A recent example
of an environmental tragedy was the oil leak in 2010 that affected the Gulf of
Mexico. I found an article and then posted the following question on
Facebook:
Please read the article. How do
environmental tragedies affect you on a daily basis? Why should we care about
them?
Comments:
1. The environment affects all
of us. Recently in Utah County, we've had poor air quality. This
has made is tough for me to run outside and exercise like I normally do.
We should care because it's our health at stake.
2. The really big tragedies
that you hear about usually are not relevant to you and your life. But
it's always a wake-up call to realize that at any time, that same thing could
happen to you. We should care because the environment is our home.
3. To be honest, tragedies
don't affect me daily; however, the small things that occur have a large
affect. Recently, I've noticed how smoggy it is and hard to breathe.
The environment is having a direct effect on my life.
4. “Tragedy” is kind of a
relative term. The tragedies that I’ve
seen lately may seem small, but they are huge to me. I can’t believe how large the outbreak of the
flu has been this season. So many
children, my own included, have been very sick.
Our schools have been infested with the disease and something needs to
change.
5. My environment
has been so dirty lately. I’ve seen a
lot of trash that has not been disposed of properly. If something isn’t done soon, I think that my
family is at risk for some sort of infection or disease.
6. There has been
a recent case of strep throat going around the schools. Every day I’m worried that my kids are going
to come home with it too. I think that
something needs to be done in the schools to prevent the kids from getting
sick.
7. I personally
haven’t experienced many environmental tragedies. But, I can imagine that it would be very
detrimental to your health. I think that
we should care about helping others who have experienced tragedy because they
are in need. If something were to happen
to Caldwell, Idaho I’d want people to be concerned and I’d want action to be
taken to protect us.
8. I don’t
usually think about the environment and how it impacts me, but this winter has
been extremely poor air quality. It’s
been all over the news and has been a big deal.
I guess that has been an example of environmental health.
9. Environmental
tragedies do not cross my mind every day.
In fact, the only time that I know about tragedies is on the news. But, I think that we should care because
there are people that are in need. I’m
grateful that we have a government that is willing to put forth funds and
effort to help those experiencing health-damaging tragedies.
10. I remember
this article about the Gulf of Mexico oil leak.
It was all over the news and was so sad to read about the damage that
the oil did to the life forms in the water. I may not think about tragedies
daily, but I do think that we as a society should be informed and concerned for
the welfare of others.
My Own Reactions
Were you aware that environmental tragedies of this
magnitude still exist today?
No, I wasn’t aware of
so many tragedies that still occur. When
I was looking for an article about recent environmental tragedies, I was
surprised by how many occur daily. It
was a wake-up call for me to see just how much the environment affects lives
everywhere.
To what degree do environmental tragedies affect you/your
family on a day to basis?
I grew up in a pretty
safe and healthy environment. I don’t
recall any disastrous events happening in my community. From day to day, I was
not concerned about the environment because it was very clean and healthy.
However, since I’ve moved to Provo I have been concerned especially about the
air quality. We drive so much here an
smog is particularly apt to form here. This winter, it was very hard for me to
exercise outside because I had a hard time breathing.
Why should we care about something that happened over 30 years
ago?
We should always be
concerned about the past. As we learned
with Love Canal, the past affects the present.
Past issues aren’t always solved and need to be taken care of now. In addition, we need to learn lessons from
the past. Since Love Canal, the
government is more involved and cautious about purchasing land and protecting
the health of citizens. We should care about past events so that we know how to
deal with present issues.
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