Andy St. Pierre - Love Canal Report

My name is Andy St. Pierre and I posted the love canal article along with an article about the effects of the recent earthquake in Haiti and asked the question, In your opinion are environmental hazards something we should be concerned about on a daily basis?

http://blog.redemtech.com/2010/01/earthquake-reveals-environmental-tragedies-of-impoverished-nations.html

Here are the comments I recieved.

1.      Cheryl St. Pierre, “It breaks my heart how cavalier we are as human beings when it comes to our world.  Where do we think future generations will be living if our world is destroyed.”

2.      Ed St. Pierre, “Nature is a gift from God and it is heartbreaking that we can’t take better care of it.”

3.      Christy Miller, “I spend a big part of my life enjoying nature and the beauty therein.  It is our responsibility as residents on Earth to not only not destroy but to enhance and make our world better.”

4.      Trent Miller, “ I hunt, fish, hike and enjoy the outdoors.  I spend a lot of time in the outdoors year round.  I hate to read articles like this where our most precious natural resource is being destroyed.”

5.      Grant Goodson, “I moved to California to enjoy the warm weather and the year round outdoor living opportunities.  I too often see the effects of reckless humans around me in dead fish, plastic rings caught on birds, trash left on our beaches, waste running off into the ocean, and more.  We are on track to destroy this beautiful land.”

6.      Carolyn Goodson, “I always find beauty in nature.  Even the smallest flower is a treasure to me.  There is nothing like a sunset or sunrise.  People need to slow down and appreciate the little things and then maybe they will be more careful with our planet.”

7.      Steve St. Pierre, “Recycling and Reusing isn’t enough.  We need to not destroy.  Human beings make mistakes and sometimes these mistakes are extremely costly not only for us but for the wildlife, plants, air quality, livelihood of others etc.”

8.      Tiffany Frank, “There is nothing sadder than watching the news reports of environmental tragedies.”

9.      Dick Frank, “Wake up people!”

10.  Madison Frank, “Time to stop the madness!”

My answers to 3 questions are as follows:

1.  I have definitely been more aware of environmental issues since taking this class.  This article and clips have changed how I look at my surroundings everyday.  I can't believe that we humans are so slow to learn from our past mistakes.  I'm not sure what it will take to finally wake us up to the fact that our world is fragile.

2.  From the comments above I realized that everyone feels strongly about their environment.  I feel like we see disasters and problems everyday in the news.  Recently we have experienced oil spills, trash removal/storage issues, accidental poisonings of waterways, temperature inversions etc. all close to home.  With social media, cell phone videos, etc. we all have instant access to reports that would be unknown a few years ago.  I hope that with this increased awareness of current tragedies we will work together to solve the problems.

3.  Environmental crises affect us all.  Even the non-nature lover is affect by the chemicals in their drinking water, the condition of the soil around their homes, the air quality in their towns etc.  We are all affected and we all need to work together to find the solution.  I do believe that we are turning recent catastrophe's into studies for better solutions to future problems.  For example the things that were learned from the BP oil spill in the Gulf a few years ago will help cleanup and prevention in the future.