The Devastating Toll of the Fossil Fuel Industry in Louisiana’s Cancer Alley

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A damning new Human Rights Watch report documents the devastating human toll of fossil fuel projects in Louisiana’s Cancer Alley, an 85-mile corridor stretching from Baton Rouge to New Orleans that is filled with fossil fuel and petrochemical plants. Human Rights Watch found newborns living in Cancer Alley experience low birth weights at more than three times the national average. Residents of the predominantly Black communities in the area report a range of other health problems, as well, including respiratory illness, cognitive issues and cancer. “Louisiana citizens are exposed to the worst toxic pollution of any people across the United States,” says the report’s author, journalist Antonia Juhasz, who outlines recommendations for better regulation and enforcement to reduce the harms while pushing for a phase-out of the industry in the long term.
Transcript: www.democracynow.org/2024/1/3...
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Пікірлер: 135

  • @rhetorical1488
    @rhetorical14886 ай бұрын

    here is a side note why nothing is done. Europe has banned 1300 chemicals from makeup. the us has banned 10 of those. this is just par for the $$$

  • @GrandmaBev64
    @GrandmaBev646 ай бұрын

    This has happened across the world, every place chemicals and fossil fuels are made and stored. I grew up in Henderson, Nevada, near the "Las Vegas Wash" or what they call: "Lake Las Vegas" now. The Wash ran in back of Stauffer Chemicals, Titanium Metals and US Lime and they all drained their waste into the Wash. There was a green fog every evening that enveloped the lower part of Henderson. The green cloud made our eyes water and we couldn't breathe. They eventually cleaned it up and the green cloud went away, until the 90's, when the chemical plant had a leak. They evacuated the whole city of Henderson. We had to breathe that every night growing up! All of my friends are sick or dead, including me. I looked up my high-school friends and the first 9 people are dead. I'm only 59. They put the poor and disadvantaged in high-risk places, because we have no choice. I feel for anyone who has to be sick through no fault of their own. These corporations have record profits at our expense.

  • @Chulitatr

    @Chulitatr

    6 ай бұрын

    It's environmental genocide.

  • @p_e_t_e

    @p_e_t_e

    6 ай бұрын

    @@telecomgear 🤡💩

  • @p_e_t_e

    @p_e_t_e

    6 ай бұрын

    @@telecomgear 🤡

  • @ArleeStarr

    @ArleeStarr

    6 ай бұрын

    @@telecomgear Harassing a person, who is revealing an example of what she has experienced, and what polluting corporations get away with, is now acceptable to the censors on TheirTube. go figure. TheirTube has become a right wing, Zionist propaganda outlet.

  • @MysteryFaceX

    @MysteryFaceX

    6 ай бұрын

    ​@@telecomgearSo you'd let someone ride you like a donkey if they sold you oil. Okay, whatever floats your oily boat.

  • @stephenphillips6245
    @stephenphillips62456 ай бұрын

    These oil companies barely pay taxes, so there are no spin off benefits for the poor. Misappropriation of welfare funds to rich people is well documented.

  • @ZennExile

    @ZennExile

    6 ай бұрын

    They're also a convenient means to siphon tax money into the void of private industry that even if converted entirely to renewable energy solutions would have a negligible impact on the carbon crisis because Industrial Agriculture is playing such a vastly greater role in the undermining of the carbon cycle and release of carbon into the atmosphere.

  • @stephenphillips6245

    @stephenphillips6245

    6 ай бұрын

    @@ZennExile I read somewhere that the top 10 percent or, even, the top 1 percent produce 60 plus percentage of the Co2 emissions...which bursts the bubble of the riches argument that over population and poverty is to blame. Don't get me wrong the lower classes should be assisted to lessen carbon loading of the atmosphere, but it's effect is not as oversized as presented.

  • @MattBuild4

    @MattBuild4

    6 ай бұрын

    Except in this particular case the entire city would not exist if not for fossil fuel production. The Louisiana energy corridor is historically a major reason why the Mississippi river was artificially maintained. Without this $100 billion engineering undertaking the cities of Baton Rouge and New Orleans would be ghost towns...... Id say its mighty convenient for people to completely ignore this fact. As much as everyone wants to support limiting environmental damage and not disturbing local ecosystems if nature was not changed over the last 100 years the mouth of the Mississippi river would exist about 170 miles to the southwest of its current location.

