People and Sustainability: The Human Cost Big Business Keeps Ignoring

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In the past, the health of people
really haven't been at the center

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of attention for businesses.

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And a lot of the times, some of the
businesses that really run our economy,

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whether it be in Canada, whether it
be in the US, like the fossil fuel

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companies, have really put people at the
lowest end of the society in some cases.

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It's a real shame to see that and what
they've been able to get away with.

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And for a long time, people were
suffering with cancer, high cancer rates

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and things like that in Chemical Alley
in the United States and other places.

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And today we're gonna be talking about
how businesses who are not sustainable and

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who have problems with providing health
problems to people in the surrounding

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areas of refineries and factories and
so forth, and disposal areas, have

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really made a big problem for people.

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And that sustainable businesses need
to think of the health of the people

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who not only they serve as providing
services and products for, but are

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people who are in the surrounding
areas that are part of the communities

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where these businesses actually run.

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And I think today's episode of the How
to Protect the Ocean podcast, we're

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gonna be really focusing on people and
sustainability, especially from, like, a

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negative point of view of the past that's
happened, and areas that were vulnerable

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communities have really suffered, and how
we would like to see a change, and how a

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lot of places are changing in that way,
but not fast enough, and unfortunately

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in the US, not under this administration.

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So, today we're gonna
be talking about that.

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As we do, we talk about
sustainability, ocean news every

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weekday, Monday to Friday.

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to speakupforblue.com/patreon.

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I am here to provide you with what
you need to know to protect the ocean.

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I want you to know how to protect the
ocean, hence the name of this podcast.

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And we do this on How
to Protect the Ocean.

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We do this on Beyond Jaws.

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Live, our YouTube channel.

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And that's what we do here.

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all the efforts that I make, you can

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do so at speakupforblue.com/patreon.

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All right, let's get
back into the show here.

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Sustainability is about people.

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And if we look in the past
and how major industries have

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really screwed people over.

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Communities living next to
industrial facilities carry a

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disproportionate pollution burden.

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In Philadelphia, a former refinery
released the second highest benzene

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emissions of any US refinery in
2020 and 2021, even after being shut

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down, with roughly 117,000 people
living within one mile, most of

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them low-income residents of color.

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And why is this happening?

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Like what is really going on?

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So fentyl in communities consistently show
higher poverty rates, higher percentages

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of residents of color, and high cancer
rates and respiratory hazard risk rates

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than the surrounding city or county.

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And more people now live in oil and
gas development due to expanding

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extraction techniques and new
industrial animal operations, both

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linked to increased pollutant exposure.

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And if you look at something that's very,
very new to the news world is wildfires.

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Areas where, you know, forests are
catching on fire and they are spreading

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like crazy are areas where you will see
some of our most vulnerable communities.

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Communities who do not have the
infrastructure or the getaway a

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lot of the times to get out easy,
to evacuate their areas easily.

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Last year and the year before,
we talked about the Santa Ana

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winds in California, Pasadena.

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It was horrible what we saw.

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We saw homes go down, people losing pets.

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They lost homes, they lost
memorabilia, they lost a lot of

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things and their possessions.

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And now these were homes of affluent
communities for the most part, and

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they were able to get another home.

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Obviously they were devastated, but
they had the means to be able to find

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places to live and get their family
safe and get out as safely as possible.

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Obviously quickly, and had to be
evacuated for some, but still able to

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get out compared to countries in the
north of Canada, Northern Ontario, the

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Arctic, where indigenous communities
who do not have the infrastructure

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of multiple roads and some, they only
had one road in, one road out, could

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not get out because of the wildfires.

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They had to be evacuated out by
plane or by helicopter multiple

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times to accommodate all the
family members of that community.

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These are vulnerable communities.

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Some of them don't even
have proper drinking water.

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Some of them don't have road
infrastructure, multiple

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road infrastructure.

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Some of them just don't have the
communities to rebuild and go back

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to where they can because there might
be another fire there, or they don't

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have the money to rebuild, or the
money is not being put in to rebuild

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because there's such a disaster around
the area that other things have to

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be rebuilt and maybe prioritized
differently That's a scary thought

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when you are surrounded by wildfires,
and these wildfires come in quickly.

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Anybody who's been around
them or studied them knows how

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fast these wildfires spread.

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And sometimes you think, "Oh, I
have time to get out." No, you don't

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have time to get out, and you have
to get out when they tell you to

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because if not, it might be too late.

