While the water crisis in Flint, Michigan has thrown environmental justice into the national spotlight, it is important to remember that environmental injustice is a problem much larger than aging and decrepit infrastructure in a single city. In nearby River Rouge, just south of Detroit, residents are facing tremendous health hazards. The city is surrounded by heavy industry, including steelworks, oil refineries, and waste facilities, all combining to create a deadly airborne cocktail of pollutants.
Zoe Schlanger of Newsweek reports on the implications on the health of residents, highlighting the struggles of some of the areas most vulnerable residents- children and the elderly. The conditions are causing life-threatening problems for residents, many of whom cannot afford to move elsewhere, and something must be done. Local officials have finally begun to acknowledge the relationship between the industrial pollutants and the health of local communities, and activists like the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal and Environmental Justice Organizer Rhonda Anderson and the MI Chapter are working towards expanded research efforts and action to address the problems facing the region and build a healthier future for all of its residents.
For further reading, read the Newsweek article here.
More on Flint and the post-industrial time bomb here.
To get involved or donate, visit our Michigan Chapter’s page here.