Reflection: Weeks 7 & 8

Week 7:
At the beginning of week 7 we started to watch the documentary called "Green" which was directed by graduate student Laura Dunn. This documentary talked about "Cancer Alley" a 100 mile stretch of the Mississippi River between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The documentary focuses on the affects of the community in cancer alley. We see people living in cancer alley and what its like for them to live near a chemical plant and how they are struggling to stay healthy and sell their land while living on polluted land. The residents living along the Mississippi are certain that the main reason for their illnesses comes from the Petrochemical Plants they live by. I thought that it was so sad that kids are getting rare forms of cancer due to the chemicals they are exposed to. Some families are trying to sell their houses and get out of the area, but who would want to live on a waste site/landfill or near a chemical plant. The town Norco got hit pretty hard when Shell had a power plant flare (gases and toxins released) occured. Seven people were killed in this flare and the only thing the plant did to help "calm" the community was offer people money and gave the town a new look. Its hard for me to believe that a company/industry can care so much about money and so little about peoples lives. Overall, this documentary really opened my eyes to how much a chemical plants can harm the environment, community and people around it.

This week we were also assigned the Eye Opener: Environmental working group. For this assignment I choose an item that I use everyday. I selected Johnson & Johnson's 24 hour moisturizing lotion. I discovered alarming results on the safety of the product. I went to the Skin Deep Cosmetic Safety Database, and found the safety information on the lotion. I found that ingredients in the lotion are linked to cancer, developmental/reproductive toxicity, violations, restrictions and warnings, Allergies/Immunotoxicity, and other concerns. I was really concerned while reviewing all the safety information. I use this product almost everyday and I thought I was making a good choice by selecting a baby friendly product but apparently I was wrong.

Week 8:

This week Reading 31: Privatizing Water was asssigned. The chapter talked about Chochabamba, Bolivia. This is the third largest city in the country. The city was going through water privatization and the prices of the water bills rose by 35%. The people in the city were very upset with the rise in price. If it was me I would also be upset if water prices rose that much. Being a college student I have enough bills to pay and worry about without having to worry about rising costs for water. This problem leads into the documentary we began watching called "Thirst". I was assigned to do a review on this documentary. Although we didnt get to watch the whole thing I got a pretty good idea on what it was trying to get at. The documentary also talked about the town of Chochabamba and how they were facing water priviatization. It also mentioned a town in India where they were harvesting rain water and providing a water supply for their town. The town made a pond which transferred water into the wells of the village. I thought this idea was ingenius, think if we all did this and provided water for ourselves how much more water we would have and how efficient we would learn how to be. The documentary also talked about Stockton, California who was also facing water privatization. The mayor Gary Pedesto wanted to privatize the water and thought that it would save the residents a lot of money. The people of the community thought differently. They believed that they should have the right to decide if a local company should be able to take over their water supply. I personally think that it should be the communities decision. If I was in that position I would want a say in who owns what and if something as big as water should even be owned by an individual or company. Overall, I thought this documentary was ok but it wasnt my favorite.

Well, that pretty much sums up the last couple of weeks thanks for reading have a good spring break!!! :)