Cross-Cultural Blog

Gold lust has led to wars, genocide, and ruined environments, like at Summitville. The destruction of nature at Summitville demonstrates the greedy mentality of many corporations and individuals that nature is there merely for our use. The horrible misconduct and carelessness of the mining company exposes a mentality of greed and consumption without thought for protecting natural environments or the future consequences of the destruction of nature.

Summitville Mine also exposes a sad truth of environmental disasters in the world. It is too often the poor and disenfranchised communities of the world that are the most greatly affected by environmental disasters. Galactic Resources, a huge corporation, entered the community and began to mine. The people of the Alamosa River watershed were not warned of the potential environmental impacts of the mine. They weren’t even offered jobs. The community doesn’t have the monetary means to reclaim the mine site and restore it to a natural landscape, so the evidence of the exploitation of the community remains today with the bald mountain and the dead river that flows from the mine.

Documenting a Dead River

Bouncing down the dusty dirt road. The windows are rolled down. Dust fills the back seats, and we yell at Dad to close the window. Winding up the mountain roads, climbing through dry lowlands into the more lush coniferous forests of the mountains; from piñon trees in the foothills to aspen and Douglas fir in the higher mountains. Mom stops the car, and we all pile out. She grabs the water sampling kit and heads toward the river. First she samples the oxygen content of the water and the temperature. She calls out information, and I write it down. Stunter Campground, June 4, 2008. Water temperature 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Slightly cloudy, air temperature 68 degrees Fahrenheit. She wades through the rushing water back to the shore. We sit down to eat a tuna sandwich, listening to the reddish-green water of the river. We all get back in the car and get out about two miles downstream, at where the main river meets Whitman Fork. Whitman Fork should be called “white water fork”. The water that runs from this tributary looks like milk, unnaturally creamy, staining the rocks a chalky gray color. On rainy days, when lots of pollutants from the mine upstream get washed downstream, the pH measurement can be as low as four. Whitman Fork drains from Summitville Mine. I look downstream a few feet to where this water mixes with the main river. It looks like milk being diluted into a stream of chocolate. We get back into the car again and head toward Jasper, where we repeat the process of testing temperatures, oxygen, pH. Jasper was a mining town in the 1800’s, where over 500 people lived in the hills and made their living digging for gold. Now there are only a few cabins, and the road is closed in the winter because of the snow. In the hills above Jasper, I can see where intrepid miners staked claims, dug out some dirt, and left a pile as a reminder of their presence. Again, we get into the car. We pass Terrace Reservoir, the green of the water contrasting the red of the dirt. Green from copper, red from iron. There used to be fish in this water. The water used to be blue. The dirt used to be brown, with little flecks of gold in it. Now the gold is gone, and the dirt is red and the water is green. The pH used to be normal, around 7.5. Now it’s 5.5, or 6 on a good day. The water kills the fish, and it also hurts the farmers that depend on it to water their crops. Culverts and sprinkler pipes have to be replaced every few years because the acid eats the metal. We stop at Gomez, the last sampling station on the river. As I watch Mom wade out into the water, I wonder if her efforts to monitor the water will make a difference. I wonder if the river will ever come back to life; if there will ever be fish swimming in blue water here.

Tricia Sataua
American Samoa

A Lost River: The Fate of the Citarum River

The polluted view of the Citarum River is a disturbing example of human disregard and neglect of the environment. During the past several decades, the rise of urbanization in Indonesia has led the Citarum River to its fate of becoming one of the world’s dirtiest rivers. A severely polluted river, the Citarum River is no longer a safe place for fishing; instead it has become an unpleasant source for domestic waste. The increase of industrialization over the past several decades led to an increase in the number of corporations and huge factories built along the banks of the river. Many of them have used the river as a garbage dump, pouring textile treatment chemicals and other hazardous waste into the river water. The thick layer of debris covering the water is the result of the lack of appropriate garbage dumps in the area and very poor waste management. The Citarum River used to play a crucial role in the lives of millions of people who live in the basin of the river. The river used to be an undisturbed canal where villagers caught fish and collected clean, fresh water. Sadly, even though the river is incredibly polluted, villagers still collect the dangerous water to drink and use it for other domestic uses, such as bathing and washing clothes. Low-income communities who live around the river can longer depend on the Citarum River for fishing. Instead of fishing, people search for domestic products that can be sold or traded. The carelessness and greediness of the factories who are far more concerned about gaining profit than preserving the environment have placed the health of millions of people at risk, jeopardized the wildlife, and threatened the living of poor fishing families.

