The True Costs of Production & Environmental Racism

Posted on May 24, 2010 with No Comments

http://www.postcarbon.org/article/101210-9-global-experts-steer-the-gulf

“As corporate entities continue to extract natural resources from the earth, whether on sea or land, there needs to be a shift in calculating the true costs of “production”. Risk management assessment needs to also include: costs associated with climate degradation both in terms of increasing fossil fuel and mineral use and, of particular interest in this latest disaster, the high costs of environmental racism.

“A colleague of mine, working in New Orleans (Nat Turner of the Blair St. Grocery Project), in a discussion about the oil spill and impacts on the ecosystem pointed out that this is poised to be a La Nina year with increased risk for powerhouse hurricanes that will suck up the oil and dump it all over an already devastated New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region. These hurricanes don’t need to make landfall, they just need to send oil-laden water to shore. This looming disaster, this transference of the millions of gallons of oil to shore, is something no one is calculating.

“We must demand corporate reparations and a full re-hauling of inspections and development of environmentally sound risk management and disaster preparedness plans for offshore oil drilling in our fragile seas.”