Synthetic Chemicals (Oct. 21)

    Subsequent to Tuesday's class, we watched a portion of the documentary. The content of today's class was something that directly affects us, compared to issues regarding businesses corporations, a topic we have fewer connections to. Only a few decades ago did we start using oils to manufacture cosmetic products, chemicals, plastics, and almost everything else. In the documentary, it said that 1940 marked a new era to synthesize and create chemicals that never existed before, and alongside new inventions, new problems arose. However, the once unprecedented issues are still existent in the world today. Not to mention, in contemporary society, we depend on chemicals and other products that pollute our environment even more, but not enough measures have been taken to alleviate the current circumstance. In the documentary, there was a black and white video of DDT being sprayed onto Japanese citizens, which was horrific, knowing that this chemical causes cancer. Nonetheless, the people looked really pleased and there was even joyful music playing in the background of the commercial, which sounded very odd. We have learned in other subjects that, there have been several cases where it was later reported that certain chemicals pose hazards. For example, Minamata disease. Just like there have been several epidemics caused by chemicals in Japan alone, hazardous chemicals have been accumulated to the extent where it permeates all areas of earth and the resources humans need. I had always thought cancer and other deadly diseases are unavoidable, but hearing that there were hardly any people dying of cancer back in the 19 century was sickening. Notwithstanding, the dilemma is that chemicals have made our lives so much more convenient, and now that it is so widespread, life without chemicals is unimaginable. 

    Alongside the direct impacts, chemicals have on us, the industries and companies releasing ample amounts of chemicals into the atmosphere are responsible for countless externalities. Externalities, a term I had not known until this Tuesday turned out to be something closely related to our lives. Although we have only watched a slight fraction of the documentary so far, this documentary is stacked with examples of externalities actually happening in the real world. Corporations release chemicals and do not pay for those who are exposed to their chemicals is so irresponsible. Hearing this, I felt the need to construct a law or some solution. Externalities not only affect poor citizens but also many times the environment is destructed as well, so creating a law to regulate polluting the air (and water) would kill two stones with one bird. 

    On a related note, Mr.Paterson illustrated the history of Vietnam and the unjust damage they received due to developed countries pouring chemicals into their country. To briefly summarize, he explained that prior to WWII, Vietnam was a colony of France, but things took a turn when Japan took to power during the world war. Later, France wanted to reestablish control and used Japanese soldiers to suppress Vietnamese independence. Throughout the years, world war 2 is a reoccurring event we study in history class, and in this case, Japan is involved. Hence, I do not recall being taught about the four weeks Japan ruled Vietnam and all the chaos that happened back then. The center of all the chaos was a chemical called the agent orange, a disruptive chemical that deteriorated jungles, ecosystems, countless creatures, and eventually sank into the ground causing cancer on Vietnamese citizens for over forty years. As seen in the video, there were innocent, desperate babies being affected by this detrimental chemical. This was one of the most shocking and upsetting facts I heard this day, because not only were hundreds of lives' been taken away, not a single person had known about such a global incident. Unquestionably, chemicals have made my life a lot more convenient and I could not imagine living without a single product made of chemicals. So, hearing such a revolutionary and convenient tool causing issues hindered me from even thinking of a solution. On top of that, hearing about RGBH for the third time in this course, made me realize this issue is a lot more severe than I had thought it was (since my memory of the previous documentary is slowly fading), leaving me more hopeless and pessimistic of our current society. 

Notes: 

North Vietnam is communist. South is capitalist. 

The judge threw the case out and gave Vietnamese citizens no money. 

environmental conditions are not included in the corporation's interest.