Analyze

Lala Nuss, Climate Resilience and Equity Manager at Honolulu’s Office of Climate Change, Sustainability, and Resilience states that Hawaii lacks the data needed to characterize the links between environmental hazards and structural inequities. Though diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and asthma disproportionately impact Native Hawaiians in ways that could be linked to environmental hazards, these connections haven’t been clearly made. What is clear is that native Hawaiian communities are more likely to live near environmental hazards (Caulfield 2020).

Hawaiian state agencies have also failed more broadly to collect and track accurate data on Native Hawaiians and the programs intended to serve them (despite the passing of Act 155 in 2014 which codified a commitment to policy that eliminates health disparities by identifying and addressing social determinants of health). Native Hawaiians have also lacked input in decision-making around data collection processes and in determining how data is used (Kauahikaua and Pieper-Jordan 2021).

Caulfield, Claire. 2020. “Is There Environmental Racism In Hawaii?” Honolulu Civil Beat. June 15, 2020. https://www.civilbeat.org/2020/06/is-there-environmental-racism-in-hawaii/.

Kauahikaua, Lilinoe and Seanna Pieper-Jordan. 2021. “Improving Hawai‘i’s data policy to better serve Native Hawaiians.” Hawai’i Budget and Policy Center and Papa Ola Lokahi. /https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5ef66d594879125d04f91774/t/60514869451e1d09b75e4317/1615939719621/Data+Justice+Report_Interactive.pdf. 

Ortmann (2023, p.8):

The Formosa protest one year later provides a contrasting case study [to protest against the Vinh Tan coal power plant] to understand when repression is a strategic choice by the regime. The protest occurred in response to massive pollution caused by the Taiwanese steel producer Formosa-Ha Tinh Steel. Perhaps the most important difference was the media coverage. While the Vinh Tan protest had garnered significant, relatively objective coverage in the Vietnamese press, the Formosa case was highly censored, and whatever can be found is highly biased against the protesters who were supposedly only interested in harming Viet Nam’s national interests. To understand what happened, it is necessary to draw on foreign media, which covered the protests over many months, as well as other academic sources.

From Naomi Goddard (News Lens, March 10, 2023): 

"Originally launched in 2013 under the name Nuclear Film Festival (核電影), the biannual event was created to draw attention to the organizers, Green Citizens’ Action Alliance (GCAA)’s concerns about nuclear energy. In the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster, the festival showcased films advocating for a nuclear-free world and addressing energy-related issues.

However, over the years the festival has expanded its focus to include films about climate change and the fossil fuel industry. As the urgency of the climate crisis has become increasingly pressing, the festival has evolved alongside it. This year, the festival has been renamed to Climate Tipping Point Film Festival to reflect its broader focus on global heating and the need for systemic change to mitigate its effects."

Danielle Koonce in an Opinion piece in the Fayetteville Observer, states...

"And it’s not just household garbage coming in — chemical waste and coal ash has also been disposed of in the Sampson County landfill."

"We listened to community members share how they can no longer garden or enjoy the outdoors due to the thick odor and fumes from the landfill."

"We learned that the landfill receives trash from around the state, from as far away as New York City, and even trash that comes in on ship-barges through Wilmington."

While Bryan Wuester, manager for the Sampson County Landfill states in the Sampson Independent...

"The Sampson landfill accepts waste from North Carolina only, about 5,450 tons from 16 different counties a day."

"The landfill accepts three kinds of waste: construction and demolition materials, solid waste and special waste, which are byproducts of industry. No coal ash comes into the Sampson facility..."

These are two different stories of the landfill coming from two different stakeholders, one in which needs the landfill to be in operation for a job and the other a concerned citizen worried about the disproportional impacts her community faces. While Danielle Koonce listens to the realities of the community members located around the landfill who express concern and worry, the landfill manager denies these realities and insists they are not true. This is not only invaliding to the community members who are fighting to get their voices heard but further embeds environmental injustice into the community.  

Scholars argue that Vietnamese environmental movements and civil society have been stifled by one-party authoritarian rule, resulting in short lived and fragmented activist campaigns (Ortmann 2017; 2021; Bruun 2020; Wischermann et al. 2021). Notably, the government has established its own environmental organizations, efforts of which keep getting undercut by close business ties and other conflicts of interest (Ortman 2021, 275). Independent NGOs and journalism, in turn, have been tolerated, but all organizations are required to register with the government, preventing funding expansion and growth (ibid). This asymmetry has led to competition with established international organizations like Greenpeace that offer better job opportunities and resources (2021, 292). Finally, though all media in Vietnam are owned by the government and subject to censorship, journalists benefit from a certain degree of freedom that has enabled critical coverage of environmental pollution (Ortmann 2021, 280).

Linked below is a data analysis on the CalEPA Regulated Facilities Portal, click on my annotation to view full analysis.

CalEPA Regulated Facilities Portal: Data Analysis | Disaster STS Network (disaster-sts-network.org)

Media coverage of the exhibition "Where the South Wind Blows"

Interview by PTS- Our Island (link1) (link2)、THE REPORTER (link1) (link2)

2012: PTS  photographer 鍾聖雄came to document village in the shadow the factory

Brother Lin and Miss Wu are often interviewed (by PTS- Our Island, PTS Talk) and work with researchers

Different documentary films and news series about the region

Visits by Diane Wilson, connections to Louisiana and Texas