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Students: This program qualifies for five points toward the Tennessee Global Scholar Certificate
The World Affairs Councils of America provides a monthly special program called “Cover to Cover” that features interactive phone conferencing with authors of global affairs related books. We thank them for their support and we are pleased to share this information with you here as a benefit of your affiliation with the Tennessee World Affairs Council.
Check Out Podcasts of Previous Authors’ Calls
The World Affairs Councils of America and the
Tennessee World Affairs Council Invite You to Participate in A Teleconference
“Choked: Life and Breath in the Age of Air Pollution”
Beth Gardiner
Journalist and Author
Tuesday, April 9, 2019
1:00-1:30 p.m. CT.
April’s Cover to Cover
Tuesday, April 9, 2019, at 1:00-1:30 PM Central Time.
About the book
Air pollution prematurely kills seven million people every year, including more than one hundred thousand Americans. It is strongly linked to strokes, heart attacks, many kinds of cancer, dementia, and premature birth, among other ailments. In Choked, Beth Gardiner travels the world to tell the story of this modern-day plague, taking readers from the halls of power in Washington and the diesel-fogged London streets she walks with her daughter to Poland’s coal heartland and India’s gasping capital. In a gripping narrative that’s alive with powerful voices and personalities, she exposes the political decisions and economic forces that have kept so many of us breathing dirty air. This is a moving, up-close look at the human toll, where we meet the scientists who have transformed our understanding of pollution’s effects on the body and the ordinary people fighting for a cleaner future.
In the United States, air is far cleaner than it once was. But progress has failed to keep up with the science, which tells us that even today’s lower pollution levels are doing real damage. And as the Trump administration rips up the regulations that have brought us where we are, decades of gains are now at risk. Elsewhere, the problem is far worse, and choking nations like China are scrambling to replicate the achievements of an American agency—the EPA—that until recently was the envy of the world.
Clean air feels like a birthright. But it can disappear in a puff of smoke if the rules that protect it are unraveled. At home and around the world, it’s never been more important to understand how progress happened and what dangers might still be in store. Choked shows us that we hold the power to build a cleaner, healthier future: one in which breathing, life’s most basic function, no longer carries a hidden danger.
About Beth Gardiner
Beth Gardiner is an American journalist based in London. Her work has appeared in publications including The New York Times, The Guardian, National Geographic, Smithsonian, Time, and The Wall Street Journal. These days, she focuses mainly on stories about health, environment, and sustainability, but she’s written about everything from politics, education and feminism to food and the arts. Beth spent 10 years as a reporter for the Associated Press, based first in New York and then in London. Her AP assignments included traveling to Aceh, Indonesia, days after the tsunami there to cover its aftermath, and flying on Tony Blair’s plane to write about prime ministerial trips to China, India and Washington. She often provides analysis of U.S. news for British broadcasters including the BBC, Sky News, ITN and LBC radio, and has also appeared on MSNBC. Choked is her first book. Visit Beth’s site: www.bethgardiner.com
Join our Cover to Cover conference call with Gardiner Tuesday, April 9, at 2:00-2:30 pm ET.
SUPPORT OF TNWAC’S EDUCATION OUTREACH
THANKS TO BELMONT UNIVERSITY’S CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
THANKS TO THE NASHVILLE AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS COUNCIL
THE MISSION of the nonprofit, nonpartisan Tennessee World Affairs Council is to promote international awareness, understanding and connections to enhance the region’s global stature and to prepare Tennesseans to thrive in our increasingly complex and connected world.
THE VISION of the Tennessee World Affairs Council is a well-informed community that thinks critically about the world and the impact of global events.
Learn more about the Council and find how you can join, donate and volunteer at: www.TNWAC.org —
