Think Green. Green Energy That Is..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=YJEYZLYwUBE

Green energy, not to be confused with Incredible Hulk energy, but rather a safe energy source created to benefit everyone in a more environmentally safe way.A bright light at the end of the dark tunnel for environmental racism. My hat goes off to the Siemans for taking a chance on America and not only creating more job opportunities but jobs that are also beneficial to the environment. Who said we couldn't have the best of both worlds? It's chances like these that give me hope, hope in humanity and hope for our sacred land. Creating equal opportunities for the people in Kansas as well as an environment where they don't have to worry about toxic or harmful wastes hurting themselves or their children is yet another step in a great direction
Renewable energy through Nacelles are a positive advancement and with over 9,000 Sieman Nacelles in operation around the world we can continue to work with movements like this to create other forms to also attain a form of equity between social and economic classes.

By: Heidi Nunez

Census Finds Hurricane Katrina Left New Orleans Richer, Whiter, Emptier

 http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-04/census-finds-post-katrina-new-orleans-richer-whiter-emptier.htmlPosted by Duc Tan Pham

The situation started five years ago when the Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and destroyed millions of lives who originally born and live in the region. Hurricane Katrina devastated millions houses, schools, offices, and destroyed nearly everything on its path; it causes “New Orleans lost 140,845 residents, a drop of 29 percent from 2000. The percentage of black population fell to 60.2 percent from 67.3 percent”, which causing New Orleans’ population to decline and losing its opportunity to develop compared to other states. There is a disadvantage in the process of rebuild New Orleans because the residences are having less equality in receiving the resources that they need to survive after this disaster; many others left the town and moved to other states so they can find secure job, food, and shelter. The government is failed to provide enough resources so the residences could stay and rebuild the town, instead of leaving and seeking for a new source of income that they can feed their family. The inequality happen realistically because “about 131,000 residents, or 28 percent, lived at or below the federal poverty line, compared with 12 percent nationally, 2000 census data showed. The median house hold income New Orleans in 2000 was $27,133 compared to the national median of $41,994, according to the census”, which demonstrate the important aspect that happen in New Orleans right now and this picture speaks that the government needs to consider about what they need to do to rebuild New Orleans; not only its look, but also recover the population, culture, and the resources that maintain the growth of New Orleans.

The Campaign for Justice in Ecuador

By Emma Vowels

Please view the 15 minute documentary on the Chevron Ecuador disaster.
The film can be found here: http://chevrontoxico.com/. It is worth watching and gives a great overview of the issue in Ecuador.


       There is any obvious theme in environmental justice of under developed countries being taken advantage of by huge international corporations. With a lack of environmental laws and infrastructure, these emerging countries receive the wrath of industries which often are the biggest environmental polluters. I blogged about this previously in the case of Bhopal, India. I was shocked to learn of a similar horror, Chevron's oil drilling in Ecuador. 
     The Lago Agrio oil field was discovered in Ecuador in the 1960s. Shortly thereafter, Chevron (then called parent company, Texaco), began full scale production of oil exportation. Chevron's method of oil extraction lead to devastating deforestation, soil pollution and water pollution. As the video explains, Chevron did not use the same safety methods to reduce toxic pollution it uses in the United States. Instead, toxic byproducts of oil sludge and contaminated water were dumped directly into Ecuador's rivers and streams, near areas of indigenous villages. Chevron's perspective of environmental racism is clear in the absolute disregard they showed towards the health and lifestyle of native people. They did not value them the same as American people and recognized the community as one which would be vulnerable and unable to resist Chevron's deadly plans. The indigenous people of Ecuador have had both their health and their culture stripped from them. Due to carcinogens in the polluted water, there has been a 150% increase in cancer cases in the region. 
      In 1993, lawyers of the indigenous community sued Chevron for its damages to the environment and the people's health. The case was dismissed at that time, but since then numerous law suits have been made. After many trials, Chevron was ordered to compensate with $27 billion. Chevron received an injunction by a federal judge so they did not have to pay. Most recently, in September of 2011, Chevron's injunction was overturned. 
      With the Chevron case going back and forth, the people of Ecuador are still without safe natural resources to sustain their livelihood. Chevron has done little to clean up the now toxic areas, and Ecuadorians continue to suffer gravely for the petroleum industry. 

