Bill McKibben

Robert Emmet Hernan

The twentieth century brought technological advances that led to improved quality of life for millions. But technology also brought devastation at Chernobyl, Bhopal, Minamata, Love Canal, and other places throughout the world now synonymous with the dark side of technology and human action. Vulnerable on this Earth is the first comprehensive book to explore the causes and consequences of fifteen major manmade environmental disasters in the twentieth century. Author Robert Emmet Hernan tells the story of toxic materials dumped into the sea, buried on land, and discharged into the air; of polluters recklessly advancing their own financial interests and ignoring dangers to others; and above all, of the determination and dignity of ordinary people who heroically fought for justice and change. Â From the preface by Bill McKibben: "In the years to come, the line that Hernan draws between natural and environmental disasters will blur. . . . What will remain the same, however, is human vulnerability. That vulnerability endangers us, of course-but it is closely related to the love, the shared concern, that might save us yet." Â Robert Emmet Hernan is an assistant attorney general in the Environmental Protection Bureau of the New York State Department of Law and has served as trial counsel in numerous toxic waste cases, including the Love Canal case. Â Bill McKibben is the author of The End of Nature and Wandering Home . A prolific writer on environmental issues, McKibben is a scholar in residence at Middlebury College.

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