My grandfather made an environmental disaster- intergenerational justice and reconciliation

Please join the May CIRCLE seminar with Johanne Mygind

During the 1950s, the chemical factory Cheminova deposited more than 200 tons of pesticides on the beach between Harboøre and Thyborøn on the west coast of Denmark. The dump is still causing massive damage to the environment and local population today. My grandfather was lead engineer for the factory at the time, and was personally responsible for the dump.

I have spent the last three years on the west coast of Denmark researching the story, but also working with local schools in order to start a conversation across generations about the Cheminova factory and the consequences of their toxic waste and production. In the seminar, I will discuss how to tell a story that both connects me to, and separates me from, the communities of the west coast and the people of my own family. 

Johanne Mygind is a documentarist and writer. She has worked for DR, Information and Weekendavisen and has been an important feminist voice of her generation in Denmark. Her first novel Kærlighedens år (The Year of Love) explored the impact of the women’s liberation movement on the lives of three women. She is currently working on her second novel “Another Time” about her grandfather who was the lead engineer behind one of the biggest ongoing environmental disasters in Denmark.