The Brown Agenda

Book excerpt: Pollution is the single largest cause of death in the developing world. One in seven people in low- and middle-income countries die as a result of it. Simply put, pollution is now the world’s most prevalent health risk. And yet, while most everyone has heard about “going green,” few are aware of the more dire and sinister “brown” pollution—places where man-made toxic pollutants have taken root and spread. Brown sites poison millions of people every year, causing needless suffering and death. After witnessing several brown sites firsthand and meeting families trapped by poverty in these toxic hot spots, environmentalist Richard Fuller founded the Blacksmith Institute, now renamed Pure Earth, a global nonprofit that initiates large-scale cleanups of some of the most polluted places on earth. The Brown Agenda details Fuller’s inspirational journey—from his dangerous yet ultimately successful fight to save hundreds of thousands of acres in the Amazon rain forest to his creation of Pure Earth. In this vivid account of his perilous travels to the earth’s most toxic locations, Fuller introduces readers to the plight of the “poisoned poor,” and suggests specific ways people everywhere can help combat pollution all over the world.