Author Bill Sargent will discuss his new book, The Well from Hell: The BP Oil Spill and the Endurance of Big Oil, at the Chilmark Public Library on Wednesday, August 17, at 5:30 p.m.

A consultant to the Nova Science Series, Mr. Sargent has written eight books about science and the environment. Amazon describes The Well from Hell this way: “In his trademark style of gracefully examining the interplay between political and environmental concerns, The Well from Hell offers an engaging, informative, and important context for BP’s tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico, placing the company’s short-cuts and lack of preparedness in the larger and colorful story of BP’s corporate culture. Just as importantly, Sargent also considers the spill’s potential legacy in the broader frame of other oil spills, the geology of our remaining oil, and the incentives that drive energy production and consumption.”

His other books include The House on Ipswich Marsh (UPNE, 2005); Storm Surge (UPNE, 2004); Sea Level Rising (Schifferbooks, 2004); Crab Wars: A Tale of Horseshoe Crabs, Bioterrorism, and Human Health (UPNE, 2002); A Year in the Notch: Exploring the Natural History of the White Mountains (UPNE, 2001); The Year of the Crab: Marine Animals in Modern Medicine (1988). His Shallow Waters: A Year on Cape Cod’s Pleasant Bay (1981) received the Boston Globe Winship award and was the basis for a NOVA film, The Sea Behind the Dunes, selected by the National Audubon Society as the best natural history film of the year.

Admission is free. The program is sponsored by the Friends of the Chilmark Public Library. For more information, call 508-645-3360.