Video from:http://chevrontoxico.com/
Reference from:http://www.texacotoxico.org/eng/
Reference from:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lago_Agrio_oil_field
First Image from: http://thechevronpit.blogspot.com/2011/12/chevrons-silence-screams-guilt.html
Second Image from: http://reverendbuki.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/rg-22.jpg?w=300&h=199

Environmental Racism of Cities

Camilo José Vergara has spent nearly four decades documenting the structural violence of poor and minority neighborhoods in major cities across the U.S. What he has seen is a fortification of these areas in a physical sense. The buildings have sprouted steel gates, razor wire, barred windows, and other forms of defense. But do these environmental features really serve to protect people? Vergara argues that these only further the problems in these communities. These features separate people and foster an environment of suspicion. People's homes and businesses come to resemble prisons more than neighborhoods. It puts people on the defense, but they are defending against each other instead of being a united community. Interpersonal violence is a direct result of these fortifications, which are seen as necessary. Yet, in documenting Harlem in New York City, he has seen a reversal of these installations, and he has seen the area begin to turn back into a safe, functioning community of people working together instead of against each other.

                Vergara wrote a short article in 1996 called “Our Fortified Ghettos” in which he tells the story of seven children who died in a house fire. In Detroit there stood an old farmhouse which had been refurbished into a home. This house was fortified with gates on the windows, so that no criminals could get in. But the purpose that those bars ultimately served was to trap the children in a fiery prison which sent them to their early deaths.

Vergara's Photography: http://invinciblecities.camden.rutgers.edu/intro.html

-Brandon Alborg

Environmental Racism in Food Prodution

  By Emma Vowels

            The image shown above was one I found while surfing the internet recently. I simply found it too interesting to pass up. In the United States, few people understand where their underappreciated food comes from, and what communities are responsible for bringing it to their table. The image above sums up this interesting phenomenon, depicting a white middle or upper class family thanking god for their food, when in reality they should be thanking the minority workforce who make up the majority of food production, and often pay for their jobs in disparate environmental health hazards.

            The reality that most Americans are unaware of, or would refuse to admit, is that the majority of all our domestic food production is done by minority workers, many of which who are not even legal U.S. citizens. About 70% of all U.S. agricultural workers were born outside the United States. Of these foreign-born workers, about 94% were born in Mexico. Even more shockingly, estimates claim that at least 50% of agricultural farm workers have not been authorized to work in the United States. Therefore, despite the fact that food may be produced here in the United States, the majority of it is produced for the tables of middle class Americans by illegal minority workers.

            In addition to not only having an extremely physically demanding job, these workers are often subjected to disproportionate environmental health hazards. Most minority workers live in the area where they work, so they are subjected to toxins in the environment from large-scale agriculture and livestock farming. In areas of heavy agriculture, groundwater is often polluted with pesticides, animal waste and fertilizer by-products. According to research done in California by UC Berkley, communities with the worst water quality are 65% Latino and 50% below the poverty line. In similar areas with livestock factory farms, toxic run off from the farms add pathogens, antibiotics, viruses, and other chemicals into the environment. There are is also a great deal of air pollution in factory farm areas. While the entire communities near these pollutant-producing industries suffer from environmental impacts, minority workers and their families suffer the most. With little other work available for minorities, especially those who may be unauthorized to work in the United States, our food industry keeps minorities in a vicious cycle of environmental racism. So next time you consider thanking god for the food on your plate, you might want to thank the workers instead.

 Statistics from: http://www.doleta.gov/agworker/report/ch1.cfm

Reference from: http://www.foodispower.org/environmental_racism.htm

Image from: http://weknowmemes.com/2012/01/thanks-jesus-for-this-food-de-nada/

Chester PA, The Toxic Dump Site

   Chester, PA is a town with a population around 44,000 with about 65% of the residents being African American.  The poverty rate of the town is three times higher than than the national average at 25%. The small town is host to four toxic and waste treatment facilities, which handle 67% of our nations total waste and 95% of the Chester African American population are those who live the closest to the toxic dump sites.  One of the facilities is the nations largest infectious medical waste treatment facility.  Chester handles the medical waste from five neighboring states: Ohio, Virginia, Maryland, New York, and New jersey.  Next to the medical waste dump, sits DELCORA, the sewage treatment plant that receives about 90% of the sewage from Delaware County.  Residents began to notice an increase in sore throats, headaches and skin disorders.  

