Clearing the Smokescreen

摘要

While hungover Crescent City visitors sip chicory coffee and nibble at beignets, an unlikely tour bus packed full of environmental justice activists heads through the city and into the heart of "cancer alley"—the riverside stretch of power plants, oil refineries and other industries that harms the health of so many New Orleans-area residents. They've gathered to talk about the Bucket Brigades, a community organizing effort that's gone global, defending neighborhoods worldwide from industrial pollution. Tour guide Ken Ford has lived in a neighborhood adjacent to ExxonMobil's Chalmerte Oil Refinery for nearly 40 years. In that time he's lost a great deal to cancer: neighbors, friends, even his own lung.