Sacrifice zone

{{Short description|Area permanently changed by environmental or economic harm}}

File:Iron_hydroxide_precipitate_in_stream.jpg

A sacrifice zone or sacrifice area (often termed a national sacrifice zone or national sacrifice area) is a geographic area that has been permanently changed by heavy environmental alterations (usually to a negative degree) or economic disinvestment, often through locally unwanted land use (LULU). Commentators including Chris Hedges, Joe Sacco, and Steve Lerner have argued that corporate business practices contribute to producing sacrifice zones.{{Cite journal |last=Bullard |first=Robert D. |date=June 2011 |title=Sacrifice Zones: The Front Lines of Toxic Chemical Exposure in the United States by Steve Lerner, Cambridge, MA:MIT Press, 2010. 346 pp., $29.95 {{text|ISBN}}: 978-0-262-01440-3 |journal=Environmental Health Perspectives |volume=119 |issue=6 |page=A266 |doi=10.1289/ehp.119-a266 |issn=0091-6765 |pmc=3114843 |url=https://archive.org/details/sacrificezonesfr00stev }}{{Cite web |url=https://www.rawstory.com/2012/07/chris-hedges-americas-sacrifice-zones-being-destroyed-for-profit/ |title=Chris Hedges: America's devastated 'sacrifice zones' are the future for all of us |last=Kane |first=Muriel |date=2012-07-20 |website=www.rawstory.com |access-date=2019-09-16}}{{Cite web |url=https://www.npr.org/2012/08/02/157813661/drive-for-profit-wreaks-days-of-destruction |title=Drive For Profit Wreaks 'Days Of Destruction' |last=Neal Conan |date=2 August 2012 |website=NPR.org}} A 2022 report by the United Nations highlighted that millions of people globally are in pollution sacrifice zones, particularly in zones used for heavy industry and mining.{{Cite web |date=2022-03-10 |title=Millions suffering in deadly pollution 'sacrifice zones', warns UN expert |url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/mar/10/millions-suffering-in-deadly-pollution-sacrifice-zones-warns-un-expert |access-date=2022-03-12 |website=The Guardian|author-first1=Damien|author-last1=Gayle}}

Definition

A sacrifice zone or sacrifice area is a geographic area that has been permanently impaired by environmental damage or economic disinvestment.{{cite web |title=How are hazards / risks distributed among different groups? |url=https://disaster-sts-network.org/content/peceannotation1524569139 |website=Disaster STS Network |access-date=6 October 2021}}

Another definition states that sacrifice zones are places damaged through locally unwanted land use causing "chemical pollution where residents live immediately adjacent to heavily polluted industries or military bases."

For Ryan Juskus, sacrifice zones are "geographical areas that bore a disproportionate amount of industrial pollution, toxic chemical exposure, or other environmental harms associated with industry or national security" (p.11). Another important aspect of this definition is that the existence of Sacrifice Zones involves the presence of Abundance Zones. In other words, the disproportionate environmental damage that some communities receive is directly related to maintaining privileges and lifestyles in other geographies. Another important aspect of sacrifice zones is that they are often located in low-income communities with a large presence of ethnic or religious minorities which benefits majority groups.Lerner, S. (2012). Sacrifice zones: the front lines of toxic chemical exposure in the United States. Mit Press.

Origin of the concept

The concept of Sacrifice Zone has its origins in the field of livestock management, being used to refer to the spaces where farmers concentrated cattle waste in order to protect the remaining pasture land.{{cite journal |last1=Juskus |first1=Ryan |title=Sacrifice Zones |journal=Environmental Humanities |date=March 2023 |volume=15 |issue=1 |pages=3–24 |doi=10.1215/22011919-10216129 |doi-access=free }} However, the concept would be appropriated by the American Indian Movement and some environmentalist struggles transforming it from a technical term used for land and animal management to a way of conceiving geographical spaces in which the destruction of natural resources is a problem.

