A Project of YAOTL

The Cloud Factory April 30, 2008

When eighteen year-old Marisol discovers that a coal power plant in her Chicago-based Latino neighborhood of Little Village may be the cause of her sister’s asthma, she becomes a youth activist fighting for cleaner air and alternative energy. But when she learns that the dirtiest polluting industries in America are predominantly located in low-income communities of color, her struggle to achieve a greener world involves another battle —one to expose environmental racism. In order to raise awareness about the damaging impact of the coal power plant in Little Village, Marisol organizes youth in Little Village to create a multimedia Google mapzine documenting the toxics and assets in her community. In doing so, she networks with others youth environmental activists from around the country who join in her effort to build a global online Map for Environmental Justice. A video by Marisol Becerra with Zane Scheuerlein

Crawford Coal Power Plant Video

A video in which random Little Village community members were interviewed about the Crawford Plant.

Celotex Superfund Site Part 1

Part one in the series about the Celotex Superfund Site, talking about its origins.

Celotex Superfund Site Part 2

Part two in the series about the Celotex Superfund Site, talking about what it means to be a Superfund Site.

Celotex Superfund Site Part 3

Part 3 in the series about the Celotex Superfund site, talking about clean-up.

Poitrowski Park

A video about Poitrowski Park, the only park in Little Village.

BP: Beyond Pollution

BP: Beyond Pollution
By: Danielle

“Our products and services contribute to a better quality of life. They provide the freedom to move, to heat, to see. We believe this freedom is inseparable from the responsibility to produce and consume energy in ways that respect both human rights and the natural environment. Maintaining this balance is our life blood.” This is a statement by BP that you can find on their official website. Respecting human rights and the environment is one of their values. Of course
what a corporation says and does are two completely different things. Recently, the decision to let a BP oil refinery in Whiting Indiana dump more ammonia and industrial sludge into the Great Lakes has been made public. Even before this decision BP was already one of the largest polluters of the Great Lakes. BP is allowed to pollute more than they were previously because they claim that they will be opening up 80 new job opportunities. The result is an average of 1,584 pounds of ammonia and 4,925 pounds of sludge dumped into Lake Michigan every day. “Ammonia promotes algae blooms that can kill fish, while sludge is full of concentrated heavy metals (Chicago Tribune).” This is the first time in years that a company will be allowed to dump this much toxic waste into the lake. It seems as if the years of hard work trying to clean up Lake Michigan have been fruitless.

However, they did not get their way as easy as they would have wished. The original proposal was in fact double the amount, which they are now entitled to. Can you imagine 3,168 pounds of ammonia and 9,850 pounds of sludge dumped into Lake Michigan EACH day!? There wouldn’t be any more fish left in the lake and say goodbye to the days at the beach where the water was not as polluted. But thanks to the Indiana Department of Environmental Management we are only getting half the pollution we would have gotten were it up to BP. So much for their respect for the environment. This may not be as bad,compared to the even greater pollution they are causing not only to the Great Lakes but to the earth as well. Their investment in Canadian oil requires a lot of energy trying to get the petroleum out of the globs of oil and incidentally the amount of energy being used can also considerably boost greenhouse gases that are linked to global warming. I’d say that the environment is not as big a value as BP would have you believe.

Facts about BP:
• BP is among Environmental Defense’s list of top 100 U.S.
emitters of cancer-causing pollutants into the air, with 150,256 pounds.
• Federal records have shown that BP puts 2 pounds of mercury
into the lake every year. Even tiny drops can harm fish or even
people.
• BP’s flow of wastewater into Lake Michigan is about 21 million
gallons a day.