Week 8

Democracy

It seems that in these zones designated a “Sacrifice Zone” people have given in and called it sacrificed land. They may be trying to get it fixed but by giving it that name they show that someone has given up. Whether it is the people or the government. One main thing that the people may lose hope in democracy and the government process. Like the community in California that is next to an oil factory. The community reported the factory for venting 24/7, the first thing that the policymakers did was trying to pass a policy to allow the factory to vent more often. Even now after the concerns of the community, the factory is still venting as often as it can. Democracy becomes essential to sustainability because the benefit of democracy allows the community to overwrite the voice of corporate sponsors. Over time this lack of influence can cause Americans to be dissuaded from caring about politics and the government.  It can become a feeling that a singular opinion doesn’t matter. This becomes a hindrance to sustainability because it relies on the voices of a lot of people to reach the government’s ears and to force corporations to know that it does matter to a greater portion of the population. I do feel that this current political cycle we are in will spur a decent amount of interest back into the politics. It will hopefully help bring sustainability and many other issues to the main stage for the US to debate on.

Sacrifice Zone

The “Sacrifice Zone” idea can be spread to any place in the US due to how rampant the industrialization of the US has been. There are so many places that have been affected by big corporations and factories that many places have environmental issues. Specifically, in Pennsylvania, there are areas in the rural land that have been completely strip-mined for coal. The problem with this being is that the constant construction has created a mountain of waste that has been put into the land of the nearby area. They use fluff zones to help hide their dumping of waste by putting a layer of greenery over thousands of cubic yards of waste. It was also a dumping zone for midnight dumpers to drop off gallons of toxic waste from the factory. In places of Pennsylvania, there are towns that are completely surrounded by toxic waste. I usually thought of pollution as being in major cities and industrialized places. But after watching People 2.0 it shows that the problem is much more spread out and can even be much worse in rural areas. It makes it even more apparent that we need to get changes done. It is no longer a time where we can dump waste and stay ignorant because we didn’t know better. We are in a time where we know that these actions are destroying the land and they are detrimental to us a population. With this, it becomes even more important to use our influence to influence the changes that we want to see.

2 thoughts on “Week 8

  1. It shows that pollution can be created anywhere and that people need to be more cautious of their actions but what if no one is enforcing the regulations. How are companies allowed to get away with creating a toxic dump? Pollution creates health problems and hinders ones activities, how can a proper, healthy society be built if companies keep up their waste creating and dumping habits?

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  2. I also used to think pollution was in big cities but the video was sort of an eye opener for me and how its not just big cities that need to change. Its these small towns like in Pennsylvania that need saving as well. It also makes me wonder, where in this world is a place to live that is covered in toxins in the air or buried under us.

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