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Betrayal and Courage in the Wake of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill
Chelsea Green Publishing
November 2008
On Sale: November 1, 2008
362 pages ISBN: 1933392584 EAN: 9781933392585 Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
In the early 1970s, Alaska Senator Ted Stevens promised
Cordova fishermen "not one drop" of oil would be spilled in
Prince William Sound from proposed tanker traffic and the
trans-Alaska pipeline project. Fishermen knew better. Spanning nearly 40 years, "Not One Drop" is an extraordinary
tale of ordinary people who take on the worlds richest oil
companies and most powerful politicians to protect Prince
William Sound from oil accidents. Author Riki Ott, a rare combination of commercial salmon
"fisherma'am" and PhD marine biologist, describes the
firsthand impact of this broken promise when the Exxon
Valdez oil spill decimated Cordova, Alaska, a small
commercial fishing community set in 38,000 square miles of
rugged Alaska wilderness. Ott illustrates in stirring fashion the oil industry's
20-year trail of pollution and deception that led to the
tragic 1989 spill and delves deep into the disruption to the
fishing community for the next 10 years. In vivid detail,
she describes the human trauma coupled inextricably with
that of the Sound's wildlife and its struggle to recover. Contrasting hard-won spill prevention and response measures
in the Sound to dangerous conditions on the trans-Alaska
pipeline, Ott critically examines shifts in scientific
understanding of oil spill effects on communities and
ecosystems, exposing fundamental flaws in governance and the
legal system. Her varied background, professional training,
and activist heart lead readers confidently and clearly
through the maze of laws, back-story, and government red
tape as large as that of the five billion dollar lawsuit
itself, instilling a new-found sense of understanding of
this environmental tragedy.
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