A Pocket Guide to Environmental Bad Guys

Rating:
Summary: A Rap Sheet for the Big Polluters
Review: A Pocket Guide to Environmental Bad Guys is a sharply-written profile of how American liberty & justice and our planet is being killed off. Written by two top-notch investigative reporters, James Ridgeway of the Village Voice and Jeffrey St. Clair of CounterPunch, the book is filled with horrifying tales of eco-pillage and disturbing photos and graphics, including Dewer's profiles of corporate pirates such as Charles Hurwitz, butcher of American jobs and ancient redwoods, and Jim Bob Moffett, whose mining company, Freeport McMoRan, has been linked to human rights abuses in Indonesia.

Unlike most books on liberty or the environment, this one goes right for the throat, exposing the people and their chemical, nuclear, and extractive industries gouging the Earth and poisoning and killing our people. And how these robber barons manage to exercise their malignant corporate power through legions of lobbyists, lawyers, public relations hacks and corrupting political handouts.

St. Clair and Ridgeway not only rip the mask off of the corporations taking away liberty and justice, plunder the Earth, but their book is one of the first to expose the lame response of so many of the establishment's lapdog environmental groups. With Clinton and Gore's rise to power, big green groups, such as The Wilderness Society and the Sierra Club, went along for the ride, allowing the administration to get away with (or actually aiding and abetting) one shameful deal after another in exchange for coffee with Al Gore and a pat on the head.

But the story is not all doom and gloom. Ridgeway and St. Clair's guide also charts how innovative grassroots citizens creative campaigns from around the country have waged successful battles against the nuclear industry, hazardous waste dumpers and even rapacious timber companies. Citizens have demonstrated they can take back their constitutional rights to liberty and justice, their country, their flag, and their future.

All Americans, concerned about our survival as a species, the survival of our country, its democracy and people should read this book and take heed.

Forever Wild and Free Tim Hermach

Rating:
Summary: Wanted, Dead or Alive
Review: 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:
Summary: Wanted, Dead or Alive
Review: 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:
Summary: The benefits of personalizing the environmental crisis
Review: At $ 10.95, this is the perfect atop the coffeetable, hiding in your jacket pocket/purse, or as gift to a friend. Though short, the book is wide-ranging. You'll learn about the companies that pilfer the earth resources, as well as those then add to the earth's toxic burden through their reckless use of these resources. Reading about the leakage of radioactivity into the heavily fished Bering Sea--covered up by the government and later exposed by Greenpeace--will make one think twice about ordering a McFishstick sandwich. You'll also gain insight into the lobbyists defending the toxic interests and find out about the environmental movement, parts of which also serve to protect the polluters. One deficit of the book is the lack of coverage of global warming matters; yet there is a thorough review of the petroleum industry that has brought us the problem as well as the nuclear industry now trying to revive itself as the antidote for a warming planet. Reading Ridgeway and St. Clair's review of atomic industry's sorry record will make you think twice about giving the Nuke Huggers a second chance. Pocket Guide to Environmental Bad Guys is unique amongst environmental books for offering a springboard of worthy alternative eco-groups complete with addresses as an antidote to the mainstream miasma. The brief exposes and chapters chock full of startling information make this a perfect introduction into environmental issues; highly recommended for the budding environmentalist--but don't expect to see this book offered in any schools -- it would be too controversial. Punctuated with photos, illustrations, and Bad Guy Profiles, the multimedia MTV generation should take well to it as well as the more serious reader.

Rating:
Summary: A Rap Sheet for the Big Polluters
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: A WHO'S WHO OF ENVIRONMENTAL VANDALS
Review: 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:
Summary: A WHO'S WHO OF ENVIRONMENTAL VANDALS
Review: 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.