Love Canal - Halie Mitchell

I posted a short article about the ever increasing dead zone around the Gulf of Mexico and asked some friends to answer if environmental hazards are something we should be concerned about on a daily basis? Here are their comments:

http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/wilderness-resources/photos/americas-10-worst-man-made-environmental-disasters/gulf-de

1. "It's never a problem until it is happening to you.  This is really scary and I think everyone should be concerned now."

2. "I think not only the government should be extremely aware of environmental hazards, but we should each be aware and prepared to take action."

3. "I think we should all be personally responsible for our own stewardship of the earth.  We should be careful to properly dispose of things such as batteries, paints, and other bio-hazardous materials.  Companies should abide by safe manufacturing practices as wee.  But I honestly don't worry about it on a daily basis."

4.  "I appreciate your concern"

5. "We definitely shouldn't just brush it aside"

6. "I think it is important to protect and take care of our earth while we are on it."

7. "People just need to be smart when it comes to the environment and health.  This is our world we are talking about and our lives.  Do we need to be concerned now? Yes, so we can prevent these things from happening in the future.

8. "I think we each need to do whatever we can each day to protect the environment.  I don't worry about it on a daily basis, I just try to do my part."

9. "I think we need to be concerned, we should be aware of the people that are being affected and do the best we can to help them."

10.  "Wow that is crazy and very sad.  We just need to all be making personal changes and making a conscience effort to do a better job protecting our environment.  Poor shrimp :("


My responses:
1. Were you aware that environmental tragedies of this magnitude still exist today?

I honestly don't think I was aware that huge disasters happen still today.  I mean some of the bigger disasters like the oil spill I knew of, but I feel that environmental issues aren't really something that is pushed very hard in the media today.  We can have the update about any celebrity in seconds, but I don't think that people care so much for environmental disasters.

2. Environmental tragedies still exist today; what can we do today to mitigate these problems? 

I think that everyone needs to be held a little more accountable for what they throw away and how they do it.  I feel that we as just simple citizens can really help cut down on trash, or use more biodegradable products.  I also think that we could really help our environment if companies cut back on over packaging their products.  So many products these days come in four different plastic wrapping and it is very unnecessary.  We need to stop over packing our items.

3. Why should we care about something that happened over 30 years ago?

We have so much to learn from the past and the mistakes that those before us have made.  If we hare able to see where they went wrong, we can hopefully not make the same mistakes.  Also some environmental problems such as harmful chemicals, the damage to human lives doesn't manifest itself till years down the road in the form of cancer and other harmful defects.