Kelly Cooke: outside reading 12/5

Love Canal

Kelly Cooke

I read an Environmental Protection Agency article by Eckardt C. Beck titled 'The Love Canal Tragedy.' The article revolves around the Love Canal. It was built between upper and lower Niagara Falls to cheaply generate energy. For more than one reason, the project was abandoned and all that remained was a ditch. This ditch was then utilized as a municipal and industrial chemical dumpsite. Eventually, the owners of the property covered the ditch and waste in order to sell the land. On this land a town and school were built. An entire community rested upon dangerous chemical that soon began to wreak havoc. Different environmental effects were faced within town limits, but then birth defects and a high rate of miscarriages became an alarming issue in the community. When the problems became large enough, the town was granted emergency financial aid from President Carter. This was, "the first emergency funds ever to be approved for something other than a "natural" disaster." This case illustrates those that see a lack of value in people and the planet. Not only did they pollute the Earth, but they also permanently damaged the lives of countless residents of Love Canal. The decision to sell the land for development was made by someone who sees people and wilderness as an object. The treatment that occurred is unethical.

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