Bird in Flight Prize ‘21 Finalist: A Short Story On Oil, Pollution And Racism

Tommaso Rada, Brazil

In 1940, oil deposits were discovered in the Bahia de Todos os Santos, the Bays where the city of Salvador is located; oil extraction wells were installed in the ocean surrounding area, in the Candeia zone and in the Ilha de Maré. Environmental Racism has been theorised between the 1970 and the 1980, its definition has been used to describe environmental injustices in a racial context.

In the 1950 decade, in front of the Ilha de Maré, located in the All Saint Bay, a series of factories and commercial ports were built. With an increase of industrialisation, the level of environmental pollution. Despite the community of the Ilha de Maré tried to established a dialogue with the Institutions and the Companies to improve the environmental situation, very little has been done to decrease the pollution level or the factors that affect the Community of Ilha de Mare making them suffer from environmental racism.