As Achebe demonstrates through Things Fall Apart, relationships between cultures need to evolve from one of domination/dominated to one of cooperation. In order to preserve the planet, the destructive perspectives and beliefs that humans are perpetuating in ignorance and arrogance must be reversed or amended. Perspective precedes and precipitates action. Grove notes in his essay “Green Imperialism” that the awareness to preserve the environment on some scale is nothing new but that many attempts to do so have been somewhat confused and have been constrained by imperialist attitudes (499, 500). The films Poison Fire and One Night in Bhopal also support this assertion. In both films, large industrial companies let greed eschew sound environmental
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It is proof of the horrific consequences of unfettered industrialism and the ignorance of a world that turns a blind eye to ecological calamities that do not happen in their own backyards. Shell Oil disregarded the impassioned pleas of mothers who felt the burning of their skin and the agony of cancers caused by the carcinogens emitted by oil and gas residuals. The inhabitants of Nigeria, however, found no help from those who promised both profits and a restored environment. In a similar way, the film One Night in Bhopal documents an industrial accident that occurred on December 2, 1984, at the Bhopal Union Carbide pesticide plant. A highly toxic gas identified as methyl isocyanate was released into the air. Within minutes, hundreds of thousands of people were exposed, causing massive burning of the eyes and throats. Like many pesticides, methyl isocyanate attacks the central nervous system. Due to its toxicity, it killed an estimated sixteen thousand people, with a like number dying over the next decade from its residual …show more content…
One cannot escape this truth in Poison Fire. Tina Esegi pleads with the viewer to recognize that “oil should have made Nigeria rich, but it does not exist. The environment, living conditions, and medical facilities are gone. We don’t have anything” (2.05). The devastation of the area has been caused by over five thousand major oil spills in the last fifty years, “the equivalent of fifty Exxon-Valdez disasters” (3:12). It is a tragedy to think that Shell pumps two million barrels of black gold from the earth in Nigeria each day with little or no compensation to the Nigerian people. In real dollars, the price of oil today hovers around $30 per barrel, representing $56 Million per day in gross revenue for Shell. So, in addition to the poisoning of the air from flaring, the people are being robbed daily of profits that would propel them into a better
It is proof of the horrific consequences of unfettered industrialism and the ignorance of a world that turns a blind eye to ecological calamities that do not happen in their own backyards. Shell Oil disregarded the impassioned pleas of mothers who felt the burning of their skin and the agony of cancers caused by the carcinogens emitted by oil and gas residuals. The inhabitants of Nigeria, however, found no help from those who promised both profits and a restored environment. In a similar way, the film One Night in Bhopal documents an industrial accident that occurred on December 2, 1984, at the Bhopal Union Carbide pesticide plant. A highly toxic gas identified as methyl isocyanate was released into the air. Within minutes, hundreds of thousands of people were exposed, causing massive burning of the eyes and throats. Like many pesticides, methyl isocyanate attacks the central nervous system. Due to its toxicity, it killed an estimated sixteen thousand people, with a like number dying over the next decade from its residual …show more content…
One cannot escape this truth in Poison Fire. Tina Esegi pleads with the viewer to recognize that “oil should have made Nigeria rich, but it does not exist. The environment, living conditions, and medical facilities are gone. We don’t have anything” (2.05). The devastation of the area has been caused by over five thousand major oil spills in the last fifty years, “the equivalent of fifty Exxon-Valdez disasters” (3:12). It is a tragedy to think that Shell pumps two million barrels of black gold from the earth in Nigeria each day with little or no compensation to the Nigerian people. In real dollars, the price of oil today hovers around $30 per barrel, representing $56 Million per day in gross revenue for Shell. So, in addition to the poisoning of the air from flaring, the people are being robbed daily of profits that would propel them into a better