Bethany Morley; Love Canal Assignment

In your opinion are environmental hazards something we should be concerned about on a daily basis?

1. Lauren Montgomery: In my opinion, they are something we should be concerned about and at least try to make an effort in any way we can to be more environmentally friendly on a day to day basis. Since I've known about things like the midway tragedy and the problems with trash and pollution in the pacific ocean for a while, I do my best to recycle and not litter on a daily basis.

2. Jennifer Figueroa:  I remember Love Canal coming out when I was a kid. I'm not concerned about this type of thing on a daily basis mainly because I think there has been quite a bit of effort made to ensure this doesn't happen since then. For myself, I try to insure that the way I live my life is more environmentally friendly...more recycling, less waste, more responsible disposal of hazardous materials (paint, batteries, etc). I'd be interested to know what successes they've had since the 70's in cleaning up Love Canal. As for Midway, it sounds like its another case where we need to clean up what we've done. No idea where the money would come from, and that always seems to be the issue, but it seems like the right thing to do.

3. Daniel Morley: My thoughts on the matter. Firstly, the video is taking forever to load and I was able to read the entire article and only 30 seconds loaded of the video.
Unfortunately, I don't believe that money will solve any problems in our day and age. People campaign tirelessly for more money to be dumped into restoration and environmental causes and rarely see the fruits of their labors. Rather, it's a poison of the mind that has ruined our environment. The only change that will come is if as an entire society, we learn to live with much less. We are consumers! Consumers care little of where something comes from, but rather the benefits of having it. Manufacturers go where the supply is and do it as cheaply as possible. All the technology out there that we require, Ipads, medical attention, cars, is extremely hazardous to our precious materials. But until we put our desires on a more spiritual and humble platform, no amount of money will fix any of this.
I do think that the families of those who were affected should at the least be compensated for the wrongs they were dealt. However, in this day and age, people need to educate themselves. There is enough information out there that they should know where they are building and if there on any places to avoid. Long gone are the days where people could be naive and assume the best.
I lived in Ukraine, where the most covered up nuclear fallout ever to happen to this planet occurred. Chernobyl decimated an entire city!! Those families were given nothing!! There is still fall out and still problems that have affected the entire country. Where is their justice, their money, their lives back?
To answer your question. Yes, I think we should be concerned, but not on a daily basis. There are so many other concerns that people face in this life; unemployment, family matters, sickness & health that environment will always take a back seat. I do not believe that anything can really be done to fix this mentality. As I said before, it's a sickness that affects all humans. Though we can all do our own part; we can never stop this bullet train of human trash.

4. Ian Kahng: I think environmental hazards are a a problem to other people but I have never had a problem with them. I wouldn't say that it is a problem that should be worried about on a daily basis for the average citizen, but if you work for a public health agency then I guess it would be important. I think it would suck to live on a toxic waste dump, I guess I will just be careful where I buy my first house.

5. Candace Call: I think that environmental hazards are indeed something we should be concerned about on a daily basis. We live on this Earth and we need to take care of it. As humans, we have an obligation to make sure our home is a healthy and sanitary place to live in not only for ourselves but for all its inhabitants. Many of the environmental hazards that we see today are created by humans so we are the only ones who have the power to prevent them. Even if it may seem that a certain environmental hazard is not affecting us directly, (such as the animals in Midway) it still will affect us in the long run. The world is made up of an entire ecosystem and every thing has its place. Environmental hazards disrupt this ecosystem which in turn disrupts the whole chain of connections that we ought to protect. GO GREEN OMG ILY EARTH

6. Brynne Morley: As your tree-hugging sister, I absolutely feel like we should be concerned on a daily basis. There are so many things that we could do on a daily basis to help the environment. For example, the Midway clip showed that the birds had ingested lots of bottle caps. This kind of litter/garbage can be easily avoided by having people recycle their plastic bottles, or even better to have them use a large, reusable, washing container.
In response to the Love Canal video, I understand that there are huge chemical wastes that need to go somewhere. I also believe that the earth is self-renewing and can handle the chemicals in the long-run. However, I feel like a bulk of the chemical waste comes from an industry that is propelled by humankind's obsession with "stuff." Factories wouldn't be making this crap and therefore creating chemical waste, if we weren't buying the crap. To help change this in our daily lives we could simplify and reduce the number of things we own. We could try to live more naturally. It's hard for one person to feel like they can make a difference if they are standing alone, but if everyone made the same changes daily then things could actually change.

7. Noelle Goodine: Yes I do because I think it's our responsiblity because the animals cannot physically do anything about it. Regardless of the fact that we are ruining our Earth, which we have to live in, we have a moral responsiblity to those who are incapable of helping themselves. It is the governments responsiblity, in a sense, to pass policies and regulations to make sure that big companies are not abusing their power. On an individual basis, we can contact our government and express concern and then they will take action.

8. Jennifer Hinds: Environmental hazards are issues that should indeed be thought about on a daily basis. First of all, it is everyone's responsibility. It is not one group's job to protect the planet, it is everyone's. Any space occupied by an individual or group both directly and indirectly affects the space occupied by others, and therefore it is their responsibility to minimize their impact and infringement on the rights of others. This obligation can be fulfilled only if thought of on a daily basis and acted upon (proper disposal of all kinds of waste, controlling the emission of fumes etc.) Secondly, it only takes one day for an "environmental hazard" to become an environmental catastrophe. For example, the deep water horizon spill, which occurred in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, occurred in one day. Had everyone been paying a little closer attention on that specific day, the oil spill could have been avoided, or at least the damage could have been lessened. One single day claimed 11 lives and led to 1.84 million US gallons being spilled in the ocean, claiming the lives of innumerable animals and posing countless dangers to human lives. Thirdly and finally, environmental hazards should be on everyone's mind on a daily basis because there is only one Earth for the human race to live on, and once it is destroyed, there will be nothing left to replenish it. Extinction is forever, and that includes the extinction of humans. This requires daily attention because it is a matter of great importance to the survival of the planet as a whole.

9. Daniel Lacey: Environmental hazards are something that we should definitely be concerned about. We need to not litter and be concerned about where our waste goes. The government also needs to do a better job of managing the countries chemical waste like in the example of the Love Canal. Our Earth needs to be cleaned up.

10. Alex Johnson: Yes, I think it is important because we need to be concerned about the future of our Earth. We need to all do our part on a daily basis to prevent huge tragedies in the future so we don't get hit hard later. I feel like if no one ever cared...we would all be dead.

My responses:

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

Yes, I think that environmental crises have a huge effect on me and those around me. They can pollute the very things that give us life--water, air, crops, etc. Besides that, we are affected as we try to avoid environmental tragedies, although not necessarily in a bad way. We must do our part to be aware and concerned about the world we live in and treat it with respect. It is also important that we educate others on the dangers of being careless about our planet.

2. In your opinion are environmental hazards something we should be concerned about on a daily basis?

Environmental hazards are absolutely something that should be a daily concern. It is easy to be less vigilant when things are going well, but that leads to carelessness, and then potential tragedies. After all, it only takes a single day for some tragedies to occur. On the other hand, some tragedies come from years of careless waste-dumping and other means of disrespecting our planet. These are the tragedies that we are all responsible for when we do not do our part to be aware and to speak out against what we know is wrong.


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

 I was honestly unaware that these types of tragedies still occur. After all, most are not well publicized. Although, there are a lot of people that speak out against pollution and other environmental issues. It's kind of strange that with some jobs, particularly ones in public health, they are constantly working to prevent tragedy and the only time they are noticed is when they are not doing their jobs well and a tragedy occurs. That's is probably why we don't hear much about environmental tragedies like Love Canal anymore, even though they are still occurring on a smaller level.