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Title details for Paradise Falls by Keith O'Brien - Available

Paradise Falls

The True Story of an Environmental Catastrophe

by Keith O'Brien
Eileen Stevens
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available
From the New York Times best-selling journalist, the staggering, hidden story of an unlikely band of mothers who discovered the deadly secret of Love Canal, and exposed one of America’s most devastating environmental disasters.

Lois Gibbs, Luella Kenny, and other mothers loved their neighborhood on the east side of Niagara Falls. It had an elementary school, a playground, and rows of affordable homes. In the spring of 1977, pungent odors began to seep into these little houses, and it didn’t take long for worried mothers to identify the curious scent. It was the sickly-sweet smell of chemicals.
In this propulsive work of narrative reportage, Keith O’Brien uncovers how Lois Gibbs and Luella Kenny exposed the poisonous secrets buried in their neighborhood. The school and playground had been built atop an old canal—the Love Canal, it was called. The city’s largest employer, Hooker Chemical, had quietly filled this canal with 20,000 tons of toxic waste in the 1940s and 1950s. This waste was now leaching to the surface, causing a public health crisis the likes of which America had never seen before—and sparking new and specific fears. Luella Kenny believed the chemicals were making her son sick.
 
O’Brien braids together the previously unknown stories of Hooker Chemical’s deeds; the local newspaperman, scientist, and congressional staffer who tried to help; the city and state officials who didn’t; and the heroic women who stood up to corporate and governmental indifference to save their families and their children. They would take their fight all the way to the top, winning support from the E.P.A. and the White House, even President Jimmy Carter himself, and by the time it was over, they would capture the American imagination. Sweeping and electrifying, Paradise Falls brings to life a defining story from our past, laying bare how the dauntless efforts of a few women helped to spark the modern environmental movement as we know it today.
Cover images: Courtesy of the University Archives, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    April 12, 2022

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780593558393
      • File size: 377283 KB
      • Duration: 13:06:00

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      The listener would be forgiven for calling this audiobook a horror story. However, it's not from the imagination of a writer like Stephen King. Instead, it is the true story of Love Canal, an environmental disaster in Niagara Falls, New York, that captured the attention of the nation in the 1970s. Narrator Eileen Stevens's pacing is perfect. She seamlessly moves through a cast of characters who include heroic mothers, a young reporter, a do-gooder, unconcerned politicians, and sympathetic yet sclerotic bureaucrats. Stevens portrays all of them with great care. This remarkable and inspiring work will have listeners furious at the corporate greed and malfeasance described but also in awe of the mothers who fought to save their neighborhood and their families. J.P.S. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      February 14, 2022
      Journalist O’Brien (Fly Girls) delivers an immersive portrait of the citizen-activists who brought the Love Canal environmental disaster to light. In the 1940s and early ’50s, Hooker Chemical secretly dumped massive amounts of toxic chemical byproducts into a trench left over from an abandoned canal project in Niagara Falls, N.Y. Over the next 20 years, residents of the LaSalle neighborhood endured persistent chemical smells and seepage in their homes and suffered from unusual cancers, high rates of miscarriage, and other health problems. O’Brien pays particular attention to the many women who raised awareness about the issue, including congressional staffer Bonnie Casper, who pushed her boss to visit the area, and cancer researcher Beverly Paigen, who conducted soil sample tests and medical surveys. Eventually, the state and federal government helped relocate hundreds of families, and outrage over the case contributed to the passage of the 1980 Superfund Act requiring polluters to pay to ameliorate the damage they caused. O’Brien’s fluid retelling includes many startling anecdotes, including the time a local activist held two EPA officials hostage, and offers insight into how Love Canal transformed from a local disaster into national news. Readers will gain newfound appreciation for the regular people whose crusade for justice helped catalyze the modern environmental movement.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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