Installment
1:
Poverty and environment linked
By
Adam Kapp (psychology)
"Welcome
home!" was not exactly what a group of 14 Penn State students
expected to hear after spending 18 hours on a plane that departed
from Philadelphia and crossed two continents and the Atlantic
Ocean. But arriving in Johannesburg, South Africa, was a sort
of homecoming; it was here that the earliest homonids, our oldest
ancestors, lived more than 3 million years
ago.
This
welcome, part of keynote speech at a dinner
hosted by the Ford Foundation, set the stage for our experience
as student delegates to the World Summit on Sustainable development,
part of an international academic experience developed by the
Schreyer Honors College and Professor Amy Glasmeier of the Geography
department. Currently,
we've been here for seven days, and we still have a few days
left.
The
pre-summit meetings are now in full swing. Over the last two
days, we've all had a chance to
participate in excursions with the Environmental
Justice Network, visiting sites and learning about the connections
between poverty and environmental degradation. My trip took
us to a township where a now-defunct mining operation has created
massive, unpredictable sinkholes as well as underground fires
that spew toxic chemicals into the air within sight of a hospital
and in the path of children going to and returning from school.
Even
though this was a homecoming of sorts, we all realized that
this place, where the winter sky hangs heavy with smoke and
fumes, was not a place that any of us would have to experience
day after day as the residents of this township do.
There
are many serious issues to be addressed by the United Nations
at this summit, and striking a balance between the three emphases
here -- people, planet and prosperity -- will be a Herculean
task for the U.N. delegates. However, surrounded by the natural
beauty of the South African landscape, I have hope that the
representatives may yet realize that it is the very
life of the planet that is at stake.
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