化学工場の多さから"ケミカルバレー"との異名を持つカナダのオンタリオ。周辺住民が利用する水や空気に汚­染物質を垂れ流す石油会社と、彼らのもたらす経済的な恩恵の前に腰の重い政府との間で、地元の人たちは様々な手を尽くして汚染に­立ち向かっている。地域の経済を潤しつつも、環境を汚していく化学プラントを前に、ある地元の女性活動家は複雑な思いが入り交じ­ったコメントを残した。

The first thing you notice about Sarnia, Ontario, is the smell: a potent mix of gasoline, melting asphalt, and the occasional trace of rotten egg. Shortly after my arrival I already felt unpleasantly high and dizzy, like I wasn't getting enough air. Maybe this had something to do with the bouquet of smokestacks in the southern part of town that, all day every day, belch fumes and orange flares like something out of a Blade Runner-esque dystopia.

Sarnia is home to more than 60 refineries and chemical plants that produce gasoline, synthetic rubbers, and other materials that the world's industries require to create the commercial products we know and love. The city's most prominent and profitable attraction is an area about the size of 100 city blocks known as the Chemical Valley, where 40 percent of Canada's chemical industry can be found packed together like a noxious megalopolis. According to a 2011 report by the World Health Organization, Sarnia's air is the most polluted air in Canada. There are more toxic air pollutants billowing out of smokestacks here than in all of the provinces of New Brunswick or Manitoba. less