What We’re Reading
Here are some recommendations for books that address the issues of electronics manufacturing, recycling, obsolescence, over-consumption, and green chemistry.
The China Price: The True Cost of Chinese Competitive Advantage
By Alexandra Harney.
With the recent scandals involving tainted food and toys from China, and mounting concern over the ever-growing pollution produced by Chinese industry, it’s clear that what happens in China does not stay in China: It has a tangible, and at times devastating, global effect. With THE CHINA PRICE: The True Cost of Chinese Competitive Advantage veteran foreign correspondent Alexandra Harney has written a landmark exposé of how China’s factory economy competes for Western business by selling out its workers, its future, and the environment. More info.
High Tech Trash: Digital Devices, Hidden Toxics, and Human Health
by Elizabeth Grossman.
The First Global Investigation of Technology’s Toxic Underside. Deep within every electronic device lie dangerous materials like lead, cadmium and mercury, which have been linked to cancer and learning disabilities. The manufacture and disposal of electronics have spread these chemicals around the globe and into our communities, our food and our bodies. Grossman exposes this lurking crisis and details the potential solutions, including a recycling guide for consumers and a look at what companies and politicians are doing (and not doing) to solve the problem. More info.
Challenging the Chip: Labor Rights and Environmental Justice in the Global Electronics Industry
Edited by Ted Smith, David A. Sonnenfeld and David Naguib Pellow.
Foreword by Jim Hightower.
Story of Stuff: How our obsession with stuff is trashing the planet, our communities, and our health
by Annie Leonard
“The intrepid Ann Leonard has written an eye-opening, humorous, and highly readable account of how our seemingly innocuous lifestyles are part of a larger system of destruction and dysfunction. Leonard gets my vote for hero of the year. A must-read.”
—Juliet B. Schor, author of Plenitude: The New Economics of True Wealth and professor of sociology at Boston College. More info.
