William J. Kelly, Chip Jacobs People's Republic of Chemicals

Annotation

Maverick environmental writers William J. Kelly and Chip Jacobs follow up their acclaimed Smogtown with a provocative examination of Chinas ecological calamity already imperling a warming planet. Toxic smog most people figured was obsolete needlessly kills as many there as 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 Chinas ancient love affair with coal, Bill Clintons blunders cutting free-trade deals enabling the U.S. 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 Chinas monumental coal-bases decried by climatologists as a global warming dagger, The People's Republic of Chemicals names names and stresses humans over bloodless numbers in a classic sure to ruffle feathers as an indictment of money as the real green that not even Al Gore can deny.