Comments Related To: Rights To A Clean Environment For All

Awesome video! It is a very important topic that we so often tend to forget. One thing stayed with me in particular. The school kids. Their passion to find the answers. It brings out so much hope for the future to see kids finding the answers, questioning their surroundings and stepping up for their rights.

KirillVolchinskiy, Thank you for bringing this exposé of the gross polluter company from West Oakland that is blatantly poisoning nearby residents and a neighboring High School full of our children. What an egregious and flagrant disregard for human life and our environment. From your profile I see that you are only 14-years-old and that you and your film-making partner are both in high school--you are wise beyond your years and this is a powerful accomplishment.

My wife of 30 years suffers from Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) and is homebound. She is a real life "canary in a coal mine" and grim example of how exposures to such toxic chemicals injure the body and steal an individuals health and quality of life. I sincerely appreciate your efforts and exposing this issue to the Allvoices community.
- jongleur

A horrible situation. This might be the kind of situation that President Obama should take a look at personally to enforce stricter controls on polluters and make an example of a particular area. It would be a great political move on is part as well as a boost for the local community. It might spur other communities into action on preventable pollution and illnesses too.

environment forms a very important art of a person's environment and can greatly have a negative impact on students who if due to the pollution fall ill and will imact their education and increase their absenteeism, something must be done and people should express their concerns!

This is a problem not just in Oakland, but all over the United States and other countries. The government has put regulations on companies, however, maybe the restrictions are not being enforced or there is not enough government officials to keep up with the enforcement of these regulations.

This reporting is the first step to change. The energy, research and care that went into this video is the exact necessary step needed to raise the awareness of others and help this issue to get the attention and action it needs. Great work.

To olivebranchgbs- Energy? Certainly. Care? Obviously. But research? I have to disagree with you there. Too many significant errors and too many unfounded accusations.

I have lived next to Custom Alloy for several years. I know West Oakland's air quality is exceptionally bad and since it seemed likely that a metal refinery could be one of the worst sources of pollution, I investigated CASS pretty thoroughly. (It's not even close to the worst, BTW.) If the maker of this video (and most of the people in it) had devoted their efforts to putting together a comprehensive picture of local air pollution this video would have had a completely different message.
I am in no way pro-industrial or pro-pollution. I am, on the other hand, pro-truth, and the severe bias in this video obscures the truth. It presents people's fears and prejudices without taking the time to investigate and discover what is actually known and knowable. Many of these fears and questions could have been put to rest or definitively answered with simple research. I know this because I did it myself.
While I support the spirit of activism, I am saddened that the activism here went no farther than giving voice to some people's concerns, and I am dismayed by the idea that no adult saw fit to correct the basic and obvious flaws in critical thinking demonstrated by these students. For instance, the girls conclude that they are being treated unfairly because their homes are next to factories, in contrast to wealthier neighborhoods. But unlike the injustices that occurred elsewhere, this was NOT a low income or ethnic neighborhood that was dumped on by some unknown, uncaring capitalist. The CASS site (and the lots on every side) have been heavy industrial since this was marshland. As late as 1959 arial photos show no residential houses, just open space and the metal scrapyard and garbage company that were already established on the polluted landfill that was brought in for just that kind of business. If there is any indignance here, the only ones it can be pointed at are their own parents or grandparents - the people who built or bought or rented a house near CASS, not the other way around.

These girls have a picture of the world in which they and their community have been mistreated, when a little basic research could have given them a factual (and very different) impression. How do they benefit from falsely believing they are victims of injustice? How do they benefit from believing that the contaminated metals they found have nothing to do with their own waste stream, and are instead the 'fault' of the recycler? How do they benefit from believing that an adversarial approach is the best way to change things for the better?

How does anyone benefit from thinking that recycling is something that ought to be done somewhere away from Them, rather than thinking of how to integrate it acceptably?

The NIMBY attitude displayed here is one of the main reasons our culture is consuming the Earth. It's not admirable or even sane to make bad guys out of the businesses who are reducing our ravenous demand for raw materials. This "WE are not the polluters" crap has to stop. Everything at Custom Alloy is there because of "the people" - underpriveleged and rich alike.

Sure, it's fun to feel like the good guy 'uncovering' a "gross polluter", but the difference between feeling good and doing good is directly related to the difference between KNOWING instead of believing. How many people who felt righteously indignant after watching this video even thought about checking the records to see what CASS actually puts into the air? I would bet, none of them.
Well, I have. I've also checked how CASS compares to the industry standard. I suggest you do the same before you jump on this bandwagon.
I know that Custom Alloy is loud, and not a pretty neighbor. I also know that the water pouring out of that pipe came directly from a state of the art, guaranteed filtration system that was installed by one of the most highly respected environmental wastewater companies in the world. I'm not saying that I know all the water from CASS is pure, because I don't. But if StormwaterX is willing to guarantee the purity of that water and there are no samples taken from it showing contamination, yet the implication was (by zooming in on it, then showing an oil slick in the street) that this video was documenting pollution caught in the act, then I question the journalistic integrity of the adults involved in publishing this as a fair or even accurate portrayal of the situation. There are many other errors besides the ones I have mentioned.
I'm not trying to rip this kid's video, I am trying to stop the kneejerk willingness to believe something because it fits one's preconceptions, regardless of whether or not those preconceptions apply to the case in point. Please realize that a commitment to the environment, or to justice (or really, to anything), is best served by holding yourself and your 'side' as close to the truth as you can. Exaggeration, innuendo, etc. are the tools of those who do not believe that the facts are convincing enough.

Peace.


P.S. I am not associated with CASS. I am bothered that misinformation is so easily spread by (and to) people who are working for the same goals I am.