There are a lot of facets of the environmental movement. Global atmospheric temperatures
increasing, the destruction of our forests, the melting of icecaps, endangered species,
pollution for days and the nastyness and prevalence of fossil fuels. But as bad as all of those
are on their own, what’s worse is how they all come together and dramatically and disproportionately
affect low-income and minority communities around the world.
This is environmental racism.
And in my mind, it is the single largest issue the global community is facing right now.
So let’s talk about Flint, Michigan. Perhaps the most visible case of environmental racism
right now. What happened?
I’m generalizing a bit here, but like nearby Detroit, when U.S. car manufacturing started
to nose dive lots of people and lots of money left the area, seriously damaging the city's
economy. Also, Michigan has a law that allows for the appointment of emergency managers
in times of crisis, like a financial crisis. They can basically do whatever the f they
want without going thru the normal, you know, voting thing.
Flint’s first emergency manager was appointed in 2002.
And there is a messy and confusing history of emergency managers between then and now.
Then in April of 2014, the emergency manager, Ed Kurtz and Mayor Dayne Walling decided to
switch water supplies from Detroit’s to the Flint River.
And that’s when Flint citizens noticed a change in the look, smell and taste of their
tap water.
So what’s wrong with the Flint River water? Well there are a lot of ways bodies of water
moving thru a populous city can get polluted. But there are a few concrete ideas going around.
Investigations are now ongoing that GM dumped a load of crap and chemicals into the Flint
River in the 60s and then buried it up. Interestingly enough, GM actually switched water sources
in 2014 when they noticed the water from the Flint River was corroding their machinery.
Additionally, the Flint River could have gotten full up with Chloride as a result of the salt-laden
runoff from deicing streets. The runoff from road salts settles to the bottom of pipes
and clogs them up real good. We’ve seen this build up in all sorts of snowy areas,
with chloride concentrations in northern US states approximately doubling from 1990 to
2011. Michigan is known to be particularly salty, with high levels of chloride in streams
near urban areas. When Flint switched their water supply from Lake Huron to the Flint
River, they suddenly found themselves facing eight times the amount of chloride.
You’d think the water on its own would be enough of an issue. But because it was full
of corrosives, the water began to strip and erode the pipes -- which because they were
installed before people realized how awful awful lead is, were full of lead. Normally
this kind of issues is solved with orthophosphate, or another corrosion inhibitor. They work
by increasing the pH, decreasing the acidity, of the water and coat the old pipes to keep
them from corroding and leaking terrifying things like lead into the water. For some
inane, possibly cost cutting reason, Flint stopping using a corrosion inhibitor when
they switched water sources, letting all that toxic build-up flow freely into people’s
homes. They’ve switched water sources back now, thank goodness, but too much damage has
already been done.
Flint residents have been demanding help and action since right after the switch. But as
Hillary said: HILLARY: If the kids in a rich suburb of Detroit had been drinking contaminated
water and being bathed in it, there would have been action.
And she’s right.
This is the crux of the environmental justice movement.
Though government officials were aware of resident complaints as early as JUNE 2015,
and arguably long before, a state of emergency wasn’t declared until January 5, 2016. And
all that time, government officials told the public that their water was safe.
FLINT RESIDENT AARON STINSON: People knew that the water was going to be poison. People
knew that we were going to get sick. People knew that there were gonna be backlash.
PROTESTERS: What do we want? Clean Water! When do we want it? NOW!
LEEANNE WALTERS: Broken policy and procedures are smothering the outcry of an entire community
suffering, financially, physically, mentally, and emotionally.
FLINT RESIDENT: It's sad that this city has come to this, this is a great city, it's sad
that it has come to this.
PROTESTERS: Flint lives matter. Flint lives matter.
Nearly 9000 children under the age of six, most of them children of color, have been
exposed to lead from Flint’s water. Lead exposure is dangerous for people of every
age, but is particularly hazardous for young children. Any amount of lead poisoning in
children can lead to permanent learning disabilities.
