Film+Annotation+10

Allison Mrugal 11/1/15 Film Annotation 10: Sust. Ed., 4280-01 Prof. Fortun
 * Chemical Valley **

Prompt: View [|Chemical Valley] (50 minutes, in class, Thursday, Oct 15, a dvd will be delivered), and see this update, "[|A Century of Controversy, Accident's in the United State's Chemical Valley".]Describe the film and article, then briefly describe four ideas for curriculum that could be delivered to kids that live in the kind of "fenceline" communities described -- at any age, k-college.

Response: Both historical analysis and public education are means of understanding the relationship between the public and large chemical companies like Union Carbide. The film, Chemical Valley, shows how Union Carbide once dominated public health and democracy in the underprivileged communities of both Bhopal, India and West Virginia.

Chemical Valley first depicts December 3, 1984, when methyl isocyanate (MIC) leaked from a Union Carbide plant in Bhopal killing approximately 5,000 people. The disaster also permanently damaged thousands more people and future generations. Seeing this, West Virginians (residing around the only Union Carbide plant in the United States) no longer believed Union Carbide’s response to Bhopal that “safety and health come first”. Despite citizens and students at Institute, West Virginia, finding it difficult to breathe everyday, a chemical disaster on August 11, 1985 made the situation unbearable. Citizens took relentless action against the Union Carbide and, in 1986, Union Carbide sold the plant to Rhone-Poulenc, a European chemical company. However, the movement continued to lack governmental intervention. Although environmental justice went unrecognized, Rhone-Poulenc mitigated the effect to a degree by integrating with the community, hosting open houses, dances and holding an evacuation drill in 1988.

The National Geographic article, “A Century of Controversy, Accidents in West Virginia’s Chemical Valley in Lead-up to Spill”, recognizes that chemical pollution in West Virginia is still ongoing. Union Carbide’s interaction with Institute was only one instance of many “industrial accidents that have poisoned groundwater, spewed toxic gas emissions, and caused fires, explosions, and other disasters that neither state nor federal regulators have been able [my italicizations] to protect against” (Parker). While Governor Earl Ray Tomblin delineates between coal and chemical disaster, his explanations neither comfort citizens nor remediate the environment. With the largest natural gas field in the world, the Marcellus Shale, also present in West Virginia, the chances of implementing environmental regulation and justice are slim.

To educate the younger generations in these affected towns, known as “fenceline” communities, local schools and distant organizations could take action. The first option would provide existing fenceline schools the materials to offer a short class to research and discuss local issues. Not only would this get children and teenagers involved in their surrounding community, interested to learn more about local programs, but it would situate local problems (especially air pollution, jobs, etc.) in a more manageable (collaborative) way. A second option would ask that educators host film showings to demonstrate to students what disaster looks like in other areas—and what proactive, cooperative action can be taken to solve it. Thirdly, schools could use pre-made packs of equipment to make their own air-quality monitors as part of a technical laboratory, science competition, or after-school activity. Other than providing students with the tools to understand their situation, the technical programs should be followed by social lab classes, competitions or after-school club meetings that create social change (protest, letters, etc.). A fourth solution may ask outside organizations to organize and fund field trips for fenceline students that would immerse them in areas not affected by immense environmental pollution and damage. This could provide students with the vision and/or motivation to understand the situation they experience, that it is not universal problem (yet), and that it can be managed.

By integrating historical examples of environmental damage and cooperative action with hands-on research, digestible media, and physical experience, both internal and external educators (and/or philanthropists) could help fenceline students. While governmental action has yet to regulate industry, students in the younger generations can learn to foster an understanding of the environment to develop a strong political voice.