Pollution

During the 1980s several Beluga whales were found dead in the waters off the coast of the Quebec Province, Canada. In their blubber was found a high concentration of DDT (i.e. dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, a very powerful insecticide used for agriculture that was banned throughout the world during the 1960s and 1970s because of its harmful effects on the environment and human health); plus PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls, a long-lived industrial compound used mainly in the manufacture of electronic goods); and Mirex (a chlorinated hydrocarbon that is used mainly as an insecticide for agricultural purposes and that was subsequently banned because of its bio-accumulative effects). All of these compounds degrade slowly. They linger in the environment, floating in the air and water, permeating the soil, and accumulating in animal fats. For this reason they are banned in most developed countries and for this reason the whales cited above were disposed of as toxic waste. Furthermore, the Quebec authorities label living whales as "toxic waste" too (Prins, 1991, p. 16). (This incident motivated Prins to write a book entitled Top Guns and Toxic Whales in which she highlighted the tensions between the dominant narrative of security and the world's politico-economic system.)…