"Toxic Tour" at DNC Shines Spotlight on Hundreds of NH Sites
Thursday, July 28, 2016
CONCORD, N.H. – A self-described Toxic Tour that traveled from the Republican National Convention to the Democratic National Convention in its quest to draw attention to the need for action on toxic pollution and climate change is getting support from New England and around the globe.
The tour, also known as It Takes Roots to Change the System, paid a visit this week to the largest refinery in the DNC’s host city, Philadelphia.
Nay’Chelle Harris, an organizer with the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, says the Democratic Party's commitment to combat climate change may be too little, too late.
"The action they think is bold isn't bold enough,” she maintains. “The people in Pennsylvania have been saying, 'No fracking,' and yet natural gas is being considered a bridge-energy source.
“And you can't make a bridge from dirty to clean with more dirty. That's just going along the same path."
An international caravan this week joined the Toxic Tour, which includes advocates from Maine. The Democratic Party platform includes limiting the rise of global temperatures through conservation and ramping up clean energy sources.
Katelyn Parady is communications director for the Toxics Action Center, a group helping communities prevent pollution and clean up toxic waste in New England since 1987.
She says there are plenty of toxic sites in New Hampshire that deserve national attention.
"New Hampshire has, maybe, 300 large quantity toxic facilities there,” she points out. “Across New England, we have beautiful landscape here, progressive politics. But we were industrialized long before laws like the Clean Air Act were put in place."
Toxic Tour supporters say one of their goals is to help shift the attention of elected officials and regulators away from the DNC to communities of color across the country that are being disproportionately affected by pollution.
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