Προσθήκη στα αγαπημένα
Grossly ambitious and rooted in scientific scholarship, The Other Dark Matter shows how human excrement can be a life-saving, money-making resource—if we make better use of it.
The average person produces about four hundred pounds of excrement a year. More than seven billion people live on this planet. Holy crap!
Because of the diseases it spreads, we have learned to distance ourselves from our waste, but the long line of engineering marvels we’ve created to do so—from Roman sewage systems and medieval latrines to the immense, computerized treatment plants we use today—has also done considerable damage to the earth’s ecology. Now scientists tell us: we’ve been wasting our waste. When recycled correctly, this resource, cheap and widely available, can be converted into a sustainable energy source, act as an organic fertilizer, provide effective medicinal therapy for antibiotic-resistant bacterial infection, and much more.
In clear and engaging prose that draws on her extensive research and interviews, Lina Zeldovich documents the massive redistribution of nutrients and sanitation inequities across the globe. She profiles the pioneers of poop upcycling, from startups in African villages to innovators in American cities that convert sewage into fertilizer, biogas, crude oil, and even life-saving medicine. She breaks taboos surrounding sewage disposal and shows how hygienic waste repurposing can help battle climate change, reduce acid rain, and eliminate toxic algal blooms. Ultimately, she implores us to use our innate organic power for the greater good. Don’t just sit there and let it go to waste.
Part 1: The History of Human Waste
Chapter 1: How I Learned to Love the Excrement
Chapter 2: The Early History of Human Excreta
Chapter 3: Treasure Night Soil as if It Were Gold!
Chapter 4: The Water Closet Dilemma and the Sewage Farm Paradigm
Chapter 5: Germs, Fertilizer, and the Poop Police
Part 2: The Present: A Sludge Revolution in Progress
Chapter 6: The Great Sewage Time Bomb and the Redistribution of Nutrients on the Planet
Chapter 7: Loowatt, a Loo That Turns Waste into Watts
Chapter 8: The Crap That Cooks Your Dinner and Container-Based Sanitation
Chapter 9: HomeBiogas: Your Personal Digester in a Box
Chapter 10: Made in New York
Chapter 11: Lystek, the Home of Sewage Smoothies
Chapter 12: How DC Water Makes Biosolids BLOOM
Chapter 13: From Biosolids to Biofuels
Part 3: The Future of Medicine and Other Things
Chapter 14: Poop: The Best (and Cheapest) Medicine
Chapter 15: Looking where the Sun Doesn’t Shine
Chapter 16: From the Kindness of One’s Gut: An Insider Look into Stool Banks
Afterword: Breathing Poetry into Poop
Notes
Index
Περιγραφή
Grossly ambitious and rooted in scientific scholarship, The Other Dark Matter shows how human excrement can be a life-saving, money-making resource—if we make better use of it.
The average person produces about four hundred pounds of excrement a year. More than seven billion people live on this planet. Holy crap!
Because of the diseases it spreads, we have learned to distance ourselves from our waste, but the long line of engineering marvels we’ve created to do so—from Roman sewage systems and medieval latrines to the immense, computerized treatment plants we use today—has also done considerable damage to the earth’s ecology. Now scientists tell us: we’ve been wasting our waste. When recycled correctly, this resource, cheap and widely available, can be converted into a sustainable energy source, act as an organic fertilizer, provide effective medicinal therapy for antibiotic-resistant bacterial infection, and much more.
In clear and engaging prose that draws on her extensive research and interviews, Lina Zeldovich documents the massive redistribution of nutrients and sanitation inequities across the globe. She profiles the pioneers of poop upcycling, from startups in African villages to innovators in American cities that convert sewage into fertilizer, biogas, crude oil, and even life-saving medicine. She breaks taboos surrounding sewage disposal and shows how hygienic waste repurposing can help battle climate change, reduce acid rain, and eliminate toxic algal blooms. Ultimately, she implores us to use our innate organic power for the greater good. Don’t just sit there and let it go to waste.
