Product Description
This book critically examines the way newspaper and television journalists covered three events that were reported as disasters. The work focuses on the processes by which journalists identified sources and gathered data, on their professional values, and on how those values affected the reporting. The book is based on an examination of thousands of newspaper and television stories, surveys of more than 600 journalists and their sources, evaluations of news accounts by independent experts, personal visits to the catastrophe sites, and interviews with more than 100 reporters, correspondents, producers, editors, and their sources. ... Read more

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Industrial pollution occurs when the waste from industries are directly dumped into surrounding water bodies and open lands which causes various types of pollution. The related economic and health costs and effects are constantly increasing and constantly being evaluated. This book presents recent research in the field. ... Read more

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While major oil spills are rare, oil slicks can have disastrous environmental and economic consequences. This book summarizes research on the use of chemical dispersants: their effectiveness and limitations, and the results of using them in different spill situations. Based on laboratory and field research, as well as on actual case histories, this book contains a clear-cut set of recommendations for action, planning, and research. Of special interest is the chapter on the biological effects of oil itself and of oil treated with chemical dispersants. ... Read more

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Original fiction/satire by Patrick L. Halliwell
Cover illustration by Kayoko Halliwell
(Note: this item is now also available in the author's Kindle collection, "Spying in the 21st Century and other selected humor/satire")


In the messy wake of the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, it has become clear that a new strategy is needed for handling offshore oil spills. This new strategy should include a complete and effective plan for the actual cleanup, and most importantly, a public relations strategy that will keep the press and the politicians off your backs.

Having a proper strategy will let corporate executives get their lives back quickly, so that they can concentrate on golfing and other more important activities.

This crafty little item explores various aspects of dealing with an oil spill, and bamboozling the press and the public at the same time.


About the Author
Patrick L. Halliwell is a Canadian author, composer and musicologist. His publications include fiction, humor, serious essays, practical items, and scholarly articles on traditional Japanese koto music. He is also creator and producer of "Phonobites," a unique set of exercises for English pronunciation. His original music combines musical principles and elements from a variety of the world's great traditions. His official website is www.lakipi.com
Patrick does not invest in oil.
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Customer Reviews (1)

Clever little book!
When you're at a party, or with a gathering of friends, this quick little read is just the ice-breaker you need to get people laughing. Patrick's humor hits the nail right on the head! I'm looking forward to more such gems from Patrick L. Halliwell! ... Read more

Product Description
The Economics of a Disaster represents a major contribution to the understanding of the economics of liability and damages. It is based on the assumption that if people know they can be held responsible for some or all of the costs or damages sustained in an environmental accident, they will change their behavior to make the accident less likely to occur or to reduce the damages should it occur. The work develops a framework to examine and measure changes in market conditions after a disaster, showing the kinds of information that need to be collected and analyzed. Based on the Exxon Valdez case, this work provides an interesting framework for practitioners, specialists, and scholars in the fields of business, economics, law, and environmental studies. ... Read more

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Ten years later, the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill inPrince William Sound remains the largest tanker spill in the historyof North America, and in its devastating effects upon wildlife andhabitat, arguably the most damaging tanker spill in the history of theworld. First released in 1991, John Keeble's account, Out of theChannel, combined on-the-scene witnessing of the oil spill's lethalresults with analysis of its ramifications upon ecology, community,economy, law, the nature of public information, and upon the Americanmythos. The aftermath of the oil spill, and no less transforming, thespill of Exxon's money and power, reached into every sector of Alaskanlife as well as into the conscience of the people of the lowerforty-eight states. The event is now seen as one of a handful ofsignal ecological disasters of the twentieth century.

The new "Tenth Anniversary' edition of Out of the Channel adds to itsevocative, original text a new and full assessment of the permutationsand twists of big money, big litigation, and "petroleum speak" fromthe vantage point of several years' remove, as well as an account ofthe 1991, $1 billion civil settlement between Exxon, the U.S. JusticeDepartment, and the State of Alaska-the largest such environmentalsettlement ever. In this now definitive book on the oil spill, all theprimary concerns of the first edition are updated with new material,including the cause of the ship's grounding on Bligh Reef, the fate ofCaptain Joseph Hazelwood, the long lasting effects of the spill, theprojected death toll among animals, the little-known 1993 fisherman'stanker blockade, late-developing evidence about the true quantity ofoil spilled, the benefits and abuses of professional science, as wellas the heartening results of citizen pressure to improve oil shippingprocedures in Prince William Sound and to protect fragile habitat. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Universal guilt
Newspaper stories about the oil spill created the impression that the cause of the accident was simply that the captain was drunk. This book shows that the real situation was far more complex. The captain was definitely not drunk. He did have a few drinks, which is against regulations. Even after all the analysis it is not clear what exactly went wrong. The fact that the captain had a few drinks was not the only breach of regulations. None of the officers had a six-hour off duty time in the twelve-hour period before departure. The ship was single hulled instead of double hulled as was foreseen when the oil terminal was built. When Congress granted permission to build the pipeline and the terminal one of the conditions was that there would be a state-of-the-art contingency plan for oil spills. There was nothing of the sort. A Vessel Traffic Services station was supposed to monitor the movement of the ships through the strait. Due to cost cutting measures the station was unable to monitor the movement of the ship. A major cause of inefficiency in the clean up was the lack of clarity about who was in charge, the Coast Guard or Exxon. It is not just the captain that acted irresponsibly, so did all parties concerned. This is described in one part of the book. The second part of the book describes the impact of the oil spill and especially of the clean up on the communities affected. Each of the communities split in the middle. Half of the members took the position of trying to squeeze as much money out of Exxon as possible whilst the other half did not want to have anything to do with Exxon. Exxon did not succeed in engaging the communities in a positive way. The third part describes the nature in Alaska. These descriptions are wonderful and make you want to go there. These three parts are interwoven. The advantage is that the reader gets a three dimensional understanding of what happened: the responsibility for the disaster and the clean up, the impact on different members of the community and the impact on nature. The author places the ultimate responsibility on the consumer. He writes, " the American population prefers to live in a fog and is willing to accept almost anything in return for the opportunity to keep its gas tanks topped up" (with cheap gas). The combination of corporations maximising short-term profits and consumers closing their eyes to the consequences of their behaviour makes one worried. There must be a better way.