  • @ZennExile

    @ZennExile

    6 ай бұрын

    @@MattBuild4 cities ARE environmental damage.

  • @IronskullGM

    @IronskullGM

    6 ай бұрын

    Oil allowed you to type this comment, without it, it would be impossible.

  • @stevemurray1340
    @stevemurray13406 ай бұрын

    This is definitely deeply saddening!!

  • @holgerfriedrichsohn6894

    @holgerfriedrichsohn6894

    6 ай бұрын

    Not the ignorant corporated greedy industry and their maximize their profits. To them humans are products to make profit outof them.

  • @johnclark2212
    @johnclark22126 ай бұрын

    In the early 80's I lived in this area and drove to work on Airline HI way and river road. On three occasions, I had to stop and puke just from the bad odors coming out of the refineries.

  • @kevinwilliams1768
    @kevinwilliams17686 ай бұрын

    so sad & unacceptable . Why is always the black communities are the ones to suffer the most . Drastic change is needed & must stop.

  • @Red_Cupp

    @Red_Cupp

    6 ай бұрын

    It just always the poor people Unfortunately in the south black people make up a huge poor population No education, no funding, no help since slavery and the victims of endless oppression

  • @MattBuild4

    @MattBuild4

    6 ай бұрын

    Well the reality is the industry existed first. Because of segregated zoning laws thats why black and brown communities were forced into this area. Its a bad situation, but to call for the elimination of industry in an area that was originally zoned for industry is a bit like biting the hand that feeds you.

  • @nilaja-itsmylife
    @nilaja-itsmylife6 ай бұрын

    Thank you so much for reporting on this. Thank you for fighting for ALL of us 🙏🏾😔

  • @IronskullGM
    @IronskullGM6 ай бұрын

    Now lets talk about the for profit prison plantations in LA that used to be the largest southern slave plantation, yet now grows food for Walmart and Target with the slave labor of prisoners. Or are we not allowed to go after corporations that toe the WEF line?

  • @Holden_Nature
    @Holden_Nature6 ай бұрын

    This has been happening for a while. It’s crazy how no one is really doing anything about this.

  • @craigr6842

    @craigr6842

    6 ай бұрын

    That would defeat the purpose.

  • @celieneohara521
    @celieneohara5216 ай бұрын

    Does everyone forget Love Canal?

  • @chelseashurmantine8153
    @chelseashurmantine81536 ай бұрын

    Omg that’s crazy! This is so unacceptable

  • @MichaelSharpBLACKDRUMMIKE
    @MichaelSharpBLACKDRUMMIKE6 ай бұрын

    People forget Louisiana use to be known as Sportsman's Paradise. Now it is a capitalism HELL.

  • @indyvisible624
    @indyvisible6246 ай бұрын

    I’ve been trying to shut down a well, the well head is 200 yards down stream from the golf course run off. 4 kids on this system have brain cancers. No body will help me stop it. DEQ did nothing, EPA did nothing, the brothers who run the water company could care less. You can see this problem problem from satellite images. The well head protection area is bright green from the golf course run off. These kids and there families lives are being destroyed Please help.

  • @chreshaybyrd2365
    @chreshaybyrd23656 ай бұрын

    Another Day in Amerikkka

  • @donakakatherine7181
    @donakakatherine71816 ай бұрын

    That new research by Terrell, St. Julien, & Wallace was so informative and very important! Definitely recommend that everyone take a look!

  • @TheSouthsownson
    @TheSouthsownson6 ай бұрын

    You'll find this in ALL black communities across the United States.

  • @sixvee5147
    @sixvee51476 ай бұрын

    “I accepted to come to this meeting to have a sober and mature conversation. I’m not in any way signing up to any discussion that is alarmist. There is no science out there, or no scenario out there, that says that the phase-out of fossil fuel is what’s going to achieve 1.5C.” - Sultan Al Jaber, President of COP 28, also CEO of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company Mukhtar Babayev will be the president for COP 29; he is also a former executive of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijian Republic. Seems more and more likely, scenario SSP5-8.5 of the IPCC assessment may come to fruition (or at least the higher end of the spectrum). I say enjoy what you can, while you still can; pity the generations to come.