   After many complaints to the state, the EPA finally conducted a risk assessment study in 1994, and their findings are absolutely astonishing  The study found that Chester had a  mortality and lung cancer rate that is 60% higher than the rate for the entire Delaware County.  Also, Chester has the highest rate of low-weight births for the entire state of Pennsylvania, which is double the national rate.  The children of Chester, PA have the highest concentration of lead in their bloodstream in the state; on top of that, the residents of Chester are already in poor health so they are more susceptible to being effected by the pollution.  The findings of the EPA report reinforce the claims of the residents, however the EPA claims they have no real power to stop this environmental racism.  Under the direction of the state, the Department of Environmental Protection continues to grant permits to Russel, Rea & Zappala- the company that builds the toxic waste dump sites.  

   Since they are receiving no support from the government, the citizens have fought this injustice by joining some grass-roots organizations.  In the past, they peacefully protested and wrote letters to the DEP, in one instance they blocked the road to the dump site, so the truck driver couldn't get through.  The driver decided to turn around, but the president of the trucking company got into the truck and sped through the line of people, hitting a woman.  After their attempts to fight the injustice by themselves, they decided fight in a more united and coordinated way.  The Chester Residents Concerned for Quality Living (CRCQL) successfully defeated three proposed plants in 1997, two soil remediation plants and an animal crematorium plant.  Also in 1997, the legal verdict was made requiring DELCORA to have higher plant standards and to make improvements to their plant.  In addition, DELCORA will fund a children's lead prevention program in the community.

   The best thing to do would be to shut down these unsafe plants, but because they are complying with federal standards, that remains just a dream.  Impoverished communities voice's are being silenced, and the capitalist minded vultures are feeding off of poor communities, especially poor colored communities.  Personally, I think the vultures should go on a diet and stop this injustice.  

~ Eve Hansen

Articles to reference:

http://www.ejnet.org/chester/ewall_article.html

http://www.umich.edu/~snre492/polk.html 

YouTube Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Opr-uzet7Q 

A young boy playing in trash and pollution just outside of Chester, PA

antiracistresistance.wordpress.com 

Community Resistance and the Tar Sands Pipeline

Paul Cienfuegos gave a speech in Portland, Oregon in November which resonated with me. He spoke about how marginalized communities are fighting the corporations who are attempting to use the laws to take away their rights to environmental justice. The corporations use the law to make it seemingly impossible for a community to resist the building of a new industrial farm in their town, or a new pipeline installed, or any other land rights issue. Federal law trumps state law which trumps local law, and small towns are left defenseless to capitalist developers. But there is one hope left in the rule books, the right to self-governance. Many small towns across the country have worked together to create ordinances against unwanted corporate use of their land and they have defended these ordinances. They have excercised their right to govern themselves and remove themselves from the rule-base of the U.S. government which would strip them of their rights. Instead these communities have stripped the corporations of their government-given rights and they have successfully prevented their land from being adulterated for profit. Paul has communicated a message of hope that regardless of what corporations try to convince us they have the rights to do, WE all have the power to determine what is right for our own community, because WE live there and our health depends on the health of our community.

