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Interdisciplinary Connections: HS to HS

APES, English, and Environmental Injustice

One of the most influential classes I have ever taken is AP Environmental Science. In addition to the physical science aspects of the environment, we explored the human impact on the environment and the human costs of environmental degradation. Then, in junior English, as we read the Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald I noticed themes related to human consumption and the disproportionate negative impacts on the poor. The essay topic I chose for the Great Gatsby was to compare a current problem seen in the news today and the Great Gatsby. The comparison I made was the environmental injustice in Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and the Flint water crisis, where due to negligence and mismanagement by city administrators the people of Flint's water were contaminated with lead.

My thesis for the essay was "Throughout both the water crisis in Flint and The Great Gatsby, themes and images of environmental injustice reoccur with those of lower status being harmed by the consumption of the wealthy. Fitzgerald, however, presents no end to the suffering, while in Flint themes reflect action and success moving into the future" (Rumer 1).

Throughout my research and writing in this essay, I drew heavily from the knowledge I had learned in APES. One concept I used was the phenomenon known as the "not-in-my-backyard" effect. This effect causes people in lower socioeconomic areas to be disproportionally harmed because planning for public works and resources is not allocated because the areas best meet safety criteria, but because people in lower-income areas lack the financial and legal resources to mount an effective opposition to policies that are directly harmful.

Writing this essay for English also deepened my environmental understanding as it forced me to examine the real human costs of the concepts I learned in APES. As I read about the real people suffering in Flint and as I poured relentlessly over the pages of Fitzgerald's novel, finding the devastation in the minute intricacies of his words -- children were poisoned in Flint because of poor management and unequal distribution of resources and polishing silver devastated the poor butler's nose.

This essay also reaffirmed my career choice. I saw a path forward knowing that environmental justice is important to me and the injustices exist everywhere. The fact that I saved notes from APES and then turned to them for a project in another class showed me just how much I am connected to environmental science. I stilled loved writing the essay and was drawn to the humanities portion of these topics has pushed me to study Environment, Resources, and Sustainability at the Univeristy of Waterloo.