It is most important to remember that in our efforts toward sustainability people can make it or break it. While many interests want to focus only on the physical and "natural" environment, the role of humans cannot be ignored. It may be the most complex, undesireable, or interesting - whatever the take, we can't be ignored. From a Western and capitalistic perspective humans are at the center of the universe; a large part of the reason why the physical environment is so challenged. From any perspective, our growth as a species dominates the world and as a result creates a serious impact on the physical enviroment even under conditions of enviromentally conservative behavior.
As we attempt to shift this value system off-center to allow priorities that are not immediately and individually focused we can address our inherent self-interests by including people in the alternatives to environmental meltdown. By involving people in solving problems that we - or others - have created we can find new solutions that we can embrace and live with. We can help to have our own needs met while we are addressing the needs of the physical environment and the social program. We can improve the health, development, and empowerment of those involved in the work in a process that is more democratic than most current day efforts and an outcome that offers greater equity than we can imagine.
My hopes for PEHKA.
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Today on "Truthout" there is an article about a lake in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia - remember Phnom Penh? The site of premier French colonization and one of the more notorious and bloodiest prison camps during the Vietnam war. Well, the community is once again being colonized by an imperials movement - development - and the lake has been drained to make way for redevelopment. The community has also been displaced by the flooding and the work to begin filling the area with a sand base to prepare for the new residents and shopers in yet an all-too-familiar landgrab. The lake was already polluted, so is it a great loss? It just smells a little worse now with all of the rotting fish & garbage now exposed. In a short time that will all be buried. Seems like just another assault on the people and the land - or this case, lake - and the redevelopment goals save the trouble of cleaning up the lake that people would fish. It's a universal language that we hear over again - spoiling the environment and the communities to be replaced by another capital venture and consuming population. Let's keep their minds green: If we can resist, let's push for protection for community and environment. If anything, let's make sure the new population understands what existed before them - the ghosts of community past.
How should communities begin to address correcting contamination and poisoning of its neighborhoods? Awareness is the first step; you can't address what you don't know about. There will be forces that work to obstruct awareness. Awareness must be met with education about the event - as well as perhaps a strong response in cases of obstruction & cover-up - and that education can be associated with a publicity drive that gets the information out to the broader community. Education continues at every stage of the campaign, as does action.
Becoming aware: States may publish on their environmental protection department's website a listing of contaminated sites in the community. SCORECARD http://scorecard.org/ and the EPA's ENVIRO FACTS DATA WAREHOUSE http://www.epa.gov/enviro/ are also places to start. Also, personal observations and investigations into suspect properties can begin the Awareness process.
"Looks Are Deceiving"
You are taking a walk around your neighborhood and admire rows of beautiful homes - breathtaking makeovers. Who would not be attracted to these homes? But, what is hidden within the walls & floors of these homes? Well, all those homes you admired were built prior to 1975. Lead paint was used on those beautiful walls. Knowingly, you would not expose your family to pollutants such as lead & asbestos for the sake of people admiring the beautiful "exterior" of your home?
We have to become knowledgeable in how to protect ourselves from the hazards that are living with us every single day. We have a right to ask our government to pass laws that will protect our health - our future - our children.
Projects for Environmental Health, Knowledge and Action, Inc. can collaborate with other groups in the hopes of eradicating such issues. Together we can try to make a difference, not just for the short-term but for a lifetime.
We all deserve a healthy environment - inside & outside. It is time to act now. Be the stepping stone in which our children can follow.
Looks are deceiving, indeed.
Look at BP oil. The BP logo is green and pretty, pleasant even and espouses their commitment to renewable energy as well as oil. The culprits behind perhaps the greatest environmental catastrophe of the Americas for its potential destruction of the oceans and their ecosystems. They are murders and their executive decision-makers should be treated as such. They have been cited numerous times for safety violations. Remember the Alaskan pipeline spill in 2006? BP. Remeber the refinery explosion in Texas City in 2005 which killed 15 workers and injured numerous others in "the worst workplace accident in this country since 1989" (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/10/26/60minutes/)? BP. Now, BP again is behind the deaths of 11workers and injury to many others, the destruction of a rich gulf ecosystem and with that people's livelihoods, and immesurable damage to the health of human and animal populations.
And this is in the wake of numerous safety violations levied against the multinational.
Or isn't it a crime anymore to kill and injure workers or destroy natural resources while you break the law?
We call upon our elected representatives to see that justice is pursued. We can never replace what we have lost, but BP executive decision-makers should be charged with criminal negligence and manslaughter. The Italian ministry had done so against the vinyl chloride industry for their production of dioxin while knowing its deadly health effects.
Enough is enough. Those Congressional members who consider themselves environmental stewards and purveyors of justice should be outraged - and should act on the outrages. Prosecute BP Executives.
Everyone else must push their representatives for a punishment that fits the crime. And boycott BP.
We are in an era of heightened awareness of the links between our environments and community well-being, thanks to our expanded technological abilities. This poses an even greater challenge to those in the business of maintaining social order. So the daily conditions that deserve our primary attention because they threaten our daily well-being are overshadowed by human interest stories, local tragedies, and the lure of political and celebrity scandel. Problems of water contamination, perhaps our most precious resource and even as pervasive as it has been in Delaware (see http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=20107250361) so often are lost to memory and the static of our social lives.
So let's keep our memories green. Continue to ask about the BP Gulf crisis, and follow the actions of contamination in your community.
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