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Children Of Flint Water Crisis Make Change As Young Environmental And Health Activists
Flint, Michigan – Their childhood memories remain vivid: cautions against drinking or cooking with tap water, waiting in lengthy lines for cases of water, and washing in buckets filled with warm, bottled water. Some people have stomachaches, skin rashes, and hair loss.
On April 25, 2014, ten years ago, city and state environmental officials in Flint raised champagne glasses as the mayor depressed a button to stop the flow of Lake Huron water that Detroit had been supplying for almost 50 years. That triggered a public health disaster including lead and bacteria from which the city has yet to recover.
However, dozens of water crisis survivors, now teenagers and young adults, have used their pain to advocate for change. They provide feedback on public health programs, participate in social problem campaigns, distribute filters, and offer free water testing to households.
AP – VOR News Image
Children Of Flint Water Crisis Make Change As Young Environmental And Health Activists
They realize Flint is still struggling. The population has decreased by approximately 20,000 over the last decade, leaving abandoned houses as targets for arsonists. Almost 70% of children live in poverty, and many struggle in school.
Despite the fact that the water has been confirmed safe to drink, there is widespread skepticism, and hundreds of lead water pipes remain in place since householders were given the option of not replacing them.
However, the young activists say they want to make a difference and change the way outsiders perceive their community. They seek to defy expectations.
“One of the biggest issues about growing up in Flint is that people had already decided and predetermined who we were,” said Cruz Duhart, a 22-year-old Flint Public Health Youth Academy member.
“They had ideas about our IQ, about behavioral things, but they never really stopped to speak to us and how we thought about it and the type of traumas that we were going through.”
AP – VOR News Image
Children Of Flint Water Crisis Make Change As Young Environmental And Health Activists
Sima Gutierrez, 16, has always found it easier to express herself through painting. Drawings, paintings, and wire sculptures adorn her family’s neat cottage.
The self-described “very shy” teen, who rarely spoke up for fear of being ignored, now collects water samples from people’s homes and transports them to the Flint Community Water Lab, where over 60 high school and college interns have provided free testing to thousands of residents since 2020.
As a member of the Flint Public Health Youth Academy, she assisted in the planning of public awareness campaigns on issues such as gun violence and how racism impacts public health.
“I wanted to be surrounded by people who weren’t going to cover up the whole fact that people are still having problems,” Sima remarked. “I was able to … share my life (with) anybody else who’s going through what I’m going through.”
She complained a decade ago that drinking water made her stomach pain. Her mother insisted that it would help Sima’s body flush out the medication she was taking for an autoimmune disease, which was causing her hair to come out in sections and leaving her skin with light blotches.
Residents began reporting skin rashes and complaints about discolored, odorous, and foul-tasting water shortly after the city began drawing from the Flint River to save money before it could connect to a new Lake Huron pipeline. However, they were told that everything was alright.
Sima claimed she was unaware of the issues until one of her elementary school classmates, Mari Copeny, a 7-year-old beauty pageant winner known as Little Miss Flint, started protesting. Mari became the crisis’s face, and she continues to raise awareness of environmental justice concerns among her almost 200,000 Instagram followers, as well as funds for water filters that she distributes in communities around the United States.
“I want to keep on using my voice to spread awareness about the Flint water crisis because it’s not just Flint that has a water crisis,” Mari went on to say. “America has a water crisis.”
Almost a year and a half after Flint made the transition, homeowners dissatisfied with the water quality contacted an expert, who discovered excessive lead levels caused by the city’s inability to add chemicals that prevent pipe corrosion. State officials had stated that these were superfluous. Around the same time, a pediatrician observed that levels in children’s blood had doubled since the changeover.
Outbreaks of Legionnaire’s disease, which resulted in a dozen deaths, were eventually traced to the city’s water supply.
Flint reconnected to its previous water line shortly thereafter, but the pipes continued to leak lead. The state gave households filters and bottled water.
Lead is a strong neurotoxin that can harm children’s brains and neurological systems, impairing learning, behavior, hearing, and speaking. There is no safe level of exposure throughout childhood, and issues can appear years later.
Dionna Brown, who was 14 when the water crisis started, grew interested in lobbying after taking an environmental inequality class at Howard University. She’s now building her life around it, pursuing a master’s degree in sociology at Wayne State University with the goal of becoming an environmental justice lawyer.
AP – VOR News Image
Children Of Flint Water Crisis Make Change As Young Environmental And Health Activists
She is also the national director of Young, Gifted & Green’s youth environmental justice initiative, which was previously known as Black Millennials for Flint and was formed by Washington advocates to help Flint recover from the disaster.
Every year, Brown hosts a two-week summer environmental justice camp in Flint to educate youth about policy, climate justice, sustainability, and housing inequality. She also works with children in Baltimore and Memphis.
She claimed that the Flint water crisis strengthened the children’s resilience.
“I tell people all the time: I’m a child of the Flint water crisis,” Brown added. “I love my city. And we made it clear to the world that you couldn’t just poison a city and expect people to forget about it.”
SOURCE – (AP)
The new head of the Army has stated that Britain must be prepared to fight a war within three years.
Gen Sir Roland Walker has issued a warning about a variety of risks in what he calls a “increasingly volatile” environment.
However, he stated that war was not inevitable and that the Army had “just enough time” to prepare to prevent conflict.
He stated that the Army’s fighting capacity would be doubled by 2027 and tripled by the end of the decade.
Gen Walker warned that the Britain was under threat from a “axis of upheaval” in his first speech as Prime Minister on Tuesday.
Among the primary concerns confronting the Britain in the next years, as noted by the general in a briefing, is an enraged Russia, which may seek vengeance on the West for helping Ukraine, regardless of who wins the war.
