NRE301 Final Project Paper
What did we learn from making this web page?
Our group learned a variety of lessons while working on this web
page. For one thing we learned a lot more about Environmental Justice in
general. For instance we discovered that the people most affected by the
consequences of toxic waste dumps are those people who have the least
power and money. We also learned that it affects communities all over
including many in Michigan who are near us in Ann Arbor. The issue of
Environmental Justice is not some far away thing
that we can keep ignoring. One thing that surprised us was how many
organizations are involved in the Environmental Justice movement. There
turned out that there were a great deal more than we expected.
Environmental Justice is a growing movement that is gaining speed as more
people find the ability to express themselves and speak out against the
problem.
We also obtained a lot of knowledge about how to use the web
ourselves to search for information. Much of what we found was too broad
and we had to search through it all to find the data that was relevant to
our own page. While making our page we tried to put information on it
that would help not just college students, but a wide variety of people.
Most of our group also gained better computer skills that will be valuable
to us in the future.
What issues did we identify?
The main issue that we identified was that this problem of
environmental injustice has a lot
to do with power and money. The people who are affected by it are those
who have very little money and don't have the power to fight the big
corporations who are polluting their neighborhoods. These communities
tend to be areas of high minority populations.
Another issue is the cost of cleaning up toxic waste. The clean-up
process takes a lot of money to do and no one wants to pay for it. It is
often hard to track the companies who actually were in charge of polluting
the property in the first place. It is also hard to determine how
hazardous the toxic waste plants in these neighborhoods are to the health
of the people who live near them.
As well as being a hazard to the communities who live around them,
toxic waste plants are also unwelcome because of the pollution they cause
and the way they look. No one wants an ugly, foul-smelling factory in
their neighborhood but only those with money and power have the resources
to keep them away. Because of this fact, big corporations manipulate
underprivileged people in order to keep costs down and opposition to a
minimum.
How can these issues be solved?
These are difficult issues and they are going to take a long time to
solve because of the money and prejudice that is involved in them. We
feel that the best way to solve these problems is to educate people about
them. The people who especially need to be made aware are those living in
the communities affected. They need to know what they can do in order to
get rid of the injustice inflicted upon their communities. If these
communities are able to fight back then the corporations responsible for
the toxic waste and pollution will think twice about putting their plants
there.
We hope that in making this web page we have had some part in
educating people about this issue and the steps they can take in order to
help solve it. Through informing others about this problem we hope that
we have been part of the solution.
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