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Flint water crisis essays
Consumerism and the environment
Flint water crisis essays
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One of the biggest issues in the world today is the global warming and the deterioration of the environment. Ever since countries have industrialized, humans have increased the rate of change more rapidly than ever before in history. Some of the biggest issues that countries and the world is dealing with is the loss of biodiversity, water contamination, air pollution, and littering of land. With the trend and rate people are going in, the damage and consequences will be greater and more permanent than we can imagine in the future. A lot of people especially politicians in the United States government tend not to believe or even know about environmental issues, so in return, not a lot of solutions are being presented or brought up by the government. …show more content…
The conflict perspective focuses majorly on the role of capitalistic pursuit of profit and how it encourages industries to make money even if it means damaging the environment to maximize their sales. Some of the most top corporations in the world are using the resources and damaging the environment in countries to make their products cheaper and more available to consumers. What they do not see is how they are damaging the ecosystems around them and how they are affecting the daily lives of people in those areas they are working in. All their worried about is how much money can they make or how much profit will this area make for them. The conflict perspective is also concerned with environmental injustice which is “the tendency for marginalized populations and communities to disproportionately experience adversity because of environmental problems” (Mooney, 2017, p. 425). One of the biggest environmental problems that is an environmental injustice is the water contamination that is happening in Flint, Michigan. This issue has been going on for a few years leaving thousands of people and families in Flint without access to clean water and have caused serious unsanitary conditions and sickness in the area. Yet, many people in the United States let alone know about this issue and the government has not made any significant solutions to help this issue in the past few years. Unfortunately, with the years to come, I believe that the government of the United States will not be able to fix this water crisis because by the time they finally do something significant, it will be too
Humans need water. In a world that is overpopulated, we use a lot of water and other natural resources. Currently, in our world, clean water is getting scarce. Recently, for example, Flint, Michigan, had a water crisis. In early 2016, the water was discovered to be tainted with lead and other toxins. Long before that, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, and Governor Rick Snyder along with his council, knew about the lead, but to save money for the city of Flint in early 2014 Snyder had changed the city’s water source to the Flint River which had corroded pipes, causing people of all ages to be sick from the high amounts of lead
The environment has always been controversial topic. Global warming, fossil fuels, and climate change usually are the main topics, when talking about the environment. Many people feel strongly about the issues pertaining to the environment, while others seem not to care. Though some of the populace seems to not care about the environment, many people do not fully understand what is going on. Most of the population is not fully educated on the issues of the environment. While some people are, they are not sure what to do with what they know. If more people had knowledge and knew how to help, would they?
Walmart can be studied using structure functional theory and social conflict theories. Social functional theory is the relationships among parts of society and how these parts are functional(have beneficial consequences) or dysfunctional (have negative consequences. Most Americans today love to shop at Walmart because they continue to give consumers the best prices on over 120,000 products and are one stop shopping.
My brother, Andrew stated that he felt betrayed how his best friends go out and party with him, then turned around and call my mother, Faye, and told them that he was addicted to cocaine. Two days went by; my brother, Andrew, avoided all phone calls from my mother and his best friends. Finally, on the third day after the confrontation, my oldest brother, Gary, and mother, Faye, showed up at Andrew’s dorm room and explained to him if he went with them to get a drug assessment then he would be able to stay in school and keep everything that my family had threatened to take away from him. My brother, Andrew, had already lost most of his trust in his friends, but he agreed to take a drug assessment because he did not want to lose what he had.
The water crisis in Flint Michigan began as early as was as April of 2014. The crisis is concerning a small town called Flint, located at the bottom right of michigan were the majority of the population is African American. The issue began when the town 's water supply witch in past use to come from the detroit river water supply was switched over to the Flint river water supply. People soon began to complain about the taste, smell, and color of the tap water, and of symptoms such as hair loss and rashes from bathing in the water. Even though there were many signs that the water was indeed contaminated, such as when a General Motors plant in Flint stopped using municipal water in October of 2014, claiming that it corroded car parts, the government officials stated that the water was not a threat to the public 's health and safety. However it was later revealed that the water was in fact unhealthy, and contained too much lead. The issue was brought to the eyes of the public when Lee Anne Walters, a Flint resident. This mother of four had seen her family suffer from various alarming symptoms, including abdominal pains, hair loss, and rashes; she also has a son who showed signs of developmental problems. She decided to switch her family to bottled water, and the symptoms abated. Finally, in February of 2015, she demanded that the city test the tap water. A federal investigation was launched and the results came back shocking. The water was extremely toxic containing 400 parts per billion of lead. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), there is no safe level of lead in drinking water, but the maximum allowed by law is 15 parts per billion. Virginia Tech professor and engineer Marc Edwards, an expert on municipal w...
