Description:
This lay person's guide explains the roles of chemistry in areas of life ranging from the entirely personal to the global.
Review Quotes:
Chemistry As The Good Guy
A Healthy, Wealthy, Sustainable World
John Emsley
RSC Publishing, Cambridge, UK, 2010, 170 pp (HB) ISBN 978-1-84755-862-6" "
"Reviewed by Keith Taber"
This book reflects two major premises. One is that we face a major crisis because of the way humans have been using the world's resources in a way that is totally unsustainable. The second is that although this is a major problem, there is hope, and much of that hope centres on chemistry. This is an important message. Of course chemistry is neutral, and sometimes its applications have caused damage to people and places. Yet its successes often go unnoticed, and the prospects for future prosperity are dismal without it.
Emsley's book is divided into chapters according to major areas of application of chemical sciences: food, water, health, fuels, plastics, cities and sport. Within each of these contexts, a case is made for how chemistry can make a continuing major contribution to maintaining a