Phone interview with David Chang, Indoor Environmental Specialist

My group members and I interviewed David Chang from We Act on December 16th, 2016. During our conversation many topics were spoken of in great detail. All of these topics were about the environment, and David answered our questions very thoughtfully and fruitfully, which is what we expected and more, since he is an Indoor Environmental Specialist. Before we even began the interview, we chose David because he seemed so familiar with the subject of environmental justice. Cole, one of our group members created a chain of emails, which eventually led to us having an interview with him. The interview itself took place after school in one of the classrooms. While we spoke about current examples of environmental racism, examples of it in the past, what we can do now, what we can do in the future and last but least, the president elect himself. David told us of environmental injustice that is happening right now, such as the Dakota pipe line which goes through an American Indian reservation. If the oil pipeline leaks at all it could enter the water and soil, killing people and their livestock. Cleaning up the oil in the water would take years of work and millions of dollars.  We also learned about water being contaminated by lead in Flint, Michigan. The alarming part of it was that officials knew about the contamination for a while, but still didn’t do anything about it because it costed money and time. People became sick. Children and infants became sick. We also learned about Superfund sites. I hadn’t know before, but a Superfund site is a piece of land which is contaminated by hazardous substances. And last but not least we talked about what we’ll expect for the coming for years, when it comes to the environment. David was fairly sure that WeAct could survive but he wasn’t so sure about what would happen to the EPA. David taught us quite a bit, and we were grateful to hear from him.

Willem

I am Willem and I am in the Environmental Justice group. I chose this group because I feel like I can do something for the environment and the people who depend on it. 

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