According to Helen Huntington Smith,{{Cite news|title=The Wringing of the West |author=Huntington Smith|first=Helena|date=1975-02-16|newspaper=The Washington Post|location=Washington, DC |page=1–B4|issn=0190-8286|id = {{ProQuest|146405625}}}} the term was first used in the U.S. discussing the long-term effects of strip-mining coal in the American West in the 1970s. The National Academy of Sciences/National Academy of Engineering Study Committee on the Potential for Rehabilitating Lands Surface Mined for Coal in the Western United States produced a 1973 report that introduced the term, finding:

In each zone the probability of rehabilitating an area depends upon the land use objectives, the characteristics of the site, the technology available, and the skill with which this technology is applied. At the extremes, if surface mined lands are declared national sacrifice areas, all ecological zones have a high probability of being successfully rehabilitated. If, however, complete restoration is the objective, rehabilitation in each zone has no probability of success.{{Cite book |title=Rehabilitation potential of western coal lands|last=National Research Council (U. S.) Study Committee on the Potential for Rehabilitating Lands Surface Mined for Coal in the Western United States|date=1974|publisher=Ford Foundation Energy Policy Project / Ballinger Pub. Co.|isbn=978-0-88410-331-8|location=Cambridge, MA|pages=[https://archive.org/details/rehabilitationpo0000nati/page/85 85]–86|url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/rehabilitationpo0000nati}}

Similarly in 1975, Genevieve Atwood wrote in Scientific American:

Surface mining without reclamation removes the land forever from productive use; such land can best be classified as a national sacrifice area. With successful reclamation, however, surface mining can become just one of a series of land uses that merely interrupt a current use and then return the land to an equivalent potential productivity or an even higher one.{{cite journal |last1=Atwood |first1=Genevieve |title=The Strip-Mining of Western Coal |journal=Scientific American |date=December 1975 |volume=233 |issue=6 |pages=23–29 |doi=10.1038/scientificamerican1275-23 |bibcode=1975SciAm.233f..23A }}

Huntington Smith wrote in 1975, "The Panel that issued the cautious and scholarly National Academy of Sciences report unwittingly touched off a verbal bombshell" with the phrase National Sacrifice Area; "The words exploded in the Western press overnight. Seized upon by a people who felt themselves being served up as 'national sacrifices', they became a watchword and a rallying cry." The term sparked public debate, including among environmentalists and politicians such as future Colorado governor Richard Lamm."Lamm explained his view that Colorado must begin to control its own future, rather than succumbing to Washington's plea that the state should be "a national sacrifice area" to provide for the nation's energy needs." {{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1974/10/27/archives/an-ecofreak-for-governor.html|title=An eco-freak for governor?|last=Griffith|first=Winthrop|date=1974-10-27|work=The New York Times|issn=0362-4331|accessdate=2017-05-10}}{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1974/09/26/archives/worry-rises-that-rockies-face-pollution-and-crowds-no-exaggeration.html|title=Worry Rises That Rockies Face Pollution and Crowds|last=Sterba|first=James P. |date=1974-09-26|work=The New York Times|issn=0362-4331|accessdate=2017-05-10}}

The term continued to be used in the context of strip mining until at least 1999: "West Virginia has become an environmental sacrifice zone".{{Cite journal |last=Fox |first=Julia |date=June 1999 |title=Mountaintop Removal in West Virginia |journal=Organization & Environment |volume=12 |issue=2 |pages=163–183 |doi=10.1177/1086026699122002 |s2cid=110253546 }}

Cases

= Argentina =

{{Further|Flammable: Environmental Suffering in an Argentine Shantytown}}

Villa Inflamable neighborhood is located in the city of Dock Sud and is part of the Greater Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area. The community is situated at the center of a petrochemical development area, where 44 hydrocarbon companies are currently operating. These same companies are mainly responsible for turning the Riachuelo-Matanza basin into one of the most polluted bodies of water in the world.Auyero, J., & Swistun, D. A. (2009). Flammable: Environmental suffering in an Argentine shantytown. Oxford University Press.

