Finding the path to environmental justice

Earth Day sermon delivered to First Parish Yarmouth, April 21, 2024.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind…and love your neighbor as yourself. —Matthew 22:37-39

Star Chickweed—Sue Inches photo

You may be wondering at this choice of scripture for Earth Day Sunday. Why did I not choose the scripture about the lilies of the field? you might ask. But I chose this scripture because these moral laws spoken by Jesus have so much to do with how we treat the earth.

The first part of the passage---to love the Lord---speaks to loving all of God’s creation: the plants, the animals, the soil, the waters, the sky, our bodies and of course, other human beings. To love the Lord is to love and respect the entirety of God’s creation.

The second part of Jesus’ statement---to love our neighbors as ourselves---has great implications for our natural environment too. Good neighbors don’t spread pesticides and fertilizers that seep into our water ways and pollute them. Good neighbors don’t consume tons of plastics and toss them into the trash every day. Good neighbors don’t poison the air, land and water in pursuit of profit.

Many of us are aware of what it means to be a good environmental neighbor. We are doing our best to cut down on unnecessary chemicals and plastics in our lives. We can do more of course, but we are trying to go in the right direction.

The bigger problem is that the companies that extract oil and gas and make plastics are not close neighbors. Corporate decision makers are far away from us and far from the neighborhoods where their products are made, used and disposed of.

Take Formosa Plastics, as an example. Formosa is the sixth largest plastics manufacturer in the world. Their company headquarters are in Kaohsiung City, Taiwan. But they manufacture plastics along the Mississippi River in Louisiana and the Gulf Coast of Texas. Their reputation for environmental negligence is well known.

Formosa’s gigantic oil refineries and plastics plants are located adjacent to churches, residential neighborhoods and schools. Formosa plants are located in working class and majority African American neighborhoods. Much of the land there was given to freed slaves after the Civil War.

The people in these areas have the highest rates of cancer in the country. This is how the area got the nickname “Cancer Alley”. It should not surprise you that the Covid deaths there are among the highest in the country, too.

There are two major gaps in environmental regulations that have allowed innocent people in these areas to be poisoned by industrial chemicals. One is that leak proof valves and fittings are not required. They are available, but just not used. Which allows massive leaks of carcinogens into the air.

The other flaw---one that I just learned about recently—is that air and water emissions are not considered cumulatively. When permitting a new plant, only the emissions from that facility are considered. The total emissions from multiple plants in the same area are not measured or considered.

There are 140 petrochemical and plastics plants located along the 80 mile stretch of the Mississippi known as Cancer Alley. The only way these plants could have been built is by permitting each as a separate entity.

As a result this permitting flaw, residents are exposed to toxic emissions of ethylene oxide, trichlorethylene, benzene, chloroprene, and formaldehyde. In St. John’s Parish (a county there), the likelihood of residents getting cancer is estimated at over 700 times the national average.

So back to loving our neighbors: It used to be that corporations were our neighbors. Company headquarters were local or regional and executives and managers were members of our local communities. This provided some accountability. It is hard to poison people you know.  It’s hard to poison people who’s children attend the same schools as your own children.

But in our global economy corporate decision makers know little to nothing about the communities where their operations are located. Local accountability is gone.

There’s another insidious thing going here too. It’s this: Much of the world believes that some humans rank above others. Some human lives are more valuable, others less so.

Have you read the book Caste by Isabell Wilkerson? I can highly recommend it!

In it Wilkerson lays out a clear argument that America has had a caste system since its founding. Specifically, we have a system where white skinned people rank higher than darker skinned people. And where corporate shareholders rank higher than the workers and communities where businesses operate.

Wilkerson illustrates how all Americans, both privileged and less privileged have bought into the caste system. This is how places like Cancer Alley are formed and perpetuated.

Again we must consider Jesus’ words: “Love your neighbor as your self.” Ranking some people as less deserving of clean air and a healthy environment clearly violates this imperative.

I’ve painted a pretty bleak picture here. I know that. But I can share some good news, too.

The good news is that there are people in Cancer Alley and along the Texas Gulf Coast who are living from Jesus’ words. Instead of seeing themselves as helpless victims of corporate pollution, they are seeing themselves as God’s creation. They are loving themselves, loving their families, loving their neighbors and loving their communities.

Sharon Lavigne is a retired special education teacher who lives in Cancer Alley. Sharon made the connection between the foul smell in the air and cancers in her family and neighborhood. She lives in a modest bungalow, a home handed down for generations in her family. An industrial plastics plant looms high in the sky above her little house. Her hometown of Welcome, Louisiana has 600 residents, a majority of them are African American.

Photo: Sharon Lavigne, RISE St. James

Sharon Lavigne had no organizing experience. She had no money. She had no connections with authorities.

But what she does have is faith. She understands that she’s part of God’s creation and therefore is worthy of a clean environment. So she called a meeting of neighbors in her garage and began to organize.

Before too long an environmental group called Earthjustice took notice. On behalf of Sharon and her neighbors they sued the state of Louisiana. They won. Their lawsuit overturned permits for four new plastics plants to be built by Formosa Plastics in Welcome, Louisiana.

In the judgement, the judge cited the cumulative effects of toxic emissions. The cumulative emissions of the proposed and existing plants would have put Welcome’s air well over the EPA health limits for known carcinogens.

In January a higher court overturned the decision, allowing Formosa to build the largest petrochemical plant in the country—1 mile from the elementary school in Welcome.

But the organizers are stronger now too. They have the support of many partnering organizations including Earthjustice, Human Rights Watch, Sunrise and more. These organizations are bringing resources to help fight the corporations.

We can take inspiration from the Cancer Alley organizers. Grass roots groups there like RISE St. James and the Louisiana Bucket Brigade are working night and day for a healthy community and environmental justice.

Next fall First Parish Church is planning a mission trip focused on civil rights. We will visit places where people fought the civil war. We’ll visit places where people stood up for civil rights in the 1960s.

We will also visit Cancer Alley. We will meet some of the organizers there. Because this is where the fight for civil rights and environmental justice is taking place today.

We can support the people living in Cancer Alley at home, too. Every plastic bag we don’t use, every request we make to a grocery store or business to eliminate unnecessary plastic, every time we suggest a restaurant use paper instead of plastic take away containers….each of these small actions helps people on the front lines in Cancer Alley.

May we be inspired by those who are leading us towards environmental justice for all. And may we continue to expand our love for God, our love for our neighbors and our love for ourselves right here in Maine.

Amen.

Note: It’s unusual for me to post a longer, faith based piece. I hope you enjoyed it! I’ll be back to my “regular newsletter” shortly with shorter pieces of environmental news.