Dr. Riki Ott exposes the profound legacy of the Exxon Valdez oil spill and how readers can help reshape our global energy future.

The author chronicles the long-lasting environmental harm to Prince William Sound, Alaska, and investigates the health problems suffered by many cleanup workers. Exxon's spill provided a portal to understanding a startling truth: oil is much more toxic than we previously thought. Sound Truth and Corporate Myth$ frames the larger story of discovery of the truly toxic nature of oil.

This book shows how one particular fraction of crude oil, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons or PAHs, may well be the new DDT of the 21st century. In 1999, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency listed 22 PAHs in crude oil as "persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic (PBT) pollutants." Sharing this list of extreme human health hazards are the more commonly known pollutants--mercury, lead, dioxin, PCBs, and DDT. The latter are all highly regulated chemicals and some, such as DDT and PCBs, have been banned in the United States.

Sound Truth and Corporate Myth$ traces 15 years of lingering harm to humans and wildlife from the Exxon Valdez oil spill. It reveals how corporate greed, government short-sightedness, and manipulation of the truth and the media have kept the public from learning the deadly nature of PAHs. The author provides relevant information and practical recommendations for people and policy-makers at this critical juncture in the history of civilization. This book will inspire people to reduce their own consumption of fossil fuels and, in so doing, help permanently shift society to a clean energy future.

The negative environmental legacy of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska's Prince William Sound is massive and ongoing, as Ott (Ph.D, Marine Toxicology, University of Washington) seeks to demonstrate in this work. He documents the health affects on the workers exposed to the oil in the clean-up effort, ecosystem studies of the status of the Sound, and the efforts of Exxon to escape their responsibility for the disaster. He concludes with recommendations for strengthening oil pollution prevention.
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"This book doesn't just change our view of the Exxon Valdez spill; it forces us to dramatically reassess the risks from petroleum and the enormous costs that industry is imposing on our health and planet." -Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., President, Waterkeeper Alliance

Since the time of Tacitus, historians have written to record and interpret the past in order to know what is a wise course for the present. This book is such an investigative history. As such, it interprets the event surrounding and following the Exxon Valdez disaster. In reconstructing events and attempting to explain them, this heavily annotated manuscript reconstructs, among other things, the events from 24 March 1989 to the present.

Dr. Riki Ott exposes the profound legacy of the Exxon Valdez oil spill and how readers can help reshape our global energy future.

The author chronicles the long-lasting environmental harm to Prince William Sound, Alaska, and investigates the health problems suffered by many cleanup workers. Exxon's spill provided a portal to understanding a startling truth: oil is much more toxic than we previously thought. Sound Truth and Corporate Myth$ frames the larger story of discovery of the truly toxic nature of oil.

This book shows how one particular fraction of crude oil, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons or PAHs, may well be the new DDT of the 21st century. In 1999, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency listed 22 PAHs in crude oil as persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic (PBT) pollutants. Sharing this list of extreme human health hazards are the more commonly known pollutants--mercury, lead, dioxin, PCBs, and DDT. The latter are all highly regulated chemicals and some, such as DDT and PCBs, have been banned in the United States.

Sound Truth and Corporate Myth$ traces 15 years of lingering harm to humans and wildlife from the Exxon Valdez oil spill. It reveals how corporate greed, government short-sightedness, and manipulation of the truth and the media have kept the public from learning the deadly nature of PAHs. The author provides relevant information and practical recommendations for people and policy-makers at this critical juncture in the history of civilization. This book will inspire people to reduce their own consumption of fossil fuels and, in so doing, help permanently shift society to a clean energy future.

Marine oil pollution expert Riki Ott, PhD, was on the scene before, during, and after one of the biggest environmental disasters in the United States—the Exxon Valdez oil spill. A former commercial salmon "fisherma'am" in Prince William Sound, she experienced firsthand the spill's effects, including environmental devastation, economic losses to the fishing industry, and psychosocial trauma to the close-knit community. 1993's spill-related salmon- and herring-population collapses prompted Ott to retire from fishing and found three nonprofit organizations to deal with the area's lingering social, economic, and environmental harm. A popular and dynamic lecturer, her talks weave the legacy of the Exxon Valdez spill into current issues of public health, environmental pollution, and our energy future—and inspire individuals to take action.