Threats to the Environment

After years of prosecuting hard-core criminals, rising legal star Alan Bell took a private sector job in South Florida’s newest skyscraper. Suddenly, he suffered such bizarre medical symptoms, doctors suspected he’d been poisoned by the Mafia. Bell’s rapidly declining health forced him to flee his glamorous Miami life to a sterile “bubble” in the remote Arizona desert. He eventually discovered he wasn’t poisoned by a criminal, but by his office building. Bell founded the Environmental Health Foundation advocating for victims of environmental injury and teamed up with other top lawyers—including those portrayed in the films Erin Brockovich and A Civil Action—to help other environmentally injured victims in court. His book, Poisoned: How a Crime-Busting Prosecutor Turned His Medical Mystery into a Crusade for Environmental Victims (Skyhorse Publishing) puts a human face on the toxic dangers assaulting us in our everyday environments. As a former victim, survivor, health advocate, and legal avenger, Bell offers an aerial view of one of the most important global health issues of our time.

(Eriksen, Marcus) Marcus Eriksen is the cofounder and director of research for the 5 Gyres Institute. A scientist, activist, and inveterate adventurer, Eriksen is drawn to the sea by a desire to right an environmental injustice. With firsthand experience from more than twenty ocean-crossing expeditions, he has written and published research on the impact of plastic pollution in the world’s oceans. Junk Raft (Beacon Press) tells the exciting story of Eriksen and his team’s fight to solve this insidious catastrophe. Against long odds and common sense, Eriksen and his co-navigator construct a “junk raft” made of plastic trash and set themselves adrift from Los Angeles to Hawaii, with no motor or support vessel, confronting perilous cyclones, food shortages, and a fast decaying raft. Junk Raft provides concrete, actionable solutions and an empowering message: it’s within our power to change the throw-away culture for the sake of our planet.

(Brock, Pope) Pope Brock is a writer, teacher, DJ, and  the author of Indiana Gothic, about the murder of his great-grandfather; Charlatan: America’s Most Dangerous Huckster, The Man Who Pursued Him and The Age of Flim Flam, about the most successful quack in American history. His articles have appeared in GQ, Esquire, Rolling Stone, the London Sunday Times Magazine and many other publications. Another Fine Mess: Life on Tomorrow's Moon (Red Hen Press) explores the many ways in which today’s scientists, entrepreneurs, architects and, yes, a few loonies are working to get colonies established on the moon. Filled with research, interviews and expert projections, Another Fine Mess reveal how a web of fantastic new technologies could give mankind a brand new start off-world. But, Brock asks, if we’re given a second chance on the moon, will we use it to create at last a sane and peaceful society? Or will we make a desperate hash of things all over again?