Hi everyone! I realize that it has probably been a while since you have seen anything new up on this blog, but the past few months have been kind of crazy. I have transferred to a new school, and I have been getting used to that (still not quite used to it, I feel like an outsider in a community where friendships and relationships have already been established).
With the transfer to a new school means a handful of new courses that were not available at my other school. I am taking a nature and environmentalism course. This class began allowing us to question what is actually considered nature. We discovered that nature is a social construction, something that is different to everyone. We have recently begun touching base on environmental justice. With this discussion of environmental justice, a huge topic has been that of petcoke. Petcoke is a byproduct that comes with burning petroleum. This topic has become a rather popular topic in Chicago because the southeast side of Chicago has some of the largest petcoke storage (not by choice). Citizens of the southeast side of Chicago are rallying to get this petcoke removed completely from their environment for it can be detrimental to their health.
If you would like to know more about the petcoke epidemic, I suggest that you look it up online, several articles and stories should come up.
Otherwise, I suggest that you stop by the Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College in Chicago as I have today. The MoCP has an exhibit called Petcoke: Tracing Dirty Energy featuring the work of 8 artists, up until October 9th. This exhibit really helps the viewer to understand what the people of the southeast side of Chicago are going through. Photographer Terry Evans has aerial photography within this exhibit of the BP Refinery in Whiting, Indiana and of different petcoke storage and movement along the Calumet River on the southeast side.
Now you are probably wondering, what if do not live in Chicago? How does this affect me?
This petcoke is shipped on barges from the Gulf of Mexico up the Mississippi River. This petcoke is shipped via the railroad. So if you are in any way associated with the Mississippi River or even the railroad, you may be affected by petcoke.
Take the time to become aware of this environmental injustice as well as this health issue among those introduced to it.
I hope that you choose to take a stand against petcoke.
Mocp.org