This essay is a finalist in the 2024 Retro Report Civic Engagement Challenge, a student contest supported by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.
By Abigail Ladwig
As a child, puddles of oil on the sidewalk and streets of my community meant nothing to me; they were simply pretty pools of vibrant colors. These puddles, in actuality, are silent killers. The same oil that leaks from the cars in our communities and creates these puddles contains the heavy metals that seep into our atmosphere and into our vital organs. The same oil that is the foundation of society globally-the very essence of economy-is the very same oil that contributes to biomagnification of methylmercury and other heavy metals.
Methylmercury is a toxic compound of mercury that when introduced to the environment can cause drastic ecosystem collapses, and affect human cognitive function. However, the word biomagnification, or methylmercury, are simply words that are unknown to the majority of communities. That is why this type of pollution is so deadly, not just to the environment, but to us.
Action and education are few and far between against the accumulation and production of toxic pollutants within communities. Presently, an oil puddle to the untrained eye is just that, an oil puddle. But to the ecosystem, an oil puddle pollutes waterways and harms central nervous systems across species. To put it simply, an oil puddle is never just one oil puddle.
There are thousands of these puddles within cities, and when it rains, whatever nasty chemicals that accumulate in these puddles get washed away to rivers, to lakes, and to ponds. Again, when I was young, these puddles meant nothing-I did not connect the puddles and rain to the nasty river waters within my community-my mother would simply prevent me from splashing within the endless glistening of these pools of death, but what if the future child did care about these puddles? For certain, the health of the environment and of the community would be increased.
When communities start noticing a simple puddle on a street, they start noticing other chemicals, such as in the clothes we wear, the food we eat, and what we bathe ourselves with. One problem is never just on its own; the environmental degradation our Earth has experienced is all connected. If communities such as mine could just notice this seemingly simple problem, a gateway to better public health would be opened. What can one community do? We can create more walkable cities, install infrastructure to allow for greener cars, advocate for community cleanups, and educate the youths on how to protect our lovely planet. However, it takes effort to do so, and these puddles seem to still be as unnoticed as they were before. In order to fix the societal wrongs of our communities, we must focus on the very foundation of them; the environment. A puddle never truly is just a puddle.
