How Environmental Factors Can Affect Communities and the Environment - Essay Example

? Environmental Justice: War Environmental Justice: War According to Butisingh (2008), “Mankind is systematically destroying the sensitive ecosystemswhich support life on earth. To date, very little effort is being made to stop and correct the damage being done” (Butisingh, 2008). Science and technology are rapidly advancing and based on that many changes are taking place in human life. Some of these changes are positive whereas others are negative. Nobody can underestimate the contributions of science and technology in raising the standard of living. At the same time, the same science and technology caused plenty of damage to the environment and nature so that the concerns over the sustainment of life in this world are growing. Atmospheric temperature rise and climate changes are causing damage at one side and environmental problems such as air pollution, land pollution and water pollution are raising threats on the other side. Energy crisis is one of the major problems facing by all the countries irrespective of developed or developing countries. The available natural energy sources are exhausting rapidly because of its nonrenewable nature. At the same time, energy needs are increasing day by day because of the heavy industrialization and the increased use of automobiles. In short, utilization of alternate energy sources became inevitable at present. Nuclear power is the alternate energy option most of the countries are trying to develop. Even though only few countries have the necessary technology to utilize nuclear power, many other countries are currently trying to develop nuclear energy technologies for their energy needs. One of the major problems associated with nuclear power technology is that it can be used for constructive as well as destructive objectives. In other words, nuclear power can be used not only for energy needs but also for making nuclear arsenal which can be used in wars. This paper analyses the topic environmental justice with the help of the impacts caused by nuclear wars and nuclear power reactor accidents upon communities. Environmental justice “Environmental Justice is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies” (Environmental Justice, 2012). Even though, United States like developed countries have brought forward concepts such as environmental justice, they are the major culprits in violating these concepts. For example, America is currently exporting many outdated electronic products to third world countries. Computers and mobile phones of the past decades are exporting to the third world countries free of cost. Third world countries on the other hand, accepting these free gifts with both hands. They do not know the intentions of America like countries. Actually these electronic wastes are causing huge damages to the environment and America like countries wanted to dispose it safely away from American territory. In short, poor people become the sufferers of such gifts. Public attention first was drawn to issue of environmental justice in 1982 with the Warren County residents in North Carolina opposing the location of a hazardous waste dump in their neighborhood (predominantly poor and black). The community challenged the identification of their neighborhood as a potential hazardous waste dump site on the ground that it was not necessarily the most environmentally sound choice. They argued that they had been chosen because their community seemed incapable of resisting (Mbote & Kullet, 1996, p.3) Nuclear disasters and environmental justice “On March 28, 1979, America experienced its worst nuclear accident - a partial meltdown of the reactor core at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant near Middletown, Pennsylvania”(Powell, 2010). Nobody can forget the nuclear power reactor accidents happened in Chernobyl and Fukushima. Even though the immediate damages caused by these accidents were not much serious, in the long run, thee accidents can cause huge damages to the environment and the living creatures near the accident sites. American government has conducted massive efforts to learn more about the long lasting striking power of the radiations liberated from the Three Mile Island disaster site. However, such efforts may not be successful since most of the damages caused by these accidents will be evident only in the long run. For example, cancer like serious diseases can be caused by these accidents. It is difficult to judge whether the reason for the cancer disease belong to these accidents or not since cancer diseases is prevalent everywhere in the world. “Because of the long period between exposure and eventual cancer it is difficult to attribute a particular cancer to a particular cause. The correlation is described as epidemiological, rather as the connection between smoking and lung cancer was statistically established before the medical links had been uncovered” (The effects of nuclear weapons, n.d.). It is a fact