2019 in Photos: Impacts from Environmental Rollbacks and the Growing Climate Activism

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Here is a selection of photos I shot for DeSmog in 2019, another year when arguably not enough collective action was taken to protect the planet from globalย warming.ย 

Throughout 2019 the Trump administration continuedย to roll back environmental standards. Meanwhile, advocacy groups and activists ramped up the battle for clean air and water and a livableย climate.ย 

Greta Thunberg, the Swedish teen who inspired the school climate strikes movement, visited New York in September, inspiring millions worldwide to take to theย streets calling for climateย action.ย 

Yet in Louisiana and the Ohio Valley, the petrochemical industry, fed by fracked natural gas, has continued to expand,ย moving theย U.S.ย further away from preventingย catastrophic impacts from climateย change.

On December 19, a few weeks after an explosion at a Texas chemical plant andย less than a week before Christmas, Earthjustice, on behalf of 13 organizations,ย sued the Trump Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)ย for gutting the Chemical Disaster Rule. This federal regulation was developed after a 2013 fertilizer plant explosion in West, Texas, that killed a dozen firstย responders.

The rule, developed under the Obama administration, strengthened chemical plant prevention and preparedness requirements for explosions and otherย catastrophes.ย 

โ€œThe EPAโ€™s rollback of life-saving components of the Chemical Disaster Rule is not just unlawful, it is irresponsible,โ€ย said Earthjustice attorney Emma Cheuse. โ€œInstead, EPA should do its job and ensure that chemical companies doย everything in their power to keep surrounding communities safe, and avoid a worst-case scenario. Now that Trumpโ€™s EPA has decided to try again to gut these protections, and put chemical companiesโ€™ preferences over the safety ofย children in danger zones, we have no choice but to go toย court.โ€

In Louisiana, at the city of Norcoโ€™s annual Christmas parade, someone riding a float threw a plastic cup to me, one which was celebrating 90 years of Shell operating a chemical complex in the city. Shell, like Exxon, has known about the causes and dangers of climate change for decades, though they continue to lobby against climate change regulation.

Larry J. Morgan opposing Entergy's proposed natural gas power plant in New Orleans
Larry J. Morgan, a New Orleans resident opposed to Entergyโ€™s natural gas plant, holds up an American flag after speaking to the New Orleans Cityย Council. At the same meeting the council unanimously voted to uphold its approval of Entergyโ€™s proposed plant while also passing a resolutionย imposing a $5 million fine on the company for its role in aย paid-actors scandal over support for the gasย plant.

Capt. George Ricks next to a dead dolphin in Louisiana's Breton Sound
Capt. George Ricks in the Breton Sound next to a dead dolphin, one of three he found on May 7, 2019.ย This year there was an unusually high dolphin mortality rate along this part of the Gulf Coast, a phenomenon connected to the opening of the Bonnet Carreย Spillway to divert flooding twice this year. This allowed polluted water from theย Mississippi River to enter the Bretonย Sound.ย 

Coalition Against Death Alley on the steps of the Louisiana State Capitol
Coalition Against Death Alley on the steps of the Louisiana State Capitol at the end of their five-day march on June 3.ย The Coalition Against Death Alley (CADA), a group of Louisiana-based residents and members of various local and state organizations, are fighting against environmental racism in an area rife with petrochemical plants andย pollution.

Activists holding signs at an LDEQ hearing about Formosa's proposed petrochemical plant in St. James Parish
Activists holding up signs during the Louisiana Department of Environmental Qualityโ€™sย July 9 air quality permit hearing for Formosaโ€™s proposed petrochemical plant in St. Jamesย Parish.ย The project, if permitted, would allow for the release of millions of tons of greenhouse gases and hundreds to thousands of tons of pollutants, like fine particulates, sulfur, and nitrogenย oxides, that can cause human health problems. Also in the mix of toxic emissions will be benzene and ethylene oxide, twoย cancer-causing agents that will be worsening the areaโ€™s already polluted air.ย 

Resident of Isle de Jean Charles returning to his home after Tropical Storm Barryย 
A resident returning to check on the damage to his home on Isle de Jean Charles after Tropical Storm Barry brought intense storm surge.ย While mostย of Louisiana was spared Barryโ€™s wrath, Isle de Jean Charles, a quickly eroding strip of land among coastal wetlands in the Gulf of Mexico, was not. A storm surgeย swept over the disappearing island, about 80 miles southwest of New Orleans, early in the morning on July 13 before Barry was upgraded from a tropical storm to a categoryย 1ย hurricane.

