CANCER ALLEY

A gunshot wound to the head. A car bomb. A scandalous exposé of a politician’s malfeasance. These acts of violence’are immediately newsworthy. The ‘slow violence’ of environmental destruction is often less headline-grabbing, so it’s overlooked and under reported.

Marginalised communities are often in the fallout zone of the equally real violence of pollution linked with big industrial developments and climate collapse. Lower income families and people of colour often find themselves in these ‘sacrifice’ zones. The harms they face are regarded by society as a justifiable price to pay for the common good. These communities are usually the least able to assert their needs and rights in an unequal society.