Green Livin The Love Canal

Green Livin The Love Canal Revisited: Race, Class, and Gender in Environmental Activism

I was just a young boy when the Love Canal fiasco that occurred in Niagara Falls, N.Y., in 1978, but the horror disaster is just as gripping 30 years later to me as it surely was for the people who lived through it. Imagine discovering your house or apartment was built just above a toxic chemical waste dump site.

In Elizabeth D. Blum's new book, Love Canal Revisited: Race, Class, and Gender in Environmental Activism, she looks at the far-reaching implications of this historic case study that galvanized a neighborhood across every barrier humans try to construct. If you're an activist, this book is must-read simply for its historical context. But if you seek to understand what motivates people to get involved in environmental causes, this book is also helpful.

Here's a green nugget discussing this ecological travesty:

"Gendered language was fluid at Love Canal, although certain patterns emerged among the different groups. The most prominent language among the women at Love Canal was certainly maternalism. Concern for the health and safety of their families, especially their children, crossed both racial and class lines. Men involved at Love Canal emphasized economic concerns most visibly, but this economic response varied somewhat with the men's class and status. The elite men who dominated LCARA focused almost exclusively on the adverse effects on tourism and tax dollars. The working-class men in the neighborhood used economic concerns as a basis for their activism, pressing for a freeze on mortgage payments or taxes.

"Yet this dichotomy was hardly set in stone. Economic worries motivated several women in the neighborhood, especially businesswomen and single mothers responsible for the financial well-being of their families. Conversely, the male resident representatives of LCARA focused on health issues. In addition, groups enlarged the frame of the debate by introducing and emphasizing different aspects. Working-class whites cited citizenship rights as a basis for activism. The African American renters believed that race and class bias perpetuated their situation, and their activism explicitly emphasized a more inclusive solution at Love Canal. The ETF saw its activism as part of the broader environmental movement and incorporated language stressing the widespread nature of the problem and the idea of stewardship as a way to work toward change and prevent future problems."