Sustainablog’s review of Smogtown: the dirty work of progress can be an “entertaining” and “engaging” read, if not a “sexy” one
Wednesday, December 10th, 2008
Here’s the full review
Passages from Justin Van Kleeck’s takeout:
“The tale of one American city’s epic struggle with smog may not strike you as the most interesting of reads. It sounds more like a government report than a page-turner. But when that city is Los Angeles, things become much more complicated…and, I might as well say it, sexy.
In Smogtown: The Lung-Burning History of Pollution in Los Angeles, Chip Jacobs and William J. Kelly provide a well-documented, highly engaging, and widely relevant account of southern California’s battle with “the beast,” as the authors lovingly refer to smog. Placed firmly in the tradition of good old muckraking journalism, Smogtown covers over sixty years of pollution making and pollution fighting in Los Angeles.
… Despite its clear intention of making a case for environmental awareness and action, Smogtown is not your typical “green’s” diatribe against big business and weak government. No, Jacobs and Kelly are much smarter–and fairer–than that in this book.
As you might expect, they pull no punches when detailing the ways that major corporations, particularly car companies and power producers, create the ingredients of smog. Since well before Los Angeles mushroomed into the megalopolis and mega-market that it is today, various producers have pushed development, consumption, and idyllic comfort to the masses…creating the desire for what those businesses are there to sell.
But along with this critical account of corporate influence, and government complicit weakness, Jacobs and Kelly train the spotlight on southern Californians themselves as key contributors to the very problem that has damaged so many aspects of life in the area.
Because of this focus on the human element, Smogtown plays out like a soap opera, with a cast of characters ranging from arch-villains to valiant heroes: “the dragon lady,” “Haagy,” “Moonbeam,” “The Governator.” The authors’ historical story exposes the roots and rampages of smog, how a prodigious population explosion and growing consumption “essentially…turned nature against itself.”
(more…)
