📚 Hoosier Chapter Book Club: The Devil's Element by Dan Egan
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Date and Time:
Tue, Jul 14, 2026; 7:00 PM
- 8:30 PM
(Eastern)
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07/14/2026 7:00 PM
07/14/2026 8:30 PM
America/New_York
📚 Hoosier Chapter Book Club: The Devil's Element by Dan Egan
Each month the Hoosier Chapter hosts a Book Club!
Webinar URL:
Colleen Curtin
colleen.curtin@sierraclub.org
MM/DD/yyyy
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Organized By: Hoosier Chapter
Location: Virtual
Event Organizers:
Colleen Curtin
colleen.curtin@sierraclub.org
(317) 296-5050
Our July read is The Devil's Element: Phosphorus and a World Out of Balance by Dan Egan.
Phosphorus has played a critical role in some of the most lethal substances on earth: firebombs, rat poison, nerve gas. But it’s also the key component of one of the most vital: fertilizer, which has sustained life for billions of people. In this major work of explanatory science and environmental journalism, Pulitzer Prize finalist Dan Egan investigates the past, present, and future of what has been called “the oil of our time.”
The story of phosphorus spans the globe and vast tracts of human history. First discovered in a seventeenth-century alchemy lab in Hamburg, it soon became a highly sought-after resource. The race to mine phosphorus took people from the battlefields of Waterloo, which were looted for the bones of fallen soldiers, to the fabled guano islands off Peru, the Bone Valley of Florida, and the sand dunes of the Western Sahara. Over the past century, phosphorus has made farming vastly more productive, feeding the enormous increase in the human population. Yet, as Egan harrowingly reports, our overreliance on this vital crop nutrient is today causing toxic algae blooms and “dead zones” in waterways from the coasts of Florida to the Mississippi River basin to the Great Lakes and beyond. Egan also explores the alarming reality that diminishing access to phosphorus poses a threat to the food system worldwide—which risks rising conflict and even war.
With The Devil’s Element, Egan has written an essential and eye-opening account that urges us to pay attention to one of the most perilous but little-known environmental issues of our time.
Have a recommendation for us? Submit those here! Gentle reminder that it is totally okay to show up to Book Club having read all of the book, some of the book, thought about reading the book, or looking for a pitch to sell you on reading the book. ALL are welcome!
Another reminder that the goal of this space is to facilitate conversation and there is not a quiz at the end or an objective beyond learning more about issues we care about and cultivating community with one another. We look forward to the opportunity to connect, share about, and reflect on the issues, themes, and excerpts that resonated with you in the book.
Cancellation Policy: Activity is held rain or shine, but may be altered due to inclement weather