An introduction to a world of deeper issues. Weir, an investigative reporter, wrote this book in the wake of the Bhopal Disaster – where poisonous MIC gas leaked from a Union Carbide factory in India and killed thousands. To some extent, the book attempts to capitalize on the media attention the disaster generated to reveal that the potential danger of modern industrial chemicals is even greater than what happened at Bhopal. The Bhopal Syndrome has little to do with Bhopal, the syndrome is the modern world’s reliance on complex systems we can barely control. Something is bound to go wrong. The book is mainly a litany of horror stories about large, Western-owned chemical factories operating in the developing world releasing all kinds of things into the air, water and soil. The unseemly and altogether too-intimate connection between government officials and business interests is also highlighted. As I read the book in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, a lot of Weir’s points about openness of information, lust for profit and government culpability still ring true; 23 years later! This book has a bit of a “historical” feel to it now given that it was written right at the beginning of the environmental activism movement. Near the end there is also what has to be one of that earliest warnings about the potential dangers of genetically-modified foods. This is not a solutions kind book, this is a “get the information out there” kind of book. What is left unstated is Weir’s belief that in a democracy, once the information is out there, people will act on it in a powerful way. You have the information. How will you act?
03 August 2010
A Review: The Bhopal Syndrome – David Weir
3 / 5 Stars
An introduction to a world of deeper issues. Weir, an investigative reporter, wrote this book in the wake of the Bhopal Disaster – where poisonous MIC gas leaked from a Union Carbide factory in India and killed thousands. To some extent, the book attempts to capitalize on the media attention the disaster generated to reveal that the potential danger of modern industrial chemicals is even greater than what happened at Bhopal. The Bhopal Syndrome has little to do with Bhopal, the syndrome is the modern world’s reliance on complex systems we can barely control. Something is bound to go wrong. The book is mainly a litany of horror stories about large, Western-owned chemical factories operating in the developing world releasing all kinds of things into the air, water and soil. The unseemly and altogether too-intimate connection between government officials and business interests is also highlighted. As I read the book in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, a lot of Weir’s points about openness of information, lust for profit and government culpability still ring true; 23 years later! This book has a bit of a “historical” feel to it now given that it was written right at the beginning of the environmental activism movement. Near the end there is also what has to be one of that earliest warnings about the potential dangers of genetically-modified foods. This is not a solutions kind book, this is a “get the information out there” kind of book. What is left unstated is Weir’s belief that in a democracy, once the information is out there, people will act on it in a powerful way. You have the information. How will you act?
An introduction to a world of deeper issues. Weir, an investigative reporter, wrote this book in the wake of the Bhopal Disaster – where poisonous MIC gas leaked from a Union Carbide factory in India and killed thousands. To some extent, the book attempts to capitalize on the media attention the disaster generated to reveal that the potential danger of modern industrial chemicals is even greater than what happened at Bhopal. The Bhopal Syndrome has little to do with Bhopal, the syndrome is the modern world’s reliance on complex systems we can barely control. Something is bound to go wrong. The book is mainly a litany of horror stories about large, Western-owned chemical factories operating in the developing world releasing all kinds of things into the air, water and soil. The unseemly and altogether too-intimate connection between government officials and business interests is also highlighted. As I read the book in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, a lot of Weir’s points about openness of information, lust for profit and government culpability still ring true; 23 years later! This book has a bit of a “historical” feel to it now given that it was written right at the beginning of the environmental activism movement. Near the end there is also what has to be one of that earliest warnings about the potential dangers of genetically-modified foods. This is not a solutions kind book, this is a “get the information out there” kind of book. What is left unstated is Weir’s belief that in a democracy, once the information is out there, people will act on it in a powerful way. You have the information. How will you act?
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