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Blood and Earth: Modern Slavery, Ecocide, and the Secret to Saving the World
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Random House Publishing Group 2016
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Description
For readers of such crusading works of nonfiction as Katherine Boo’s Beyond the Beautiful Forevers and Tracy Kidder’s Mountains Beyond Mountains comes a powerful and captivating examination of two entwined global crises: environmental destruction and human trafficking—and an inspiring, bold plan for how we can solve them.
 
A leading expert on modern-day slavery, Kevin Bales has traveled to some of the world’s most dangerous places documenting and battling human trafficking. In the course of his reporting, Bales began to notice a pattern emerging: Where slavery existed, so did massive, unchecked environmental destruction. But why?
 
Bales set off to find the answer in a fascinating and moving journey that took him into the lives of modern-day slaves and along a supply chain that leads directly to the cellphones in our pockets. What he discovered is that even as it destroys individuals, families, and communities, new forms of slavery that proliferate in the world’s lawless zones also pose a grave threat to the environment. Simply put, modern-day slavery is destroying the planet.
 
The product of seven years of travel and research, Blood and Earth brings us dramatic stories from the world’s most beautiful and tragic places, the environmental and human-rights hotspots where this crisis is concentrated. But it also tells the stories of some of the most common products we all consume—from computers to shrimp to jewelry—whose origins are found in these same places.
 
Blood and Earth calls on us to recognize the grievous harm we have done to one another, put an end to it, and recommit to repairing the world. This is a clear-eyed and inspiring book that suggests how we can begin the work of healing humanity and the planet we share.
Praise for Blood and Earth
 
“A heart-wrenching narrative . . . Weaving together interviews, history, and statistics, the author shines a light on how the poverty, chaos, wars, and government corruption create the perfect storm where slavery flourishes and environmental destruction follows. . . . A clear-eyed account of man’s inhumanity to man and Earth. Read it to get informed, and then take action.”Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
 
“[An] exposé of the global economy’s ‘deadly dance’ between slavery and environmental disaster . . . Based on extensive travels through eastern Congo’s mineral mines, Bangladeshi fisheries, Ghanian gold mines, and Brazilian forests, Bales reveals the appalling truth in graphic detail. . . . Readers will be deeply disturbed to learn how the links connecting slavery, environmental issues, and modern convenience are forged.”Publishers Weekly
 
“This well-researched and vivid book studies the connection between slavery and environmental destruction, and what it will take to end both.”Shelf Awareness (starred review)
“This is a remarkable book, demonstrating once more the deep links between the ongoing degradation of the planet and the ongoing degradation of its most vulnerable people. It’s a bracing reminder that a mentality that allows throwaway people also allows a throwaway earth.”—Bill McKibben, author of Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet
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Format:
Adobe EPUB eBook, Kindle Book, OverDrive Read
Street Date:
01/19/2016
Language:
English
ISBN:
9780812995770
ASIN:
B00WPQHP6Y
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APA Citation (style guide)

Kevin Bales. (2016). Blood and Earth: Modern Slavery, Ecocide, and the Secret to Saving the World. Random House Publishing Group.

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)

Kevin Bales. 2016. Blood and Earth: Modern Slavery, Ecocide, and the Secret to Saving the World. Random House Publishing Group.

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)

Kevin Bales, Blood and Earth: Modern Slavery, Ecocide, and the Secret to Saving the World. Random House Publishing Group, 2016.

MLA Citation (style guide)

Kevin Bales. Blood and Earth: Modern Slavery, Ecocide, and the Secret to Saving the World. Random House Publishing Group, 2016.

Note! Citation formats are based on standards as of July 2022. Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy.
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      • bioText: Kevin Bales is the co-founder and former president of Free the Slaves, the largest abolitionist organization in the world. He has also served as a trustee of Anti-Slavery International and as a consultant to the United Nations Global Program Against Trafficking in Human Beings. He is the author of numerous reports, monographs, and scholarly books on modern slavery, including the acclaimed Disposable People. He lives in Brighton, England.
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Random House
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title
Blood and Earth
fullDescription
For readers of such crusading works of nonfiction as Katherine Boo’s Beyond the Beautiful Forevers and Tracy Kidder’s Mountains Beyond Mountains comes a powerful and captivating examination of two entwined global crises: environmental destruction and human trafficking—and an inspiring, bold plan for how we can solve them.
 
