Lead Poisoning Disproportionate Among Minority Community

Lead exposure is a preventable environmental health concern. As individuals at the lower end of the socioeconomic spectrum are more likely to be exposed to lead, this exposure may be an important contributor to the achievement gap. The lead in the drinking water caused brain damage, and cognitive problems in youth children. There are many reasons for high level of lead poison in minority community such as urban drinking water systems are more likely to be fluoridated than suburban and rural water systems, affecting blacks and Hispanics more than whites, commonly used fluoridation chemicals cause increased absorption of lead, and this lead-absorbing effect is more pronounced in, and the lack of education about the harm of lead poison in minority community.

Exposure to lead can have an effect on a child’s development and behavior. Exposed to a small among of lead in child development stage will causing speech delay, hyperactivity, attention deficit disorder, learning disabilities, behavioral disorders, neurological and renal damage, stunted growth, anemia, hearing loss, and in some rare cases mental retardation. Children who have a high level of lead poison may appear inattentive, hyperactive and irritable. They might have problems with learning and reading, delayed growth and hearing loss. 

Food Justice

Food Justice

By Joshua Davison

                Many low income families across the nation have no access to clean water or fresh and healthy food.  This is commonly seen as an issue that is only affecting countries that are war torn or have great amounts of poverty.  This just is not the case.  It is happening right here in America.

                In many poverty stricken urban areas there are “food deserts”.  Places where the only food to come by might be a McDonald’s, a 7-Eleven, or a Pizza Hut.  These places certainly do not have fresh wholesome ingredients that growing adolescents and even adults need to live healthy lifestyles.  In a food desert you are not able to find fresh food for a about a mile around where you live.

One area of Detroit has some couple hundred liquor stores to two grocery stores.  It is obvious that urban planning needs some sort of a revival in the terms of fresh food sources.  We need to build a movement that brings the farm worker back into the urban environment.  An amazon.com of food if you will.  People need to be able to get the food they want and the food that they rightly deserve.  Social issues must take this into effect and to change it.  Does anyone have any ideas on how we might change food deserts in America?

Where have all the open air markets and fresh produce stores gone?!

               

               

Source: http://www.greenforall.org/blog/food-justice-is-environmental-justice-is-social-justice/?searchterm=None

Our Most Recent Nuclear Disaster

Our Most Recent Nuclear Disaster

By Joshua Davison

Fukushima Plant melting down. As seen from the sea.

              

  Since I have been writing off and on all quarter about nuclear reactors and the harm they can impose upon people and their environments, in the go posts and this blog, I thought it would be nice to end up on the Japanese Fukushima disaster.  As you all may already know, after last year’s (almost exactly a year ago) earthquake in Japan the Fukushima Nuclear Plant experienced complete meltdowns in their 1, 2, and 3 reactors.  This means that these reactors means the core of the nuclear reactors at Fukushima accidently melted.  I will not go into details about how this happens, but will go more into how this effects the environment and its people.

                It has been reported that the radiation levels around the meltdown have approached the Chernobyl disaster of 1986, but are not quite as high as that mega disaster.  However, radioactively contaminated tap water had been reported as far away as Tokyo.  With massive amounts of people dying from cancers from the Chernobyl incident it makes you wonder what will come to be in Japan in this respect.  Many people in the surrounding areas have definitely exceeded their safe dose level of radiation during the time period.  Even today, Japan is not letting people into the area for long periods of time.

                We must begin to realize that maybe putting nuclear reactors around large population centers is probably not a good thing in case of meltdowns.  It certainly is not good to put nuclear reactors on highly unstable fault lines like Japan where earthquakes are commonplace.  As always, it is not the fat cat who gets hurt by this disaster, but the thousands of individuals who lost their homes and farmland to high radiation levels.  These people lost their livelihoods and Japan lost a great source of farmland in the Fukushima area because someone decided it was smart to put reactors on unstable fault lines and not keep the machinery up to speck.  When will the higher ups of government ever learn?

They need to start listening to the little man who is the most hurt by things like nuclear reactors, coal plants, or any other pollution inducing factory.

source: http://covertress.blogspot.com/2011/03/meltdown-taking-place-at-japans-daiichi.html

Hydraulic Fracking Hurting the Everyman

Hydraulic Fracking Hurting the Everyman

By Josh Davison

              

  I recently found this interesting website talking about the dangers of hydraulic fracturing.  As a Geology student I have recently been informed that these fractures can cause man-made earthquakes, but the problem itself goes much deeper.

Here is the website, you really need to look at it/it is fun and interactive: http://dangersoffracking.com/

                Now hydraulic fracking itself occurs normally through cross cutting formations propagating rocks in the forms of dikes veins.  It is inside these formed dikes and veins that a source of petroleum, natural gas, or coal can settle forming a reservoir of these valuable natural resources.  Energy companies are attempting to accelerate this process through means of injecting vast amounts of injecting fluid into the ground at a very high pressure in the attempt to fracture the shale and release the natural gases inside.  This is where the problem lies.

                It takes 1-8 million gallons of water to complete each fracturing job.  This water is mixed with sand and chemicals to create fracking fluid.  These chemicals include lead, uranium, radium, methanol, mercury, and formaldehyde among others.  During the process of injecting all of this into the shale underground it leaches out of the system to contaminate the groundwater.  For miles around a fracking site people may have contaminated ground water.  There have been over 1,000 cases of contamination in ground water from fracking sites leading to many different kinds of health concerns.  Of all this fracking fluid less than half is ever recovered and the rest is left to rot deep underground where residents get their groundwater.

