Eco-facts and Eco-fiction: Understanding the Environmental Debate

Zero-waste, biodegradable, ozone-friendly, recycleable -- these environmental ideals carry implicit assumptions that our environmental crisis is on the road to recovery. Yet where do these ideals come from and is the current state of the environmental debate communicating the real problems? Exposing many falsehoods, widely held misconceptions, and egregious errors in environmental vocabulary which obscure an informed understanding of our environment and the state of human health, Eco-Facts and Eco-Fictions shows that solutions to our environmental problems are often clouded in scientific jargon. Drawing on a wealth of everyday examples of international concern, the author explains basic concepts, ideas and perceptions in order to defuse the paranoia surrounding scientific and technological investigations. Pointing out the errors abounding in the accepted environmental vocabulary, this book stresses that a common language must be used in the environmental debate in order for us to formulate a clearer pictureof our environment and our relationship to it.