Social Dimensions of Sustainability Ethics

There are a lot of facets of the environmental movement. Global atmospheric temperatures increasing, the destruction of our forests, the melting of ice caps, endangered species, pollution for days, and the nastiness and prevalence of fossil fuels. But as bad as all of those are on their own, what’s worse is how they all come together and dramatically and disproportionately affect low-income and minority communities around the world.

This is environmental racism. And, in my mind, it is the single largest issue the global community is facing right now. So, let’s talk about Flint, Michigan. Perhaps the most visible case of environmental racism right now. What happened?

I’m generalizing a bit here, but like nearby Detroit, when U.S. car manufacturing started to nosedive, lots of people and lots of money left the area, seriously damaging the city's economy. Also, Michigan has a law that allows for the appointment of emergency managers in times of crisis, like a financial crisis. They can basically do whatever the f they want without going thru the normal, you know, voting thing.

Flint’s first emergency manager was appointed in 2002. And there is a messy and confusing history of emergency managers between then and now. Then, in April of 2014, the emergency manager, Ed Kurtz, and Mayor Dayne Walling decided to switch water supplies from Detroit’s to the Flint River. And that’s when Flint citizens noticed a change in the look, smell, and taste of their tap water.

So, what’s wrong with the Flint River water? Well, there are a lot of ways bodies of water moving thru a populous city can get polluted. But there are a few concrete ideas going around. Investigations are now ongoing that GM dumped a load of crap and chemicals into the Flint River in the 60s and then buried it up. Interestingly enough, GM actually switched water sources in 2014 when they noticed the water from the Flint River was corroding their machinery.

Additionally, the Flint River could have gotten full up with Chloride as a result of the salt-laden runoff from deicing streets. The runoff from road salts settles to the bottom of pipes and clogs them up real good. We’ve seen this build up in all sorts of snowy areas, with chloride concentrations in northern US states approximately doubling from 1990 to 2011. Michigan is known to be particularly salty, with high levels of chloride in streams near urban areas. When Flint switched their water supply from Lake Huron to the Flint River, they suddenly found themselves facing eight times the amount of chloride.

You’d think the water on its own would be enough of an issue. But because it was full of corrosives, the water began to strip and erode the pipes — which because they were installed before people realized how awful awful lead is, were full of lead. Normally, this kind of issue is solved with orthophosphate or another corrosion inhibitor. They work by increasing the pH, decreasing the acidity, of the water and coat the old pipes to keep them from corroding and leaking terrifying things like lead into the water. For some inane, possibly cost cutting reason, Flint stopping using a corrosion inhibitor when they switched water sources, letting all that toxic build-up flow freely into people’s homes. They’ve switched water sources back now, thank goodness, but too much damage has already been done.

Flint residents have been demanding help and action since right after the switch. But, as Hillary said:

HILLARY: If the kids in a rich suburb of Detroit had been drinking contaminated water and being bathed in it, there would have been action.

And she’s right. This is the crux of the environmental justice movement. Though government officials were aware of resident complaints as early as June 2015, and arguably long before, a state of emergency wasn’t declared until January 5, 2016. And all that time, government officials told the public that their water was safe.

FLINT RESIDENT AARON STINSON: People knew that the water was going to be poison. People knew that we were going to get sick. People knew that there were gonna be backlash.

PROTESTERS: What do we want? Clean Water! When do we want it? NOW!

LEEANNE WALTERS: Broken policy and procedures are smothering the outcry of an entire community suffering, financially, physically, mentally, and emotionally.

FLINT RESIDENT: It's sad that this city has come to this, this is a great city, it's sad that it has come to this.

PROTESTERS: Flint lives matter. Flint lives matter.