A humane account of a whitewashed catastrophe
Out of the Channel should be required reading for anyone who thinks environmentally ... not just environmentalists, but students, political andeconomic theorists, and most of all, writers. I had the good fortune tolearn a great deal about writing from John Keeble, and reading his book isan education all by itself. As a rigorous study of the physical and humanimpact of the Exxon Valdez disaster, Out of the Channel is a comprehensiveanatomy, a text that does not shirk any of the heavy load its vast subjectdemands. Without taking the easy route of righteous anger, Keeble exploresevery nuance of the oil spill, and he follows that tenacious blot ofPrudhoe Bay crude as it seeps out of the tangible world and into the mindsand spirits of the permanent and temporary inhabitants of Prince WilliamSound. This tenth anniversary edition, with the expanded coverage allowedby the perspective of time, is a gift that should not be overlooked.

A brilliant account of the Valdez oilspill and its aftermath
John Keeble, whose writing focuses on the issues facing the American Northwest, paints a memorable picture of the Exxon Valdez oilspill and its aftermath. Asked by the Greenwich Village Voice to write an article on the spill, he travels to Alaska and observes first-hand the efforts made to restore the land and the wildlife.However, the more he observes the more he is haunted by two observations: 1) that the size of the oil companies, and the entangled relationship between the companies and the government, is enormously greater than we have suspected, and 2) that the vast amounts of money poured into the clean-up effort causes many to view that money as their goal.His investigations into the clean-up follow a theme he develops in his other works: that the intrusion of a company or government upon the land inevitably causes exploitation; and those who live in that land must invariably suffer the consequences.Torn between the desires to make money, to clear the oil, and to downplay the scope of the incident, the people involved with clean-up waste a good deal of their effort.The more damage Keeble assesses, the more in tune he becomes with the suffering of the people and animals truly hurt, and ultimately, the reader, too, feels the chill that shakes the author at each new discovery. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from The Geographical Review, published by American Geographical Society on January 1, 1999. The length of the article is 8481 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: THE EXTRAORDINARY AND THE EVERYDAY IN EXPLANATIONS OF VULNERABILITY TO AN OIL SPILL.
Author: Kirstin Dow
Publication: The Geographical Review (Refereed)
Date: January 1, 1999
Publisher: American Geographical Society
Volume: 89Issue: 1Page: 74

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Product Description
Show students how science applies to everyday life by engaging them in tasks directly related to a real-world event. Each project begins with actual media coverage of an event shown on video prompting students to work in teams and use their scientific knowledge to complete hands-on activities based on a particular topic. The Teacher's Guide includes student activity pages, one or more videos, and helpful teaching tips.Grades 5-8Student Edition ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The EXXON Valdez Oil Spill Symposium, 1993
This is a comprehensive 931 page indexed scientific publication consisting of the results of investigations largely supported by the EXXON Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council.The Council consists of representatives from various federal and Alaska State entities.The work is edited by S.D.Rice, R.B. Spies, D.A. Wolf, and B.A. Wright, who also co-author theintroductory paper.The work consists of roughly 60 papers grouped in thetopics of Fate and Toxity, Intertidal, Treatment Effects, Subtidal,Herring, Salmon, Other Fish, Birds, Mammals, Archaeology, Subsistence, andHuman Impacts.Absent are investigations sponsored by EXXON Corp. and afew sponsored by private plaintiffs.EXXON presented most of its sponsoredinvestigations in a separate ASTM Symposium.All in all the work iscomprehensive, but for many of the investigations, the work was conductedsimply too soon to reach scientifically definitive conclusions regardingcause and effect. Fortunately many of the authors were able to not let theperfect be the enemy of the good, and did not ignore the obvious. ... Read more

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Our Planet in Peril presents the truth behind major environmental issues. The series gives the facts and figures, explains the real situation and describes some practical solutions. The main text is supplemented by photographs, maps and diagrams to explain all the issues involved, while 'Science in action' panels offer simple experiments which allow children to see the science in a practical context, and 'How you can help' panels suggest ways in which ordinary people can make a real difference. Endmatter includes a glossary and index, and page of useful websites for further information. ... Read more

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This volume is produced from digital images created through the University of Michigan University Library's large-scale digitization efforts. The Library seeks to preserve the intellectual content of items in a manner that facilitates and promotes a variety of uses. The digital reformatting process results in an electronic version of the original text that can be both accessed online and used to create new print copies. The Library also understands and values the usefulness of print and makes reprints available to the public whenever possible. This book and hundreds of thousands of others can be found in the HathiTrust, an archive of the digitized collections of many great research libraries. For access to the University of Michigan Library's digital collections, please see http://www.lib.umich.edu and for information about the HathiTrust, please visit http://www.hathitrust.org ... Read more