The lands on which we construct and expand our growing cities, alongside our farms that we push to be ever more productive, have been devastated by pollution and erosion – contamination in lots of different vocabularies. This guide is an answer to ‘how we can make amends’. It is both a practical reparations toolkit ‘and’ – as the author seeks to background the attitudes that cause the need for repair – something that provides deeper insights into environmental justice.
However, it is the ‘and’ which can be daunting. In an otherwise powerful treatise on a very important subject, the author risks being too verbose and overly complex; for example, why does ‘indigenous’ need a capital ‘I’? and why call water a ‘plant-friendly liquid’? Also, some chapters have been penned by other writers, but this seems to be lost. The book covers remediation in various forms, healing water, oil spills, nuclear etc, and it is a very solid text for any community leader or group undertaking restoration of lands and water we have made toxic. In short, it’s a necessary kit which we should not need at all, but one I recommend.
Henricus Peters
Leila Darwish; ISBN 978-0-86571-729-9; New Society Publishers, 2013