We must move beyond petrochemicals and stop the expansion of the petrochemical industry.
Hip Hop Caucus, alongside the Beyond Petrochemicals Campaign and countless community-led organizations, is organizing a fight against the petrochemical industry. We understand that in our quest for liberated communities, we will win when we fight for communities to have clean air and clean water.
Petrochemicals are Big Oil’s Last Lifeline to pollute our communities and sicken our people for profits. Petrochemical facilities use extremely toxic feedstocks to convert oil and gas into plastic byproducts. These products end up filling plants, incinerators, landfills that are also disproportionately sited in Black, Brown, and Indigenous low and middle income communities. As these communities are already overwhelmed by multiple sources of pollution, the people living there are immersed in a toxic soup for the economic benefit of the few.
Health Impacts
Oil refineries and other petrochemical facilities lead to not just increased risk of leukemia, but all types of cancer. Studies have shown that there is an increase in cancer diagnosis with proximity to these facilities for bladder, lymphoma, lung, prostate, and breast cancers. People living near petrochemical facilities are nearly 20 percent higher risk of lung cancer compared to other community residents.
Climate Justice is Racial Justice
We can reclaim our communities from toxic petrochemical pollution by recognizing that climate justice is racial justice and understanding that stopping climate change is a civil rights issue. It is no secret that these petrochemical facilities are located in Black communities in large part due to racial discrimination. But did you know that in places like Louisiana, these industries have directly benefited from Jim Crow and Antebellum practices that forced Black people from their homes and gave the rights of plantation properties to foreign companies? Researchers like ProPublica have shown that almost all of the highest risk neighborhoods are in Southern states known for having weaker environmental regulations. And if you live in a census tract where the majority is people of color, then you experience forty percent 40% more cancer-causing industrial air pollution on average areas where the residents are mostly white.
Get involved in the fight against petrochemicals.
We. Shall. Breathe.
To keep oil and gas companies from succeeding, the Hip Hop Caucus has been working for years with frontline and fenceline organizations to raise the alarm bells about this deadly industry that is also killing our planet. From our We Shall Breathe summits to protesting in front of the Environmental Protection Agency, the Hip Hop Caucus has and will continue to fight to stop petrochemicals. We’ll keep working to fight back but we can’t do it alone. Therefore as part of our work to stop petrochemicals, we will be galvanizing and amplifying local community efforts to target specific plants, particularly across the Gulf South that are profiting from our pain. We will use this website to share tools, resources and our ongoing actions so that we can all work together to stop petrochemicals in the coming months.
Listen to the Petrochemical Series on The Coolest Show
On The Coolest Show, our climate justice podcast, Host Rev Yearwood spoke with expert activists from Houston, Louisiana’s Cancer Alley, and the Ohio River Valley to discuss how we fight to stop the expansion of the petrochemical industry.
Watch Big Oil's Last Lifeline
Everyday, the oil, gas and petrochemical industry writes off Black, brown and Indigenous communities as ‘sacrifice zones’. The industry violates laws with impunity and rationalizes the unconscionable – they dump cancer-causing pollution into communities of color and try to cover it up.
Big Oil’s Last Lifeline takes us to the frontlines of the U.S.’s epicenters for petrochemical production: West Virginia, Houston, and along the Mississippi River in Louisiana.
