25 Section 5 – Discussion Questions
Audrey Ricke
- After reading Case Study 8 (Bridget McKenzie) and about the concept possitopia, discuss as a class/small group on “what gives you hope?” as it relates to environmental justice. Challenge: before coming to the discussion, locate 1 to 3 news stories that offer possibilities for addressing environmental crises and share those.
- In Chapter 16, Ana Isabel Baptista writes, “DiChiro describes the ways in which activists leading environmental justice tours use the ‘act of seeing with one’s own eyes’ as a means for trans-communal cooperation, an action which she describes as ‘a method that entails face-to-face contact and mutual trust'” (2003, 221). Thus, the act of showing and witnessing is an essential part of making connections between affected communities, allies, and anyone seeking environmental justice” (2024, 282). But what happens when the environmental damage cannot be observed directly through human senses? How might this trust be built, especially when tests and official narratives come from government officials and universities who may have a history of seeking their agenda first?
- What happens when toxic environment meets toxic history? What happens when these are embodied by the one and same individuals or families (e.g. local members of communities both employed by and impacted by the toxic heritage)?
- What are some additional ways that trust and understanding can be built among visitors, affected communities, different knowledge producers and holders, and policy-instituting, -influencing, and -enforcing agencies, and reconciliation crafted across and within? (This activity can be paired with Chapter 3 When Toxic Heritage is Forever: Confronting PFAS…by Pearson and Renfrew)
- What are some “code of ethics” for engaging in community collaboration, such as that featured in Chapter 16? (consider some of the issues brought up in the chapter, such as exposures to toxins by those leading tours [and those taking tours], hurt it can cause to residents who relive this, threats to life of those working on the tours, and others issues such as deciding on what content and whose memories should be included, assuming community members may not hold uniform opinions). (This activity can be paired with the Visual Essay 3- Getting Out the Lead by Gabriel Filippelli)
- In Chapter 16, ‘Zak describes the shock of residents as they sat on their front porches seeing men dressed in moon suits who were vacuuming the streets and placing the contaminated dirt in drums for removal’ (Baptista 2024, 285). But what happens next? How does toxic heritage in one location lead to toxic heritage in another location? Where did these drums of toxic dust/dirt get shipped? How did the potential contamination change people’s memories or relationships with the landscapes it was shipped to?
- Although not connected to this chapter, the question of what to do next is not without controversy. For a real-life example, research the 2023 East Palestine, Ohio toxic chemical train derailment and reactions from the U.S. states who found out they would be receiving the toxic materials from the clean-up (e.g. Texas, Michigan, Indiana, and several other states). What happened? In what ways, if any, did this lead to the production of toxic heritage?