A leading expert on modern-day slavery, Kevin Bales has traveled to some of the world’s most dangerous places documenting and battling human trafficking. In the course of his reporting, Bales began to notice a pattern emerging: Where slavery existed, so did massive, unchecked environmental destruction. But why?
 
Bales set off to find the answer in a fascinating and moving journey that took him into the lives of modern-day slaves and along a supply chain that leads directly to the cellphones in our pockets. What he discovered is that even as it destroys individuals, families, and communities, new forms of slavery that proliferate in the world’s lawless zones also pose a grave threat to the environment. Simply put, modern-day slavery is destroying the planet.
 
The product of seven years of travel and research, Blood and Earth brings us dramatic stories from the world’s most beautiful and tragic places, the environmental and human-rights hotspots where this crisis is concentrated. But it also tells the stories of some of the most common products we all consume—from computers to shrimp to jewelry—whose origins are found in these same places.
 
Blood and Earth calls on us to recognize the grievous harm we have done to one another, put an end to it, and recommit to repairing the world. This is a clear-eyed and inspiring book that suggests how we can begin the work of healing humanity and the planet we share.
Praise for Blood and Earth
 
“A heart-wrenching narrative . . . Weaving together interviews, history, and statistics, the author shines a light on how the poverty, chaos, wars, and government corruption create the perfect storm where slavery flourishes and environmental destruction follows. . . . A clear-eyed account of man’s inhumanity to man and Earth. Read it to get informed, and then take action.”Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
 
“[An] exposé of the global economy’s ‘deadly dance’ between slavery and environmental disaster . . . Based on extensive travels through eastern Congo’s mineral mines, Bangladeshi fisheries, Ghanian gold mines, and Brazilian forests, Bales reveals the appalling truth in graphic detail. . . . Readers will be deeply disturbed to learn how the links connecting slavery, environmental issues, and modern convenience are forged.”Publishers Weekly
 
“This well-researched and vivid book studies the connection between slavery and environmental destruction, and what it will take to end both.”Shelf Awareness (starred review)
“This is a remarkable book, demonstrating once more the deep links between the ongoing degradation of the planet and the ongoing degradation of its most vulnerable people. It’s a bracing reminder that a mentality that allows throwaway people also allows a throwaway earth.”—Bill McKibben, author of Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet
reviews
      • premium: False
      • source: Bill McKibben, author of Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet
      • content: Praise for Blood and Earth "This is a remarkable book, demonstrating once more the deep links between the ongoing degradation of the planet and the ongoing degradation of its most vulnerable people. It's a bracing reminder that a mentality that allows throwaway people also allows a throwaway earth."
      • premium: False
      • source: Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
      • content: "A heart-wrenching narrative . . . Weaving together interviews, history, and statistics, the author shines a light on how the poverty, chaos, wars, and government corruption create the perfect storm where slavery flourishes and environmental destruction follows. . . . A clear-eyed account of man's inhumanity to man and Earth. Read it to get informed, and then take action."
      • premium: False
      • source: Desmond Tutu
      • content: "A convincing and moving book."--Financial Times "Insightful [and] powerful."--The Dallas Morning News "A well-researched, scholarly, and deeply disturbing exposé of modern-day slavery."
      • premium: True
      • source: Publisher's Weekly
      • content:

        November 23, 2015
        Some of the developed world’s conveniences and pleasures will seem less enjoyable after reading this exposé of the global economy’s “deadly dance” between slavery and environmental disaster. Bales (Disposable People), cofounder of Free the Slaves, follows the supply chain from miners and fishers (often made into slaves by warfare, or into peons by corruption) straight to the cell phones in our pockets, shrimp on our table, and wedding bands on our fingers. Based on extensive travels through eastern Congo’s mineral mines, Bangladeshi fisheries, Ghanian gold mines, and Brazilian forests, Bales reveals the appalling truth in graphic detail. This disquieting book is impersonal and objective in its historical and statistical detail—Bales simply says, “It works like this”—which adds immediacy to its general call for reform, with personal accounts from those who produce raw materials and turn them into finished goods. Readers will be deeply disturbed to learn how the links connecting slavery, environmental issues, and modern convenience are forged.

