Hungarian Sludge Presents Responsible Vacation Need

While responsible vacations don't always have to center around intense rescue missions or the creation of environmental legislation, the grassroots goal must remain as seizing the opportunity to help our fellow man. For reasons unknown, the Hungarian sludge accident has not received the media coverage of other environmental disasters. For instance, the BP Oil Spill was unavoidable in all media forms. You could not turn on the radio, television, or flip through a magazine without some mention of the spill. Granted, the oil spill happened domestically, but the media coverage was just as vigorous in the UK as it was here in the US. So why hasn't there been an international response to the sludge accident in Hungary? How can willing volunteers take a responsible vacation to help out the victims of this unprecedented environmental assault?

Most of the towns and villages surrounding the alumina plant that accidentally released red toxic sludge look like a scene out of a horrendous science fiction novel. Buildings are a total loss because they are saturated in toxic red sludge that contains heavy metals and is lethal when in ingested. At least four people are dead, and more are missing. People of all ages who once inhabited these destroyed villages are covered in red sludge. Several people have suffered burn wounds from the sludge itself. These conditions do not sound enticing for an ideal responsible vacation, but the environmental need is clear.

Perhaps the lack of media attention is not due to the fact that there is no salacious corporate scandal to accompany the environmental disaster. Perhaps this disaster has simply surpassed the ability for the press to fathom what has happened. It is for this very reason that the responsible vacation industry must bring the amount of attention and international aid these villages need.  Perhaps by volunteering to aid the Hungarian Red Cross in providing shelter and food for the villages will help the media put a face on this disaster. Perhaps then the facts will come out. Maybe the responsible vacation industry can shed light on the grim details of the impact of this disaster, such as the terrifying pH levels of this ambiguous toxic sludge. For a chemical to be deemed dangerously toxic, it must have a pH level of at least 13. The pH level of the red sludge is 12, a dangerously high number that has had direct exposure to human skin. Some scientists compare the sludge to lye, a chemical that was outlawed years ago from standard use in the US.

To make matters worse, the reservoir wall retaining the remaining toxic sludge is reported to inevitably succumb to the weight of the sludge, providing exponential environmental disaster. It is for this reason that Hungary has declared a state of emergency and all towns and villages in the path of this sludge have been evacuated. This situation is going from bad to worse, and if they responsible vacation industry does not do its part in bringing more media attention to this international disaster, the effects of this disaster will be felt beyond Hungarian borders.

Photo Credit: Bob Jagendorf