Reports from Argentinian and foreign public agenciesUnited States Trade and Development Program (1997) Dock Sud Environmental Remediation and Pollution Abatement Project. Final Report. Volume 1. Executive Summary. https://ntrl.ntis.gov/NTRL/dashboard/searchResults/titleDetail/PB97160212.xhtml{{cite journal |last1=Mozobancyk |first1=Schelica |last2=Pérez Sobrero |first2=Javier A. |title=Percepción de la contaminación ambiental y los riesgos para la salud en la comunidad de 'Villa inflamable' |journal=Anuario de Investigaciones |date=June 2016 |volume=23 |issue=1 |pages=207–216 |url=http://www.scielo.org.ar/scielo.php?pid=S1851-16862016000100021&script=sci_arttext }} have confirmed the presence of lead, chromium, benzene and other hazardous chemicals in the water supplies of the neighborhood, in amounts far in excess of what is allowed by international regulations. Journalistic{{Cite web |date=2016-04-09 |title=Plagados de problemas de salud, vecinos de un río contaminado en Argentina tienen pocas alternativas |url=https://globalpressjournal.com/americas/argentina/plagued-health-issues-residents-near-dirty-river-argentina-options/es |access-date=2024-03-27 |website=Global Press Journal |language=en-US}} and academic research has collected multiple testimonies of serious health diagnoses commonly associated with the presence of these contaminants. Likewise the book Flammable: Environmental Suffering in an Argentine Shantytown explores the effects of toxicity in the daily lives of the residents of the Inflammable neighborhood, referring to multiple diagnoses of lead poisoning among the inhabitants of Inflammable, especially among children.

=Chile=

The Chilean port of Quintero and adjacent Puchuncaví have been pointed out as a sacrifice zone.{{Cite news |title=¿Qué son las zonas de sacrificio de Chile? |url=https://www.eldiario.es/ballenablanca/365_dias/zonas-sacrificio-chile-cumbre-clima_1_1205027.html |date=2019-12-05 |access-date=2022-12-09 |work=El Diario |language=Spanish}} The zone hosts the coal-fired Ventanas Power Plant, an oil refinery, a cement storage, Fundición Ventanas, a copper smelter and refinery, a lubricant factory and a chemical terminal. In total 15 polluting companies operate in the area.{{Cite web|url=https://www.latercera.com/nacional/noticia/quintero-puchuncavi-la-zona-sacrificio/295044/|title = Quintero y Puchuncaví: La zona de sacrificio|date = 25 August 2018|work=La Tercera|language=Spanish}} In 2011, Escuela La Greda located in Puchuncaví, was engulfed in a chemical cloud from the Ventanas Industrial Complex. The sulfur cloud poisoned an estimated 33 children and 9 teachers, resulting in the relocation of the school. The old location of the school is now abandoned.{{Cite web|url=https://www.latercera.com/nacional/noticia/la-olvidada-escuela-la-greda/603939/|title = La olvidada escuela la Greda|date = 7 April 2019}} In August and September 2018 there was a public health crisis in Quintero and Puchuncaví, where over 300 people experienced illness from toxic substances in the air, coming from the polluting industries.{{Cite web|url=https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/04/11/chile-supreme-court-hears-massive-air-pollution-case|title = Chile: Supreme Court Hears Massive Air Pollution Case|date = 11 April 2019}}

= Mexico =

The Endhó Dam, often referred to as the "largest septic tank in Latin America"{{Cite news |last=Lopez Gomez |first=Paulina |date=July 4, 2022 |title=La fosa séptica más grande de América Latina está en México |url=https://aristeguinoticias.com/0307/mexico/la-fosa-septica-mas-grande-de-america-latina-esta-en-mexico/}}{{Cite news |last=Fuente |first=Luis |date=July 3, 2022 |title=Esta es la fosa séptica más grande de Latinoamérica y está en Hidalgo |url=https://laverdadnoticias.com/mexico/Esta-es-la-fosa-septica-mas-grande-de-Latinoamerica-y-esta-en-Hidalgo-20220703-0096.html}} is a heavily polluted body of water that was built in the 1950s to supply irrigation water to the Mezquital Valley region of the State of Hidalgo and today receives about 70% of Mexico City's sewage effluent.{{cite journal |last1=Prieto-García |first1=F. |last2=Constantino |first2=C. A. Lucho |last3=Valardo |first3=H. Poggi |last4=Suárez |first4=M. Alvarez |last5=Esteban |first5=E. Barrado |title=Caracterización fisicoquímica y extracción secuencial de metales y elementos trazas en suelos de la región Actopan-Ixmiquilpan del distrito de riego 03, Valle de Mezquital, Hidalgo, México |journal=CIENCIA ergo-sum, Revista Científica Multidisciplinaria de Prospectiva |date=2007 |volume=14 |issue=1 |pages=69–80 |url=https://cienciaergosum.uaemex.mx/article/view/7875 }} The river that feeds the dam is also a major repository for industrial waste from an oil refinery, two large cement factories, and several industrial parks in the region. These sources of pollution have spread to nearby springs affecting people, animals and crops.Muñoz E. A. (January 22, 2014) Presa Endhó, la región más contaminada. https://agua.org.mx/presa-endho-la-region-mas-contaminada/ Journalist Carlos CarabañaCarabaña, C. (February 13, 2023) Los olvidados de Hidalgo. Cáncer, contaminación y aguas negras. N+ Focus. https://investigaciones.nmas.com.mx/los-olvidados-de-hidalgo/ indicates that since 2007, the National Water Commission has issued reports to municipal and state authorities repeatedly informing them of the presence of high levels of heavy metals in the nearby wells, urging the authorities to take action because of the potential health risks posed by the dam. Other effects related to contamination from the dam include damage to crops in the communities neighboring the dam, poisoning of livestock, and stigmatization of agricultural products from the Mezquital Valley region.

