Earth Repair: A Grassroots Guide to Healing Toxic and Damaged Landscapes - Paperback

by Leila Darwish (Author)

Resistance is fertile - bioremediation techniques to heal the earth.

Millions of acres of land have been contaminated by pesticides, improperly handled chemicals, dirty energy projects, toxic waste, and other pollutants in the United States and Canada. This toxic legacy impacts the environment, our health, our watersheds, and land that could otherwise be used to grow healthy local food and medicines. Conventional clean-up techniques employed by government and industry are tremendously expensive and resource-intensive and can cause further damage. More and more communities find themselves increasingly unable to rely on those companies and governments who created the problems to step in and provide solutions.

Earth Repair describes a host of powerful grassroots bioremediation techniques, including:

• Microbial remediation-using microorganisms to break down and bind contaminants
• Phytoremediation-using plants to extract, bind, and transform toxins
• Mycoremediation-using fungi to clean up contaminated soil and water.

Packed with valuable, firsthand information from visionaries in the field, Earth Repair empowers communities and individuals to take action and heal contaminated and damaged land. Encompassing everything from remediating and regenerating abandoned city lots for urban farmers and gardeners, to recovering from environmental disasters and industrial catastrophes such as oil spills and nuclear fallout, this fertile toolbox is essential reading for anyone who wishes to transform environmental despair into constructive action.

Back Jacket

Resistance is Fertile

GRASSROOTS BIOREMEDIATION TECHNIQUES TO HEAL THE EARTH

...In the energy descent future, many more people will be growing food on contaminated land; out of necessity. Earth Repair offers the hope that this can be done without fear of further eroding health and well being.
David Holmgren, author of Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability

...a book for people who will not wait around to heal the world.
Mark Lakeman, co-founder of The City Repair Project, communitecture, and the Planet Repair Institute

From urban lots contaminated with heavy metals and chemicals to polluted waterways and devastating oil spills, our toxic industrial legacy impacts our environment, our health, and our ability to create healthy, thriving local foodsheds. Conventional clean-up techniques employed by government and industry are expensive and resource-intensive and can cause further damage to the ecosystem. As the incidence of contamination and pollution continues to spread, communities are increasingly unable to rely on those who created the problems to step in and provide effective solutions that work for people and the planet.

Earth Repair explores a host of powerful grassroots bioremediation techniques that work with the many microorganisms, mushrooms, and plants that are the planet's finest and oldest disaster responders, alchemists, and healers. These techniques include:

• Microbial remediation - using microorganisms to break down and bind contaminants
• Phytoremediation - using plants to extract, bind and transform toxins
• Mycoremediation - using fungi to clean up contaminated soil and water.

Packed with valuable firsthand information from visionaries in the field, Earth Repair is essential reading that will empower communities and individuals with tools to transform environmental despair into constructive action.

... an indispensable guide for citizen scientists, permaculturists and ecological justice activists wanting to proactively address the legacy of environmental pollution we've inherited from our industrial civilization.
Scott Kellogg, educational director of the Radix Ecological Sustainability Center and author of Toolbox for Sustainable City Living: A Do-It-Ourselves Guide

Leila Darwish is a community organizer, urban gardener and permaculture rabble rouser, with a deep commitment to environmental justice, food security, and providing accessible and transformative tools for communities struggling with toxic contamination of their land and drinking water.

Author Biography

Leila Darwish is a community organizer and permaculturalist with a BSc in Environmental Conservation Sciences. Most of her grassroots organizing has centered on environmental justice issues in communities struggling with either the threat of or the enduring legacy of toxic contamination of their land and drinking water. Her focus on grassroots bioremediation stems from a deep commitment to justice and the passionate desire to empower people by providing them with simple, practical, transformative, and accessible tools for regenerative earth repair.