Activity 1.1

The Cuyahoga River was once one of the most polluted rivers in the United States. It has caught fire a total of 13 times dating back to 1868, including this blaze in 1952 which caused over $1.3 million in damages. Photo: Cleveland State University Library

Point of View

Upon watching, " Celebrating the Comeback of the Burning River," there were various personal affiliations, as well impersonal affiliations with the major catastrophe of Cuyahoga River fire. Though the experience of the fire was taken at different time periods, the emotional, physical, and mental damage maintained the same levels throughout the video. Every individual who spoke on the matter had one goal and that was to express the detrimental issues being caused by the negligence of the industrial era in Cleveland Ohio. Resulting in the environmental damage that occurred and still being restored in this day and age. With this in mind the speakers within the video all agreed that hence after the fire the Cleveland, Ohio community has made bounds and leaps to fix the damage that had been done.

Purpose

Just like any other documentary segments, the purpose of the video is to educate future generations to do more. To be more mindful of our world and understand how precious our world is to us, without it we would be nothing and have nothing. Influencing our children, our children's children, so on and so forth to be better than the past actions of humanity. Many speakers were featured within the video to help describe exactly how bad this Cuyahoga River became. Just within the first thirty-two seconds of the video, Wayne Bratton disclosed first-hand experience of how the fire started. Stating " on that particular bridge where the fire was there were rail cars hauling gold and steal from the J&L plant over to the rolling mill.... sparking 92 oil and debris at the base of the bridge..."(0:00:27) Right in tow with Bratton, Bob Wysenski retired EPA, describes the catastrophe as "...noise deafening, the air was choking, and the river depending on what day you were there. There was oil, pickle liquor...flowing orange red. It was like an alien environment...." Very graphic imagery to help us understand how bad the situation really was.

Questions at Issue

One major question that was expressed throughout the video, was simply after such a horrible event, what the Cleveland, Ohio community supposed to clean up the Cuyahoga River. Especially because during this time technological advancements were still under way. Even Wayne Bratton stated, "big clean tools was a squeegee that would just shove it all into the river..."(0:01:00) Of course this would make the problem even worse and lead back to the question, how will we clean up the Cuyahoga River.

Information

With any major event within humanity there will always be plentiful information provided about the event, so that future generations can learn and evolve to do better. We are very fluent in the term " we don't want history to repeat itself." Leading up the fire of the Cuyahoga River oil spills improperly disposed of Wayne Bratton disclosed " clean-up crew...would shove it all in the river..."(0:00:57) That being said upon further research, an article published by National Park Services, plus information from the video gave ample information of the turning points during this disaster. According to the National Park Services because of the river fire "The tide of public opinion about pollution changed in 1970. This led to the first Earth Day in April and the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency in December. A flurry of environmental activism and legislation followed, including The Clean Water Act of 1972..." The clean water act was made up of "...good corporate citizens and did their part trying to study this thing so we could clean it up..." (0:02:23)

Interpretation and Inference

This video embodies the actions and consequences we had during the Industrial Era. The negligence we once had and the inconsideration of the major damage to our environment. Instead of creating laws to help reduce the pollution, it took a major catastrophe to enact change. Where there is negative there is positive, yes mankind was the cause of the fire. They were also the solution, not wanting this to ever happen again and ensuring that future generations will not make the same mistakes laws were placed in. Communities encouraged to be held accountable for the care of the natural habitat around them and to continue finding more remedies to heal the Cuyahoga River.

Concept

In mankind's desire to be better, more efficient, and to look to the future, it created a tunnel vision effect. It's no secret that countries around the world are in a constant state of competitiveness. Always needing the urge to be the smartest, strongest, most powerful, etc...etc... and people tend to try and cut corners. Cutting corners is the sole reason why the Cuyahoga River was set ablaze, because "Corporate America," was so busy growing an empire to see what was happening in their own backyard. Quantity over quality has never been a good logo, just like the book " The Rabbit and The Hare," slow and steady wins the race.

Assumption

Like the saying "you don't miss it till it's gone," that is basically what happened after the fire. The community of Cleveland, Ohio didn't take into consideration how important the Cuyahoga River was to their environment. Every river system, lake, stream, etc... plays an important role in the surrounding areas and when you take that away, not only we as humans are affected. Plants, animals, season, agriculture, and other things become negatively affected. If people knew back, then what we know now the Cuyahoga River would be a completely different environment.

Consequences

Fires that come ablaze in a natural setting out a common part of the natural order, where there is destruction there is creation. Though when a fire comes about due to unnatural ramifications, there tends to be more destruction, and creation must be manually done by those who caused that damage. The people who inhabited vase areas around the Cuyahoga River learned that the hard way. Witnessing the horrors, the pollution they caused, sparked a thirst for change and the need to heal the damage that has been. Fifty-six years later, there are still active processes to restore Cuyahoga, as well as various other natural habitats, to its original beauty. It's not about the initial, it's about the reaction, steps taken to reverse the damage that has been done 

U.S. Department of the Interior. (2022, May 3). The 1969 Cuyahoga River Fire (U.S. National Park Service). National Parks Service. https://www.nps.gov/articles/story-of-the-fire.htm

YouTube. (n.d.). YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18JpT61rX6A&list=PL1QVFWinMEQVayLVMzv7CzuOz2d1mTY90