Environmental Justice

The littering and pollution in Bolivia is unbelievable. It is impossible to find a trash can walking down the street so people just throw it to the side; out of car windows or into a passing gutter. Trash in the form of wrappers, peels, or even bottles. In the city it is a nuisance but out in Mineros San Juan it is a real health risk. In the city people are paid to walk by and pick up the trash so, while it is dirty, there aren't mounds of garbage to maneuver through. Outside the city, where I work, is a different story. Garbage trucks don't make it out that far and as a result there are designated dumps for the neighborhood trash. It is as sad as it is sickening to be walking through the barrio and stumbled across a lawn of garbage. It is incredible to see the side of a hill covered not in grass or trees or even dirt but in plastic bags, used diapers, broken glass and even dead animals. One such heap is just 20 feet from the day care center. Occasionally, you can see some of that trash take to the sky on a windy afternoon.

We talk about carbon footprints, global warming, and care for the environment but we have that luxury to talk just like every other luxury we are afforded in the developed world. The environment is also being destroyed by the impoverished of the world. Not because they just have to own that newest SUV or can't be bothered to throw their plastics into the well-labeled bin. It is because, like with everything else, they are forgotten or ignored and have to create solutions on their own. If government officials, and we as a people, are truly concerned about the environment for health and for the future and not just as a campaign platform, I fail to see how it is possible that every bush in Mineros San Juan has a plastic bag stuck in it and every night the mountains are ablaze with fires contributing to the slash and burn approach to farming.