  • @mikeboate208

    @mikeboate208

    6 ай бұрын

    The US has dropped bombs on Seven nations in the last 30 days (Jan 30/2024) , and you think that there will be future generations ??

  • @theboldandthebeautiful3729

    @theboldandthebeautiful3729

    6 ай бұрын

    Real talk

  • @MattBuild4

    @MattBuild4

    6 ай бұрын

    It really shouldnt matter for the US though. For one the US has such a vastly different energy industry than rally any country on earth that using any global model or foreign model would be incredibly foolish and impractical. Second and more importantly the US has entire full scale net-zero decarbonization plans just for the US. I think the more critical question is why are our political leaders looking to the IPCC for answers when we have these plans already? In fact lets take it a step further. Ask the Biden Administration and every member of congress why they do not currently or why they wouldnt support the US Department of Energy's National Renewable Electricity Futures Plan and RE-IT80% Model? You want a national energy transition plan to net-zero? Thats what this plan offers in comprehensive detail. Yet no politician, media member nor climate activist will ever talk about this plan. Why is that? Its not like this is some dinky little obscure plan either. It has major contribution from nearly every federal agency involved in energy, 50+ public organizations, 30+ universities and about 35% of the private market capitalization in energy (including generation, storage, distribution, construction and manufacturing). This 980 page meta-development report states by evaluating 8 different fully fledged energy portfolios by generative capacity, storage capacity, system reliability, system resiliency, GHG impact, constructability, feasibility, resource demand, regional economic impact, GDP impact etc in order to determine the basis for which energy portfolio would best suit the US to achieve net-zero emissions as fast and practically as possible. The remaining 700+ pages of this report dives into the details of this best case scenario energy portfolio with entire sections devoted by generation, storage, distribution and end use consumption on a state by state, region by region and national scale per section. You want to know how the US would actually achieve net-zero? Its plans like this - not some glorified PR meeting from the IPCC.

  • @Holden_Nature
    @Holden_Nature6 ай бұрын

    Also, Antonia you explained that so succinctly!!

  • @jopaul32
    @jopaul326 ай бұрын

    So, Government considers a corporation to be the equivalent to a human, Studies have shown that Corporations act as a completely apathetic psychopath and the psychopath is trusted to act in opposition to their greed in mitigating their own psychopathy? ROFLMFAO!!! And we keep voting for the 2 parties that continue to place a price tag on our lives!!! I guess we do get the Government we deserve!?

  • @318DoubleE

    @318DoubleE

    4 ай бұрын

    Rebublicans usually are apart of these bigger contracts and democrats would fight to keep the small businesses that piggyback off the economy it brings.

  • @nicholaskruger9460
    @nicholaskruger94606 ай бұрын

    You can find devastating toll of any industry. Especially electric car. Thst one blows peoples minds if they only knew

  • @colinmartin6096
    @colinmartin60965 ай бұрын

    Over the past 3 decades we've seen a 28% increase in cancer and a 60% increase in emissions... Cancer in young adults has increased by 79%

  • @karlav2023
    @karlav20236 ай бұрын

    Thank you for sharing your story. People need to hear our stories so we can grow our understanding and compassion. And act towards positive change; learn to be and do for the collective good. 💞

  • @p_e_t_e

    @p_e_t_e

    6 ай бұрын

    @@telecomgear 🤡💩

  • @bertbaker7067
    @bertbaker70676 ай бұрын

    It's too bad Huey Long isn't around in Louisiana anymore. I doubt this cancer alley stuff would have flown with him. He had the oil companies terrified of him.

  • @whatabouttheearth
    @whatabouttheearth6 ай бұрын

    Remember Love Canal? And the recent lawsuit 3M lost about PFAS?

  • @DLFfitness1
    @DLFfitness16 ай бұрын

    So many don’t realize that they are disposable.

