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Our Stolen Future: Are We Threatening Our Fertility, Intelligence, and Survival?--A Scientific Detective Story
written by Theo Colborn, Dianne Dumanoski, John Peter Meyers
Studio : Plume
by Plume
Publisher : Plume
Released : 1997-03-01
Availability : Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Number of Items : 1
EAN : 9780452274143
Avg. Customer Rating: (based on 33 reviews)
List Price : $16.00
Our Price : $5.00
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Well written and packed with information |
Great credit needs to be given to Dianne Dumanoski, the writer who teamed up with researchers Colborn and Myers to produce this very readable warning to all of us. Research information can easily bog a reader down but this book keeps moving with revelation after revelation. I kept running to my PC to check for later information on the studies covered in this book (written in 1997) and I found nothing to refute the central claim that we are "flying blind" by releasing thousands of chemical formulations annually without knowing what the results will be in the wild.
Once released, many chemicals have very long lives and several accumulate in our bodies to be handed on through a mother's milk to the next generation, with a likelihood that fetal development is affected and with it the future...a future that is being stolen in this way.
The reader is never left confused. The book starts with a clear and simple explanation of the power of hormones and the way they work within our bodies (and those of other animals). Then we move through accounts of troubles in the natural world and the link they may have with hormone disruption either by enhancement or blocking. No wild claims are made, instead a case is made with reasonable hypotheses given in each instance as we move through what the cover rightly says is a scientific detective story.
Ignorance can hurt us and humanity has a track record of ignorance resulting in damage (think CFC's, lead, DDT, Thalidomide). Profit is a powerful incentive to minimize risks and the chemical industry is a very very big business so we must be extremely vigilant for our own good. This book provides a public service to us all.
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Riviting & Deeply Disturbing |
The inside cover of Our Stolen Future says: "...by two leading environmental scientists and an environmental journalist, is the first book to piece together the compelling evidence from wildlife studies, laboratory experiments, and human data and to lay out the emerging scientific case regarding this largely unrecognized threat. Picking up where Silent Spring left off, it reveals the underlying causes of the symptoms that had so alarmed Carson."
In this book, I got a look at the role that certain chemicals that have been put out into the environment since the 1950's might be affecting plants and animals, including human beings, specifically as "endocrine disruptors" and "hormone imposters." I know there has been some review of Our Stolen Future that call into question the validity of the study that the core ideas in this book are built upon...I honestly don't know enough about the subject to make my own decision about that, YET.
What I can say, is based on previous reading on loosely related subjects (The Crazy Makers, Eat Here, The Omnivores Dilemma), is that I believe that this is entirely possible and if so, it is also deeply disturbing. I did enjoy reading it, though it took me six days to work my way through it because it is fact intensive and books of this nature are, for me, harder to absorb in general (compared to fiction). The information contained here is both enlightening and disturbing...ranging from problems like decreased sperm count and motility in males over the last thirty years, to birth defects, sexual abnormalities, reproductive/fertility issues, the increase of certain types of cancer, and even touching on aggression, attention deficit disorders, and similar concerns. I am glad to have read this one and will read more on the subject to gain a great understanding of the issues touched on in Our Stolen Future. I give it 4 out of 5 stars.
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This book was a great read. It was very informative and credible. I learned alot of things I did not know in this book. |
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Plastics, there's no future at all in plastics |
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This true detective story has been favorably compared to Rachel Carson's SILENT SPRING by writers including Al Gore and Donella Meadows. It is a highly readable documentary of the scientific sleuthing that has linked birth defects, infertility and intelligence deficits to persistent chemical products which are poisoning our planet. From falling human sperm counts, to crashing bird populations, marine mammal die-offs and alligator sexual mutations, the authors demonstrate that we are performing a planet-wide experiment in which all life forms are unwitting subjects. The chemicals now impacting the whole biosphere have caused the same effects in laboratory animals for years -- and, surprise, surprise, nobody listened to the few small voices of alarm. This work may be the definitive and ominously final answer to the famous line from THE GRADUATE, "Plastics, there's a great future in plastics." No. There may literally be no future at all. |
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A Must-Read For Anyone Who Cares About This Planet |
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This book is both fantastic and worrisome in its import. Painstakingly documented, it sounds a warning call that must be heeded. As well-read as I consider myself to be, I was surprised at how much I didn't know about the extent to which we've ALREADY messed up this Earth, biologically. Knowing how seriously we've messed up other species, one wonders to what extent the lessons also pertain to us. That is: it makes you realize that a lot of what we see going on today might have been the results of the seeds we've been sowing. Very thought-proviking. |
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