that Three Mile Island accident affected all the people surrounding the disaster site. However, it should be noted that wealthy people can definitely leave that place and purchase land and house somewhere else. Only the poor people will be forced to stay back in those sites even though they were aware of the consequences. In short, it is difficult to ensure environmental justice when nuclear disasters are taking place. Three Mile Island nuclear disaster has caused huge damages to the cattle. Many farmers near the accident site reported unusual problems to their cattle after the disaster. Farmers in the area started seeing symptoms in their cattle. They reported muscle and bone deficiencies never experienced before in the animals. Young steers could not stand up and dragged their hinds about. There were also increases in breeding problems and respiratory failures (Disasters: Three Mile Island, 1979). It should be noted that farmers belonging to the lower class in a society. When nuclear disasters like Three Mile Islands or Chernobyl strike the environment, the resources of the poor people will be affected more. One of the major problems associated with nuclear disasters is the long lasting environmental problems. The negative effects of nuclear disasters can last more than thousands of years. It should be noted that the fuels used in nuclear reactors have the ability to disintegrate themselves. For example, Uranium and Thorium like nuclear fuels disintegrate automatically and the disintegration process may last more than thousands of years. At the time of integration, these elements emit radiations such as Alpha, Beta and Gama. All these radiations have the ability to cause huge damages to the environment in one way or another. As stated earlier, wealthy people can definitely leave the affected areas whereas poor people forced to sustain their life in jeopardy in those areas. Poor people at Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu, India are currently engaged in a huge fight against the establishment of a nuclear power reactor. Majority of the people in this area are fishermen community and most of them are uneducated. Indian government is currently trying to establish some nuclear reactor plants at Kudankulam to counter the energy crisis. It should be noted that Indian government is trying to exploit the unawareness of the poor people with respect to the consequences of nuclear disasters. Howeevr, with the help of some educated people, Kudankulam people are currently fighting strongly against this project. Around 2000 anti-Nuclear activists were arrested as they tried to lay siege outside the Tamil Nadu assembly demanding the closure of the plant. The nuclear fuel has already been loaded in the plant which is awaiting approval from the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) for commissioning. The activists have decided to step up pressure even as the Supreme Court is hearing a petition challenging the approval given to the plant based on the fact that the safety recommendations made by the government-appointed task force have not been complied with (Daniel & Sheikh, 2012) Nuclear fuels have the ability to cause damage not only to the land, but also to the water and air. In other words, all the living creatures, irrespective whether it is living in land, air or water may face problems when nuclear disasters occur. At one point, during the Three Mile Island accident, “the plant operators released the radioactive water into the Susquehanna river, which is a source of drinking water for nearby communities. No one is really sure what effects these radioactive releases might have had on people living near the power plant” (Nuclear Disasters and Accidents, 1998). Even though science does know how to utilize nuclear energy, it doesn’t know how to control the situation when nuclear accidents occur. Disaster management mechanisms in the case of nuclear accidents are poor and hence nobody can expect the extent of damage a nuclear accident may cause to the environment. Nuclear waste disposal is the major issue associated with the utilization of nuclear energy for constructive purposes. “Nuclear wastes or Radioactive wastes are normally classified as low-level, medium-level or high-level wastes, according to the amount and types of radioactivity in them (Waste Management, 2007). Irrespective of the class, all nuclear wastes consist of harmful radiations like alpha, beta and gamma. These radiations have the ability to penetrate deep in to the skin and create cancer like health problems. Nuclear waste will be active not only in land but also in air and water. Moreover, these wastes will be active for thousands of years. Under such circumstances, preserving this waste until it becomes inactive is a herculean task. It is often accused that developed countries like America and Soviet Union are dumping radioactive nuclear waste in the coastal regions of developing or poor countries. “Reports from the European press states that Soviet Union is secretly dumping