Alana Woodbury -- Love Canal

Here is the other example of an environmental disaster that I used:
http://www.epa.gov/history/topics/lovecanal/01.html

My responses to some of the questions:

Were you aware that environmental tragedies of this magnitude still exist today?

-- No, I did not realize that environmental tragedies still occur with alarming frequency. It's a scary thing to think about. It could happen near me or the people I love.

Do you believe that environmental crises affect you/your family today?

-- My family has not experienced an environmental disaster that has affected us directly, but I would say that it is always a potential threat. It means that our wealth, our home, our jobs, etc. could be at risk, and that's a big deal.

What can we do today to mitigate these problems?

-- I believe that we can take preventative measures. Public health officials in the environmental health field can work hard to ensure safety in the work place, making sure an area is secure for manufacturing or production. For example, keeping buildings earthquake safe or creating emergency shut down systems. These protective features can help us avoid disaster should anything out of the ordinary occur.

Facebook responses to the article, video, and the questions: How do environmental tragedies affect you on a daily basis? Why should we care about them?

• Well Alana, in my professional opinion, i feel like environmental tragedies affect us every day. I've taken several environmental safety and chemistry safety classes (Intro to Natural Disasters and Safety in the Chemistry Lab) and I can tell you, they do. In our hearts. But anyways...I think that its a great reminder of what can happen to our communities and nation if we're not careful. I don't know if I'd say that they affect me directly on a daily basis, but its a good perspective on if something like that happened in Provo.
• Personally i love your hair. I feel like it does affect me. Environmental disasters, not your hair. Those people who have to work in those conditions are exposed to radiation and I have friends who are possibly going to go into that kind of work. And those kinds of situations that my friends could be put into I would like to prevent as much as possible to protect those workers.
• Hmmm. Well these disasters i think affect us a lot. It may not seem to be very evident in our lives but it sure does affect us. I remember hearing this new and being sad. I think emotionally it effects everyone (except the heartless people). We should care about it because we share the environment with the japanese or whoever it is. Eventually our environment will be a hazard and we will need relief and help as well. Also, its not just us that is affected by the environment. There are cute little animals that could suffer from its affects. All around its something we should be thinkin about.
• You know me, always up for family bonding. Honestly, I really care about natural disasters, I do. But I honestly do not think they have the biggest effect on me. All they honestly do in my opinion is jolt us all out of our selfish little worlds for a brief moment and give more meaning to our lives. We hug our family, pray for help in the area, commend the movie stars for donating, wish there was more we could do, follow the disasters on tv and forget about it. You are never truly and deeply influenced by something unless they are tied in some way to us.
• I think its a good thing for SOME people to be concerned with on a daily basis. I'm not going to deny that we could care for the planet better, and clean up and prevention should be addressed, but honestly, ME worrying about it isnt going to change much. i dont even drive. But there is a need for small group - as opposed to EVERYONE - of professionals that dedicate their lives to teaching the public and working to conserve natural resources. I think it could be compared to the police. crime is something we should all be concerned with everyday, but only a few professionals actually dedicate their lives to preventing and fighting it. so it is with enviromental issues. its not to be ignored, but we as a general public really dont have to stress about it beyond doing our small part. worrying about a disaster that may or may not happen doesnt do us any good. i'm stressed enough with school.
• Environmental disasters are bad. I do not recommend them. Environmental disasters can’t always be prevented. Hindsight is always 20/20. We could prevent more than we do, but the cost would be too high. It’s all about probability and calculated risk. As far as how they affect me on a daily basis, they don’t affect me in a very noticeable way, because I have never been exposed to the direct impact of an environmental disaster. I’m sure, however, that environmental disasters impact me to some extent financially as prices of goods and services are influenced.
• That whole Love Canal thing really just sucks. But shouldn't the government have known something was up when they bought a giant plot of land for a dollar? Thats my personal opinion. But I do think that we should do everything in our power to prevent situations similar to that one. Because that really just sucks.
• An interesting commonality in both of the stories above is that the people that resided in and around these two disaster sites thought that they were completely safe. The residents had no idea of the hazardous potentials right in front of them. We think we are exempt from such disasters... but do we really know for sure? The nature of this issue is far reaching, and how extensive the spread of such waste storage and leakage is really unknown. Although at our age there is not a whole lot we can do, we can take part one day in prevention. Our generation will enter the business world and be making decisions of whether to deal with waste the honest way or the easy way. We could potentially maintain the waste problem to what it is now. As far as taking care of the messes that have already been made, I think it will take a group of educated and equipped individuals to protect the nation. A new brand of super-heroes of sorts. Want to save the world? Try public health.
• On a daily basis, I would say that natural disasters don't affect me at all. However, it is important to realize that natural disasters can happen anywhere at any time. For example, Provo is overdue for an earthquake from the Wasatch fault. So while natural disasters may not affect us everyday, it is important to be prepared and realize that we live in an ever changing world that with natural cycles that we have little control over.
• I just really don't think about things like this! Dude. Like I guess that's pretty crazy that environmental disasters happen, but can we really do a whole lot about it? I don't know. I can't say if they affect me on a daily basis necessarily, but they probably are something worth considering. Obviously they cause a lot of damage and most likely cost plenty of money to repair, so we should do what we can to avoid them.