He stated: “It doesn’t matter how it finishes. I believe Russia will emerge from it weaker objectively – or completely – but still very, very dangerous and seeking some form of retaliation for what we have done to assist Ukraine.”
Britain’s Government Defence Review and Military Challenges
He also warned that China was determined to retake Taiwan, and Iran was likely to seek nuclear weapons.
He stated that the threats they posed may become particularly acute in the next three years, and that these countries had formed a “mutual transactional relationship” since the war in Ukraine, sharing weaponry and technology.
However, he stated that the path to conflict was not “inexorable” if the UK re-established credible land troops to assist its deterrent strategy for avoiding war.
In his speech, he described his force of slightly over 70,000 regular troops as a “medium-sized army” and made no direct call for additional resources or men.
However, he pushed the British Army to adapt swiftly, focussing on technology such as artificial intelligence and weaponry rather than numbers.
His ultimate goal is for the Army to be capable of destroying an opponent three times its size.
This would entail firing quicker and farther, he said, aided by lessons learnt from the Ukraine war.
The general’s speech at the Royal United Services Institute land warfare conference comes only one week after the government began a “root and branch” defence review to “take a fresh look” at the challenges facing the armed services.
Defence Secretary John Healey launched the assessment, describing the existing status of the armed forces as “hollowed-out” and stating that “procurement waste and neglected morale cannot continue”.
According to the most recent Ministry of Defence (MoD) numbers from April 2024, the Britain’s regular Army forces total 75,325 troops (excluding Gurkhas and volunteers).
That figure has been declining in recent years, as recruiting has failed to match retention. The previous Conservative administration lowered the planned headcount from 82,000 to 72,500 by 2025.
Members of the NATO military alliance have agreed to spend at least 2% of GDP on defence by 2024, but several countries are unlikely to fulfil this goal.
The Britain presently spends 2.3% of its GDP on defence. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has previously stated that the defence review will include a “roadmap” for increasing this to 2.5%, however he has yet to provide a date for this promise.
Source: BBC
News
Katie Ledecky Hopes For Clean Races At Paris Olympics In The Aftermath Of The Chinese Doping Scandal
PARIS — Katie Ledecky is looking for clean Olympic races. On Wednesday, Hope had pretty much reached her limit.
The American swimmer hopes to add to her six gold medals as she competes in the 400, 800, and 1,500 meters at the Paris Games. Her program starts with the heavy 400 on Saturday, featuring Ariarne Titmus and Summer McIntosh.
Katie Ledecky | ESPN Image
Katie Ledecky Hopes For Clean Races At Paris Olympics In The Aftermath Of The Chinese Doping Scandal
The 27-year-old Katie is competing in her fourth Summer Olympics, but the first since a doping scandal involving almost two dozen Chinese swimmers who tested positive for a banned chemical before the Tokyo Games — yet were permitted to compete with no consequences. The controversy has raised serious worries regarding the effectiveness of anti-doping initiatives.
Katie Ledecky | Vogue Image
“I hope everyone here is going to be competing clean this week,” Ledecky claimed. “But what truly counts is, were they training cleanly? Hopefully this has been the case. Hopefully, there has been worldwide testing.”
The International Olympic Committee has expressed concern over the ongoing US investigation into possible doping by Chinese swimmers. While awarding the 2034 Winter Olympics to Salt Lake City on Wednesday, the IOC urged Utah officials to do whatever they could to stop the FBI investigation.
“I think everyone’s heard what the athletes think,” Katie added. “They seek transparency. They want more answers to the remaining questions. At this point, we are here to race. We are going to race whoever is in the lane next to us.
“We are not paid to conduct the tests, so we trust those who follow their regulations. That applies both today and in the future.
Katie Ledecky | ESPN Image
Katie Ledecky Hopes For Clean Races At Paris Olympics In The Aftermath Of The Chinese Doping Scandal
SOURCE | AP
As the summer holidays begin, London may experience an official heatwave with temperatures reaching up to 29 degrees Celsius.
The Met Office predicts a long period of sunny and dry weather for London after a soggy spring and summer.
After a cloudy day on Saturday, temperatures are expected to reach 27C on Sunday, with lots of sunlight.
On Monday and Tuesday, temperatures are forecast to peak at 29 degrees Celsius. Monday is forecast to offer more sunlight, while Tuesday may see some gloomy weather.
Temperatures are expected to remain in the high 20s next week, with lows of approximately 18C.
According to the Met Office, a heatwave is “an extended period of hot weather relative to the expected conditions of the area at that time of year, which may be accompanied by high humidity.”
In the United Kingdom, a heatwave is proclaimed when daily temperatures meet or surpass a certain level for at least three consecutive days.
In London, the heatwave threshold is 28 degrees Celsius.
The Met Office reported that the UK is experiencing hotter and wetter weather on average due to climate change.
The UK experienced its warmest May and April on record this year, despite damp and dismal conditions in many areas.
According to the Met Office’s State Of The UK Climate 2023 report published on Thursday, the UK experienced historic levels of extreme weather last year.
In the United Kingdom, 2023 was the second warmest year on record, bringing storms, flooding, strong heatwaves, and rising sea levels; only 2022 was warmer.
It was 0.8°C higher than the average from 1991 to 2020, and 1.66°C higher than the 1961 to 1990 average.
However, 2023 will be a “cool year” in comparison to 2100, based on the planet’s warming trajectory.
The government’s plan to adapt to the hazards presented by climate change is currently being challenged in the High Court by campaigners who allege the Tory administration’s July 2023 National Adaptation Programme (NAP) fails to adequately address 61 concerns.
Source: The Standard
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