Tag Archives: #environmentaljustice

The New Ground Zero of Climate Change

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Bridge over river with cars moving. Man on boat on river. Overcast skies over building.
Bridge over river with cars moving. Man on boat on river. Overcast skies over building.

Overcast skies over the Gulshan Banani Bridge in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Photo credit: Catherine Baltazar

Amidst the conversations regarding climate change, the usual questions that arises is: “who are the biggest contributors to climate change?” In most cases, the common responses are: the United States, India and China –countries with large populations. Other times, people connect the answer to this question with socioeconomic wealth and assume that countries with money can simply afford to shrug these problems away or place the burden on those with less. What if we were to take the question and reverse it: “who are the most impacted by the effects of climate change?” This questions will be at the heart of the beat I am proposing.

With four times as many people as California squeezed into an area the size of the state of Georgia, Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated nations on our planet with 156.6 million inhabitants. In 2013, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its Fifth Assessment Report, which revealed various long-term implications for Bangladesh of highly probable catastrophic events and other climate change impacts. These effects would be manifested in manny forms including sea level rise, lack of economic resources, agricultural destabilization and decreasing access to safe drinking water. For Bangladeshis, the negative effects of climate change are occurring today. Every time a natural disaster hits, the people of Bangladesh muster their strength to collect their belongings and rebuild their homes, continuing where they left off. They progress at the best of their abilities. They have become the definition of resiliency. Survival, however, becomes difficult when the effects of climate change magnify the issue at hand.

The geographical location of the country, with its many rivers and tributaries, has always made the country extremely vulnerable to natural disasters. Climate change will intensify the frequency and strength of storms, which can have a rippling effect across the country. I would like to focus my beat on further understanding the implications of these effects on various communities.

People Power: The Fight for Environmental Justice Continues in Southeast Los Angeles

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Community members rally in front of a school near Exide in Maywood, CA.

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The unexpected closure of the Exide Technologies facility in Vernon, California in March 2015 left the communities of Southeast Los Angeles with more questions than answers: What is the full extent of the Exide’s contamination given their egregious record of environmental violations? Why are governmental agencies not responding more quickly to this public health emergency? And why is there a lack of resources and funding allocated to address this environmental justice issue? Although Exide’s contamination is a local problem, the answers to these questions provide ethical, political, economic, and social implications that are transferable to other communities negatively impacted by the activities of the lead-acid battery recycling industry.

Recent news reveals that over 10,000 homes in East and Southeast Los Angeles have been contaminated with lead, arsenic, and other hazardous chemicals that are characteristic of Exide’s activities. In the process of separating parts of lead-acid batteries and melting the lead that could be reused, Exide was responsible for emitting lead and other chemicals into nearby communities. The sheer number of homes and people affected should have prompted a quick response, but the failures at the Department of Toxic Substances Control prevented such action. Although the Department earmarked $9 million to remediate about 200 homes, the thousands more homes that require remediation could cost hundreds of millions of dollars. These revelations have created outrage and distrust among community members who believe the Department continues to perpetuate environmental injustice despite the fact that it was created to protect the public’s health.

Exide’s history in Vernon is not an anomaly, but it is representative of how a politically and socially disenfranchised community continues to be marginalized even after overcoming the hurdle of closing a polluting facility. Documenting the aftermath of Exide’s closure would increase visibility of this issue and also create a historical account for future reference.