Equity and Sustainability Engineering Essay Research

The first guideline on sustainable development asks that engineers maintain
“environmental stewardship”. How is “environmental stewardship” different from
“sustainable development”? Make sure to define both terms in your own words
and illustrate your answer using an example from either the history of the Green
Revolution (including, but not limited to, the story of the Bhopal Disaster or that
of Borlaug’s work) or the history of atomic weapons. (this first paragraph which is 150 words)
Define environmental racism and illustrate your answer with an example discussed in
class. Clearly point to the elements that make your example a case of environmental
racism. (this second paragraph which is 150 words)
this is some information about Environmental racism and the example that I should use
o Environmental racism: disproportionate exposure to environmental pollution or lack of resources such as clean water, non-contaminated food, etc. suffered by marginalized minorities
 These people are the ones not being compensated but who are living in the surrounding area of the plant
 Non-white workers are excluded from the cities, they hold blue-collar jobs in the plant (most dangerous jobs)
 They are forced into an extremely dangerous environment and they’re chosen because of the colour of their skin
• Indigenous people are another group suffering at Hanford
o 4 indigenous groups living around Hanford rely on the Columbia river for food and water
o Hanford is knowingly polluting the water
o They do tests on hospital patients to see what happens if you eat contaminated fish
o They know it’s happening but they don’t warn the Indigenous groups, so they get sick
o When people living around the plant complain that they’re getting sick, the government tells them it’s all in their head
• USSR: the people who worked at Mayak were Russian or Ukranian
• The local tartar (?) population could not work there
• The Soviet government didn’t trust them as workers
• Those people relied on the (highly polluted) river
• To this day there are children so radioactive that you can put a Geiger counter on them and they’ll emit more radiation than it’s safe for a person to be around
• These people are being used as test subjects for radioactive poisoning
o Another example of environmental racism
• Still has a legacy: Green Run 1949
• The children of those in the perfect cities suffered consequences (higher rate of abnormal births)
• This is a legacy Canada has yet to come to grips with
• Canada has uranium resources during WW2
• During WW2 they reopened the radium mine and sent radium to the Manhattan project
• Bear Lake (site of mine) was home to Indigenous people