NEWSLETTER

PHOTOS AND TEXT BY VICE STAFF

COODE ISLAND G’day mate. Welcome to Coode Island, just four kilometers from Melbourne’s city center. The island was created in 1886 as a sanatorium for people with bubonic plague. Today, it’s Victoria’s major petrochemical-storage facility as well as the main import and export point for hazardous materials used in industry. With the nearest residential area only 500 meters away, we’re just crossing our fingers we don’t see any more mistakes like the one we had in 1991, when an employee left the cap off one of the tanks of waste, lightning struck, and 8.5 million liters of chemicals went up in flames, producing a massive toxic cloud over the city! Doesn’t that sound made up? It’s totally true!
Clenaway Landfill: This site has been used as the main dumping ground for toxic waste from major industries in Victoria since 1973. People living in houses across the road have complained of health disorders including cancer, miscarriages, and multiple sclerosis.		Lonsdale Power Plant: After almost 100 years of operation, the Lonsdale power plant closed in 1982, leaving behind asbestos, diesel particles, and a rent-free home with electricity and running water for Melbourne’s squatters.		Yarra River: Like the chief body of water in any thriving metropolis: an E. coli-laden soup.
Meh. Call us when you have AIDS. In the meantime, we’re going to take a quick jaunt through the hellhole known as London.
KENSINGTON OLYMPIA TRAINS STATION Every week, highly toxic waste is transported through London’s commuter-rail stations, along the North London and Gospel Oak lines to the Sellafield nuclear site. We’d tell you to mind the irradiated rods, but train times are kept secret, so it’s impossible to know when a toxic train is coming through. Environmental activist Fabrizzio Ardani explained to us that small amounts of contaminated water can pass through the containing flasks, drip onto the ground, and slowly poison the soil of residential areas near the station. Bottoms up, London!
Clapton Square, Hackney: In this unofficial city dumping ground, you’ll find all sorts of domestic waste. Sofas, fridges, broken chairs, beer cans, condoms, and sanitary towels. It’s like the rear end of England’s middle class splayed out before you. Nice.		The River Thames: Thanks to London’s Victorian sewer system, untreated sewage is released into the capital’s river every week.		Olympic Village, East London: The 450 residents of the Clays Lane Estate are being vacated to make way for the Olympic Village. Clays Lane inhabitants have uncovered information suggesting that radioactive waste was dumped on land next to their estate in 1959. (This is part of their case for why residential homes should stay?)
Well, bugger all. London is fucked too (as if we couldn’t guess). How about their cold, cold neighbors to the north in Sweden?

TO BE CONTINUED:
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