Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Essays on flint water crisis
Essays on flint water crisis
Essays on flint water crisis
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Essays on flint water crisis
Environmental risks and hazards provide the world with some of the most important issue pressing obstacles. Being able to manage risks and hazards on an environmental level can save many lives and create economic benefits in the process. The Flint, Michigan water crisis is such an example of this. When the water supply of a small urban Michigan town became tainted with lead, the pressure was put on the officials in order to manage the dangers surrounding that problem. Some of the ways at which reducing the risk and hazard would be to understand them better. One way to do this is to put prejudices aside and to understand the human condition. In other words, perceiving risk appropriately and being able to take risk out of the equation in order to protect the lives of humans. The political economy of Flint, Michigan can be applied to the environmental …show more content…
While it seems somewhat illogical, especially in markets, to take a precautionary approach for every single case, nature and the human interaction with it can have much more dramatic effect if not treated more carefully. Flint, Michigan was a clear case where risks were not taken very seriously and as a result many people caught diseases and died. The biggest mistake that causes these types of situations is due to the perception of risk and partisanship. Grouping cultures and political affiliations can cause many of those in power to not see true problems that stand before them. They take voluntary risks that are clear and dangerous and spin them into involuntary risks. Because of this, issues such as the Flint water crisis can easily be pushed aside as “propaganda” or as the chief and staff referred to it as “political football.” Without correctly assessing risks and hazards and being more cautious towards our perceptions towards risk, dramatic problems such as the Flint water crisis will continue to happen across the
In the matter of seconds the people of Flint had their lives take a turn for the worse. Once what happened had finally been brought to the public’s attention, the word began to spread very quickly about the water that had been found to contain lead and was a clearly a threat to the people who had consumed it. People started talking about what could have been going wrong, and what could have caused this to happen. That is what lead me to this article that goes into the assumptions of Governor Snyder lying about what he knew about the water and when he found out. Even though this article is about the city of Flint, it has three different types of audiences. There is the direct audience which is obviously the people of flint. People who read this article and are able to help to are considered the indirect audience. Lastly the audience of people nationally hearing and reading about this situation. For that reason this article has relevant pictures, such as pictures of the discolored water. This helps it to be readable for all types of readers. It also gives the audience a glimpse at the current situation. In this article, the rhetorical devices of ethos, pathos and logos are used to make creditable, have an emotional connection and give evidence of the crisis.
Ending homelessness will be a huge challenge for Flint/Genesee County just like it will be for the rest of the U.S (Walker S & Hutchison, n.d). This is because of the economic conditions that continue to decline while communities struggle with increased unemployment, dilapidated housing and shortage of affordable housing. Flint/Genesee County faces a crisis because of the declining job markets as a result of jobs that are either closing or relocating, which include Delphi or General Motors plants, which are located in the county. Unemployment remains one of the main causes of homelessness. Other causes include lack of harmonization in the discharge policy between the county and the state, insufficient affordable and safe housing, cuts in funding, local government’s lack of commitment and decline in available private resources have also contributed greatly. 30% of all the housing stock in the City of Flint is in rundown condition.
The Flint water crisis would be one of the most critical things today in michigan. It’s critical for young children not to get lead exposure they should be screened from the lead and lead levels in children's bodies as well. (National Center for Healthy Housing) The water needs to be treated with which it will increase the corrosiveness and potentially further erode any lead piping. (Duke) The People in Flint are a facing with not be able to drink water, and shower. All of these things that happened are critical factors of what is happening in the Flint water crisis today. (Reveal)
Fact: Arizona is in a 10-year drought. Fact: The city of Phoenix has a water problem that has nothing to do with lack thereof. A hundred years ago or more humans would just drink from a river or stream, but today we need purified, cleansed, and filter water. We do, as a state have a water treatment system in place but the faculties periodically need maintenance and must be shut down to receive it. The Water Department and their puppet master Frank Fairbanks the city mangers have been playing Russian roulette with the citizen of Phoenix. The bet you ask, will the shut down of facilities due to maintenance leave the citizens of Phoenix with a contaminated water system. We learn the answer to that question on the 25 of January the city council and water department both lost that bet. The water supply was contaminated, water had to be boiled to make in safe and long showers were not advisable. How can we as voters keep this from happening again? The short answer is building another water treatment facility, for the details read on.
