Back in the late 1970s, Love Canal activists took two EPA officials hostage
to force President Jimmy Carter to declare the site a federal disaster area and provide funds to relocate the residents of this horribly contaminated community. They succeeded in their goal.
Can you imagine environmental activists trying this today and getting away with it? I imagine they would be rounded up and thrown in jail, if not shot.
Instead we get Cliven Bundy, who threatens the government so he can keep grazing his cattle on national land for free.
I listened to part of a special Earth Day edition of Democracy Now, hosted by Amy Goodman & Juan González, on the radio this morning. The program was about the history of the global environmental movement as told in the documentary, "A Fierce Green Fire: The Battle for a Living Planet." They played excerpts from it, including sound clips from Lois Gibbs and others who lived by the toxic Love Canal site near Niagara Falls, NY.
Gibbs and other women living by Love Canal led a fight 45 years ago to have the site declared a national disaster area and to get federal aid to relocate residents from their contaminated homes. Children in the community were being born with birth defects and anomalies such as enlarged feet, heads, hands and legs. There were also high rates of unexplained illness, miscarriage, and mental retardation.
"In 1979, the EPA announced the result of blood tests that showed high white blood cell counts, a precursor to leukemia,[19] and chromosome damage in Love Canal residents. In fact, 33% of the residents had undergone chromosomal damage. In a typical population, chromosomal damage affects 1% of people." - Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Canal
The Love Canal site had been used to bury 21,000 tons of toxic waste by Hooker Chemical Company, now called Occidental Petroleum Corporation.
The documentary "Fierce Green Fire", which explores the global environmental movement and its beginnings, airs 9-10 p.m. tonight on PBS American Masters. I think it will be well worth watching.
Link to the radio program: http://www.democracynow.org/2014/4/22/earth_day_special_fierce_green_fire