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EiJ Hazard: PFAS

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FOR ECOGOVLAB/CCEJP CURRICULUM: Use this as a research resource during 11th and 12th Grade Lesson 2 on Hazards.

Case Studies Winter 2024

Case study reports produced by students in UCI Anthro25A, "Environmental Injustice," in Winter 2024.

environmental hazards

ghakim
Annotation of
In response to
  • includes severe water pollution -- tied to militarism, including raw sewage and petroleum contamination (incl. in Oahu's sole aquifer) - O'ahu Water Protectors, calls to shut down the Navy's Red Hill facility
  • (combo disaster) potential radioactive contamination and legacies of U.S. nuclear weapon testing -- "The Runit Dome is a relic of America’s atomic past. It’s home to 3 million cubic feet of radioactive waste that was buried there as part of the government’s effort to clean up the mess left from dozens of nuclear tests in the 1940s and ’50s that decimated the atoll. A warming climate and rising sea levels now threaten the integrity of the saucer-shaped structure, which, if it fails, could spill its radioactive contents into the Pacific, a scenario that would threaten both people and the surrounding environment." (source)
  • wildfires, compounded by climate change

intersecting factors

ghakim
Annotation of
In response to
  • settler colonialism - Haunani-Kay Trask's concept of "settlers of color" and "immigrant hegemony" (The Mauna Kea Syllabus), Kēhaulani Kauanui's article on enduring indigenity/asserting indigenity as a category of analysis
  • military-industrial complex + Hawaii as a linchpin of U.S. military interests - Ke'awalau o Pu'uloa (Pearl Harbor) alone has six superfund sites (Cultural Survival)
  • tourism - functioning hand in hand with militarism. From Vernadette Vicuña Gonzalez's book, Securing paradise : tourism and militarism in Hawai'i and the Philippines: "For instance, in both Hawai'i and the Philippines, U.S. military modes of mobility, control, and surveillance enable scenic tourist byways. Past and present U.S. military posts, such as the Clark and Subic Bases and the Pearl Harbor complex, have been reincarnated as destinations for tourists interested in World War II. The history of the U.S. military is foundational to tourist itineraries and imaginations in such sites. At the same time, U.S. military dominance is reinforced by the logics and practices of mobility and consumption underlying modern tourism. Working in tandem, militarism and tourism produce gendered structures of feeling and formations of knowledge. These become routinized into everyday life in Hawai'i and the Philippines, inculcating U.S. imperialism in the Pacific."