Event 2 Desma 9

 Jessica Irish’s impactful video presentation highlights the dangers factorial industries and single-use plastics present to humans and the environment. Irish’s video was informative, however also, saddening and infuriating. It artistically encapsulated the emotions that every organism and ecosystem that exuded while under attack from the human’s waste products. She displayed plants, animals, and humans that have been adversely affected.  


(Wordpress)

Jessica Irish focuses on one case of environmental destruction called Cancer Alley. Cancer alley is home to “30 large petrochemical plants within 10 miles,”(ProPublica) says a resident of St. Gabriel Louisiana. Due to these industrial plants, there is “rampant air pollution” (Campisano). Cancer cases in this region “could be at 104 and 05 cases per million” (United Nations). Local groups are formed to combat these plants and the harmful environmental effects that accompany them. These groups have had much success. Irish tells the successful story of one of these environmental activists groups. 

(Business Insider)

The next man-made atrocity that Irish presents are microplastics. Microplastics are formed from “larger plastic debris that degrades into smaller and smaller pieces” (National Ocean Service). Irish claims that microplastics are found in human blood, lungs, and more. Microplastics cause “organisms to reproduce less effectively” (Lim). They are also “able to enter cells” (Lim).

(The Guardian)

Bibliography

ashleyhannah2. “How Garbage Can Be a Bird's Demise.” Peep-Lo, April 8, 2014. https://ashleyhannah2.wordpress.com/2014/03/26/garbage-and-birds/.

Campisano, Donna Christiano. “Cancer Clusters along the Mississippi River.” Verywell Health. Accessed May 13, 2022. https://www.verywellhealth.com/cancer-alley-5097197.

“Environmental Racism in Louisiana's 'Cancer Alley', Must End, Say UN Human Rights Experts | | UN News.” United Nations. United Nations. Accessed May 13, 2022. https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/03/1086172.

Lim, XiaoZhi. “Microplastics Are Everywhere - but Are They Harmful?” Nature News. Nature Publishing Group, May 4, 2021. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01143-3.

“Magnets, Vacuums and Tiny Nets: The New Fight against Microplastics.” The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, February 18, 2021. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/feb/18/microplastics-oceans-environment-science.

Paradise, Polluter’s. “Welcome to ‘Cancer Alley," Where Toxic Air Is about to Get Worse.” ProPublica. Accessed May 13, 2022. https://www.propublica.org/article/welcome-to-cancer-alley-where-toxic-air-is-about-to-get-worse.

Pasley, James. “Inside Louisiana's Horrifying 'Cancer Alley,' an 85-Mile Stretch of Pollution and Environmental Racism That's Now Dealing with Some of the Highest Coronavirus Death Rates in the Country.” Business Insider. Business Insider, April 9, 2020. https://www.businessinsider.com/louisiana-cancer-alley-photos-oil-refineries-chemicals-pollution-2019-11.

US Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “What Are Microplastics?” NOAA's National Ocean Service, April 13, 2016. https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/microplastics.html. 

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