#the devil's element

click for better quality & to see the full image. sometimes they get cut off weirdly!

Hey, new Dan Egan? And I had to find out by myself, while wandering around the bookstore three months after it came out? Anyway, awesome book. For context if you’ve read The Death and Life of the Great Lakes, it’s a bit shorter, but slightly more jargon-heavy/less accessible. This is also the perfect time of year to read it with unseasonably early blue-green algal blooms starting already. (On that note, pay attention to beach closures, especially if you’re there with your dog!)

The Devil’s Element is definitely the 10,000 foot view of phosphorus, and I do (unfortunately for my limited free time) want to read a lot more. Egan covers everything from its discovery, to its use in WWII, to the politics of ethanol, to current issues in Florida’s Lake Okeechobee and the surrounding area. There is also a very brief mention of corporations trying to refuse to change their irresponsible business practices on the basis that it would upset America’s housewives. There are a ton of citations and a bibliography in the back, so if you want to learn more, you’ll have a good place to start!