PPH - Louisiana is the trading floor for international commodities markets, hear from Micael Esealuka & Scott Eustis of Healthy Gulf

Hosts talk with Michael Esealuka & Scott Eustis of Healthy Gulf about the petrochemical industry in Louisiana. In general people don't see petrochemicals as fueling the climate crisis, but petrochemicals account for 12% of global demand for oil & gas.

LA is not really an energy state. We're the trading floor for international commodities markets - whether its oil, chemical ammonia fertilizer, plastics, or methanol - our land, water, air and lungs are considered the trading floor so that international companies can move this stuff around the world.
                   
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Scott Eustis, Healthy Gulf

​Learn more about pollution in your neighborhood. 

Check out the EPA's NATA Map. NATA stands for National Air Toxics Assessment and it is an assessment of air toxins, pollution and cancer risk across the USA. 

When you go to the NATA map on the EPA website you instantly see Louisiana, not just Cancer or Death Alley, as having disproportionately high cancer risk (we're the 80th percentile and above) because of the chemical pollutants.
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National Air Toxics Assessment (NATA) Map

Healthy Gulf has been answering questions about pollution in Louisiana for a long time.

Tune into this weeks PPH to join us for a conversation with Healthy Gulf about:

• What are the root causes of polluting emissions?
• What industries are responsible for those emissions?
• What part of the state is bearing a lot of those burdens?

The short answer to these questions... 

• The majority of our emissions are coming from the industrial sector 
• The CF Industries ammonia plant in Donaldsonville is the largest single climate carbon dioxide polluter in the state
  • ​CF Industries is (a conglomerate that manufacturers agricultural fertilizers) based out of Deerfield, Illinois. They produce agricultural fertilizers for the midwest, so why isn't their polluting chemical plant also in the midwest? 
• Industrial development is strategically located in working class, black communities, that are underfunded and don't many have resources to fight back. Check out this weeks episode to learn about the work Michael Esealuka and Healthy Gulf have been doing to amplify and support black leaders in these communities. ​

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About Healthy Gulf

Healthy Gulf collaborates with and serves communities who love the Gulf of Mexico by providing the research, communications, and coalition-building tools needed to reverse the long pattern of over exploitation of the Gulf’s natural resources. Their vision is a healthy Gulf of Mexico returned to its former splendor that supports a thriving ecosystem that includes the Gulf’s natural resources and, just as importantly, the people, communities, and cultures that depend on those resources.
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Micael Esealuka
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As Healthy Gulf's Louisiana organizer, Michael works with frontline communities in the state's traditional industrial corridor, which stretches along the Mississippi from East Baton Rouge down to Plaquemines Parish where the river opens up at the Gulf of Mexico. Her work is focused on fighting petrochemical buildout, advancing the Gulf South for a Green New Deal platform & vision for climate justice, and uplifting community struggles for clean air, water and land. She comes to Healthy Gulf with a half decade of experience as a community and labor organizer in South Louisiana. When not working she enjoys drawing, fishing, and spending time in her garden.
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Scott Eustis 

With an extensive background in wetlands and fisheries research from his Master's from the University of New Orleans, Scott supports Healthy Gulf's Science and Water Policy team by analyzing wetlands restoration projects, providing scientific arguments in comments against bad developments and wetlands destruction, and by representing Healthy Gulf in many public forums. Scott has a bachelor's of science in Ecology from UGA's Odum School of Ecology, as well as a degree in English from UGA, and spends a lot of his time flying kites for Public Lab and learning about our natural world with the Louisiana Master Naturalists, GNO.

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Image source Giles Clarke/Getty Images