In today’s society, mankind plays a crucial role in the destruction of the environment. Although each class in society contributes to the destruction of the environment, those who are in power play a major role. The story behind the Citarum River gives an example of the negative effects of urbanization and industrialization on low-income communities around the world. Millions of people who live in third world countries are victims of the exploitation of the environment by those who are in power. The image represents the tendency of man to gain power, control, and wealth, without any consideration of the environment and the quality of the life of others. The image illustrates the point that technology and its advancements are not worth the price of the destruction of nature and the eventual destruction of man. The destruction of ecological systems and environmental pollution can directly lead to the destruction of mankind. Millions of people who depend on the Citarum River for water supply are at risk of waterborne diseases. The lives of these poor, disadvantaged communities are at stake.

Ayana Wilson
New Orleans, LA

Hurricane Katrina Must Not Be Forgotten

http://www.katrinadestruction.com/images/v/new+orleans+flood/

Hurricane Katrina in one frame

This is a photograph of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, LA in 2005; the sight captured was quite common throughout the lower ninth ward in New Orleans. At least six houses are submerged in water from the resulting floods of the hurricane and in the middle of the photograph there is a small, residential rescue boat that appears to be looking for survivors that might be stranded on floating pieces of wood or on rooftops. In this particular picture, the rescue boat seems to be heading towards two people, a man and a woman, who are sitting on top of a roof to bring them to safety. Perceiving the enormous depth of the floodwater is quite easy: the greenery present in the picture consists of the tops of trees; one of the trees appears to be completely submerged except for about a foot that is above water. In the very middle of the picture there is a telephone line that has been destroyed and is close to falling over. Even though there are only six readily ostensible houses in the photograph, more houses that have been completely submerged in the water are just barely perceivable beneath the surface upon second look. All of the houses on either side of the street in the picture are positioned right next to each other, creating the illusion that the street which they line is very narrow and that this area of the city that used to be was poor and overcrowded.

The Implications of Hurricane Katrina

Few people realize that the poor areas of New Orleans, which are also the predominantly African-American areas, were polluted even before Hurricane Katrina killed thousands of people, displaced millions of New Orleans residents, and wholly transformed the area into a toxic wasteland. The 85-mile stretch from New Orleans to Baton Rouge was home to many African-American communities, as well as 136 petrochemical plants and six refineries; because of the massive amounts of pollution and environmental degradation caused by this cluster of industry, the communities that comprised the area were named “Cancer Alley.” Resulting from greenhouse gas emissions and subsequent climate change, Hurricane Katrina was an unnatural disaster that disproportionally affected poor African-Americans in New Orleans who were already the victims of the environmental injustice and racism that forced their communities to also accommodate industry of this type and magnitude.

When the levee system failed and New Orleans was submerged in floodwaters, the Superdome became a refuge island surrounded by several feet of water and polluted by oil and debris. Conditions inside the stadium unnecessarily continued to diminish - at least two people died inside the Superdome within the first 36 hours. While much of New Orleans lies below sea level and is consequently structurally vulnerable to hurricanes and floods, governments at all national levels neglected to undertake requisite precautions to mitigate risks and ensure efficient and effective evacuation procedures. The levee system, which is crucial for a concave city like New Orleans that is surrounded on three sides by water, had not been rebuilt to withstand a Category 4 or 5 storm before Hurricane Katrina hit even though there was sufficient meteorological evidence that indicated that such a storm would inevitably occur in the area.

The situation in New Orleans elucidated three critical, national issues: the undeniable reality of climate change and subsequent environmental disasters; the gross economic inequalities and disparities that persist in this nation and highly correlate to race; climate change’s disproportional impact on the socio-economically disadvantaged, which comprises a majority of the racial minorities in this country. The environmental and economic vulnerability of people of color and poor communities because of environmental racism and other facets of environmental injustice were the fundamental causes of Hurricane Katrina. The areas that were completely destroyed were the lower ninth ward, a community of poor working class, mostly African-American homeowners, and the New Orleans East area, composed of mostly African-American professionals and business owners. Because the magnitude and destruction of Hurricane Katrina were undeniably the results of decades of governmental neglect, deeply-rooted racism and the increasingly severe impacts of climate change, the tragedy was an assessment of how the nation will react when confronted with the deadly impacts of its disregard for the environment on those whom it has routinely marginalized and exploited through environmental racism and injustice.

Final Remarks

All three pictures capture instances of stories that resulted from forms of environmental injustice. We ordered our pictures in this way because we believe that they create a type of visual crescendo and that the stories of discrimination behind them chronologically increase in explicitness, outrage and dismay. When organizing our thoughts and feelings about our pictures and the overriding themes, we spent much of our time meditating on the connections among environmental discrimination, climate change, the widening socio-economic disparities in this nation, the egregious greed of Wall Street, capitalism, and the current global economic crisis. We wondered if the divide between humanity and nature, between men and men, and the exploitation that underlies both divisions has finally reached a point beyond which it can no longer continue; if in our time we would be able to effectively confront the aforementioned issues and repair the divisions that alienate man from nature and man from himself. We urge you to consider such questions as well.