past two decades has generated fierce, polarizing controversies worldwide. Continue reading Beyond Water Privatization: Deconstructing the Public-Private Binary and Considering Alternatives →

Fracking in Pennsylvania: A Personal and Regulatory Nightmare

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A Review of Tom Wilber’s  Under the Surface: Fracking, Fortunes, and the Fate of the Marcellus Shale

“The landowners want the money, and I understand that. We all want the money. But gee, we’d like to have fish in our pond.” These words from Ken Ely, a resident of Dimock, Pennsylvania, came soon after natural gas production began on his land. While at first optimistic about his economic prospects that could result from fracking for this increasingly important source of energy, Ken soon became concerned when Cabot, the oil and gas company who owned and operated the fracking wells, began storing untreated wastewater on his land. Continue reading Fracking in Pennsylvania: A Personal and Regulatory Nightmare →

The West: From Desert to Oasis

Book Review

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A review of Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water  by Marc Reisner, Penguin Group, 1986

As droughts are becoming more common and as water demand across the country continues to grow, U.S. water sources are being depleted at an unprecedented rate. This scarcity is leading to water conflicts between cities, states, and even regions. Recently, Georgia asked to “correct” its border in order to have access to the upper bank of the Tennessee River to satisfy the growing demand in the Atlanta region. While this is simply a proposal at the moment, it is far from a simple request, and these conflicts over water are becoming more and more frequent as this natural resource becomes scarcer. Continue reading The West: From Desert to Oasis →

Environmental Justice Roots Run Deep

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A Review of Noxious New York by Julie Sze, MIT Press, 2007

On March 22, 1987, a barge called the Mobro 4000 departed from New York with 3,168 tons of trash on board. It journeyed the entire length of the eastern coast of the United States and continued as far south as Belize in search of a dumping destination. Four months later the ship returned to New York with its load still intact, having been rejected by authorities at every stop.

While the journey of the “Gar-barge,” as it was called at the time, may have been a unique incident that embarrassed New York, it also highlights a period of time when garbage began to take on complex cultural, political and economic contexts. In the 1980s, New York and much of the rest of the country were faced with the question of what to do with an ever-increasing amount of waste. The creation of large-scale municipal waste management sites was a solution, but only for some. Indeed, the presence of new industrial facilities in certain neighborhoods helped spark environmental justice activism in New York. Continue reading Environmental Justice Roots Run Deep →

Half a century’s worth of nuclear waste later and we still haven’t found a permanent solution.

Book Review

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A Review of  Too Hot to Touch, The Problem of High-Level Nuclear Waste by William M. Alley and Rosemarie Alley, Cambridge University Press , 2013

 

During a Labor Day 1954 video broadcast, President Eisenhower flicked his “magic wand” in Denver, Colorado and switched on the nation’s first nuclear power plant 1,200 miles away in Shippingport, Pennsylvania. At the time, researchers expected nuclear power would minimize energy costs and curb air pollution. But the nuclear industry has done more than generate clean energy; it has also generated enough high-level radioactive waste to fill over 150 football fields stacked at 20 feet high. Continue reading Half a century’s worth of nuclear waste later and we still haven’t found a permanent solution. →

Rich Tastes, Hungry People: How Opposition to GM in Europe is Keeping Billions in Poverty in Africa

Book Review

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Starved for Science: How Biotechnology is Being Kept Out of Africa
Robert Paarlberg
Harvard University Press, 2008

It’s quite unintuitive, actually. African nations, some of the poorest on Earth, have experienced little to no improvements in agricultural productivity since the dawn of modern agricultural science, yet they maintain some of the tightest restrictions on agricultural biotechnology in the world.  With the exception of South Africa, purchasing or planting genetically modified (GM) seeds, or sometimes even accepting unmilled GM grain as food aid, is illegal in every single African country. Given that many of these same developing countries are comfortable with comparatively loose or no regulations in other categories, this contrast poses some questions. Continue reading Rich Tastes, Hungry People: How Opposition to GM in Europe is Keeping Billions in Poverty in Africa →

“Climate Refugees” by Collectif Argos: A Landmark in Humanizing Climate Change

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Collectif Argos brought the human impacts of climate change into sharp focus in 2007 when they published their book Climate Refugees.  It was the first time the term had been used in print.

Collectif Argos, a group of 10 French journalists and photographers, began researching the social impacts of our changing climate in 2004.  Guy-Pierre Chomette of the Collectif explained, “Our job is to tell stories we have heard and bear witness to what we have seen.  The science was already there when we started in 2004, but we wanted to emphasize the human dimension, especially for those most vulnerable.” Continue reading “Climate Refugees” by Collectif Argos: A Landmark in Humanizing Climate Change →