Killing Me Softly: Toxic Waste, Corporate Profit, and the Struggle for Environmental Justice
Author: Eddie J. Girdner, Jack Smith
List Price: $16.95
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ISBN: 1583670831
Publisher: Monthly Review Press (October, 2002)
Sales Rank: 622,247
Average Customer Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Customer Reviews
Rating: 4 out of 5
The political economy of toxic waste
This book gives you an introduction to industrial pollution from a Marxist perspective. In this case, "Marxist" just means that the authors are willing to look at corporate causes, and show how the government interacts with corporations to ensure profits. Their description of the system is very good. In fact, it would be impossible to refute. They show how US taxpayers pay the cost for cleanup, then major chemical firms buy the cleanup companies and make a profit off of their own pollution.After a brief but comprehensive overview of the chemical industry, public relations ("greenwashing"), and the history of dumping chemicals in poor areas, the authors turn their focus to a fight in Mercer County, Missouri. They tell the story of local activists trying to stop Waste-Tech, Inc.'s attempt to set up a toxic waste incinerator. Through public pressure, they struggle to defend their own health.
If you want a good book on the environment, try this one. The authors know how the system works and, although detractors may disregard their emphasis on the profit motive, everything here rings true. The footnotes are extensive, leading you to additional information.
Rating: 5 out of 5
A gritty, realistic, pull-no-punches survey
Collaboratively researched and written by Eddie J. Girdner (Professor of International Relations, Baskent University, Ankara, Turkey) and Jack Smith (Professor of English and Philosophy, North Central Missouri College), Killing Me Softly: Toxic Waste, Corporate Profit, And The Struggle For Environmental Justice is a gritty, realistic, pull-no-punches survey and expose of the toxic waste industry and its relentless expansion. Stressing the need for environmental justice in a society that tends to consider the homes of poor people to be "not sufficiently polluted", Killing Me Softly is a much-needed and clarion call for the importance of conservation, ecological responsibility, environmental protections, and corporate/governmental reforms in the modern age. Similar Products
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