I posted the Love Canal article on my facebook page, along
with an article about air pollution in Communist China, and the government’s
attempts to conceal the danger from their citizens by lying on the daily
air-quality report. The question I provided was: “Environmental tragedies still
exist today; what can we do today to mitigate these problems?”
· Industries in the U.S. have to buy permits in
order to put pollution into the air. There are a finite number of permits that
are sold each year, at a price set by the market, to companies that use
polluting industrial processes. Each permit allows a company to put one ton of
pollution into the air, and right now they go for something like a hundred
dollars each. So if you buy a permit, tear it up, and throw it away, you’ve
essentially just removed one ton of CO2 and other pollutants from the air.
· I think that those countries should have to do
more than just buy permits. They should have to plant trees to fix the problem.
Trees filter CO2 from the air. Permits do nothing.
· Buying those permits also increases demand,
which will raise the market price on them. That means that all of the companies
that are buying them to actually use them, end up paying a higher price in
order to pollute.
· “Crazy bad” air quality? Haha that programmer was
a genius.
· Maybe the government wanted their people to go
outside and breathe in the bad air. Human lungs can act as filtration devices,
plus they could kill off some of their exploding population. Just saying…
· This was really interesting
· Just like fracking. So bad for the environment. I
remember that love canal incident from sociology. So sad what careless people
are cabable of doing to others…
· Fracking takes natural gas out of the ground. It
doesn’t put chemicals into it.
· Corrupt governments always change their
measurement indexes in order to hide the truth from their citizens. Look at
Obama- he changed the way we measure unemployment in order to make it look like
the county is doing better than it is. It doesn’t change the facts though. Just
like China lying about the air quality doesn’t change the pollution level.
· Hope this stuff can all get sorted out quick
before it starts affecting other countries.
· We just need to reduce our consumption. Thats
really the only solution.
In your opinion are environmental hazards something we
should be concerned about on a daily basis?
Environmental hazards have a direct effect on our health.
Air-quality issues, like what China is experiencing, have a huge impact on the
health and well-being of their citizens. People are more susceptible to lung
and respiratory diseases, and the country is seeing unusually high levels of
cancer and birth defects due to the toxicity of the water. Those who are most
at risk to environmental hazards are the elderly, infants, and those who are
already sick. For those reasons, pollution levels and other environmental
factors should be a concern for everyone.
To what degree do environmental tragedies affect you/your
family on a day to basis?
My family lives right next to Utah Lake, which was heavily
polluted by the Geneva Steel Corporation before it was shut down. The effects
of that pollution can still be seen on the lake, and many people are unwilling
to get into the water because they are afraid that it is still unsafe. Luckily
a group has formed to purchase the 7,000 tons of emission credits from Geneva
Steel in order to retire them from use and maintain the air quality of Utah
Valley. Now the corporation is required to clean up the site of their plant for
free, so it can be used for the Front Runner commuter train— which, supposedly,
will help reduce emissions by allowing more people to get to Salt Lake without
driving their personal vehicles.
Why should we care about something that happened over 30
years ago?
Although we have legislation that outlaws the practices of
corporations like the Hooker Chemical Company, countries like China do not have
any such laws. They pollute without considering the health impact to their
citizens, or those of surrounding countries. Things like air and water
pollution do not respect international boundaries. That is why some types of
fish are unsafe to eat because of their high mercury content. Because the
actions of developing countries can have a direct impact on us, it is necessary
that we monitor what they are doing to the environment, just like it is
necessary that we monitor ourselves.
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