I chose these two organizations to share profits from Chasing Mercury because their struggles are the heart and soul of the story of the novel—different geography, different time periods, and pollutants, but same story.
It is the story where Environmental Protection as a geopolitical-economic model—absent environmental justice— places the burden of proof of harm on those most afflicted by that harm. Then to add injury to the afflicted persons they are further isolated from whatever remedies are proposed while third parties talk among themselves.
Here I focus on asking you to support Green Action whose agenda is environmental justice. Environmental justice demands equipoise — those with the most burden should receive the most benefit. Money is not a moral proxy for ‘benefit,’ while health is. THE SHORT STORY IS PLEASE SUPPORT GREEN ACTION as it enters it’s third decade of fighting for environmental justice — Buy Chasing Mercury ebook or audiobook but if you want to give more than that - please donate directly to Green Action at https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/1412722?code=website-sidebar
For more about Environmental Justice see: http://www.septemberwilliams.com/minamata-disease-and-world-convention-on-mercury/
For an Explanation of the work of Green Action http://greenaction.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Greenaction-WINTER-2017-newsletter_Word-Version.pdf
Two of the places that drew me to the Green Action Community are Kettleman City, Kings County, California and Bayview Hunters Point, San Francisco.
Kettleman City a place where around 1500 mostly Latino people live in daily toxicity more than half below the poverty line, and with less than a high school education. The level of Arsenic in the water exceeds the EPAs most generous maximum levels, the drinking water is treated to nullify the toxin benzene settled in it. The town is the home of the Kettleman Hills Hazardous Waste Facility where documented and denied health concerns for the community having existed since 1975 — It’s a history worth reviewing— and a reminder that neither formal education nor money are requisite for moral authority. Start with http://greenaction.org/?page_id=183 - Wiki also gives a general background.
Bay View Hunters Point is a community with the largest African American Population in San Francisco. The neighborhood has 33,000+ people with Black people pushing 40% while Asian Americans above 32, Hispanic people come next and white people a mere 10%. It is a working class, working poor and poor-poor community. Per square meter the Bayview likely has one of the highest toxic burdens in the nation—something I noted within weeks of working in palliative care at the San Francisco VA beginning in 2004.—Decades later— James Baldwin’s utterance still holds true. That said, Bayview Hunters Point is also one of the most progressive environmentally justice oriented grassroots communities in the Bay Area.
For more about Bayview Hunters Point see the amazingly still timely report: Pollution, Health, Environmental Racism and Injustice see: A Toxic Inventory of Bayview Hunters Point, San Francisco by Bayview Hunters Point Mothers Environmental Health & Justice Committee, Hunters View Tenants Association, and Greenaction for Health & Environmental Justice http://greenaction.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/TheStateoftheEnvironment090204Final.pdf and http://greenaction.org/?page_id=181.