Full Article: http://paulcienfuegos.com/node/86

-Brandon Alborg

The Struggle for Justice in El Salvador

    In 2004 the Pacific Rim, a Canadian mining company, began conducting gold explorations in El Salvador.  After some research was conducted, it was found that the mine would use 900 million liters of water a day, which is more than a family in El Salvador uses in 20 years.  The water is an important resource for the local families, and research found that the release of heavy metals during mining could easily contaminate the water and that water source is the only water they can easily access.  Two tons of cyanide would be used daily in the mine, and even a minimal amount of exposure to that lethal gas can cause some serious health problems, such as brain damage and even death.
   People began to put together organizations that fought to bring national attention to the dangerous mining business that was beginning in their country.  By 2009, both Presidential candidates took stances against the project.  The Pacific Rim expressed their anger through filing a $100 million lawsuit agains the  Salvadorian government, claiming a breach in the Central American Free Trade Agreement.  The company said they were losing investments and potential profits because of the protests. They also argue that they did not receive the mining permits that allow them to begin their project, but the Salvadorian government has every right to not issue a permit based on the amount of impact that will be caused.  
   What happened next is very, very disturbing.  Soon thereafter, anti-mining activists began receiving death threats.  In 2009 anti-mining activist, Marcelo Rivera disappeared and his brutally tortured body was found in a well days later.  It was not long after until the reporter who reported on the murder began receiving death threats.  Ramiro Rivera, another anti-mining activist, miraculously survived eight bullets to the back, unfortunately he was killed four months later in Cabañas, which is in the northern part of the country. Dora Santos Sorto was shot and killed while walking with her two year old son, her and her husband were both members of the Cabañas Environment Committee. The death threats continued to mount higher and higher, and all because the locals are rightly fighting for an end to the dangerous environment they are being exposed to.  The Salvadorians are fighting against this environmental abuse, but they are being tortured for combatting this injustice and so far little accountability has been brought to the attackers.

Articles to reference:
http://news.change.org/stories/anti-mining-activists-threatened-kidnapped-and-murdered-in-el-salvador

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/12/29/anti_mining_activists_killed_in_el



~Eve Hansen

Symbolism

Cartoons- not usually what comes to mind when we think about environmental racism or matters affecting our world and more importantly our home here in the U.S. This Political cartoon portrays the comical cold truth of asbestos/pollution affecting people of color in 3rd world countries. The hypocrisy that the richer "white" countries are awarded a certificate with a seal of approval for "Zero-Asbestos-Tolerance-Where-It-Really-Matters." As ridiculously  long that he title is so is the fact that these western countries think they're actually doing something good by dumping all their waste to places where the majority of people don't have the resources to protect themselves. All these other 3rd world countries are suffering from the simple arrogance and ignorance of the wealthy asbestos creators. The cruelest part of all this is the ignorance coming from us, the people that make up these countries. The longer we turn our backs and brush the dirt under the rug the more harm we are allowing to be done to the Earth. Let us not forget that knowledge is power, the more we know about the "TRUTH" the more of a threat we will become by demanding our rights and helping others attain theirs as well. Feel free to add what this speaks, yells, whispers to you.. and maybe share with your friends for more opinions. There's definitely more than one right answer.

by: Heidi Nuñez

The Overpopulation Argument, Food Shortage and Environmental Racism

For hundreds of years the Malthusian principle has lead the way in population and sustainability studies. Created first at the turn of the 19^th century, when the world’s population was just one-twelfth of what it is today, this theory suggests that overpopulation is an inevitability in which the Earth’s food supplies will eventually not be able to support every person in the world. But this is too simplistic, because research has shown that population density is not correlated with malnourishment. More importantly, what does often cause malnourishment is capitalist, imperial expansion.

Since the 1980’s, Structural Adjustment Programs have been put into place in 90 developing countries across the world. These programs encouraged farmers to grow cash crops instead of self-sustaining food crops, in order to jump into the first world economy and theoretically through trickle-down of wealth, create better lives for everyone in the country. However, in actual practice we have seen these programs reduce food production and increase starvation in these countries, putting farmers out of business, while also putting them in debt to the World Bank and making them dependent on global food supplies. The industrial food system has been shown to employ far fewer farm workers for the same or more crop output, causing societal, economic, and environmental harm.

Today, even though the world food supply has decreased while population is increasing, overall there exists enough supply for every person to eat 2800 calories per day. Thus, even at our previously unthinkable total population count and population densities, we still have not reached the peak Malthus described. The growing capitalist structure of the world economy has encouraged overproduction, waste, and environmental degradation, specifically in third-world countries, and in our own first-world countries as well. This structure is the main cause of increasing hunger across the world, not overpopulation.

