Bradford: We All

Live in Bhopal
How would you interpret the title?
How do we all live in Bhopal?

Major Environmental
Catastophes
(1) Bhopal:

At least 4,000 dead and as many as

500,000 directly affected. (100,000 sick)

(2) Chernobyl: Nuclear power plant explosion:

135,000 permanently evacuated from the area.

(3) BP oil spill (2011): Full effects not yet known.
(4) 1952 London smog crisis: Almost zero visibility,

possibly about 12,000 died from respiratory crisis.

Issues emphasized by
Bradford
Industrialization and development

Developing world has large debts and needs

economic growth to pay them off.
Change in developing world economy brings
risks. The Indians only take the risks and
bear the costs They dont get the benefits
of industrial capital. The benefits are
exported in the form of loan repayments. (p.
323)

The Green Revolution

The Green Revolution (1940s-1970s) was a

revolutionary shift in agricultural

modernization that had a huge effect on both
developed and developing nations.
It began in Mexico with high yield wheat &
corn and spread to Asia (miracle rice).
However, the US also dramatically increased
its yields.

Bradford Criticizes Green Revolution

Modernization of agriculture creates need for

fertilizers, insecticides, etc.

However, the rural economies of subsistence
farming were destroyed in favor of a class of
wealthier farmers dependent upon western
technologies.
People are further trapped in the technological
labyrinthThe ideology of progress is there,
blared louder than ever by those with
something to hidea cover-up for plunder and
murder on levels never before witnessed
(323)

Problems of
Industrialization
Poorer regions are very vulnerable to

pollution.
Bradford: They are a dumping ground and

pool of cheap labor.

Chemicals which are banned in developed

countries are produced in developing

countries. [E.g., leptophos exported to Egypt
killed & injured many Egyptian farmers.
Mercury tainted wheat killed 5,000 Iraqis.

Bhopal/Union Carbide (bought by

Dow)
Other companies are like Carbide. Half the

workers in battery plant had kidney damage

from mercury exposure.
Asbestos exposure allowed.
22,500 people killed every year by exposure
to insecticides.
[However, development and wealth require
technology & this requires industrialization &
accompanying pollution.]

Is pollution necessary?
What kind of response would be given to

Bradford?
The idea that economies develop in stages

and every industrialized society has a dirty

stage & then, when more wealthy, moves on
to a cleaner stage.
China is thought to be an example of this.

Effects of pollution and

toxins
Instead of death on a mass scale: cancer, birth defects.
EPA 90% of toxic waste is disposed of improperly.
A billion tons of pesticides and herbicides were

produced in 1 year. 79 million imported.

15,000 chemical plants daily manufacturing mass
death.
Chemicals leech into water.

We all live in Bhopal

Man says when things get bad, people go to

the village.
Bhopal residents fled to the village.
But what do we do when there is no village?
What are alternatives to the current chemical

toxin regime?