"The most honest book about climate change yet." --The Atlantic
"The Infinite Jest of climate books." --The Baffler
A timely, eye-opening book about climate change and energy generation
that focuses on the consequences of nuclear power production, from
award-winning author William T. Vollmann
In his nonfiction, William T. Vollmann has won acclaim as a singular
voice tackling some of the most important issues of our age, from
poverty to violence to the dark soul of American imperialism as it has
played out on the U.S./Mexico border. Now, Vollmann turns to a topic
that will define the generations to come--the factors and human actions
that have led to global warming. Vollmann begins No Immediate Danger,
the first volume of Carbon Ideologies, by examining and quantifying
the many causes of climate change, from industrial manufacturing and
agricultural practices to fossil fuel extraction, economic demand for
electric power, and the justifiable yearning of people all over the
world to live in comfort. Turning to nuclear power first, Vollmann then
recounts multiple visits that he made at significant personal risk over
the course of seven years to the contaminated no-go zones and sad ghost
towns of Fukushima, Japan, beginning shortly after the tsunami and
reactor meltdowns of 2011. Equipped first only with a dosimeter and then
with a scintillation counter, he measured radiation and interviewed
tsunami victims, nuclear evacuees, anti-nuclear organizers and
pro-nuclear utility workers.
Featuring Vollmann's signature wide learning, sardonic wit, and
encyclopedic research, No Immediate Danger, whose title co-opts the
reassuring mantra of official Japanese energy experts, builds up a
powerful, sobering picture of the ongoing nightmare of Fukushima.