Full Article: http://www.isreview.org/issues/68/feat-overpopulation.shtml

-Brandon Alborg

Locally Unwanted Land Use in Emelle, Alabama

  By Emma Vowels

    In 1978, Chemical Waste Management planned to construct a 300-acre landfill in Emelle, Alabama. A political connection between one of the landfill owners and the previous governor, George Wallace, allowed the Waste Management company to obtain the necessary permits needed to dump waste in this area. Many of the local residents of Emelle did not fully comprehend the purpose of the large site until it was in full operation. Receiving mainly waste from 42 other states, at its peak, the Chemical Waste landfill may have received more than 800,000 tons of waste per year. The landfill has been cited for many environmental impacts, including hazardous onsite and offsite chemical spills, unauthorized radioactive waste dumping, offsite water contamination and much more. Not only a major environmental concern, the Emelle landfill has become a controversy on environmental racism.

            The town of Emelle was selected for the waste site by Chemical Waste Management because of its minority population. In Sumter County where the landfill is located, one third of the residents live below the poverty level. This poor community would be less resistant to the plans of environmental degradation put forth by Chemical Waste Management. In addition, close to ninety percent of the residents living near the landfill site are African American. The Emelle landfill is a prime example of a LuLu, or Locally Unwanted Land Use. This example follows the trend of our nation’s hazardous chemical wastes being dumped in primarily low-income African American, Hispanic, or Native American communities.

            After the establishment and negative impacts of the Emelle landfill, local residents began to protest against the waste site. Through these demonstrations, the Emelle residents attracted national media attention and gained support from larger organizations. Today, the Chemical Waste company is attempting to clean up its image by participating in recycling projects. The waste site has not been shut down, but currently operates on a significantly smaller scale. Only about 120,000 tons of waste per year are dumped at the Emelle site, and there are regulations in place regarding the types of chemicals allowed to be dumped. Unfortunately, with the turn of the economy and the scale back of the landfill, many local residents lost their jobs. Emelle is now considered a dying town, without the boom of the landfill that was fueling job security while poisoning the health of the low-income community. 

Reference: http://www.umich.edu/~snre492/Jones/emelle.htm

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emelle,_Alabama#Chemical_Waste_Management_Landfill

Image from: http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5149/5663513576_663b152c96.jpg

"The Warriors of Qiugang": A Struggle Against Environmental Racism in a Small Chinese Village

"The Warriors of Quigang" is a documentary about the small Chinese village of Qiugang in rural China, and its struggle against the factories that have moved there since the early 2000s. The film covers a time period of three years within the village, and is heavily driven by the local efforts to get the factories shut down.

The villagers of Qiugang describe the beauty that was once seen in the land they call home, and how the pollution caused by the factories has destroyed it--one particular woman claims the trees no longer bear any fruit. Perhaps most devastating are the health effects upon the villagers, especially that of the children, who suffer from respiratory ailments that have become all-too-common since the arrival of the factories.

As the villagers speak vividly of their struggle against the factories and their government, it becomes increasingly clear that they are victims of harsh environmental racism. Polluting companies moved into this rural area because they are sponsored by the state to do so; similar to what occurs in the United States, pollution is pushed to the peripheries of cities, away from the elite, and often into impoverished communities. What is left is a village that was once known for its beautiful fruit trees that is now suffering from poor water and air quality, and higher rates of cancer.

One of the most difficult things to grasp is how self-perpetuating the process of polluting can be. Rural communities--which may already suffer from a lack of representation in local and national governments--are weakened even further by the processes of pollution. Many in Qiugang wanted to do something, and some tried, but for years it seemed that their pleas fell upon dead ears. Pollution is drawn to poverty and worsens it, and poverty psychologically weakens people to a point where they feel there is nothing they can do.

The village of Qiugang ultimately wins their battle against the factories, forcing them to move out of town. Albeit a great triumph for the villagers, one cannot help but think that the factories will simply be forced to find new rural communities to pollute.

Grassroots efforts like those seen in "The Warriors of Qiugang" are a key piece of resistance against environmental racism.

Youtube Link:
 The Warriors of Qiugang

I was introduced to this documentary in Steven Harrell's class on China's Environment and Society.

