Hop onto the website This We Know, type in “Philadelphia,” and you’ll be treated to some straightforward facts about the city. As the site puts it:
Our mission is to present the information the U.S. government collects about every community. By publishing this data in an easy to understand and consistent manner, we seek to empower citizens to act on what’s known.
One disturbing fact about Philadelphia pops up: 2,336,980 pounds of pollutants have been released (within 12 miles). Click on the “pollutants” link and you are taken to a page that lists each one and its exact volume, according to the 2005 Toxics Release Inventory.
It’s definitely a shock to the system to see these pollutants stacked one after the other in a seemingly endless list. Of course the quesiton becomes, what now? If more people see this information, will it spark action against the willy-nilly release of pollutants in our city?
