There’s Something in the Water

Analytical Research Paper

ENSU 3P90

Harrison Burt

6291421
Introduction

Environmental racism has always been and always will be a problem no matter what

community or culture is affected, as within Canada the burden has been placed upon the

Indigenous and Black communities for generations. This burden of environmental racism occurs

when immoral and illegal dumping of toxic waste into poor, Indigenous, and people of colour

communities; in this case within “There’s Something in the Water” corporations and policy

makers use these disadvantaged communities to their advantage for corporate gain (Wright,

2021).

The Netflix documentary showcases the Canadians perspective of their country appearing

to be a quiet, civilized, and peaceful country that focuses upon their diversity to make up their

identity as a culture. Although it may appear this way to the average Canadian, the documentary

showcases the amount of corrupt policy and underlying racism that the government has

portrayed for years, basically trying to sweep it ‘under the rug’ to appeal towards their overall

image as a country.

The purpose of this analytical research paper aims to discuss the positive surface image

Canada portrays and how policy makers have been maintaining this image by passing policy that

hurts disadvantaged communities through environmental racism. This analysis will demonstrate

that history has been repeating itself for generations by using environmental racism to benefit

corporations and policy makers, as the need for social justice and proper education for further

generations to come is essential towards making a positive impact and reconciling with the

disadvantaged communities to create the real positive image of what Canada ‘should be’.
Planetary Boundaries

The documentary “There’s Something in the Water” engages within the planetary

boundary of novel entities. Novel entities are typically a chemical type pollution that is caused

by humans – this pollution occurs through toxic compounds and hazardous wastes which can

genetically modify organisms in a negative manner. The effects of these materials being released

into different organisms can persists for a very long time alongside becoming potentially

impossible to fix. Some actions can be considered to prevent novel entities from occurring, for

an example within the documentary, paying more attention to detail and learning from past

mistakes will help benefit the future (Steffen, 2015). On a more technical note, putting more

interest towards the science behind ideas so that there can be a better understanding and

monitoring of the Earths system processes to detect defective effects from novel entities sooner

rather than later (Steffen, 2015). While also taking a more preventive route, green chemistry can

be observed alongside finding risk reducing interventions within other fields to be more

precautionary about decision making (Steffen, 2015).

Within the documentary, three different situations of novel entities are discussed just

within a single province; Nova Scotia. Within one small town, a pulp mill was created years ago

within the 60’s as a pipeline was dug underneath Indigenous land/waters to dump the toxins

coming from the pulp mill into a local lake. The Indigenous were informed about this mill, yet

they were promised that no environmental damage would occur. The community was bribed with

$65,000 to create an incentive for the mill and pipeline to be built, as it was accepted. The

pipeline ended up leaking into the Indigenous land/waters and contaminating the lake the

Indigenous resided on, killing nearly every fish within the water and making the lake

unhabitable. The policy makers knew what they were doing as even within the written agreement
as they promised no environmental damage to occur, meanwhile, generations have suffered

through high rates of cancer and suicide due to the damage that has occurred. Alongside the pulp

mill and the damage that it has done, within another small town in Nova Scotia a dump was

implemented where all the local garbage was taken – including military materials and hospital

waste, creating a large pile of toxic waste. This waste was then burned to destroy it, leaving the

soil to be spoiled alongside creating copious amounts of smoke that was inhaled by local

community members. The community is still suffering to this day from the dump, as nearly

every community member has a family member who had developed a form of cancer simply due

to the poor air quality and water quality from the effects of the dump. These disadvantaged

communities have been heavily affected by environmental racism, affecting the social,

economic, and political aspects of these communities.

The current world status of novel entities has progressed in the realm of plastic litter in

the marine environment. Within 2017, there was a criteria set in place for determining whether a

planetary boundary threat is related to chemical pollution and the release of novel entities (Arp,

2021). Researchers were able to find evidence towards plastic litter in a marine environment; (1)

increasing exposure and (2) fate processes leading to poorly irreversible pollution within 2017,

and within 2021, researchers were able to find that plastic litter also meets the third criteria (3)

toxicological hazards and their thresholds (Arp, 2021). Since the third criteria was found,

researchers have been able to conclude that weathering plastics are a planetary boundary and fall

beneath the novel entities (Arp, 2021). Future research is suggested to further the understanding

of the third criteria and what effects the exposure could have (Arp, 2021). Novel entities is a

difficult boundary to understand, yet the navigation of this boundary should be assessed as we as

humans, particularly policy makers, should be able to learn from the mistakes made.
Social Injustice

Many different examples of environmental injustice are shown throughout the

documentary which has resulted in social injustice towards disadvantaged communities - mainly

the Indigenous peoples of Canada. Environmental injustice is a movement created by those

disadvantaged communities who focus on fighting against environmental injustice – where

environmental harm is faced by certain individuals and social groups. These negative

environmental affects towards these social groups and communities affects the social, economic,

and political aspects of these communities affecting the overall mental health of these individuals

(Pellow, 2016). Studies have been conducted and have proven that people within disadvantaged

communities, such as people of colour, people with lower socioeconomical status, Indigenous

and immigrants populations, have been disproportionately affected by environmentally harmful

acts such as landfills, pipelines, polluting factories, and more, creating negative consequences for

not only the environment yet the communities that reside within these areas (Pellow, 2016).

These negative consequences towards these communities have affected overall mental well-

being alongside public health, while they maintain a platform fighting against environmental

injustice (Pellow, 2016).

