Fallout by Fred Pearce
An investigation into our complicated 7-decade-long relationship with nuclear technology, from the bomb to nuclear accidents to nuclear waste. From Hiroshima to Chernobyl, from Fukushima to the growing legacy of lethal radioactive waste, humanity's struggle to conquer atomic energy is rife with secrecy, deceit, human error, blatant disregard for life, short-sighted politics, and fear. Fallout is an eye-opening odyssey through the first eight decades of this struggle and the radioactive landscapes it has left behind. We are, Fred Pearce finds, forever torn between technological hubris and all-too-human terror about what we have created.At first, Pearce reminds us, America loved the bomb. Las Vegas, only seventy miles from the site of some one hundred atmospheric tests, crowned four Miss Atomic Bombs in the 1950s. Pearce moves on to explore the closed cities of the Soviet Union, where plutonium was refined and nuclear bombs tested throughout the 1950s and '60s, and where the full extent of environmental and human damage is only now coming to light. Finally, Pearce turns to the toxic legacies of nuclear technology: the emerging dilemmas over handling its waste and decommissioning the great radioactive structures of the nuclear age, as well as the fearful doublethink over the world's growing stockpiles of plutonium, the most lethal and ubiquitous product of nuclear technologies.
For any reader who craves a clear-headed examination of the tangled relationship between a powerful technology and human politics, foibles, fears, and arrogance, Fallout is the definitive look at humanity's nuclear adventure.
Fred Pearce is an award-winning author and journalist based in London. He has reported on environmental, science, and development issues from 85 countries over the past 20 years. An environment consultant at New Scientist magazine since 1992, he also writes regularly for the Guardian newspaper and Yale University's prestigious e360 website. Pearce was voted UK Environment Journalist of the Year in 2001 and CGIAR agricultural research journalist of the year in 2002, and he won a lifetime achievement award from the Association of British Science Writers in 2011. His many books include Falllout, With Speed and Violence, Confessions of an Eco-Sinner, The Coming Population Crash, and The Land Grabbers.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780807092491 |
| ISBN 10 | 0807092495 |
| Title | Fallout |
| Author | Fred Pearce |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Beacon Press |
| Year published | 2018-05-22 |
| Number of pages | 264 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |