Casandra Friend

I posted the video about the Love Canal tragety on facebook, allong with a recent article I found about 72 unreported chemical spills in California, which have only recently been discovered.
 
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news%2Fstate&id=9043428

10 comments from friends and family about the question "Environmental tragedies still exist today; what can we do today to mitigate these problems."
-I would say that it's important to help toxic waste, by helping people recycle more. It's so important for the enviornment that we don't just throw things that can be reused again. The more that we throw away, the more items we need to create in order to replace those items that we threw away. If we were more careful, and EVERY city had to recycle, america and the world would be a much better place.
-I agree, recycling would be a great way to mitigate the problem. Along with that, finding a more productive way to dispose of it besides burying it would perhaps reduce the danger.For example, burning it might be an option, although then that leads to toxic gases in the atmosphere....Maybe we should strap all of our toxic waste to a rocket and send it to the Aliens to dispose of.
-Hmmm, invade Australia and make it the worlds dumpster.
-Proper zoning and engineering = no toxic waste seeping into homes
-Have stricter invironmental laws.
-Enforce inviormental laws.
-Educate the population on the results of not taking care of the environment.
-Require recycling. I never was big on being green but in Texas, recycling is a big thing and now whenever I go to throw something away my number one thought is, "can this be recycled?" Its kinda fun and it's definitely not hard so why not make it the law to recycle?:)
-We have the technology to stop using toxic materials, however they are being ignored because those technologies would bankrupt existing companies.    
-Keep the toxic stuff away from the cities. Burry it in the desert instead of under a city. Problem solved.

My 3 responses:
Were you aware that environmental tragedies of this magnitude still exist today?
I remember seeing a movie called Erin Brockovitch, based on a true story about a woman and a lawer going against a major water company in California, holding them responsible for allowing a toxic chemical from their plant to seep into the ground water and infect the nearby town of Hinkley. Hundreds got sick with various cancers, birth defects, and miscarriages. From stories like this one, I learned that these types of envirnomental disasters happen even now.

Environmental tragedies still exist today; what can we do today to mitigate these problems.
Media. As long as these stories are circulating and not kept quiet and swept under the rug, companies will have to go out of thier way to prevent problems from happening before all the bad publicity comes out. media has proven to be a valuable tool in getting something done FASTER.


Why should we care about something that happened over 30 years ago?
Becasue it still happens today. companies are run by humans, who can be misguided, irresponsible, lazy, and sometimes greedy. rather than pay the cost of properly disposing of waste, they might cut corners, or not report a certain "accident" or "minor spill," like the ones in the article I found from a location in California. In an imperfect world, bad things will happen.