I chose the case study about a wood fired power plant near Flint, Michigan. The facility incinerates wood waste to generate electricity for sale to the Consumer Power Company, but creates a lot of pollution. The incinerator is located near the Dort/Carpenter Industrial Park which already has three hazardous waste facilities regulated by the EPA. Two facilities emit toxic air pollution and three facilities deal with multiple forms of toxic waste. The community has attempted to solve their problem through every legal action possible, but nothing has worked. The inerator was shut down for a year because it had a permit violation, but still continues to run. The goal of development was to for the facility to become more environmentally friendly, but it really should be shut down because it just isn’t doing any good- besides powering electricity, which can be supplied through other means. This relates back to sustainable development because obviously wood doesn’t last forever and for this incinerator to run, it needs wood. http://www.umich.edu/~snre492/Jones/flint.htm

The second case study I chose talked about eliminating measles in southern Africa. Measles is one of the most contagious infections to humans and is in the top four children killers worldwide. out of 30-40 million cases of measles, 454,000 deaths were reported in 2004 and half of these deaths occurred in sub-Saharan Africa. In 1996, seven south African countries came up with a plan to eliminate measles and it consisted of routine immunization and giving opportunities for all children ages 9-14 to get the vaccine, and follow-up vaccines. This relates back to world development because in the United States, up until the epidemic last year when people weren’t vaccinating their babies, people have always been getting vaccines and stuff. And sometimes it’s easy to forget that every country isn’t as advanced as what we are, because we really are privileged to live here and get the medical attention we need, if required. http://www.cgdev.org/page/case-17-eliminating-measles-southern-africa
I live in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania and to connect my first case study back to where I live, there was a wire-making company called Syro and when it was in full operation, back in the 60s-80s, it made a lot of pollution and poured the waste products into Spring Creek, which for them, was conveniently located behind their plant. The second case I talked about doesn’t relate to my hometown at all, but I did find it extremely interesting. We can learn from these cases to for one thing, not pollute the environment that we live near because it’s toxic and can lead to disease or illness. I wouldn’t consider my hometown poor, but I wouldn’t consider it the wealthiest either. I believe most people get their immunizations and vaccines, we don’t have outbreaks of disease