=United States=

The US EPA affirmed in a 2004 report in response to the Office of Inspector General, that "the solution to unequal protection lies in the realm of environmental justice for all Americans. No community, rich or poor, black or white, should be allowed to become a 'sacrifice zone'."{{Cite web |url=https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2015-02/documents/oig-report-ej-cover-memo-response-6-8-04.pdf |title=Agency Response to Recommendations Provided in the OIGEvaluation Report entitled, "EPA Needs to Consistently Implement the Intent of the Executive Order on Environmental Justice" |last=US EPA |date=7 June 2004}}{{rp|28}}

Commentators including Chris Hedges, Joe Sacco, Robert Bullard and Stephen Lerner have argued that corporate business practices contribute to producing sacrifice zones and that these zones most commonly exist in low-income and minority, usually African-American communities.{{Cite news |last=Jessica Roake |title=Think Globally, Act Locally: Steve Lerner, 'Sacrifice Zones', at Politics and Prose |newspaper=Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/express/wp/2010/09/23/steve-lerner-book-sacrifice-zones/ |access-date=2019-09-16}} Sacrifice zones are a central topic for the graphic novel Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt, written by Hedges and illustrated by Sacco.

In 2012, Hedges stated that examples of sacrifice zones included Pine Ridge, South Dakota and Camden, New Jersey. In 2017 a West Calumet public housing project in East Chicago, Indiana built at the former site of a lead smelter needed to be demolished and soil replaced to bring the area up to residential standards, displacing 1000 residents.{{Cite news |url=http://inthesetimes.com/article/20320/lead-contamination-east-chicago-pollution-environmental-racism |title=Not Your Sacrifice Zone: In Lead-Poisoned East Chicago, Residents Fight for Their Health and Homes |last=Bamberger |first=Kaela |date=2017-07-11 |work=In These Times |access-date=2019-09-16 |issn=0160-5992}} In 2014, Naomi Klein wrote that "running an economy on energy sources that release poisons as an unavoidable part of their extraction and refining has always required sacrifice zones."{{Cite web |url=https://www.rethinkingschools.org/articles/sacrifice-zones |title=From Rethinking Schools: Sacrifice Zones |volume= 30 |date=2016 |website=Rethinking Schools Publishers |access-date=2019-09-16}}

= Venezuela =

File:Contaminacion del Lago de Maracaibo 2.jpg

Lake Maracaibo in the state of Zulia is one of the most important bodies of water in the western region of Venezuela. This lake was also the site of one of the worst environmental catastrophes in Venezuela's history: the Barroso II blowout in 1922; an oil well that began spewing huge quantities of oil for 9 days, spilling around 900,000 barrels in the area.Clima, & Clima. (2022, 15 diciembre). 100 años de destrucción del Lago de Maracaibo. Desde la zona de sacrificio hasta al amor al lago | Clima21. Clima21 | Observatorio de Derechos Humanos Ambientales. https://clima21.net/noticias/100-anos-de-destruccion-del-lago-de-maracaibo-desde-la-zona-de-sacrificio-hasta-al-amor-al-lago/ This oil disaster, paradoxically, became a milestone for the abundance of the oil industry in the country.