The documentary shows plenty examples of environmental racism and injustices

occurring within Nova Scotia communities, as within the town of Stewiacke, a corporation found

that they could store natural gas beneath a river by depleting the salt brine underneath the plant

into the local river. These salt levels are highly unsafe, making the water undrinkable alongside

killing all the fish living within the river. This created a movement by the local Indigenous

community to fight against this environmental injustice, as it will have negative impacts towards

the community’s natural resources and public health, alongside their cultural traditions. The
government allowed these protests to occur as long as they were peaceful, yet they began

arresting innocent protestors in sight of pursing their corporate goals. The government even

designed a “designated protest area” with rules of how they are allowed to protest, dishonouring

Indigenous traditions. Intersectionality has been used in attempt to try and provide some different

advantages towards the movement, yet still, corporate gain is still the main goal of Canada’s

present and future as no progress has been made towards stopping this novel entity from

occurring.

Social injustice has been a reoccurring theme within Canadian history, as many

Canadians remain uneducated about the tragedy of residential schools. The Canadian

government sent Indigenous children to these schools to “kill the Indian in the child” and

assimilate them into Canadian culture (The Lancet, 2021). These children were banned from

using their own languages, alongside facing abuse in every realm possible, leaving thousands of

them to die (The Lancet, 2021). In 2008, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission constituted

that what happened at these schools was a cultural genocide (The Lancet, 2021). As shown

within the documentary, this genocide continues yet through more complex policy making

through the use of environmental racism. It is vastly important to recognize that every Canadian

should be educated about this cultural genocide that has occurred, alongside realizing that the

Indigenous communities are still being disproportionately placed in highly polluted areas affect

both physical and mental well-being. Recent research has shown that experiences, needs, and

priorities of Indigenous people are unique and specific to certain contexts (Gall, 2021). As shown

within the documentary, every community shown has different needs and perspectives that need

to be noticed publicly just as the advantaged communities are. These indicators can be used to

assess the well-being of these disadvantaged communities and show what these communities
need to thrive and boost the overall well-being, while eliminating the racism that has been re-

occurring (Gall, 2021). Education is the main driver towards recognizing these systemic issues,

as this may dampen the emphasis placed upon corporate gain.

Transformations to Sustainability

Transformations to sustainability are actions that are used to contest, rather than

accommodate, environmental change and other challenged society may face such as inequality,

poverty, and social unhappiness (O’Brien, 2012). Transformations occur at a societal scale, as

humans may be heading into a direction towards a revolution we have yet to seen before. By

examining the situations occurring within the documentary, such as the dump being used, the

pulp mill pipeline, and the extraction of the salt brine reserve, educating the future generations

about these societal challenges where corporate interests outweigh inequality, poverty, and social

unhappiness may lead towards different and more ideal approaches to be made towards fighting

against the negative aspects of a corporate minded society. At the moment - there are sustainable

development goals set in place that are to be attained by a certain year to ‘transform our world’.

Yet these communities have already been suffering for years – so how do we as a society, other

than educating for the future generations, aim to transform this goal of corporate gain towards

battling inequality in disadvantaged communities? This transformation does not appear to be

tailored towards the needs of these disadvantaged communities, as some risks include paying

insufficient attention to social differentiation, goals used to justify business as usual, overlooking

the critical role of power and politics, and shifting the burden of response onto vulnerable parties

(Blythe, 2018).
 Within the documentary there are multiple examples shown of policy makers making

excuses and lying to continue their business as usual. For example, when creating the agreement

for the creation of the pulp mill and its drainage pipe, the agreement promised no environmental

harm towards the Indigenous community alongside using a bribery of $65,000. Of course, the

rest is history as the community is still suffering both socially and physically to this day due to

this ‘agreement’, as history again repeats itself within Canada.

It is clear that a change needs to be made, a ‘transformation’, yet what is the most ideal

and sustainable route to creating this transformation? It merely seems many seem to not learn

from their mistakes, yet to repeat them to benefit their own well-being. When reflecting upon the

boat harbour act, the policy makers stalled for years about the creation of the natural gas plant,

yet later came out to announce that they needed even more time to figure out what needs to be

done in order to make ends meet. This is repetitive behaviour that needs to be broken up by

something stronger than protests, even deaths and socially deprived communities have yet to

portray a message to these policy makers; which is outright sad to recognize. As stated early,

transformation requires societal change – everyone to unite towards the betterment of Earth. By

recognizing the needs that need to be fulfilled within each culture is essential, more importantly

so within those that are disadvantaged and face the burden of environmental racism.

Conclusion

This analytical research paper has shown that history has been repeating itself for

generations by using environmental racism to benefit corporations and policy makers, as the

need for social justice and proper education for further generations to come is essential towards
making a positive impact and reconciling with the disadvantaged communities to create the real

positive image of what Canada ‘should be’.

It is important to recognize that the novel entities have an unknown yet negative impact

on Earth and that corporate gain has been the main driver of western society for generations.

This realization calls for a transformation to change these disadvantaged communities that face

poverty, inequality, social unhappiness, and the main point to derive from this research;

environmental racism.

For the future, it is important to begin educating the youth about the cultural genocide

towards the Indigenous alongside the effects of making corporate decisions – portraying the

message that money should not be valued over human life. This goal will help reach towards a

healthy transformation towards a new, sustainable society that all cultures can work and love

together, making the positive image of what Canada ‘should be’.

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