  • @maidenofjourneys1962
    @maidenofjourneys19626 ай бұрын

    If abortion is illegal in Louisiana, could not the mother prosecute the fossil fuel and petrol chemical companies for the loss of their unborn child's life?

  • @318DoubleE

    @318DoubleE

    4 ай бұрын

    That should be a possibility, hopefully she’d be able to do so.

  • @mcawesomest1
    @mcawesomest16 ай бұрын

    Hold the corporations accountable and stop lying to us and making stuff political

  • @Julia-rz1dc
    @Julia-rz1dc6 ай бұрын

    SO sad and unfair!!!!

  • @ResistEvolve
    @ResistEvolve6 ай бұрын

    We don't want none of them "job killin reghoulations!"

  • @mikeboate208

    @mikeboate208

    6 ай бұрын

    Freedom ! Did your family veterans die for that kind of freedom ?

  • @whatabouttheearth
    @whatabouttheearth6 ай бұрын

    Sadly I never finished he earlier book 'The Tyranny of Oil' yet. It's a good book.

  • @seandepagnier
    @seandepagnier6 ай бұрын

    why do we have a cancer alley?

  • @TSA1D1
    @TSA1D16 ай бұрын

    "Die Out,Or Be Bought Out" 💔

  • @airsickspace9272
    @airsickspace92722 ай бұрын

    I visited New Orleans and fuck every night was a hard time breathing which I’m not used to it was like I was in a room of pure dust which even then dust settles and I get better but I didn’t I felt so out of breathe and shit. Excuse my language but man after that I was like something is going on here like wtf

  • @peace8373
    @peace83736 ай бұрын

    It hard to comprehend the concentration of the petro-chemical industry along the banks of the Mississippi River. There is never night, just that eerie golden glow of sodium vapor lights on the horizon. The number of pipelines is just one leaking pretzel, as one plants waste is the resource for the plant next door. These huge behemoths are belching out so much into the atmosphere each time they start-up, hick-up, are just negligence because it is cheaper to forego maintenance than lose a days production and we are talking multiple millions in lost production. Very little will change, it is petro-dollars the grease the hand of the politicians, feed the propaganda machine that oil and seafood can co-exist, yet the commercial fisherman is a shadow of the past. Their land fell into the Gulf of Mexico, and lots of the damage was caused by the early seekers of oil.

  • @MegaAli213
    @MegaAli2136 ай бұрын

    Its "All by colonial Colonizer political design " make no mistakes about it. Your enemies are still at work, wake up.

  • @holgerfriedrichsohn6894
    @holgerfriedrichsohn68946 ай бұрын

    Who are the profiteers of the medical& pharma& industrial complex copied from the millitary& industrial complex by the Chicago economic school since whwn ? What did Eisenhover said about the millitary & industrial complex ?

  • @jo-annerichardson34

    @jo-annerichardson34

    6 ай бұрын

    Eisenhauer safid ' beware of the military industria complex'. The US especially did not listen.

  • @kellielaine5848
    @kellielaine58486 ай бұрын

    Rfk jr is the environmental president we need.

  • @whatabouttheearth

    @whatabouttheearth

    6 ай бұрын

    😂 he's a kook

  • @danieldipalma704
    @danieldipalma7045 ай бұрын

    Hopefully they will remove these cancer causing companies somewhere else.

  • @TheEricrya
    @TheEricrya6 ай бұрын

    Pollution is bad, who knew?

  • @jamalmusawwir9096
    @jamalmusawwir90966 ай бұрын

    Let's outlaw what they are doing!...I am from New Orleans!!!!

  • @MattBuild4

    @MattBuild4

    6 ай бұрын

    And New Orleans wouldnt even exist without this industry. These industries re-routed the Mississippi river to maintain the existing geographical assets. If your against the location of these assets, then maybe we should stop artificially controlling nature, which means no more Mississippi running through New Orleans. But you dont actually want that, because without the river means no economy for your city, which means eventually no more New Orleans. Might be a good idea to recognize these realities so you dont take an extremely hypocritical position in the first place.