      • premium: True
      • source: Kirkus
      • content:

        Starred review from December 1, 2015
        In a heart-wrenching narrative, Bales (Ending Slavery: How We Free Today's Slaves, 2007, etc.) explores modern slavery and the devastating effects on its victims as well as the environmental degradation caused by this morally reprehensible institution. As co-founder and former president of Free the Slaves, the world's largest abolitionist organization, the author has dedicated his life to exposing the evils of slavery. For his latest book, Bales traveled around the globe for seven years documenting the wretched lives of the enslaved and revealing how their forced work destroys the natural world. Weaving together interviews, history, and statistics, the author shines a light on how the poverty, chaos, wars, and government corruption create the perfect storm where slavery flourishes and environmental destruction follows. "When we better understand the interrelationship of environmental issues and human rights," he writes, "we're likely to see in many ways that working to solve one can help to solve the other." In this system, men, women, and children are lured into work extracting the various commodities our modern appetites desire, including gold from Ghana, shrimp from Bangladesh, granite from India, and timber from Brazil. Bales provides an excellent account of the 11-step supply chain required for procuring the minerals needed to build cellphones and laptops, revealing the individuals involved at each stop along the way, from slaves working in the Congolese mines to the consumer with his or her cellphone in hand. The author offers some hope for change, as well, describing various slave-free models, including the development of small family farms, cooperatives, and small-scale mines. Bales prods readers to consider the origins of our consumer products and the conditions under which they are made. While taking these steps will only cause "some inconvenience" for most of us, "small choices, made at the right moment, can bring very big changes." Bales also includes a list of organizations working for change in the Eastern Congo. A cleareyed account of man's inhumanity to man and Earth. Read it to get informed, and then take action.

        COPYRIGHT(2015) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

      • premium: True
      • source: Booklist
      • content:

        December 15, 2015
        Smartphones and shrimp cocktails, wedding rings and kitchen countertops. When it comes to the stuff we use on a daily basis, what we actually acquire is not what one sees. The hidden sources of all the paraphernalia that dominates everyday life are rooted in a base and barbarous subculture that entraps the most helpless members of societies and destroys the most fragile and essential ecosystems on the planet. Bales (Modern Slavery, 2009), renowned abolitionist and founder of the global antislavery group Free the Slaves, has traveled the world from India to Brazil, investigating the insidious ways in which the most vulnerable members of a culture are exploited by unscrupulous slave masters and their corporate sponsors. Kidnapped and forced into torturous manual labor, kept in servitude by unconquerable debt and the rape of women and children, millions of people sacrifice their lives and decimate precious natural resources to mine commodities that fuel an often-uncontrollable consumer economy. Bales' passionately precise, revelatory, and important chronicle is for every reader concerned with human rights and global ecology issues.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)

      • premium: True
      • source: Library Journal
      • content:

        December 1, 2015

        Modern-day slavery contributes $150 billion a year to our global economy. Though slavery is rejected politically by every country, it thrives among the vulnerable and poor. These defenseless areas of society supporting slave labor are further degraded by widespread environmental destruction. Social scientist Bales (Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy) sets out to explain why there is a direct correlation between modern slavery and environmental degradation. Bales travels from the tin mines of the Congo to the interior of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil to further understand why slave-driven trade has a direct link to global warming. This book documents dramatic accounts of human atrocity as well as stories of hope and empowerment. The author concludes his powerful journey with a reminder that this knowledge gives everyone the ability to end modern slavery and ecocide starting at the consumer level. VERDICT This book is for both academic and public libraries with strong collection development in the areas of social justice, environmental studies, and global studies.--Angela Forret, Clive P.L., IA

        Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

      • premium: True
      • source: Library Journal
      • content:

        August 1, 2015

        Cofounder and past president of Free the Slaves, Bales began noticing that wherever human trafficking took root, environmental destruction soon followed. Here he shows that the two are directly linked via a supply chain he follows right up to our pockets. Bales's Ending Slavery and Disposable People were academic best sellers, translated into ten languages; this broad-ranging book is for readers of Katherine Boo, Tracy Kidder, Bill McKibben, and more.

        Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

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For readers of such crusading works of nonfiction as Katherine Boo’s Beyond the Beautiful Forevers and Tracy Kidder’s Mountains Beyond Mountains comes a powerful and captivating examination of two entwined global crises: environmental destruction and human trafficking—and an inspiring, bold plan for how we can solve them.
 
A leading expert on modern-day slavery, Kevin Bales has traveled to some of the world’s most dangerous places documenting and battling human trafficking. In the course of his reporting, Bales began to notice a pattern emerging: Where slavery existed, so did massive, unchecked environmental destruction. But why?
 
Bales set off to find the answer in a fascinating and moving journey that took him into the lives of modern-day slaves and along a supply chain that leads directly to the cellphones in our pockets. What he discovered is that even as it destroys individuals, families, and...
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