The people's republic of chemicals
By: by William J. Kelly and Chip Jacobs
Contributors: Jacobs, Chip, author
Edition: First hardcover edition.
Publisher: A Vireo Book / Rare Bird Books
Published: 2014
Language: eng
Number of pages: 366
ISBN-13: 9781940207254
Subjects: Climatic changes; Air quality; Economic development; Air; Environmental conditions; Environmental management; Environmental policy; Pollution
Description: "Maverick environmental writers William J. Kelly and Chip Jacobs follow up their acclaimed Smogtown with a provocative examination of China's ecological calamity already imperiling a warming planet. Toxic smog most people figured was obsolete needlessly kills as many as died in the 9/11 attacks every day, while sometimes Grand Canyon-sized drifts of industrial particles aloft on the winds rain down ozone and waterway-poisoning mercury in America. In vivid, gonzo prose blending first-person reportage with exhaustive research and a sense of karma, Kelly and Jacobs describe China's ancient love affair with coal, Bill Clinton's blunders cutting free-trade deals enabling the US to "export" manufacturing emissions to Asia in a shift that pilloried the West's middle class, Communist Party manipulation of eco-statistics, the horror of cancer villages, the deception of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and spellbinding peasant revolts against cancer-spreading plants involving thousands in mostly-censored melees. Ending with China's monumental coal-bases decried by climatologists as a global warming dagger, The People's Republic of Chemicals names and emphasizes humanity over bloodless statistics in a classic sure to ruffle feathers as an indictment of money as the real green that not even Al Gore can deny."--
Notes: In title the word China is hidden by the image of smog.

"A genuine Vireo/Rare Bird book."

Map located on endpapers.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 335-337).
Table of contents: title: Preface: China or Choke; title: Chapter 1:The Empire Center; title: Chapter 2: Fire & Coal; title: Chapter 3: The Middle Kingdom Regained; title: Chapter 4: "Faster Steps" Amid the Smog; title: Chapter 5: Making Hay in Arkansas; title: Chapter 6: Particle Dawn; title: Chapter 7: Full Body Backlash; title: Chapter 8: Hu's Green Washout; title: Chapter 9: When Peasants Attack; title: Chapter 10: Blue Sky, Dark Death; title: Chapter 11: Potemkin Village or Gold Medal Miracle?; title: Chapter 12: Tweets for the Wheezy; title: Chapter 13: "Greyjing's" Last Straw; title: Chapter 14: Detroit East; title: Chapter 15: Drift & Decline; title: Chapter 16: Ringing the Bell; title: Chapter 17: "Money in the Ground"; title: Epilogue: Looking for Confucius.