Love Canal Report- Lexi Crandall

Environmental/ Occupational: Love Canal Report
Lexi Crandall

I posted a video documenting the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Crisis in Japan in 2011. I also included an article about the Love Canal.

My response and answers to 3 questions:
    Of course environmental tragedies affect me on a regular basis, not directly, but because I believe strongly that because we are living on this earth and that means we have a unique relationship with it where we depend on it and vice versa. When tragedies like Fukushima Daiichi (and even more so the ones that are preventable) occur, it affects me seeing as how I inhabit the same earth that the people of Japan do, or those impacted by Chernobyl, or the animals affected by the recent oil spill in the Gulf. I was surprised with most of my family and friends’ responses to my post. A lot of them seemed to not be too concerned with environmental tragedies because they weren’t physically affecting or threatening them. I submit that maybe that is at the root of our problems. We are careless with our off-shore drilling, our nuclear plants, our power plants etc. We are careless and we use expansion and productivity as an excuse to neglect precautions that would reduce mishaps. If we are more careful with our endeavors to challenge the natural state of the environment, then these tragedies will not only become less frequent, they could become completely non-existent. If companies take the few extra steps and put forth a little more effort to ensure the safe execution of their projects, we will all be better for it. Whether my friends and family agree or not, the constant degradation of the environment by ignorant people who claim that it doesn’t affect them is an issue we can’t afford to ignore much longer. Before too long, the products of our filth will threaten the sand-white beaches of Malibu and maybe then we can start taking action in the name of protecting OUR homes.


Reactions of friends and family to the question
        “In your opinion are environmental hazards something we should be concerned about on a daily basis?”
   

“Ok, so to watch that it's easy to say "yes, yes, yes!! We should definitely be concerned about that." But then there really are countless other things we should care about too. Like human sex trafficking, children soldiers, the oppression in North Korea... Too be honest is it really PRACTICAL to care "on a daily basis"?

And also it brings up the question of Foreign Policy. As humans do we have an obligation to help and care for one another, or in the U.S. should our citizens be top priority? Does the jobs and obesity (just random examples) matter more than lives/cancer simply because of citizenship and "jurisdiction" of government? I don't know.
It's slightly off topic for me to say so, but with wars on communism for instance sometimes I'm tempted to say "America is not the police for the rest of the world!" But then I hear about how truly, truly bad North Korea is and I feel like I want to do something! Or with Iraq I wonder "why make it our business?" But I remember how I am soo soo glad we helped end the holocaust and had intelligence where we could have intervened sooner.”

“no. because as long as I’m fine, I’m good.”

“No. Because why should i be concerned with something that is out of my control? If you were a worker there at the plant then yeah you should be concerned. But there are safety precautions and other preventions hopefully that take care of them. But I have no control over it.”


“I think proper safety precautions should be taken so we won’t need to worry about them so much.”

“Environmental issues aren't something we should have to worry about on a regular basis, because environmental issues are anthropogenic. Humans are the cause of them, so we should be able to prevent them, because we know full well what we are getting ourselves into. Obviously there are cases that cannot be avoided like this Japanese Fukushima power plant meltdown being caused by a tsunami, but there is something to be said about the amount of protection put into the plant to prevent nuclear waste from leaking into the environment, even in the event of a natural disaster. However, with other environmental accidents recently such as the oil spill in the gulf, and not so recently as Chernobyl, they were caused by human fallibility. Whether that be lack of following proper procedure or faulty construction, these major environmental issues were caused by humans. We shouldn't have to worry about nuclear radiation getting into our homes because we should build safe power plants that house nuclear waste, and take care to make sure those plants are properly managed. We shouldn't have to worry about polluting our oceans with thousands of gallons of oil, because we should have built a reliable oil pipeline in the first place and had workers constantly monitoring it. If we take care to make these establishments of the highest quality in the first place, we won't have to worry about their negative effects everyday because it is less likely there will be any. Same goes with environmental degradation not due to "accidents" such as these. If we look toward the future instead of only caring about now when it comes to making environmental decisions, we won't have to worry on a daily basis about rising sea levels, increased global temperatures, or habitat and forest loss. If we are smart about our actions now in terms of the environment even in simple ways like recycling, carpooling, and conserving energy and water, we won't place on future generations issues that they didn't cause, but have to deal with everyday.”


“Being concerned by taking everyday precautions to ensure the safest practices possible yes, of course. One OOPS in situations like these can have consequences not just on one life span but multiple generations. Especially when dealing with radiation an other toxic loads. We should be concerned about learning from past mistakes. Making sure to learn from a bad situation and moving forward.”


“A weekly basis would suffice.”


“Definitely. I’m always concerned when I hear that companies are trying to bring hazardous material into Utah. I definitely want to know and have my say on whether these hazards can be a threat to the community.”


“I think we should be concerned frequently and just keep an eye out to preserve the environment.”

“I think we should worry about the environment often. The Love Canal could have been prevented with better planning and construction.”