In our Literacy class, we have researched and study about the theme of Environmental Injustice and Pollution. Our teacher (Hannah) brought up an interesting discussion of environmental racism and how can environment relate to inequality in our society. She gave us a shocking map of a state in American which is called Connecticut. The map clearly showed the environmental injustice within the area by combining two pieces of information together. One is the area that the minority are mostly living in and the locations of the power plants that are built and causes pollution.
Here is the map that shows how pollution are affected to the minorities:
https://www.tolerance.org/sites/default/files/2017-08/teaching-tolerance-air-pollution-map.pdf
After the discussions and lessons, I wrote a reflection which describes the pollution situation in my community, and what are my opinions to help build an environment justice community. Here is the essay I wrote about the severe situation and what we all can help to CHANGE!
Angely
Teacher: Hannah
10/19/2018
Literacy
Environmental Pollution & Effects in My Community
In my opinion, almost everywhere on the globe is affected by some kind of environmental pollution that causes huge or small problems for the citizens who live in the areas. In my community, which is located in the edge of the Capital city in Cambodia, there are many kinds of pollutions that affected the area with both health problems and environmental problems. Although there are many sources where pollution are brought by, The main source of pollution in my community comes from the incredible amount of plastic waste.
A person throws away three single-use plastics, Imagine how many plastics are thrown away by thousands of people in my community? Everywhere, the plastics are being used even when it is not necessary. The amount of plastics is rising up tremendously in markets, food-courts, small shops and being thrown carelessly. Not only the plastic wastes in my community but also consider the huge amount of plastics that are being used in the whole Capital city, Phnom Penh. Consequently, a huge new landfill was being created in the past years when I newly moved to my community. It was created in a cheap area that provides a convenient reason for the waste company.
During my first moments in the community, I could feel the slight smell of the wastes that were being dumped in the landfill that is kilometers away. I could not imagine how people who live near the area survive staying near those plastic and waste hills as well as factories and big roads with countless vehicles moving around every second. Most people who are near the landfill are living under poverty with lacking understanding and education. Most of them either work in the factories around the area or go to the market as vegetable sellers. Those people are highly affected by many different pollutants that are coming from the landfill, smokes from factories, and fumes from the vehicles along the highway. It is really similar to the Map in Connecticut because most people who live in poverty and can not afford the new place are greatly affected. Most of the times, they do not talk or discuss the injustice and pollutions since they seem to run out of ideas to solve. It is not a problem that worth a community solving, it should be discussed by many other people who also involved in the problem as waster and plastic users.
We could not even imagine the difficulties they are facing living in the highly polluted areas. Therefore; do we just stay where we are and not take a step toward helping and changing their lives? Well, it might sound like it is a thing for an organization or people in the related ministry to work on in order to change the manipulated situation. But all of us, as the citizens living in the same country, the same planet, we ought to start changing our habits and do what we can do now. There are many problems with plastic and environmental pollution that needs to be discussed and talked about. One small example is we can start changing by creating new innovative ideas to recycle those plastics into useful products. We all have the potential to change and have unique innovative ideas to help. It is not an individual problem, but a problem of the globe that deserves help from all of us as great citizens. Start helping the world by reducing plastic waste and environmental pollution!