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Bodies and Land in NOLA

jdl84
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The history of racialized exclusion to both social power and land tenure and homeownership has shaped how bodies are differentially impacted by land use in NOLA. This entire history could (and probably already is) a topic for a dissertation, but one case I found particularly interesting involved the Army Corps of Engineers' 2007 creation of an online database in which residents can find the "flood potential" faced by their homes (http://nolarisk.usace.army.mil/ --unfortunately no longer up).  While this database was hailed as a landmark achievement in providing NOLA residents with their "right to know" about the risks in their neighborhoods, only a few remarked on what the data actually showed: that in the two years following the flood predominantly white neighborhoods had experienced 4-6 feet of flood reduction, black neighborhoods had experienced little to no flood reduction whatsoever. 

This reminds me of a more general entanglement of racialized disparities, historical disinvestment and inequitable distribution of risk in America, which as Anna Clark so summarily puts it (in respect lead": "lead is one toxic legacy in America's cities. Another is segregation, redlining, and rebranding: this is the art and craft of exclusion. We built it into the bones of our cities as surely as we laid lead pipes."  

Land Use Education in NOLA

jdl84
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One interesting example of land use education that I found is the Whitney Plantation Museum in Wallace, LA--about an hour north of New Orleans proper and right on the banks of the Mississippi River. The museum is, according to its website, "the only plantation museum in Louisiana with an exclusive focus on the lives of enslaved people." The 2,000 acre property was once a sugarcane plantation that operated from 1752 until well into the 19th century, with over 350 enslaved persons working on it during this period. 

The museum was founded in 2014 by John Cummings, who has spent more than $8 million of his own fortune on this long-term project, and worked on it for nearly 15 years.[ The director of research is Ibrahima Seck, a Senegalese scholar who has done much work on the history of slavery. These two seem to be the primary organizers of education in the musuem which focuses on how land in the Lower Mississippi was organized towards the cultivation of Sugar. 

Right off the bat, it is interesting that this museum is completely financed by a private citizen. I've looked up other plantation museums in the region and for the most part they see to all be privately run. Also, contrast the focus on slavery at Whitney to the Oak Alley plantation museum's celebration of a family legacy of sugar planters: "Hold fast to that which is good...."

Data and EEOICPA

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The question of data relates to Denise Brock’s key role in the passage of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act (EEOICPA). Brock independently collected thousands of documents related to the health of  workers in nuclear facilities like Weldon Spring in her efforts to show that they had been exposed to pathological levels of radiation. In many cases, their employers were fully aware of the dangers these workers faced, but kept this information to themselves or hidden away in the private documents that Denise uncovered decades later. Prior to Denise's work this information was not publically available, and if workers who had become ill wanted to receive compensation for worksite expose, they would have to undergo exposure reconstruction assessments, which--due to the lack of accurate and available data--were imperfect evaluations of the actual levels of radiation workers had been exposed to. Due to Denise's advocacy, which led to the passage of the EEOICPA, workers at nuclear facilities are exempted from the exposure reconstruction assessments and are eligible for compensation payments up to a maximum amount of $250,000, plus medical expenses for accepted conditions.

Denise's experience raises a few questions and reflections on data in the Anthropocene:

  •  Issues like worksite and environmental exposure are often plagued by invisibilities and what STS scholars have referred to as "agnotologies"--where can activists/scholars/any interested party gain access to relevant data in relation to these issues (in a similar fashion to Denise's work)?
  • For historians in particular: do the thousands of documents Denise complied consitute an archive? How can these and similar archival practices be Anthropocenic strategies? 

Remediation and The Anthropocene at FUSRAP

jdl84
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Project managers at the Army Corps of Engineers are not concerned with the Anthropocene. Their job at SLAPS and other FUSRAP sites revolves around a different contestable term: remediation. What exactly does Anthropocenic remediation look like in St. Louis? As the ACoE project managers informed us, remediation consists of removing contimated soil and shipping it to approved waste management sites in Michigan, Kentucky and Ohio. It would be interesting to further investigate how ACoE practices of remediation have historically been shaped.

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Sara_Nesheiwat
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The data is mainly visualized in report form. There is also a section of the site where data and statistics that have been confirmed are written out separated by disease/disorder type. So in the "what we know" tab PTSD, depression, tobacco use, asthma, lung function, respiratory issues, heart disease and adolescent health are separated into different sections with confirmed disease rates, correlations and numbers listed beneath each section. The same group that runs this registry in terms of research, called the 'WTC Medical Working Group' also provides links to other current studies on the matter, some of which they have partaken in. 

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Sara_Nesheiwat
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"The crumbling infrastructure at Rikers leads to more than flooding. The majority of weapons found on the island (about 79 percent in 2014) are fashioned out of building materials at hand, and not smuggled in."

"In my cell, it feels like it’s 104 degrees in my cell when it’s 94 degrees outside. I feel like I’m dying in the cell. I have a heart murmur and my heart will start pumping hard. I get dizzy and get migraine headaches from the heat.”

"The landfill underneath burps methane, a noxious gas, as the garbage decomposes naturally. Less than a mile away in Queens sit five power plants that spew volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxide, a pollutant. The Poletti power plant, infamous for being the biggest polluter in New York, sat within a mile of Rikers and operated until 2010"

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Sara_Nesheiwat
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The arguments were supported through providing data and statistics on the amount of those suffering still and providing background and input from numerous government agencies on the topic. Interviews with survivors were also used to support the argument and provide first person experience about the conditions in which they live and hardships they face.The interviews recount what occurred and was experienced during the disaster, as well. Ben, a 42 year old carpenter, Muriel and many others are quoted and provide testimony to the adversities they faced- physiologically, psychologically and emotionally during and post Katrina. The  article then discusses the roles government agencies have in recovery after the disaster.

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Sara_Nesheiwat
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This paper analyzes the effect that disaster has on the mental health of those afflicted by the disaster. The type of disaster and its effect on certain mental health afflictions is discussed. The field of disaster and this correlation with mental heath has long been in existence and under study. This paper discusses the current state of the field of disaster and mental health research. An overall summary of previous findings is discussed as well as the treatment of mental health disorders after disasters and any challenges to studying disaster related psychopathology. Limitations in current methodologies are also discussed as well as future areas of research are also discussed.

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Sara_Nesheiwat
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I further researched health care and illness rates in the area surrounding Chernobyl before the incident, to see if there were any very obvious differences in terms of how health care was handled. I also expanded on what was presented in the article and researched some of the major issues faced by those exposed. In addition, I researched more on the governmental influence and actions taken post Chernobyl in terms of testing of citizens as well as leaderhsip efforts.