When two towns — one an affluent suburb and the other a poor rural community — faced similar air pollution crises, lopsided government action made clear there was an underlying race and class divide. Reporter Sharon Lerner shares the story behind her award-winning reporting that tells the “Tale of Two Toxic Cities,” in our latest Inside Story Q&A.
"Beneath a searing Louisiana sun, a crowd gathers on a former sugar cane plantation to commemorate Juneteenth, a holiday celebrating the end of slavery in the United States. Rows of unmarked graves stand nearby—believed to be the resting place of those who’d been enslaved on the plantation. A few people, clad in face masks, hold up a banner: Honoring Our Ancestors. Another sign, staked into the grass, is aimed not at the past, but at the future: FORMOSA: YOU ARE NOT WELCOME HERE."
"Anne Rolfes and Kate McIntosh, environmental activists with the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, turned themselves into the Baton Rouge Police Department Thursday to be booked on counts stemming from a plastic pollution awareness event that took place more than seven months ago."
"Federal regulators are crafting an exemption for polluters releasing harmful perfluorinated chemicals (PFAS) into the environment in a way that environmental advocates say circumvents a new law meant to address widespread contamination."
"Bayer AG agreed to spend more than $12 billion to resolve thousands of U.S. lawsuits and deal with future claims, taking its biggest step so far in resolving headaches the German chemical giant inherited in its acquisition of Monsanto Co."
"An abandoned asbestos mine in a remote corner of Yukon has yet to be remediated 42 years after closing, and could pose a flood risk to anyone downstream, according to the federal government."
"Poor Texas and Louisiana communities, many of them Black, have higher-than-average exposures to 15 of 20 chemicals that the EPA is analyzing, groups in the two states told the agency."
"A U.S. federal appeals court on Monday blocked California from requiring that Bayer AG label its glyphosate-based weed killer Roundup with a cancer warning, handing the company a victory in its ongoing litigation over the product."
"African American activists have been targeting another killer, toxic pollutants, in the city’s Rubbertown district for decades."
"The Trump administration on Thursday finalized a decision not to impose any limits on perchlorate, a toxic chemical compound found in rocket fuel that contaminates water and has been linked to fetal and infant brain damage."
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