Poisoned Skies: Who'll Stop Acid Rain? Rev. ed

Richard G. Kuhn is an assistant professor of geography at the University
of Guelph.

It is difficult, if not impossible, to approach and write about
environmental issues from a detached, unemotional perspective. This is
even more true when dealing with the political reality of addressing
pollution. Howard and Perley have produced a detailed description and
analysis of the politics of acid deposition in Canada. In this, the
book’s second edition (the first was published in 1980), they
introduce their perspective early: the current political and economic
system systematically undervalues the environment, ceding it to
corporate interests of sustaining profit, and to political leaders’
failure to incorporate the environment into the fundamental processes of
decision-making. The book is highly critical of politicians and industry
in Canada and the United States from the late 1970s to the present. The
authors’ criticism, however, does not get in the way of their
rendering of the facts and processes that eventually led to the signing
of the Clean Air amendments in the United States in November 1990. This
represented a major achievement for the preservation of the environment
as well as for the Canadian Coalition on Acid Rain.

Poisoned Skies is written in a style that should be accessible to most
readers. Scientific jargon and tedious acronyms are kept to a minimum.
The book begins with an overview of the acid deposition issue and
devotes the first four chapters to outlining the effects of acid
deposition on lakes, the air, the ecosystem, and human communities.
Numerous examples and case studies are provided. The political debate is
discussed in the remainder of the book, leading ultimately to the
agreement by the United States and Canada to cut back on acid-forming
emissions.