In chapter 9, Belton reflects upon how as a child trees were looked at as something that was not appreciated or seen as a real living plant in Jersey City. He discusses a trip he took to Palisades Interstate park and learned about the life of the trees and the history that is found in the forest. This story made me think about the fact that children who live in large cities in and around New Jersey may not see the amount of open forests and trees there really are in New Jersey. This made me think about my own life, and growing up in south Jersey we have a lot of forests everywhere, and I remember in high school we had a project where we had to collect leaves from about 30 different trees that were found in new jersey and identify them all. So we had to wander around forests and other areas looking at all the diversity in trees New Jersey has to offer. Some of the facts Belton shared were surprising to me as well. The fact that New Jersey is so populated, yet we still have such preserved forest areas. A lot of the reason is that New Jersey tends to be super populated around New York City and Philadelphia and in between tends to be forest. It is sad to think that pollution is effecting our forests and put us at risk for losing all this beautiful diversity.
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This chapter is about environmental justice. This chapter discusses Camden and the conditions on pollution and brownfield sites. This did not surprise me as I used to live about 20 minutes away from Camden, and have seen the conditions that that city is in. With garbage and run down vacant lots everywhere. I always knew it as a dangerous run down town with a nice area for concerts and an aquarium. So it was not surprising to me that Belton has brought up Camden in this book.
It was upsetting to read that the state uses its power to displace families. Although this may not have been the intention, the state used the power of eminent domain to take property away from people, forcing them and their families to move. It is upsetting because Camden is a poor area to begin with, and to take away property from families that may not have a lot leaving them to find other places to live is unfair. I never realized that the state necessarily had this kind of power and it is concerning that these types of things can be happening. In this chapter Belton discusses Brownfields, which are land sites that were used as industrial sites that are now contaminated but have the potential to be used again if they are properly cleaned. At the time cleaning these sites was expensive, so they were only cleaned to the standard of “being safe” for nearby residents instead of being made 100% clean. They were not concerned with the future outcome of the sites, which could have the possibly of becoming residential homes or areas. With the idea that “Do we want to have signs up all around that say ‘Personal risk do not enter?” (page 118). They would rather have the sites cleaned to the minimal standard than to have useless land sitting around.
Reading this chapter, it was concerning to me that residential buildings can be built on once contaminated land, and that this was such an issue in New Jersey. Although there were incentives for cleaning up some of the land to developers, it is only a small portion and a short term solution for cleaning up land that is left contaminated by industries. After reading this chapter it made me realize how much of an issue this is, and how more land can be contaminated than I ever thought in New Jersey. Chapter six is titled “Environmental Warfare”, upon reading this it left me questioning what this chapter was going to be about. The chapter ended up being about dioxin toxicity and its effects in New Jersey, specifically in Newark. There was a spillage of agent orange, which was a herbicide, used in the Vietnam war. The soil in this area was collected and sent to Sweden to get tested and was ended up being so contaminated that it caused a contamination in the entire lab in Sweden. This entire time residents in of Newark were living among a highly toxic area that can cause health issues for them and their families. While reading this chapter, I thought it was crazy that someone could be living so close to something so toxic, that it contaminated an entire lab during testing, and not even know it!
Another thing in the chapter I found alarming, was the existence of dioxin in our fish supply. Dumping in our waterways has caused contamination to the sea life, which in the end will also contaminate the humans who consume these fish. It is upsetting that fishermen lives are also impacted, as they cannot be fishing for fish with a toxicity higher than the FDA allows. They are concerned for their families, who eat a lot of fish from these areas, and could end up causing health problems along the way, as they are such frequent consumers. It was shocking to read these companies will continue to dump their toxic waste into waterways and not care about how they are effecting those in the area, and how they are causing harm to innocent families and children who are consuming fish containing toxic waste chemicals. If I was in the situation of these residents, I would also worry about my well being, and it creates a sense of caution for the future, because I will always think about this when I see others consuming fish. |
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April 2018
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