Book Review: Blood and Earth
Recommendations from Scientific American
On supporting science journalism
If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.
Blood and Earth: Modern Slavery, Ecocide, and the Secret to Saving the World
by Kevin Bales
Spiegel & Grau, 2016 ($27)
The terrible evil of slavery still haunts the world. A seven-year exploration of modern slavery—from forced labor to pay off debts to outright bondage—finds it inextricably interwoven with some of the worst environmental destruction on the planet. Activist and writer Bales's powerful book shows how slavery is involved in harvesting shrimp and gathering the wood in the tables it is served on and even in the mining that enables manufacture of the world's favorite gadget: the cell phone. This ubiquity, Bales shows, means that all of us have a role to play in ending slavery and that doing so will also help remedy some of the biggest environmental challenges on earth, such as climate change. “There's always been a moral case for stopping slavery,” he writes. “Now there's an environmental reason too.”
Subscribe to Support Independent Journalism
Great science journalism requires human expertise, time, effort and creativity. And it costs money. That’s why I and the journalists here at Scientific American hope you’ll join our community.
When you subscribe, you are supporting staff and freelance journalists who are passionate about telling science stories that are true, important and compelling. Our editors and reporters are often experts in their fields, which means they understand the nuances of big discoveries and can untangle the breakthroughs from the hype. With a subscription, you are also supporting rigorous fact-checking to ensure the words we publish are precise and accurate. And you’re supporting original illustrations, graphics and photos that bring you closer to an advanced laboratory, an ice sheet in Antarctica or a space mission in orbit. You’re helping us craft other types of high-quality journalism as well: Our newsletters are carefully written, edited and curated by staffers you have or will come to know and love. Our Science Quickly podcast is based on original reporting, collaboration with editors and scientists and exacting production.
Subscriptions keep this engine running so we can continue to deliver thoughtful, rigorous and independent science journalism to you. In an era of viral misinformation, this work is crucial. If you value what we do, I hope you’ll consider joining us as a subscriber
