The movies Erin Brockovich and A Civil Action were in my opinion extraordinary, in regards to the law and public health perspectives shown. Both films were very similar on the subject of water pollution and the effects on the human body. These films dealt with issues that are still occurring in today’s society because of the neglect of multi-billion dollar companies. These companies show no appreciation for the innocent residents in their immediate area of pollution.
In the movie Erin Brockovich not only were children affected by the water contamination but the adults were also negatively affected. In this film the families were directly exposed to carcinogens that were used for water pressure in a multi-million dollar company located a few miles away from the home. One particular family that caught my attention was the first family that filed a case against Pacific Gas & Electric Company. Donna Jensen and her family filed a lawsuit again this company because of a real estate issue. Fortunately, Erin Brockovich worked as the lawyer's assistant and was the first individual to realize that this company was hiding the truth about the chemicals used in the facility. This information that PS&E was withholding from the local residents directly affected their health and
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Most of the families that were directly affected by the carelessness of the industrial companies, had lost their child to a cancer called leukemia. This film did not show soon much of the science behind the pollution but it showed the struggle that lawyers face to defend their clients. The multi-million dollar companies involved in the case were able to use their money and power to avoid the consequences of their actions. It comes to show how much power these companies have and it rises questions on what else they are capable of achieving with this power in regards to the
...d for the general public in order to raise social awareness in preventing polluting the world. It is important to raise social awareness on topics of this nature because it is affecting our world. It is important to consider it as every individual problem and concern rather than see it as an external issue. Saukko chose a whole new approach and technique to get into people’s mind. Usually, authors that want to point out and raise social awareness on issues of this nature, tend to be direct and straightforward about it. However, Saukko has taken it to the next level by approaching the readers in a unique way that will catch more of their attention and hopefully move their emotions on the topic.
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...
In the beginning of the clip, the speaker describes the birth defects children are born with due to the exposure of the pollution created by the Maquiladoras. For instance, the speaker discusses children being born with hydrocephalus, which results in them having to put a shunt in the brain. While discussing hydrocephalus the film cuts to the scene of a little girl playing in the polluted waste water. Showing this scene while discussing hydrocephalus appeals to the audience’s emotions. The audience feels a sense of sympathy and grief for the children with birth defects. The audience’s logic understands that it is not at all the children’s fault for being born with these defects, and it is something that can be preventable if the Maquiladoras took better waste disposal actions. Showing the little girl playing in the polluted water also appeals to the audience’s emotion of guilt and shame. A majority of the products being produced in these Maquiladoras are items U.S consumers use on an everyday basis. Since Maquiladoras negatively affect these children’s lives, it creates the audience to feel guilty for using these products that were produced in the Maquiladoras.
Erin Brockovich is an environmental activist and writer who became well known after she won a 330 million-dollar lawsuit against Pacific Gas and Electric in 1996. In 2000 the film Erin Brockovich came out and made her even more recognized. Erin has made many accomplishments in her life. I think the three key accomplishments in her life are overcoming being a single mother of three, winning the lawsuit against Pacific Gas and Electric Company, and becoming and environmental activist.
Patty Hearst was a normal 19 year old girl, living in an apartment with her fiance and attending university in Berkeley, California, until one day her life, and the lives of everyone around her changed forever. On the evening of February 4, 1974, some members of the left-wing radical group called the Symbionese Liberation Army barged into Hearst’s home armed with guns, and beat up her fiance before kidnapping Hearst and bringing her to their house where she was kept blindfolded in a closet for 59 days. While locked in the closet, Patty Hearst was verbally and sexually abused and she was denied the use of even a toilet or toothbrush if she didn’t tell them that she agreed with the group’s ideas and beliefs. It is believed that while being locked in the closet like this, Patty was being brainwashed by the SLA and that she may have even developed Stockholm Syndrome, a condition in which a person who was kidnapped starts to empathise with their captor, and even starts defending them. This is how the Symbionese Liberation Army convinced Patty Hearst to join their group. They released an audio tape to the public in which Patty Hearst said she was changing her name to Tania and that she had decided to join the SLA. She then helped the SLA rob a bank and steal an ammunition belt from a sports store. After this, she started travelling around the country with two members of the SLA named John and Emily Harris, to try avoid being captured by the police. During this time, the police found a house where some members of the SLA were hiding out. Attempts to make the SLA members surrender ended up in a massive gunfight, ultimately ending up in the deaths of 6 SLA members. The FBI eventually found and arrested Patty Hearst on September 18, 1975. T...
