SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Communities of Color Must Lead at People's Climate March
On April 29th, thousands will participate in the People's Climate March--in Washington, D.C. and all over the country--to stand up for our communities and our climate. I'll be marching with my daughter and mother alongside other families in Wilmington, CA. Why? Because climate change starts in our neighborhoods.
Apr 28, 2017
On April 29th, thousands will participate in the People's Climate March--in Washington, D.C. and all over the country--to stand up for our communities and our climate. I'll be marching with my daughter and mother alongside other families in Wilmington, CA. Why? Because climate change starts in our neighborhoods.
Here in the predominantly low-income Latino community of Wilmington, CA, we have five major oil refineries within a nine-mile radius. We are not alone: across the country, minority and low-income neighborhoods host the lion's share of polluting facilities, and families like mine are impacted first and worst.
I live just 500 yards from the Tesoro refinery and must keep the doors closed to not breathe in the toxic fumes that are slowly killing us. Every neighbor on my street has a family member who has struggled with or died from cancer. I worry about my mother who has suffered with a chronic cough for years that isn't getting better, and the many children who attend school within a mile of the refinery. From my window at night, I see the sky lit bright orange from the flares at the refinery.
It will only get worse if we don't take action now. Tesoro plans to merge their refinery in Wilmington with BP Carson, creating the largest refinery on the West Coast. The $460 million expansion across 950 acres would build 3.4 million barrels of storage tanks, almost doubling capacity. The expanded refinery will process more than 380,000 barrels of high benzene Bakken crude oil per day.
When my daughter asks me why it smells so bad in our neighborhood, I struggle to explain why these oil companies believe our families are worth less than their dirty profits. They can't continue to tell us that toxic fumes are just an odor. We have the right to speak out against these refineries that are polluting our air and killing our families.
That's why I'm knocking on my neighbors' doors to make sure we're all out marching on April 29th for the People's Climate March. We deserve to live in communities where we can breathe, and where our children can sleep better at night. We need sustainable solutions that will transform toxic hotspots into healthy environments and thriving economies with clean energy jobs. We must improve air quality and public health by cutting emissions directly at the source to effectively address health impacts, reduce asthma rates and prevent cancer and other illnesses.
Beware of false solutions: In California, our current cap and trade system enables polluters to continue poisoning the air. It's time for polluters to pay, instead of using carbon offsets to avoid reducing their emissions on site. Our families deserve better.
On April 29th, communities of color are leading the People's Climate March in sister marches all over the country. I hope more will join as we resist, build, and rise in the face of the threats to our communities.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Magali Sanchez-Hall
Magali Sanchez-Hall is a member of Communities for a Better Environment in California.
On April 29th, thousands will participate in the People's Climate March--in Washington, D.C. and all over the country--to stand up for our communities and our climate. I'll be marching with my daughter and mother alongside other families in Wilmington, CA. Why? Because climate change starts in our neighborhoods.
Here in the predominantly low-income Latino community of Wilmington, CA, we have five major oil refineries within a nine-mile radius. We are not alone: across the country, minority and low-income neighborhoods host the lion's share of polluting facilities, and families like mine are impacted first and worst.
I live just 500 yards from the Tesoro refinery and must keep the doors closed to not breathe in the toxic fumes that are slowly killing us. Every neighbor on my street has a family member who has struggled with or died from cancer. I worry about my mother who has suffered with a chronic cough for years that isn't getting better, and the many children who attend school within a mile of the refinery. From my window at night, I see the sky lit bright orange from the flares at the refinery.
It will only get worse if we don't take action now. Tesoro plans to merge their refinery in Wilmington with BP Carson, creating the largest refinery on the West Coast. The $460 million expansion across 950 acres would build 3.4 million barrels of storage tanks, almost doubling capacity. The expanded refinery will process more than 380,000 barrels of high benzene Bakken crude oil per day.
When my daughter asks me why it smells so bad in our neighborhood, I struggle to explain why these oil companies believe our families are worth less than their dirty profits. They can't continue to tell us that toxic fumes are just an odor. We have the right to speak out against these refineries that are polluting our air and killing our families.
That's why I'm knocking on my neighbors' doors to make sure we're all out marching on April 29th for the People's Climate March. We deserve to live in communities where we can breathe, and where our children can sleep better at night. We need sustainable solutions that will transform toxic hotspots into healthy environments and thriving economies with clean energy jobs. We must improve air quality and public health by cutting emissions directly at the source to effectively address health impacts, reduce asthma rates and prevent cancer and other illnesses.
Beware of false solutions: In California, our current cap and trade system enables polluters to continue poisoning the air. It's time for polluters to pay, instead of using carbon offsets to avoid reducing their emissions on site. Our families deserve better.
On April 29th, communities of color are leading the People's Climate March in sister marches all over the country. I hope more will join as we resist, build, and rise in the face of the threats to our communities.
Magali Sanchez-Hall
Magali Sanchez-Hall is a member of Communities for a Better Environment in California.
On April 29th, thousands will participate in the People's Climate March--in Washington, D.C. and all over the country--to stand up for our communities and our climate. I'll be marching with my daughter and mother alongside other families in Wilmington, CA. Why? Because climate change starts in our neighborhoods.
Here in the predominantly low-income Latino community of Wilmington, CA, we have five major oil refineries within a nine-mile radius. We are not alone: across the country, minority and low-income neighborhoods host the lion's share of polluting facilities, and families like mine are impacted first and worst.
I live just 500 yards from the Tesoro refinery and must keep the doors closed to not breathe in the toxic fumes that are slowly killing us. Every neighbor on my street has a family member who has struggled with or died from cancer. I worry about my mother who has suffered with a chronic cough for years that isn't getting better, and the many children who attend school within a mile of the refinery. From my window at night, I see the sky lit bright orange from the flares at the refinery.
It will only get worse if we don't take action now. Tesoro plans to merge their refinery in Wilmington with BP Carson, creating the largest refinery on the West Coast. The $460 million expansion across 950 acres would build 3.4 million barrels of storage tanks, almost doubling capacity. The expanded refinery will process more than 380,000 barrels of high benzene Bakken crude oil per day.
When my daughter asks me why it smells so bad in our neighborhood, I struggle to explain why these oil companies believe our families are worth less than their dirty profits. They can't continue to tell us that toxic fumes are just an odor. We have the right to speak out against these refineries that are polluting our air and killing our families.
That's why I'm knocking on my neighbors' doors to make sure we're all out marching on April 29th for the People's Climate March. We deserve to live in communities where we can breathe, and where our children can sleep better at night. We need sustainable solutions that will transform toxic hotspots into healthy environments and thriving economies with clean energy jobs. We must improve air quality and public health by cutting emissions directly at the source to effectively address health impacts, reduce asthma rates and prevent cancer and other illnesses.
Beware of false solutions: In California, our current cap and trade system enables polluters to continue poisoning the air. It's time for polluters to pay, instead of using carbon offsets to avoid reducing their emissions on site. Our families deserve better.
On April 29th, communities of color are leading the People's Climate March in sister marches all over the country. I hope more will join as we resist, build, and rise in the face of the threats to our communities.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.
To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good.
News & Opinion
Trending
Common Dreams, Inc. Founded 1997. Registered 501(c3) Non-Profit
Privacy Policy