A Journey Beyond the Oiled Pelican and Into the Heart of the Gulf Oil Spill
Starred review from August 15, 2011
Though the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico turned America's eyes towards the potential environmental consequences of our insatiable appetite for oil, people quickly looked away when pictures no longer depicted black beaches and oil-slicked pelicans. However, the oil lingered, made invisible by dispersants, and it continues to destroy Louisiana estuaries. Award-winning environmental writer Gessner (My Green Manifesto) decided to go down to the Gulf, meet the people, see the animals and the waters for himself, and ask difficult questions. How much of the natural world are we willing to sacrifice to maintain our over-consuming lifestyles? What are the invisible environmental impacts of the spill? How could America trust the people who made the mistake to clean it up? Though he doesn't come away with easy answers, Gessner educates readers and offers compelling images and vivid descriptions of the Gulf. Readers may feel helpless and angered by the destruction taking place there, as well as overwhelmed by the fatalistic views of climate scientists and environmental experts. Anyone who wanted a first-hand look at the Gulf after the news cycle ended will find it here, but this brilliant, thoughtful book will leave them disquieted.
September 15, 2011
Gessner's zesty irreverence, passionate curiosity, and realistic concern for humanity and the living world have earned him distinguished awards and an ardent readership. Expressive and adventurous, he follows My Green Manifesto (2011) with a profoundly personal inquiry into the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe unique in its hands-on immediacy and far-ranging ruminations. He roams the coast, talking to anyone he can find who isn't muzzled by BP. He befriends Jean-Michel Cousteau's film crew; stays in a pleasingly rudimentary fishing shack; mourns for oiled and dead pelicans; takes wholehearted pleasure in beer, birds on the wing, and frolicking dolphins; and asks penetrating questions about BP's use of a chemical dispersant illegal in England and the harm done to Gulf Coast wildlife and livelihoods. Despair mixes with delight, as Gessner revels in the beautiful vitality of the Gulf and wonders how much more damage we'll do by pursuing and burning fossil fuels. We need to make some hard choices, he writes, and figure out how to live in harmony with nature, our intricate and sustaining planetary symphony.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)
September 15, 2011
While the news cycle has long finished with the Deepwater Horizon disaster of last summer, Gessner (Soaring with Fidel) reminds us that the outcome is still in question. He toured Gulf shorelines during and after the spill, talked with fishermen and biologists, and blogged about what he saw and heard. Growing out of those blog posts, the book is a work of personal journalism full of observations about nature in the Gulf. Gessner asks why BP, a British corporation, was allowed to direct the huge cleanup rather than the U.S. government. A critical difference from the Exxon Valdez calamity and subsequent cleanup is that BP sprayed powerful chemical dispersants to sink oil to the Gulf floor. After speculating that some important fisheries may be decimated for the long term, the author urges readers to make sacrifices in their energy consumption for the sake of future generations. VERDICT This is real-life ecology for adults, who will consider the implications of oil dependence and relentless resource extraction.--David R. Conn, formerly with Surrey Libs., B.C.
Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.