Thicker Than Water: The Quest for Solutions to the Plastic Crisis by Erica Cirino

Author:Erica Cirino [Cirino, Erica]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: nature, General, Environmental Conservation & Protection, animals, Marine Life
ISBN: 9781642831375
Google: 2mE7EAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Island Press
Published: 2021-10-07T23:36:21.622443+00:00

On June 19, 2020, the searing Louisiana sun bore down on a facemask-clad crowd descending from a collection of cars parked on the site of Welcome’s former Buena Vista sugarcane plantation, on the planned site for the new Formosa Plastics plant. RISE and its partner organizations had gathered to commemorate Juneteenth, a holiday celebrating the end of slavery in the United States, while protesting the plant. Racial tensions across America were especially high after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis a few weeks before, another in a long list of Black people killed by police.

By eleven o’clock on Juneteenth morning, Sharon Lavigne’s ranks had multiplied to dozens, despite the rising heat and the looming threat of the COVID-19 pandemic. Members of the St. James community, neighbors from elsewhere in Cancer Alley, and allies from outside the state of Louisiana settled into the tall grasses that grew along a towering chain-link fence topped with strings of barbed wire. From their vantage point, the crowd had full view of the probable slave burial ground. A Catholic priest clad in white, Father Vincent Dufresne, sprinkled holy water on the sacred earth. A few people carried a banner bearing a peaceful dove and the words “Honoring Our Ancestors.” Staked into the grass below was another sign, one that took aim not at the past, but at the future, announcing: FORMOSA: YOU ARE NOT WELCOME HERE.

“Choosing to build this plant in a Black community sends a clear message,” Lavigne said to the crowd. “They just want us to die off. . . . The intentional placement of industry here, and the poisoning of our community, reflects a racist society. But guess what: The air doesn’t stop at the parish lines. If we stop industry here, we can reclaim St. James, but also other communities in Cancer Alley.”

RISE St. James had filed a temporary restraining order against Formosa—which the company protested in court—just to stand legally at the fenceline of the cordoned-off cemetery site for one hour. Without the restraining order, Formosa could legally report any visitors as trespassers. At the last minute, RISE’s restraining order was upheld. However, Lavigne later admitted, “I planned to visit the cemetery with or without official permission.”

Less than a week prior to Juneteenth, Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards vetoed House Bill 197, which would have criminalized protests on or near “critical infrastructure,” including petrochemical complexes. Proposed penalties included fines up to $5,000, plus three to fifteen years of imprisonment with hard labor. The bill’s intentions were clear: to intimidate and bully potential protestors, including those like Sharon fighting against environmental racism, and to uphold the status quo.15

Just a few days before Juneteenth, a judge granted RISE and its guests permission to hold a one-hour ceremony at the Buena Vista cemetery site. After Formosa’s security staff had checked all attendees’ temperatures and recorded names and license plate numbers, they escorted the visitors to the site in their vehicles. Though the Sunshine Project was not yet standing, Formosa’s factory—like all the

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