Erick Camargo indicates that oil spills generated by the lack of maintenance of the complex network of oil infrastructure continue to be a constant and are the main cause of contamination in the lake. However, he also indicates that the use of agrochemicals on nearby crops and the discharge of sewage worsen the situation.Camargo, E. (2023, 21 marzo). El Lago de Maracaibo: un largo historial de contaminación. Observatorio de Ecología Política de Venezuela. https://ecopoliticavenezuela.org/2023/03/21/el-lago-de-maracaibo-un-largo-historial-de-contaminacion

A 2022 scientific paper reveals the presence of multiple toxic elements in surface sediments in different parts of the lake. This constitutes a high risk for the flora and fauna of the region, as well as for the health of the human communities living in the areas where the samples were taken.{{cite journal |last1=Marín |first1=Julio |last2=Colina |first2=Marinela |last3=Ledo |first3=Hilda |last4=Gardiner |first4=P.H.E. |title=Ecological risk by potentially toxic elements in surface sediments of the Lake Maracaibo (Venezuela) |journal=Environmental Engineering Research |date=20 August 2021 |volume=27 |issue=4 |pages=210232–0 |doi=10.4491/eer.2021.232 }} Another study in 2007 revealed the presence of toxic metals in part of the subway aquifers connected to the lake basin; the samples taken had values well above the limits allowed for drinking water according to national and international regulations.{{cite journal |last1=Mesa |first1=Johan |last2=Bravo |first2=Alfonso |last3=Morales |first3=José |last4=Sánchez |first4=Ligbel |last5=Valle |first5=Paola |last6=Gutiérrez |first6=Elizabeth |title=Contenido de metales trazas en aguas subterraneas de la region occidental del Lago de Maracaibo, Venezuela |trans-title=Content of trace metals in groundwater from western region of Maracaibo Lake, Venezuela |language=es |journal=Revista Tecnica |date=November 2007 |volume=30 |pages=20–29 |id={{Gale|A193835293}} |url=https://ve.scielo.org/scielo.php?script=sci_abstract&pid=S0254-07702007000400004 }}

Space industry

File:Location of Point Nemo in the South Pacific Ocean.png is also known as “the oceanic pole of inaccessibility” for being the point in any ocean farthest from land. It serves as a "spacecraft cemetery" for space infrastructure and vessels.]]

The human-environment interactions that lie at the heart of environmental justice, including sacrifice zones, have been proposed to also include the environmental sacrifice of regions beyond Earth.{{cite journal |last1=Klinger |first1=Julie Michelle |date=2021 |title=Environmental geopolitics and outer space |url=https://www.bu.edu/pardeeschool/files/2019/03/Environmental-Geopolitics-and-Outer-Space.pdf |journal=Geopolitics |volume=26 |issue=3 |pages=666–703 |doi=10.1080/14650045.2019.1590340 |s2cid=150443847}} Klinger states that "the environmental geopolitics of Earth and outer space are inextricably linked by the spatial politics of privilege and sacrifice{{snd}}among people, places and institutions". Dunnett has called outer space the 'ultimate sacrifice zone' that exemplifies a colonially framed pursuit of infinite opportunities for accumulation, exploitation, and pollution. This manifests in both terrestrial and space-based sacrifice zones related to launch infrastructure, waste, and orbital debris.{{cite journal |last1=Dunnett |first1=Oliver |last2=Klinger |first2=Julie |last3=Maclaren |first3=Andrew |last4=Lane |first4=Maria |last5=Sage |first5=Daniel |title=Geographies of Outer Space: Progress and New Opportunities |journal=Progress in Human Geography |date=2019 |volume=43 |issue=2 |pages=314–366|doi=10.1177/0309132517747727 |s2cid=149382358 |url=https://pure.qub.ac.uk/en/publications/geographies-of-outer-space-progress-and-new-opportunities(40ba81c0-2b24-498d-a94b-5ace7b48d3b0).html |doi-access=free |hdl=2164/11959 |hdl-access=free }}

Point Nemo is an oceanic point of inaccessibility located inside the South Pacific Gyre. It is selected as the most remote location in the world and serves as a "spacecraft cemetery" for space infrastructure and vessels.{{cite news |last1=Fernandes |first1=Joao |title=8 facts about Point Nemo |url=https://historyofyesterday.com/8-facts-about-point-nemo-5ea0ca844795 |access-date=16 March 2022 |publisher=History of Yesterday |date=2021}} Since 1971, 273 spacecraft and satellites have been directed to Point Nemo; this number includes the Mir Space Station (142 tonnes) and will include the International Space Station (240 tonnes).