Down To Earth recaps the primary environment, health and developmental news from 2023
Engraving from 1868 showing Mount Zion in Jerusalem. Credit: iStock Down To Earth reviewed and excerpted several books across genres in 2023 related to science, environment and the politics of development.
Here are five of the best books with topics ranging from how Jerusalem into an internationally important city, lessons from the history of tuberculosis, the mercury contamination in Kodaikanal, the devastating earthquake in Latur-Osmanabad region and the story of Yamuna river and Delhi:
Jerusalem Through the Ages: From Its Beginnings to the Crusades presented a broad yet detailed account of how Jerusalem grew from a small community in a rocky outcropping into an internationally important city.
Phantom Plague traced the history of tuberculosis from its origins to its global subsidence and the recent rise, especially in developing countries, offering lessons on dealing with future pandemics, which it says are not far away.
Former journalist Ameer Shahul’s book, Heavy Metal: How a Global Corporation Poisoned Kodaikanal was based on his reportage of the Kodaikanal case and later involvement with Greenpeace as a campaigner.
Journalist Atul Deulgaonkar’s book in Marathi described the botched rehabilitation efforts in the aftermath of the Latur-Osmanabad earthquake of 1993.
Harini Nagendra and Seema Mundoli wrote about how intertwined the Yamuna is with the story of Delhi
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