LOVE CANAL TRAGEDY COMMENTS - SOPHIE JULIANA

LOVE CANAL FACEBOOK/TEXT/IN PERSON COMMENTS: Were you aware of environmental tragedies such as these and that they still occur today?

I also knew that environmental tragedies still occur today, but that doesn't mean they don't cease to surprise me! You would think that by now we would've learned a few things, and after watching the Love Canal video it is just scary to me that you might by a house and not be told in the deed what is underneath it. It really stresses the importance to me about being inquisitive and observant for things like that. I've also spent some time recently in my Environmental Health class talking about disasters such as the Chernobyl nuclear reactor disaster in Ukraine. It makes me really hope that our communities are taking as many precautions as they can! –Erin

I was aware that disasters like these are happening, but I think that many people don't realize how regularly they actually do occur and that they have long-term effects on the population. A lot of disasters aren't even focused on or televised because the news tends to focus on more sensationalized stories. When we do hear about things like this on the news, they are big headlines but are later easily forgotten. More awareness about these problems needs to be raised and there needs to be more emphasis on long-term consequences of these disasters. – Susan

I was aware that these disasters occurred, both natural and manmade. These are common occurrences and I doubt we will see a decline in them. – Neal

Yep... I was aware of environmental disasters and tragedies still happen, such as these. I feel that the biological hazards are more common than they may seem. ­– Trevor

I know that this sort of stuff still happens today. I think most of the time people try to cover it up and hide it so they don’t get bad publicity. I didn’t know about the particular event in the video but I know these disaster still occur. – Jenny

Yes I was aware, things like fracking and oil spills cause havoc in the environment regularly – Logan

I actually did know that environmental tragedies such as the one that happened in Love Canal, New York still occur today. In high school, I took an Advanced Placement Environmental Science class in which we talked about this very event. Similarly, I learned about modern environmental disasters last semester when I took a geography course. My geography class had a unit entitled "Technological Disasters" in which we talked about environmental disasters that are still occurring today as a result of human ignorance, or just plain mistakes. I find all of this very interesting because people do not believe that there are still big disasters occurring today because the media chooses exactly what will be told to the general public. I think people will remain ignorant to the facts until they truly make an effort to learn, and the media truly makes an effort to teach and instruct. – Parker

Yes I already knew about them. – John

So..here's what I think the birth defects were probably a result from air or water pollution where the contaminants were distributed through those mediums so that's a violation of the Clean Air and Water Act so I don't know how you could go about it but the best would be to sue the company for negligence and damages and have them clean up the site. I wouls say that the chemical waste dump must pay the families that have children who have birth defects. The money should cover the expenses of medical care and for happiness. I am aware that these tragedies still exist! - Jihyun

It just sounds like a bad idea in the first place chemical dumping sites and people mixed. I know that people live by dumping sites but I've never heard of towns being put on top of dumping sites. – Marina

MY RESPONSES:

To what degree do tragedies such as these impact you and your family on a day-to-day basis?

My first thought was that my family bears the tax burden of cleaning up these types of disasters when the corporations can’t be held accountable for something they did years and years ago. My family may not live in a disaster area, but the existence of these disasters impacts how we live and what we can spend on our own lifestyle and health.

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

            I believe that the most important aspect of mitigating these problems is educating corporations that may have incentives to take short cuts, as well as educate them of the consequences to them. There needs to be strict enforcement and companies should not be allowed to pass off the clean-up bill to taxpayers; it’s their fault and they need to take responsibility for it so other corporations see that the corner-cutting isn’t worth the penalty if the pipes fail/ the toxic waste makes children sick/ etc.

Why do we care about something that happened 30 years ago?

            Educating ourselves about the past is the most effective tool we have to prevent future tragedies from occurring. Without learning from our past mistakes we can’t effectively move on and make our world a safer place for our children and their children. If we allow ourselves to forget about the past then we are doomed to repeat their mistakes.