Nearly 9000 children under the age of six, most of them children of color, have been exposed to lead from Flint’s water. Lead exposure is dangerous for people of every age but is particularly hazardous for young children. Any amount of lead poisoning in children can lead to permanent learning disabilities. Also, for all those folks, asking why anyone would be so stupid to drink brown or red or muddy water. For the most, what changes the color - isn’t what's gonna hurt you - that's mostly due to iron from pipes - a relatively harmless, and often useful mineral. You can’t see, or smell, or taste lead. The water could run clear, and in some places in Flint, it did, and still have lead in it. Plus, saying things like this assumes folks have the resources to purchase bottled water or filters which simply isn’t always true. Water, clean water, is a recognized human right. And it's important to remember that.

So, what about Flint’s future? Housing values have plummeted. Would you ever consider moving to Flint now? For some people whose only equity is their home, it is now worthless. And an entire generation of children has lead poisoning - a neurological poison - are we still going to be helping and talking about Flint when the water is clean but thousands of kids need a customized education that will help them live and learn with whatever disabilities might arise?

This is a race and environment thing - not just an infrastructure or old pipes thing, not just a bureaucracy thing. this didn’t happen because paperwork was ‘accidentally’ misplaced. or because government is just slowwww. This happened because, in the United States, black people, in particular, have been disenfranchised and effectively segregated long after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed. Black people and people in poverty have been pushed to the outskirts for decades. And it is even more obvious zooming out from Flint.

Let's think about how cities are constructed. This is a heat map of apartment costs in the greater New York City area. The darker the red, the more expensive. Now, I’ll lay in the demographics. No big surprise, the darker red matches up pretty well with the majority white areas. Now, look what happens when I drop in highways, sewage plants, other sanitation facilities, chemical producing factories, airports, and power plants. It is pretty easy to see the reality of this systemic problem. And it gets worse. Because going ‘green’ is more or less in vogue now politically and culturally - so, we see some hopefully well-intentioned responses. But if I lay in the city's green spaces and eco-friendly air cleaning solutions and other initiatives, those fall in the richer, whiter areas. The places that, by comparison, need these kinds of solutions, don’t get them.

And this isn’t just an NYC thing. It happens in almost every major city, Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit, and DC, among hundreds of others. And as bad as environmental racism has gotten in the U.S., it would be naive to not look at this issue in a global context. The U.S. and Europe effectively export our pollution. We ship the nastiness of clothing production, manufacturing, waste management and a lot of fossil fuel energy production overseas.

And it just keeps getting worse. Global temperature rising is associated with sea-level rise, and island-nations around the world are being flooded. Communities that have done NOTHING to contribute to the global climate crisis are the first to suffer the consequences. Island nations like Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands will likely be underwater within the century. And we see indigenous communities and their lands destroyed by ventures to extract fuel or build pipelines.

But there is some good here; some progress is being made. The new PM of Canada, Justin Trudeau just agreed that all new pipelines would be subject to a serious climate test and will directly consult with First Nation communities impacted by the proposed Trans Mountain and Energy East pipeline projects. And around the country and globe, local initiatives bringing green spaces and environmental solutions have expanded.

The events in Flint, especially, have begun to create a national conversation about environmental justice. Both democratic nominees for president have spoken loudly, and incredibly publicly during the debates about the Flint crisis and environmental justice. In light of all this, what can you do? For Flint - I’ve included links below for resources to donate bottled water, filters, or money - as well as loads of links to learn more about the crisis.

For your own city or town, you can attend council meets and vote to ensure that greening and eco-friendly initiatives are built where they are needed and, conversely, waste plants and other factories are not concentrated exclusively in low-income areas. Although it took far too long, the citizens of Flint were loud and continued to speak out until the country and the media took notice. Let their activism be a shining example of how this kind of institutional and environmental racism can be combated. And globally, we can all work together to hold our nations to their word from the Paris Climate talks and not to allow the global atmospheric temperatures to rise more than 2ºC. Thanks so much for watching. I hope you like the video. Let me know if you have any questions or comments down below. Subscribe if you want to see more things like this, like the video if you liked it, and I hope you're having a fantastic day.