Upriver

A researcher traces the legacy of plastics. Photos by Ansel Adams.

from Summer 2021 Uprooted: Finding life in new soil June 2, 2021 [Petrochemicals] began as many American industries have begun, almost by chance, in scattered places, in many winding rivulets of enterprise before it became a river running imperatively to the sea. —Fortune, 1941 The Kanawha, 1936 “THESE ARE ROADS to take when you think of your country,” wrote the poet Muriel Rukeyser about a road trip she took to central Appalachia in 1936. It’s a refrain she repeats throughout T he Book of the Dead , a series of witness poems responding to the industrial tragedy at Hawk’s Nest. In the early 19

saved by

• Cécile Tang

related reading

• Peak Oil Fantasy - Orion Magazineorionmagazine.org
• History of how the oil industry shaped Los Angeles - Los Angeles Timeslatimes.com
• Harvesting Light: New England Whaling in the Nineteenth Century – Energy Historyenergyhistory.yale.edu
• The Hole in the Sky That We Actually Fixedevery.to
• Chemical hygiene – karpathykarpathy.bearblog.dev
• A Detailed Review Study on Potential Effects of Microplastics and Additives of Concern on Human Health - PMCncbi.nlm.nih.gov
• Recycling Doesn’t Work—and the Plastics Industry Knew It | The New Republicnewrepublic.com
• Air Products - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
• What exactly is “Green Chemistry?” | Office for Science and Society - McGill Universitymcgill.ca
• Permanente Quarry - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
• Adam Hanieh, Petrochemical Empire, NLR 130, July–August 2021newleftreview.org
• This key chemical is super dirty to make. Can an… | Canary Mediacanarymedia.com