Great review of A Line in the Tar Sands in Publishers Weekly. Catch editor Joshua Kahn Russell for A Line in the Tar Sands - Book Launch and Panel Discussion on the Struggles for Environmental Justice at La Commune Cafe and Bookstore in Oakland, CA on 1/25 and A Line in the Tar Sands book launch with Joshua Kahn Russell @ The Green Arcade on 1/29 in San Francisco, CA. Copublished with Between the Lines Academics, environmental scientists, and climate-change activists from across North America rail against the extraction of tar sands in Alberta, Canada, and controversial developments such as the Keystone XL pipeline, in this collection of pointed essays. It’s a fight that Naomi Klein and Bill McKibben here call one of “the epic environmental and social justice battles of our time,” and the variety of perspectives gives the collection comprehensive insight and broad appeal. The book’s tone is intense and emphatic. Extracting tar sands from the Athabasca River Basin in western Canada, the authors say, destroys the environment, affecting huge portions of boreal forest and numerous animal habitats. The essays also make clear how extraction practices have the potential to create an ecological wasteland reminiscent of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Mordor, threatening “the homelands of Cree, Dene, and Metis peoples.” Similarly, transporting crude oil to faraway refineries through a network of pipelines also poses significant health risks: local communities see elevated rates of cancers and respiratory illnesses due to air-quality issues and water contamination. Though these sorts of projections seem stark, apocalyptic, and stomach-turning, the worries are legitimate and give this volume substance and urgency. (Feb.) publishersweekly/978-1-62963-039-7
Posted on: Sat, 03 Jan 2015 23:01:19 +0000
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