Besides the argument, Libby Montana inhabitants had their health highly affected in three, if not all four, of the components that measures health, by means that were beyond their control. An international company started a mining operation in the small city. At first, the inhabitants were happy with all the new jobs a major company moving to town would bring. Throughout the documentary a man said, “The good jobs were there.” Unfortunately, they did not know that in the long-term that mining was about to bring major consequences upon all Libby’s inhabitants. The mining operation generated an overwhelming amount of dust that was easily spread throughout the whole city. During the documentary, a man said, “You could not see it in the air, but you could see it in your coffee.” And his daughter said, “When he would get home I would get the car and drive to town and on the way the car would get all covered in dust. I would think, ‘It’s just dust, don’t worry about it.’” For those who worked inside the mining field, the consequences of working in a dusty environment started very soon with numerous employees being diagnosed with lung disorders leading to death. The exposure to asbestos started affecting not only the workers health, but also the city inhabitants, because asbestos is highly toxic even at very low exposure. Physically their lungs were affected, which leads to mental stress to the ill person and the whole family. The overwhelming amount of inhabitants being affected caused a major social problem within the city inhabitants, and a mistrust that was being built and conserved for generations. The health of Libby’s inhabitants was, and is, compromised and their enjoyment of life is reduced because of irresponsible decisions made by third party.
The movie “A Civil Action” released on January 8, 1999 provides viewers with an extraordinary story of the nightmare that occurred in Woburn Massachusetts in the late 1970’s. The people of this small town at the time had no idea what was going on until there were various cases of Leukemia in small children that ultimately resulted in the early passing of them. The people eventually had gone to find out that the drinking water in this small town was contaminated and there were many women that stepped in to get answers. This movie is a tremendously jaw dropping, eye opening account of a heartbreaking true story incident. There are various elements of negligence in this movie including, duty, legal cause, proximate cause and damages.
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.
...ollution are depressing. Wetlands appear to be protected in the United States, but are still being destroyed by over development and pollution. I was a little shocked to see the amount of water the private water companies have bought rights to world-wide. I was even more shocked to learn the amount of water rights the private water companies had here in the United States. Many areas in the United States has outsourced our water to private companies already. Privatization is not just a problem abroad, it is also happening here at home. I believe the film would be a great tool to change people’s attitudes in the more developed nations that take water for granted. The visuals of people all over the world fighting for their basic right to something so simple, yet so paramount to living, such as water should make anyone take a second and think about what they are doing.
The problem with pollution prevention is that it requires people to understand more than the intimate details of the production process; they must also understand the technical possibilities. Many corporations have environmental managers, which are generally responsible for helping corporations comply with the law. According to the case study, the work of environmental managers often expose them to many pollution prevention solutions, but they often have trouble getting access to production areas. Production often sees Environmental Managers as "the compliance police".
Pollution is a very important thing in the world. In the movie the Lorax, the Once-ler pollutes by creating large factories that produce harmful smoke into the air. The smoke is harmful to the animals because it is not healthy to breath in all of that smoke. All of this smoke will hurt wildlife and plant life if it continues.
The Scott Peterson case was one of the most difficult murder cases that have ever been handled by the U.S. courts in the recent memory. Scott Peterson is best known for murdering his eight- month pregnant wife, Laci Peterson, in 2002 in Modesto, California. The FBI was able to collect evidence against Peterson for the case against him. Peterson was sentenced to death by lethal injection in 2004 for the first-degree murder of his wife and the second-degree murder of their fetus son. The Scott Peterson trial was an important trial because it showed the darkness of America through his lies, less humane remarks, and the crime itself.
Challenging the normality, Margaret Fuller rips the chains of women arguing for equal status in marriage, education, and participation in society throughout her essay “The Great Lawsuit.” During the late 1800s to early 1900s, the daily lives of women and men were undoubtedly divided. Based on gender, people were expected to execute specific tasks to ensure that the home and community functioned as smoothly as possible. Men typically worked outside of the house and participated in many city functions. Women, however, were much more limited in their movements. The majority of their expected work were done within the home– cleaning, cooking, gardening, and sewing. Women were also expected to marry and conceive, and anyone who did not, were seen
London Smog, occurred in 1990s, shows that many industry made serious problems like air contamination, and river pollution. At that time, due to many pollutants from factory and company, the air of London was mixed with unknown chemicals and finally resulted in air pollution and respiration diseases for people. Also, atom bomb, which was fell on two cities in Japan, destroyed 70,000 facilities among 90000 buildings. People suffered mortal after-effect of radiation. These cas...
Devi K Lockwood, is a female poet, activist and writer. Lockwood would agree with Alcid’s statements about Eco-Feminism. Both authors stated they believe that environmental racism is real, harmful and an injustice. In her article “We Can’t Talk Climate Change Without Talking Environmental Racism” Lockwood writes “ Race plays a major role in the purposeful location of polluting industries in the U.S. This is a pattern that stretches deep into U.S. history, and we’re watching it play out right now with the water crisis currently raging in Flint, Michigan.” Environmental racism is a form of structural racism that purposefully harms communities of color, Flint Michigan is a devastating example. In 2014 Flint’s water supply was changed from Detroit's water system to the Flint River, this decision is made by a government official. The official ignored the fact that, the Flint River is contaminated by industrial waste, making the water undrinkable. The industrial waste was improperly disposed of into the river by G.M and Buick City. In 2014 residents had symptoms of skin rashes, hair loss, mood changes, as a result of brown tap water. In September of 2015, blood tests on children revealed high levels of lead, 900 times the EPA limit. Due to the negligent actions of goverenment and city officials, the children tested now live with irreversible brain