I found the introduction to the chapter on environmental justice very shocking at first, that someone would suggest we simply dispose of our waste by dumping all of it in a poorer country. Then I realized this is already what we are doing, it’s just that nobody has phrased the reasons for it so bluntly before. When you think about the process, it makes sense logically. We would be paying these poorer countries a lot of money that they can use to help develop their country further, and we would be getting rid of our pollution and waste in the process. They need the money, and they made their own decision and agreed to take our toxic waste from us. From a humanistic perspective however it does not seem right to pay someone off, and exploit their hardships to benefit for yourself, especially when it is potentially harmful to them.
After reading the article about the Goshute’s I was even more torn on the issue. According to federal laws they are allowed to make their own decision about whether or not to store nuclear waste on the land that the rightfully own. Toole county is already one of the “most concentrated areas of pernicious waste in the nation” with a site for biological weapons testing, chemical weapons storage, hazardous waste, a radioactive waste dump, and a corporation that “emitted enough chlorine and sulfur dioxide to earn it the title of the worst air polluter in the nation.” Toole county is clearly not the most pristine area of the nation, and if they have already taken advantage of their desert lands to store hazardous materials and gain extra money from it why shouldn’t the Goshute’s also be able to do the same, and gain some badly needed money of their own. It seems hypocritical of the state of Utah to deny them this right. On the other hand, why should the Goshute’s be taken advantage of, have to risk their own health, and agree to violate their own land because they barely have enough money to support themselves. It seems incredibly unfair and unjust.
