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| Lois Gibbs speaks to environmental action groups |
The Love Canal, a waterway that had thousands of tons of waste dumped into it, was discovered to be highly toxic—surprisingly—in 1978. It turned out that the town, Niagara Falls, was built on a toxic waste dump, with the elementary school directly on it. Lois Gibbs discovered this after reading a report. She decided that the best course of action was to form a homeowners association with those in the Love Canal neighborhood.
The association found two environmental analysts, sent by the government, who had come to sample the water supply. They were held in Love Canal. The reasoning was that if the families were supposed to live well enough in the town, then the federal agents could live there, too. This was a tactic to gain national attention and get the government to pay attention. Eventually, all 800 families were helped to evacuate.
2 comments:
It's pretty interesting how people end up getting the government's attention to make change. Some people have peaceful protests, some have less peaceful protests, and others hold people hostage.
It's sad how they had to take the environmental analysts hostage to get the government's attention. However, in the long run its good that Lois Gibbs stood up to this injustice because if she didn't it could have effected more people.
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