Page 518 - Essencials of Sociology

The Growth Machine versus the Earth 491

Before looking at the social movement that has emerged around this issue, let’s exam-
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ine some major environmental problems. Video: Looking Ahead: Toward a
Sustainable Society and World
Environmental Problems and Industrialization

Although even tribal groups produced pollution, the frontal assault on the natural envi-
ronment did not begin in earnest until nations industrialized. Industrialization was
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equated with progress and prosperity. For the Most Industrialized Nations, the slogan Video: ABC Nightline: BioTown
has been “Growth at any cost.” U.S.A.
Toxic Wastes. Industrial growth did come, but at a high cost. Despite their harm to
the environment and the dangers they pose to people’s health, much toxic waste has
simply been dumped onto the land, into the oceans, and, with the occasional permis- Pollution in the Industrializing Nations
sion of Putin and other politicians, into our lakes. Formerly pristine streams have been has become a major problem. The air
turned into polluted sewers. The disease-ridden water supply of in Beijing is hazardous to health.
some cities is unfit to drink. The Social Map below shows the
locations of the worst hazardous waste sites in the United States.
Keep in mind that these are just the worst. There are thousands
of others.
Nuclear power plants are a special problem. They produce
wastes that remain lethal for thousands of years. We simply don’t
know what to do with these piles of deadly garbage. In addition,
these nuclear factories, supposedly built with redundant safety
features, are vulnerable in unexpected ways. Certainly the nuclear
catastrophe at Fukushima, Japan, which continues to spew radia-
tion, is mute testimony to nuclear folly.
We certainly can’t lay the cause of our polluted Earth solely
at the feet of the Most Industrialized Nations. The Industrial-
izing Nations also do their share, with China the most striking

FIGURE 15.2 The Worst Hazardous Waste Sites

Least waste sites: VT 11
0–12
WA 13
49
Average waste ME
sites: 13–27 MT
14 16 ND 0 MN
Most waste sites: OR 6 87 NH 20
30–111 WI 65 MA 30
ID SD 25
2 2 38 NY RI 12
MI CT 14
14
WY PA
98 NV NE IA 11 IN 96 NJ 111 1
37
1 15 CO 13 IL OH DE 13 Least hazardous sites
9
CA UT 18 45 33 WV 31 MD 20
KS 11 33 14 VA DC 1 1. North Dakota (0)
MO KY
9 15 NC 37 2. Nevada (1);
14 8 TN 27
AZ OK 9 SC 3. South Dakota (2);
NM AR 15
8 14 Wyoming (2)
GA
LA MS AL
Te
TX Most hazardous
Texasxas sites
50 9
55
6
AK FL 1. New Jersey (111)
2. California (98)
3
HI
3. Pennsylvania (96)
= 10 sites
Source: By the author. Based on Environmental Protection Agency 2013.