Geraldine Mayho's body was laid to rest in the St. James Catholic cemetery across from oil storage tanks.
On August 7,ย Geraldineย Mayhoโ€™s body wasย laid to rest in the St. James Catholic Cemetery in southern Louisiana, across the street from a cluster of oil storageย tanks. The tanks are like those that surround the Burton Lane neighborhood in St. James where she had lived, and are emblematic of the type of pollutingย industry she spent her last years rallyingย against.

New York City Climate Strike March in Septemberย 
Start of the Climate Strike March in New York City onย September 20, an one of many global events inspired byย Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swedish climate activist, and held toย demand politicians take urgent steps to stop climate change.ย An estimated 250,000 strikers marched in New York City from Foley Square to Battery Park, while millions of students worldwide also took to the streets.

Greta Thunberg speaking at the United Nations in New York in September
Greta Thunberg gave a scathing speechย at theย United Nations Climate Action Summit in New York this September.ย While some world leadersย announced pledges to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, they overall failed to offer visionary solutions for the rapid transition away from fossil fuels.

Donald Trump, Antonio Guterres, and Mike Pence at the United Nations
President Trump, next toย UNย Secretary General Antรณnio Guterres and Vice President Pence, at a meeting about protecting religious freedom takingย place at the same time as the Climate Action Summit at the United Nations in Newย Yorkย City.ย 

Resting angel on tombstone in Pennsylvania next to the now-closed Bruce Mansfield coal plant.
Resting angel on a tombstone in Bethlehem Cemetery in Shippingport, Pennsylvania, next to the Bruce Mansfield coal power plant. Steam in theย background is rising from the Beaver Valley Nuclear Power Station, also slated for closure. The Bruce Mansfield Power Plant, the stateโ€™s largest coal power station, was closed for good inย November.

Shell's ethane cracker plastics manufacturing complex in Beaver County, Pennsylvaniaย 
Shell’s plastics plant, also known as an โ€œethane cracker,โ€ under construction in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, alongย the same stretch of Ohio River in western Pennsylvania as the now-closedย Bruce Mansfield coal plant.ย The juxtaposition of these two projects, in which oneย powerful fossil fuel supply rises as the other falls, reflects the broader pattern of changing energy sources in America. A growing chorus agrees the expansion ofย the natural gas industry, which feeds plastics and petrochemical plants like Shellโ€™s, is moving the U.S. in the wrong direction to prevent catastrophic impacts from climateย change.

Stuffed polar bear outside a restaurant near the Cheswick coal power plant in Pennsylvania's Allegheny County
Polar bear outside of a closed restaurant near the Cheswick coal power plant in Pennsylvania’s Allegheny County. There,ย climate pollutionย isnโ€™t the only concern for a region which has received an โ€œFโ€ grade for high ozone days (the main component of smog) and particulate pollution, according to theย Americanย Lung Associationโ€™s 2019 State of the Airย report.

Lydia Gerard of Concerned Citizens of St. John Parish raising awareness about the risks of a school being near the Denka Performance Elastomer plant in Louisiana.ย 
Lydia Gerard, a member of the Concerned Citizens of St. John, protesting near the Fifth Ward Elementary School and giving information to parents ofย students at the school about the dangers from theย Denka neoprene manufacturing plant in St. John the Baptist Parish. The synthetic rubber plant emits chloroprene, a likely humanย carcinogen, at levels greater than the level the EPA suggested as safe.

Pastor Gregory Manning with Justice and Beyond being pinned to the floor by police officers during a protest outside the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry office in Baton Rouge.ย 
Pastor Gregory Manning, with Justice and Beyond, a New Orleans-based civil rights advocacy group, pinned to the ground while being handcuffed in the hallwayย outside of the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry (LABI) office in Baton Rouge, on October 30. The incident took place on the last day of a two-week protest against environmental racism in Louisianaโ€™sย Cancer Alley. Charges againstย Pastor Manning, including a felony count of inciting a riot, were thrown out of court onย Decemberย 17.ย 

Plume of smoke from explosions at the Texas Petroleum Chemical Plant in Port Neches, Texas.
Plume from theย Texas Petroleum Chemical (TPC)ย Plant moving over a park across from the plant in Port Neches, Texas, on Thanksgiving, the dayย after two explosions rocked the plant.ย TPCโ€™s plant manufactures highly flammableย 1,3 butadiene, a known human carcinogenย used to make rubber tiresย andย plastics.ย 

Main image: A Christmas tree on a grave in a cemetery near the coal-fired Harrison Power Station inย Haywood, West Virginia. Credit: All photos by Julie Dermansky forย DeSmog

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Julie Dermansky is a multimedia reporter and artist based in New Orleans. She is an affiliate scholar at Rutgers Universityโ€™s Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights. Visit her website at www.jsdart.com.

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