  • @renkanazawabluedot
    @renkanazawabluedot6 ай бұрын

    Vote all corporate politics out… please

  • @randobad
    @randobad6 ай бұрын

    The problem with being poor, you can't just pack up and leave for greener pastures.

  • @leaf1131
    @leaf11316 ай бұрын

    A massive lawsuit is in the offing.

  • @weedAndTransRights

    @weedAndTransRights

    6 ай бұрын

    they pollute poor communities because they don't have access to the same tools for lawfare. justice is a privilege for the wealthy and connected.

  • @TheLastDeadCat
    @TheLastDeadCat5 ай бұрын

    Blacks and sicle cell anemia. Which chemicals are responsible?

  • @vthilton
    @vthilton5 ай бұрын

    Healthcare for All

  • @larimaramethyst5414
    @larimaramethyst54146 ай бұрын

  • @user-yr6mg5jv1g
    @user-yr6mg5jv1g6 ай бұрын

    Gaints corporate they don't care about human life ,they all care about their gargantuan profits

  • @holgerfriedrichsohn6894
    @holgerfriedrichsohn68946 ай бұрын

    Is it called greedy neolibralistic capitalism ? Maximising Profit on any costs on human and nature ? What's about the medicine & industrial complex ? Humans are degrded into products of profits of Whom?

  • @vinniecasqer840
    @vinniecasqer8406 ай бұрын

    Pfizer's and Moderna's Cancer Alley already launched.

  • @holgerfriedrichsohn6894

    @holgerfriedrichsohn6894

    6 ай бұрын

    Medical &Pharma&Industrialcomplex

  • @cdes68
    @cdes686 ай бұрын

    Like in Sarnia, Ontario.

  • @georgesgontier2425

    @georgesgontier2425

    6 ай бұрын

    Yes. It as a Canadian I still have socialized healthcare. I can go to a hospital and not get kicked out.

  • @user-vt9jd4tc5h
    @user-vt9jd4tc5h6 ай бұрын

    Beware servents of Moloch, Remphan, Rome.

  • @kiwia8271
    @kiwia82716 ай бұрын

    Hey, you live in a country where profits come before people, so where's the problem?.

  • @mr.hamilton5393
    @mr.hamilton53936 ай бұрын

    Love means A series of waves As the evening sky Pregnant with the dozing Sun, Licks the naughty Shores, With the tongue of The wicked sea breeze Touches sensually Deep under the Blanket of shy virgin skin, As the mesmerized moon Forgets to rise Above the zenith Lip locked with the white Rising tides in the horizon

  • @emiliobello2538
    @emiliobello25386 ай бұрын

    Do affects of greenhouse gases cause cancer?

  • @f_youtubecensorshipf_nazis

    @f_youtubecensorshipf_nazis

    6 ай бұрын

    the effects of fracking and refining does

  • @papajay111
    @papajay1116 ай бұрын

    Fossil Fuels???? Since All fossils are "mineralized organic matter", then you'd have to be using ROCKS for FUEL!!! Yeah,,,,, THAT'S good science all right!! That's not even pseudo science!!! IT'S called "WOKE SCIENCE"😅🤣🤣😂

  • @whatabouttheearth

    @whatabouttheearth

    6 ай бұрын

    There are plenty of energy sources other than fossil fuels already used genius. And learn proper punctuation. Go to college.

  • @papajay111

    @papajay111

    6 ай бұрын

    @@whatabouttheearth College??? Is THAT where you learned "punctuation"?

  • @papajay111

    @papajay111

    6 ай бұрын

    @@whatabouttheearth College?? It obviously didn't do you any good!! You certainly never learned to think for yourself!!!

  • @papajay111

    @papajay111

    6 ай бұрын

    @whatabouttheearth College?? Didn't you learn the term "ad homenim" because THAT is the premise of your fallacious argument!!

  • @papajay111

    @papajay111

    6 ай бұрын

    @whatabouttheearth Did I even mention that OIL was the only fuel?? NO, I DIDN'T. So, what is your argument? Some "red herring" BS!!!

  • @SocialismSucks
    @SocialismSucks6 ай бұрын

    Democrapery Now, 100% BS🇨🇳

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