Climate and Environment

Originally posted May 2nd in the New American Journal. The first foreign substance flowing into Mobile’s drinking water from the new crude oil pipeline is not oil. It’s mud — and whatever welding and other construction debris got stirred into the disturbed earth of the pipe’s broad right-of-way through the watershed of the metro area’s reservoir Big Creek Lake.

Photo: Plains Mobile Watershed Pipeline after the flood – Walter Simon

Locally here in Mobile, Alabama, it is rumored that things are being put in place that would ensure that by year 2025, Mobile County would be industrialized with "Oil-Based" industries while Baldwin County will be "Water-Based" with beach resorts, fancy restaurants and hotels and lively entertainment.

“Environmentalists aren’t born, they’re made – by necessity and circumstance.” - Derrick Evans in Come Hell or High Water - The Battle for Turkey Creek. As the Earth Week events at USM-Gulf Coast came to an end, these words still rang in my head.

I am writing this on the eve of April 28, International Workers Memorial Day, to explain why Bhopal should never be forgotten. 
I am a commercial fisherwoman from Texas and Union Carbide (now Dow) has existed outside my fishing village of Seadrift since I was born. I never knew about Bhopal until the day Union Carbide blew up near my hometown.

On March 30, 2014, journalist Brentin Mock moderated a discussion about Come Hell or High Water: The Battle for Turkey Creek with Leslie Fields (Sierra Club director of Environmental Justice and Community Partnerships), Reilly Morse (director of Mississippi Center for Justice), Derrick Evans (of Turkey Creek, Mississippi and co-founder of Bridge The Gulf) and me, Leah Mahan, (Director and Producer of Come Hell or High Water, and co-founder of Bridge The Gulf). The discussion followed the D.C.

A few months ago there was an explosion of train tank cars of crude oil in Canada. One exploding tank car ignited another, then another, then another, etc. Final results were half a town wiped out and dozens of people killed or injured. The blast area of that explosion was estimated to have a 5 mile radius. If you allow a "storage tank city" to be built close to a community, you are asking for trouble.

Ever wonder what goes into a Bridge The Gulf story? Or what drives our contributors to track down stories and create media, often for no pay? Join Cherri Foytlin on a drive down to Buras, Louisiana to interview Kindra Arnesen about four years of the BP oil disaster.

"It is outrageous that one year after BP plead guilty to manslaughter, it can now get contracts with our federal government based on BP's promise that it won't tell any more lies..." said Monique Harden, New Orleans resident and Co-director of Advocates for Environmental Human Rights.

School Superintendent Instructs Adults in Non-Critical Thinking, Which Contributes to Environmental Injustice

Originally posted on New American Journal.