nuclear reactors and radioactive waste into the bordering seas” (Rao, n.d, p.1). Since it is difficult to identify the waste dumping in seas, developed countries are secretly dumping nuclear wastes into the sea near to the coastal areas of enemy countries. Moreover, NASA is currently trying to dump nuclear waste into outer universe. “The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) came up with a scheme for sending radioactive waste into this heliocentric orbit” (Hewitt, 1985). Nobody knows the after effects of dumping nuclear wastes into the sky. However, NAZA is still continuing with its project to dump the nuclear waste outside earth’s territory. Accurate estimates of long term fatalities at Hiroshima are not possible given the large scale destruction of records, population movements and a general censorship on nuclear effects by the US occupation regime. However the generally used minimum figure for immediate and short term deaths is 140,000 (The effects of nuclear weapons, 2012) Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki are still in front of us to evaluate the extent of damage nuclear bombs can cause to human life and the environment. It is reported that even after seventy years, life becomes extremely difficult near the disaster sites in these cities. “There is no such thing as an environmentally friendly war. The simplest act of a modern solider, shooting a rifle, will cause some environmental degradation because the heavy metal in the bullet will pollute the earth wherever it lands”(Gilman, 2011). In the case of nuclear wars, the extent of environmental damage is immeasurable. The effects of this disaster upon the animals can be well understood from the following photographs. (Chynoweth, n.d., p.12) Genetic modifications can take place among animals, birds and human beings as a result of the exposure to nuclear radiations as shown in the pictures above. Normal life becomes extremely difficult near the disaster sites. Contamination of the Sea salt and creation of radioactive and contaminated fish are some other major environmental damages caused by the nuclear disasters at Hiroshima and Nagasaki (Chynoweth, n.d., p.13). Many people have the illusion that nuclear disasters affect all people equally. This argument is partly right. However, as in the case of many other disasters, the consequences of nuclear disasters can affect the poor people more than the wealthy people. Since majority of the poor people are uneducated, they may not be having proper awareness in countering the problems generated by the nuclear disasters. Moreover, they may not be having enough resources or financial abilities to take remedial measures. Therefore poor people will be the major sufferers when nuclear disasters take place. In other words, it is difficult to provide environmental justice to all when nuclear disasters take place. Conclusions Environmental justice is concept good on papers, but in practice it is difficult to provide such justice to all. As in the case of other things, poor people are facing the consequences nuclear disasters more than that faced by the wealthy people. Wealthy people have the resources to counter the negative effects of nuclear disasters up to certain extent whereas poor people do not have such resources to reduce the damage. References 1. Butisingh, R. (2008). The Destruction Of Planet Earth. Retrieved from http://randallbutisingh.wordpress.com/2008/07/29/the-destruction-of-planet-earth/ 2. Daniel S & Sheikh, S. (2012). Kudankulam protesters arrested as they try to lay siege to Tamil Nadu Assembly. Retrieved from http://www.ndtv.com/article/south/kudankulam-protesters-arrested-as-they-try-to-lay-siege-to-tamil-nadu-assembly-285506 3. Disasters: Three Mile Island. (1979). Retrieved from http://www.boisestate.edu/history/ncasner/hy210/3mile.htm 4. Environmental Justice (2012). Retrieved from http://www.epa.gov/environmentaljustice/ 5. Gilman,R. (2011). Expanding Environmental Justice after War: The Need for Universal Jurisdiction over Environmental War Crimes. Retrieved from https://litigation-essentials.lexisnexis.com/webcd/app?action=DocumentDisplay&crawlid=1&doctype=cite&docid=22+COLO.+J.+INT'L+ENVTL.+L.+%26+POL'Y+447&srctype=smi&srcid=3B15&key=2466d050c555cafca65a77bb559726b0 6. Hewitt R, (1985), Outer Space: the Easy Way Out? Retrieved from http://www.robin-hewitt.com/write/articles/space.html 7. Mbote P.K. & Kullet, P. (1996). Environmental justice and sustainable development. Retrieved from http://www.ielrc.org/content/w9601.pdf 8. Nuclear Disasters and Accidents. (1998). Retrieved from http://library.thinkquest.org/17940/texts/nuclear_disasters/nuclear_disasters.html 9. Powell, A. (2010). Three Mile Island - 25 Years Later. Retrieved from http://pittsburgh.about.com/cs/history/a/tmi.htm 10. Rao. K R (n. d). Radioactive waste: The problem and its management. Retrieved from http://www.ias.ac.in/currsci/dec252001/1534.pdf 11. Waste Management, (2007), Retrieved from http://www.world-nuclear.org/education/wast.htm Read More