Did you know that in 2014, shoplifting and worker’s theft cost the retail industry a loss of thirty-two billion dollars (Wahba, 2015)? According Wahba “a common misperception about shoplifting is that retailers can ‘afford’ the loss of a candy bar or a pair of jeans” (2015). This type of reasoning certainly does make more sense when explained through the context of a criminological theory. For example according to the Rational Choice theory individuals weigh the costs and benefits associated with a criminal and or deviant act and then make a conscious choice. Other criminological theories explain criminal and deviant behavior using a biological, psychological, social, conflict, or multifactor component. Taking that into consideration in this
In 1989, seventy five percent of Americans identified themselves as environmentalists, and the number has continued to grow since then (Walls 1). Environmentalism is now the most popular social movement in the United States, with over five million American families donating regularly to environmental organizations (Walls 1). Environmentalists today focus on what kind of world they hope to see in the future, and largely deal with limiting pollution and changing consumption rates (Kent 1 and 9). Modern environmentalists also have much different issues than those Carson’s America faced. With climate change becoming more threatening each year, protection of the natural world is needed more than ever. Pollution has caused the warmest decade in history, the deterioration of the ozone layer, and species extinction in extreme numbers (Hunter 2). It not only threatens nature, but also human populations, who already suffer from lack of clean water and poisoning from toxic chemicals (Hunter 16). Unlike environmental actions in the 1960’s, which were mostly focused on protection, a massive increase in pollution has caused efforts to be focused on environmental restoration (Hunter 16). Like in the time of Silent Spring, environmentalists are not only concerned with one country. Protecting the environment remains a global issue, and every nation is threatened by the
Issues like deforestation, loss of biodiversity, pollution of water and soil, and loss of productive farmland are just a few problems that we are facing all over the world. There are organizations like the United States Environmental protection agency whose job it is to monitor the treatment of the Earth. They are a part of the government that helps to decide which laws and regulation need to be enforced in order to protect not just America, but the Earth as a whole. The EPA's job is basically to help bring back the respect for the Earth that people with the sacred space mindset
Most, if not all, affects their day to day lives (EPA). In addressing this problem, the plans and programs of the government will play a very important role. Considering that the United States is one of the most powerful countries in the world, the US President should address and work on solutions regarding these environmental issues. In an interview with Barack Obama in 2008, he mentioned that, “The U.S. is the world’s largest economy and the largest single source of the world’s greenhouse-gas emissions, so it is our responsibility to take the first step”
Conflict theory are perspective in sociology psychology that accentuate the social, political, or material inequality of a social group, that analysis the broad socio-political system, or that weaken from structural functionalism and ideological conservatism. With conflict theory, you will see tensions, status, and power are unevenly distributed between groups in society, which these conflicts become the purpose of social change. Conflict theory usually arise due to competition and limited resource that is feed by domination and power, rather than consensus and conformity. This is seen a lot on macro level. As a social worker, you will see and use conflict theory throughout your professional.
In recent years global warming has been on the rise. The importance of this issue is so that we as a nation can be aware of the drastic changes which are occurring rapidly around the world. Although there isn 't one set resolution to solve climate change, we must continue to carry out ways to put it to a halt. Some of the ways I believe we can cut this crisis is to stop polluting the manufacturing of toxic gases which is filling our environment with smog. If we all put our ideas and opinions in ways to prevent some causes of climate change, the world in which we live will be a better place. Instead of being a part of the problem we can be a part of the solution. Opposed to just humans, animals, and other species are affected as a result of
The protection of the environment however has just recently become the major issue that it is in today’s society. People worldwide have slowly begun to realize and become aware of the blatant destruction and deterioration of the environment and ozone. As well as the consequences and side affects, that we, as a society have created. The majority of people are just becoming aware of the frightening reality of the situation. As society becomes more informed on the issue of the environment, they too become more impatient, and feel that in the snap of fingers, the damage can be reversed and future damage can be stopped instantaneously.
We all belong to the same world and all of us have the same responsibilities towards the world and its environment. This fact might be hard to digest, but if we continue to pollute the Earth at the current rate, all of the world’s ocean waters will become one-hundred-thirty percent acidic. This means that the ocean will be unable to sustain most of its marine life and only a few creatures will be able to survive in the water. A big population of people think that they do not or have few responsibilities towards the environment. People think that the governor of a country should take steps to help the environment. They leave it to scientists since they have the technology to prevent pollution, or that is what most people think. There are more responsibilities to the world each individual has than most of realize. The amount of negligence and ignorance of humans towards the Earth is taking a heavy toll.
Efforts to improve the standard of living for humans--through the control of nature and the development of new products--have also resulted in the pollution, or contamination, of the environment. Much of the world's air, water, and land is now partially poisoned by chemical wastes. Some places have become uninhabitable. This pollution exposes people all around the globe to new risks from disease. Many species of plants and animals have become endangered or are now extinct. As a result of these developments, governments have passed laws to limit or reverse the threat of environmental pollution.
There are lots of environmental issues going on globally. The earth faces problems such as pollution, global warming, waste disposal, and loss of biodiversity. These are just a small amount of issues out of the so many. These environmental problems pose an abundant amount of risk to the health of humans and animals. There needs to be a solution to all these problems and that is by informing others, so that way everyone can make the environment a better place.