- Chris Graham

Fighting Environmental Racism in Kettleman CA

Beginning in 2007 citizens of Kettleman gathered in protest of the proposal to dump the radioactive waste from the Santa Susana Field Lab in the Kettleman hazardous waste landfill.  Kettleman is a small truck stop town in California where the citizens are mainly people of color and live in poverty.  An oil depot and a huge power plant border the town, and the biggest hazardous waste dump site in the United States is located just outside the town.  From 2007-2008 residents of Kettleman have reported as many as five birth defects where three of the children have died.  They have also reported high rates of cancer, reproductive illnesses and asthma.  They have been excluded from the policy and decision making process; their opinion was not even asked when considering to dump radioactive waste outside of their doorsteps where their children play and go to school.  Even committees that discussed this proposal that were open to the public were conducted in English even though most of the citizens of Kettleman are Spanish.

In 2009 government officials went to Kettleman and heard the citizens concerns and stories of the harmful effects that they have endured because of their close proximity to the hazardous waste dump site.  Later that year, a mass was held for the victims outside of the building that officials were in, approving an expansion for the dump site.  In March 2010 citizens ask for a Health Survey to be conducted, and the EPA proposes an Exposure Assessment for the city of Kettleman.  After the EPA threatened the Waste Management company with a huge lawsuit, the plans for dumping the radioactive waste from the Santa Susana Field Lab in the Kettleman hazardous waste landfill are finally shut down.  The citizens of Kettleman were able to rally together and persistently demand their presence to be acknowledged and considered.

Here is a link to a video on YouTube about the Kettleman story:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1H03yT33VRM&feature=related

~Eve Hansen

Case Study: Environmental Racism in Bhopal, India

                    By Emma Vowels

            

            The Bhopal disaster occurred in 1984, when the Union Carbide India Limited pesticide plant suffered a gas leak. Thousands of people in Bhopal were exposed to methyl isocyanate gas and other chemicals. The leak happened during the night, while most people were asleep. Because the gas that had been leaked was dense, it fell closer to the ground. This meant that people sleeping in low-lying beds and children who were shorter were disproportionately exposed to the hazardous gas. The initial effects of exposure were coughing, vomiting, severe eye irritation and a feeling of suffocation. Many residents of Bhopal awoke with these symptoms, and panicked, running away from the plant and further increasing their negative exposure to the gas. The exact death toll from the horrors in Bhopal is still unknown. The immediate death toll after the leak was 2,259, and the government has confirmed 3,787 deaths from the gas leak. Other estimates speculate that while around 3,000 people died within weeks, as many as 8,000 people may have died from gas-related diseases. More recent estimates say that as many as 25,000 people may have died in the disaster.

            The Union Carbide plant originally was established in India because the American company Union Carbide Corporation was looking for a place to build a plant with little regulation and a cheap labor force. Bhopal was selected as the ideal location because the native people could supply a strong workforce and the company assumed the Indian civilians would know little about the dangers of pesticide production. As a result of Union Carbide’s construction of the plant, thousands of Indian people lost their lives and the community in Bhopal was ripped apart.

            The causes of the Bhopal disaster have been cited as the use of the deadly chemical methyl isocyanate, the location of the plant near a highly populated area, the storage of the chemicals in a few large containers instead of several smaller ones, poor in plant safety mechanisms, and inadequate means to communicate with the community in the event of a disaster. All of the causes of the disaster could have been preventable, and much of the risky plant structure may have been known by Union Carbide. A few months before the disaster, the Union Carbide officials had been warned by their own regulators that many of the safety mechanisms were in place but not working. Freon had been taken out of the refrigeration systems, toxic scrubbers, which would purge the air, were turned off and water spray, which would snatch hazardous airborne chemicals, could not reach the toxic gas plumes. The company chose to ignore these serious warnings because of their demand for profit and little regard for the Indian community they were exploiting. For many years since the disaster, legal action has been taken against Union Carbide. In 1989, Union Carbide agreed to pay $470 million for damages caused in the Bhopal disaster, 15% of the original $3 billion claimed in the lawsuit. This settlement only paid out, on average, $2,200 to families of the dead. The Indian community in Bhopal continues to suffer from the disaster as research begins to show that almost every aspect of their environment is contaminated with toxic chemicals. Future generations in Bhopal will continue to pay for the disregard Union Carbide had for its exploited Indian workforce.

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhopal_disaster

Photo From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhopal_disaster