Overview

This volume examines environmental disasters worldwide, often stemming from extractive industries like fossil fuels. Questioning human desires for comfort, convenience, and national defense, it confronts the relentless pursuit of profit in a capitalist system. From the development of nuclear weapons to the damaging effects of climate change, the book questions humanity's capacity to address these challenges. As temperatures soar, can we endure inconvenience and unite globally to tame climate change? From the lethal coal mines of India to the haunting aftermath of nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands, each chapter presents different cases of struggles against relentless exploitation. Among other topics, the book discusses China's environmental crisis, Nigeria's oil-infested lands, and Australia's uranium conflicts. It sheds light on the Amazon's indigenous defenders confronting mining and disease, while Vietnam and Cambodia grapple with the enduring legacy of Agent Orange. Finally, it looks into the Philippines' battle against mining giants and mirrors Russia's oil-ravaged reindeer herders. Presenting the fight for survival against the onslaught of profit-driven extraction, the volume pictures a world where tradition clashes with modernity, and where the price of progress is often paid in blood and displacement. Hence, this book underscores the urgent need for cooperation in safeguarding our planet's future.

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9783031969805

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Author Information

​Bruce E. Johansen is a Frederick W. Kayser research professor emeritus for Communication and Native American Studies at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, USA, where he taught and researched from 1982 to 2019, then retired with emeritus status. Johansen has earned a national and international reputation as a scholar and interpreter of Native American history and present-day concerns, as well as environmental issues, most notably global warming and toxic chemical pollution. Johansen’s writing has been published, debated, and reviewed in many academic venues, among them the William and Mary Quarterly, American Historical Review, Current History, and Nature, as well as in many popular newspapers and magazines, such as The New York Times and The National Geographic. An expert and prolific writer on the topic, he has published several books with a related thematic focus, such as Environmental Racism in the United States and Canada (Praeger, 2020) and Seattle’s El Centro de la Raza: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Living Laboratory (Lexington, 2020).

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