Also, for all those folks, asking why anyone would be so stupid to drink brown or red or
muddy water. For the most, what changes the color - isn’t what's gonna hurt you - thats
mostly do to iron from pipes - a relatively harmless, and often useful mineral. You can’t
see, or smell, or taste lead. The water could run clear, and in some places in Flint it
did, and still have lead in it. Plus saying things like this assumes folks have the resources
to purchase bottled water or filters which simply isn’t always true. Water, clean water,
is a recognized human right. And its important to remember that.
So what about Flint’s future? Housing values have plummeted. Would you ever
consider moving to flint now? For some people whose only equity is their home, it is now
worthless.
And an entire generation of children has lead poisoning - a neurological poison - are we
still going to be helping and talking about flint when the water is clean but thousands
of kids need a customized education that will help them live and learn with whatever disabilities
might arise?
This is a race and environment thing - not /just/ an infrastructure or old pipes thing,
not just a bureaucracy thing. this didn’t happen because paperwork was ‘accidentally’
misplaced. or because government is just slowwww. This happened because in the united states,
black people in particular have been disenfranchised and effectively segregated long after Civil
Rights Act of 1964 was passed. Black people and people in poverty have been pushed to
the outskirts for decades.
And it is even more obvious zooming out from flint. Lets think about how cities are constructed.
This is a heat map of apartment costs in the greater new york city area. The darker the
red, the more expensive. Now i’ll lay in the demographics. No big surprise, the darker
red matches up pretty well with the majority white areas. Now look what happens when I
drop in highways, sewage plants, other sanitation facilities, chemical producing factories,
airports and power plants. It is pretty easy to see the reality of this systemic problem.
And it gets worse. Because going ‘green’ is more or less in vogue now politically and
culturally - so we see some hopefully well-intentioned responses. But if i lay in the cities green
spaces and eco friendly air cleaning solutions and other initiatives those fall in the richer,
whiter areas. The places that by comparison, need these kinds of solutions, don’t get
them.
And this isn’t just a nyc thing. It happens in almost every major city. Los Angeles, Chicago,
Detroit, and DC, among hundreds of others.
And as bad as environmental racism has gotten in the U.S. it would be naive to not look
at this issue in a global context.
The U.S. and Europe effectively export our pollution. We ship the nastiness of clothing
production, manufacturing, waste management and a lot of fossil fuel energy production
overseas.
And it just keeps getting worse. Global temperature rising is associated with sea-level rise and
island-nations around the world are being flooded. Communities that have done NOTHING
to contribute to the global climate crisis are the first to suffer the consequences.
Island nations like Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands will likely be underwater within the
century.
And we see indigenous communities and their lands destroyed by ventures to extract fuel
or build pipelines.
But there is some good here, some progress is being made. The new PM of Canada, Justin
Trudeau just agreed that all new pipelines would be subject to a serious climate test
and will directly consult with First Nation communities impacted by the proposed Trans
Mountain and Energy East pipeline projects. And around the country and globe, local initiatives
bringing green spaces and environmental solutions have expanded.
The events in Flint, especially, have begun to create a national conversation about environmental
justice. Both democratic nominees for president have spoken loudly, and incredibly publicly
during the debates about the Flint crisis and environmental justice
In light of all this, what can you do? For flint - I’ve included links below for
resources to donate bottled water, filters or money - as well as loads of links to learn
more about the crisis.
For your own city or town, you can attend council meets and vote to ensure that greening
and eco friendly initiatives are built where they are needed and conversely, waste plants
and other factories are not concentrated exclusively in low income areas. Although it took far
too long, the citizens of Flint were loud, and continued to speak out until the country
and the media took notice. Let their activism be a shining example for how this kind of
institutional and environmental racism can be combatted.
And globally, we can all work together to hold our nations to their word from the Paris
Climate talks and not to allow the global atmospheric temperatures to rise more than
2ºC. Thanks so much for watching I hope you like
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a fantastic day. By333!