                The dangers of fracking are very real and dangerous.  Most of these fracking sites are located among poor communities with ethnic minorities that cannot speak out for themselves.  It is time we all spoke out against fracking.  Let’s end it now.  Contact your local officials at the end of the link that has already been mentioned!

Fast food chains

Everywhere you turn there is always a fast food chain! Fast food does not only effect the obesity rates in the US, but it also effects the environment because it is not organic. Where the animal farms are that produce food for fast food chains, the water that is being fed to the animals is unhealthy and also the natural resources are not available to the animal farms. One of the main foods in the fast food chain is beef. Because of all the land that is used up to feed the cattle and for the cattle to graze, this leads to soil loss and a waste of water usage. There is also more energy that is used for fertilizers and pesticides. These two major factors of the unhealthyness and the wastage of supplies to feed the cattle that cause obesity is something that effects the entire echo system.
Catherine Watters 

video!

http://youtube.co/watch?v=SC3QpEQzXjg

I thought that because I do write about LA and how bad the over crowding and pollution is, this is a great video and it shows everyone first hand about the environmental justice issues in California!

Catherine Watters 

Beach conditions

Dockweiler beach, in southern California, is located right near the Los Angeles airport. Due to its locations, there is a lot of pollution, but because it is a state beach, there a pretty good trash pick up and cleaning system. At this beach there is a location for camping and recreational sports, but there are a lot of issues there that involve the environment.  Dockweiler is stereotyped as the “ghetto” beach, because it is located near Manhattan beach and also close to the Santa Monica pier. Due to its location, it is stereotyped as the lower income because it is surrounded by more of the wealthier areas. This is one of the few beaches where bonfires are permitted, allowing bonfires leads to a lot of trash. One of the other reasons this beach is considered the “ghetto” because is because of the jets passing through because it is the flight path of the LAX airport. This causes air pollution,  a lot of noise, and this is something that effects the wildlife at this each. With the landing zone being so close to the beach the loud sounds cause the wildlife to go to the beaches right near by. The landing zone issue is something that will never be resolved because it is so close to the airport, but the trash clean up and the permitting of bonfires is something that could be corrected so that the air pollution de creases. 

Catherine Watters 

Los Angeles

I come from southern California, where the environment is very different from the pacific northwest. There are a lot more people, but not only that there is trash everywhere, its 10 degrees hotter in down town LA than it is on the outskirts of LA. The reasoning for it being hotter is because there are a lot more people and a lot more vehicles in one area. One of the main things I notice is that certain parts of LA are nicer than others. When you enter the lower income areas, there are not a lot of trash pick ups, therefore it is very dirty, there is a lot of smog, and the building structure is not very nice. When you go to the nicer areas of LA, it is clean, there isnt smog and trash everywhere. How does this reflect upon society? Just people people (mostly people of color, other races, and cultures) live in the low income areas, why isnt there trash pick up there? Because of the racial conflicts in those areas? There are a lot of debates on racial conflict and why arent they areas as environmental friendly as others?

Catherine Watters 

California Aqueduct

The California  aqueduct system, is a man made river that has several tunnels, pipelines, and it conveys water to the whole state of California. Due to the dryness in California, there is a shortage of water, therefore this built this river so that water could be available to the whole state. The aqueduct goes from Sacramento all the way to the South Bay. They aqueduct is connected to several rivers and lakes thought California, so that it can continually be supplied.  The aqueduct also stores water so that when there is a drought of a water storage, the water can become a delivery system. The water is also supplied to the power plants and pumping plants in California and also one of its main purposes is to distribute agricultural water to certain areas throughout California. About 30% of the water goes to agriculture, epically in the valley. This project supplies water to 2/3 of the California population, and it also helps prevent flooding and it helps enhance wildlife and fish.

Catherine Watters 

Conserving energy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbiq_yd-znM&feature=pyv&ad=11568750823&kw=environment

This you tube clip is very informative about the different ways there are to conserve energy. It shows the air temperature VS the ground temperature, which explains the different and recent change in the climate. With the rising gas prices, this video is great for cooling temperatures that can help you save on gas!

Catherine Watters 

Fight Poverty

By Mary Navarro 

Millions of people die of hunger-related causes every year. However, that is not because of actual shortages of food, but is a result of social injustice and political, social and economic exclusion. No one gets to choose the family circumstances into which she or he is born; it’s like the flip of a coin. And although the total wealth of the world has never been greater, reliable access to basic resources is denied to the ballooning ranks of the world’s poor. The hardships faced by people living in poverty, include homelessness, the lack of sanitation and clean water, exploitation by employers and dangerous working conditions. While the context of and circumstances surrounding food injustice and insecurity vary from region to region, a common denominator exists: inadequate access to sufficient quantities of healthy food. There is also an inherent connection between food security and environmental sustainability, another victim of careless and exploitative food production and distribution. Food justice may focus on food, but it connects with issues like economic development, race and class inequities, education, vacant properties, and of course, environmental sustainability. Food justice accomplishes something else: by emphasizing alternative sources of food, it challenges the dominance of the corporate food industry. It reminds us that we have economic alternatives. What we eat and how we shop matters. Food justice aims to ensure that the benefits and risks of producing, distributing, and consuming food are shared fairly by everyone involved and to transform the food system to eliminate inequities. That’s a highly inclusive definition that encompasses everyone from the farmer to the tomato picker to the home cook and the corporation that sells canned goods or fast food. That defines food justice as a cross-class, multicultural movement that engages in a wide variety of work on local, regional, national, and global levels. The food justice movement includes efforts to create urban farms, community-supported agriculture projects, programs focused on getting fresh produce to people who live in food deserts, protecting the rights of workers on farms and in restaurants, and challenges to corporate farming practices that endanger the ecosystem – and much more.

sources: 


http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1017-01.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_justice