Oil Beach

How Toxic Infrastructure Threatens Life in the Ports of Los Angeles and Beyond

Bibliographic Data

ID23798564
AuthorsChristina Dunbar-Hester (0000-0003-3898-7245, corresponding author)
Year2023
Pages272
Publication date2023-01-01
Open AccessNo
TypeBOOK
VenueOil Beach (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherUniversity of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.7208/chicago/9780226819709.001.0001
OpenAlexW4391672448
Open LibraryOL52557037M
ISBN9780226819709
LanguageEN
Citations received10

"In this engaging interdisciplinary investigation, Christina Dunbar-Hester, a leading scholar in the area of democratic control of technologies, focuses on the relationships between commerce, environment, and nonhuman life forms in San Pedro Bay, which houses the contiguous ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles. The harbor is a heavily industrialized area built atop a land- and waterscape that is important for wildlife, containing estuarial wetlands, the LA river mouth, and a marine ecology where colder and warmer Pacific Ocean waters meet. This is a unique spot for industry too--this port complex is amongst the top-ten biggest container ports in the world, and the harbor is also home to major oil operations. Dunbar-Hester, a professor of Science & Technology Studies and Communication at the University of Southern California, centers her account on multispecies life in the period of about 1960 to the present, which coincides with the era of modern environmental regulation in the United States. Focusing on cetaceans, bananas, sea birds, and otters whose lives are intertwined with the vitality of the port complex itself, Dunbar--Hester reveals how logistics infrastructure destroys ecologies as it circulates goods and capital--and helps readers to consider a future where the accumulation of life and the accumulation of capital are not in violent tension."

Geography · Global Energy and Sustainability Research · Los angeles (calif.) · Port of Long Beach

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