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...
I chose to watch the Frontline episode on “Poisoned Waters”. This documentary showed the environmental issues involving case studies on the Chesapeake Bay and Puget Sound. By examining how these rising pollutants along with industrial contaminants like PCB, lead, mercury and agricultural pollution. America has kept from making many of the nation’s waterways fishable and swim able again. This was a goal set by Congress nearly four decades ago.
The Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment need the whole community to pass on information, account for population-specific factors, and acknowledge the effects of a threat or hazard. Communities have to be educated and updated on threats and hazards that they may specifically face in order to accurately plan and prepare. All situations are usually handled starting at the lowest level, however, they will also have to discuss on how the federal government will assist if needed. “By providing the necessary knowledge and skills, we seek to enable the whole community to contribute to and benefit from national preparedness.” (FEMA, 2015). Local communities recognize their risks and conclude on how they will handle the significant amount of risks. Local governments discover and address their greatest risks by finishing the Threat and Hazard
Fischhoff et al. (1978) itemized the qualitative risk characteristics under two principal components being the dread risk factor and unknown risk factor. Nine qualitative risk characteristics were used to examine risk perceptions in this article, namely, dread, catastrophic potential, involuntariness, lack of knowledge to scientists, lack of knowledge to those exposed, harm to future generations, delayed effects, unfairness and severity. The theory was criticised by authors cited in the paper for not considering the social and cultural aspects of the risk.
“Unless humanity is suicidal, it should want to preserve, at the minimum, the natural life-support systems and processes required to sustain its own existence” (Daily p.365). I agree with scientist Gretchen Daily that drastic action is needed now to prevent environmental disaster. Immediate action and changes in attitude are not only necessary for survival but are also morally required. In this paper, I will approach the topic of environmental ethics from several related sides. I will discuss why the environment is a morally significant concern, how an environmental ethic can be developed, and what actions such an ethic would require to maintain and protect the environment.
There is a global shortage of drinking water. A person might wonder how this can be if seventy percent of the earth’s surface is covered by water. Most of the Earth’s water is unsuitable for human consuption. Ocean water is salt water, which makes up 97.5% of all water on the planet. Freshwater is only 3.5% of all the water on Earth. Drinking water is sourced from bodies of freshwater.
The environment today is not in a good condition, Climate change is evident, and oceans are getting polluted. Rainforrest's are decreasing in size due to deforestation and illegal logging. Animals are getting extinct due to the destruction of their habitats. Natural resources are being consumed at very large amounts, and get wasted. There are different ways these problems can be addressed, one option is environmental management. Environmental management focuses on conservation of natural resources, protection of habitats, and impact of humans on the environment. Conservation of natural resources is the smart use of the world's resources by humans, through this waste production is limited, and there will be less garbage in the world. By conserving
Many people assume that the environment is not in danger. They believe that as technology advances, we do not need to worry about renewing natural resources, recycling, and finding new ways to produce energy. They state that one person in the world does not make a large difference. In reality, each individual's contribution greatly affects our environment. Our natural resources are slowly disappearing, and we must work together to save them and the Earth from ruin.
The environment is at major risk to our own destruction. This destruction is inevitable if we aren't made aware of the power which we hold. Environmental awareness has always been apparent but its severity has never been clarified. The destruction of earth is occurring at an exponential rate and if we do not make a stand to resolve the process then existence of indefinite life if taken out of the hands of fate and put directly into ours. As the present generation, it is our duty to carry out this ongoing fight for our environment.
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.
Although, it is not the environment store that suffers from man's activities, the man himself not only being the cause of this mishaps, he is the one who at the long run suffers from these activities, not only because of his technological advances but his inability to make rational decision. Indeed, throughout history people have suffered pain and heartache from war, cruelty, crime, injustice, poverty, sickness, and also deaths of loved ones as a result of natural hazards. In our 20th century alone, wars have killed over 100 milli...