Riki Ott’s Not One Drop: Betrayal and Courage in the Wake of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill is something truly special. Of course we’re pleased to offer another selection from one of our favorite publishers, Chelsea Green, who preach the “politics and practice of sustainable living.” But Ott’s engaging dissection of the 1989 ecological disaster in Alaska is unique in both style and substance.

If you could create the perfect person to write about the Exxon Valdez spill, you’d come up with Ott. As a marine biologist, she studied the effects of oil pollution on the environment and wildlife. She settled in Cordova, making a living fishing the Prince William Sound before the spill. She was called in to help with the Exxon Valdez disaster immediately, seeing the damage firsthand and dealing with Exxon’s lies in court for nearly two decades. And finally, she has the trust of Alaskans affected by the spill, a group that has lost their faith in government, industry and the judiciary.

Ott takes both a historic and holistic approach to the story of Exxon in Alaska. She details the prescience of environmentalists, fishermen and native people in their initial protest over the potentially unsafe, poorly-regulated pipeline in the 1970s (the title of the book refers to former Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens’ ridiculous promise that “not one drop” of oil would make its way into Prince William Sound). She reports the actual disaster right from the shore and the legal battles from inside the courtroom. She digs deep into the psychological trauma caused by the spill in her own life as well as the tragic lives of her fellow townspeople. She explains the environmental damage with scientific authority, but in a way us laymen can easily understand.

Where other writers might end with lament, Ott finishes with an action plan for how to make sure this kind of disaster won’t happen again. She explains how regulation and legislation can better protect our environment. She details the necessary changes to our judicial system to make sure companies can’t bleed communities dry like Exxon did to Cordova. And she urges the return to human civic values, instead of corporate profits, as the only way to build a sustainable culture.

The Exxon Valdez disaster was tragic at the time and continues to be a blight upon the history of this nation 20 years later. But valuable lessons about the true effects of oil on the environment, the holes in our judicial system and the follies of treating corporations like individuals also came out of the spill. Not knowing the back story to the Exxon Valdez disaster is a handicap to truly understanding corporatism, the true price of oil and our nation as a whole. Take some time on the anniversary of this paradigm-shifting event to get to know Exxon and Cordova, AK.

Here is the four-part BuzzFlash series on the 20th anniversary (March 24, 2009) of the EXXON Valdez environmental catastrophe:

Part 1
Exxon Valdez Spill Approaches 20th Anniversary: The Tragic Saga Began Long Before the Accident
Click Here.

Part 2
Exxon drags its feet for 20 years to avoid paying damages to struggling Alaskans, while making record profits
Click Here.

Part 3
20 years out, Alaska's social and physical environment still reeling from Exxon Valdez disaster
Click Here.

Part 4
Exxon's influence and information wars continue today, building on lessons they learned from Valdez disaster
Click Here.

Reviewed by Meg White