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A lot of times before a community's
evacuated, they give like the get your

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72-hour bag ready, basically being like
within 72 hours you be ready to go at

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any point in time, because you have to
have a go bag and you have to get out,

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and you have to know how to get out.

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Think about a massive community of like
100, 200 people up north in very remote

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areas having to get out all at the same
time with one road in, one road out.

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That's not good.

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Then you're looking at breathing in all
the toxins from the fire, the methane,

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the metals, everything that comes
out, the nasty stuff that comes out of

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those fires, the smoke from the fire.

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Then you're looking at communities
downwind or upwind, wherever

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they are, where that wind
goes and where the wind blows.

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You have those communities
that have higher toxicity in

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the air, bad water quality.

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Toronto had the worst air quality in the
world at one point a couple of weeks ago.

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That was the least that we suffered
compared to all these other communities

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who were devastated by the loss of
their homes and their communities

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and some of them, their loved ones.

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And again, it's these, companies
that continue to contribute to the

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problem and get away with it with
tax breaks and other things and other

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benefits that they can get away with
while building their refineries,

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while building their oil and gas
extraction plants and things like that.

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And then of course, there's other
places where there's like really

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bad health, outcomes, right?

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Now, some of the things that, like
the consequences you get, like

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obviously the health outcomes, not
just like ecosystem outcomes where

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it's bad, but directly involved in
like industrial siting decisions.

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There's an ocean tie-in, like the
Philadelphia example includes a

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shipping port among the compounding
pollution sources and the direct

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link between industrial waterfront
activities and community health.

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If you look at New York back in the
'50s and '60s and '70s, their water

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quality was awful along the harbor front.

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Like, the Hudson River was a disaster.

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They lost a lot of, like, oysters.

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They lost their whales, they
lost their menhaden because

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that's when the whales left.

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And they're just the, the chemicals that
were in there from the warehouses and

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the chemical plants and all that kind of
stuff just made it an absolute disaster.

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And then of course being around that
area, inhaling all that smell and the

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chemicals coming off of that, that
couldn't have been good for them either.

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And then when New York cleaned up
its harbor finally, the menhaden

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came back, oysters were put back
in through restoration efforts,

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expensive restoration efforts, and
then eventually the whales came back.

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And that's great.

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That's awesome.

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I think that's great to be able to
clean it up, but to get there in the

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first place is really awful and that's
where a lot of people were suffering.

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And the refineries where they are, the
old refineries that are shut down and

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the example that I talked about at the
beginning of this show and refineries

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that are going on right now are usually
in areas where it's poverty-stricken.

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The people can't afford to move
and nobody's gonna buy their

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homes right next to a refinery.

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So it's not as if they have a lot of
value in their homes other than living in

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their homes and having their communities.

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Plus that's where they grew up.

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That's their history.

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That's their culture.

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Those refineries may not have been there
when they were first born, but then they

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got added there without their consultation
and without any word from them.

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And now they're suffering higher
cancer rates, higher pollution

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rates, emphysema, asthma rates.

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It's awful.

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These are examples of companies who
don't care about the people who are

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probably their consumers, and they
get away with it every single time.

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And unfortunately, like the states are
stepping up as federal environmental

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justice efforts recede in 2026.

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So, Minnesota is advancing
cumulative impact rules.

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Illinois created an EPA Office
of Environmental Justice, and

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Massachusetts adopted new siting
regulations for energy infrastructure.

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So, we're seeing states step up where
the federal government is lacking, 'cause

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the federal government has pretty much
taken away all the ability for the EPA

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to do anything, and sometimes the EPA
is harming more than it is doing good.

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And meanwhile, like in federal courts
found the EPA unlawfully terminated

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environmental justice grant funding,
because that's what they did when they

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first came out, 'cause they wanted to
get rid of any kind of, quote-unquote,

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" DEI projects." And that case is
still being litigated on appeal.

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So, the EPA tried to take it away, went to
court, a judge says, "Hey, yeah, you can't

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do this," and now it's being appealed
I assume, by the federal government.

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And this is where we start to
feel hopeless a little bit.

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One, you know the courts are doing
their jobs by upholding the laws that

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were originally put in, in most cases.

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We've seen a lot of environmental
things that the Trump administration

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has tried to do in the last couple
years, and a lot of times they

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haven't been able to be successful.

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Although some, they have been
able to be successful is opening

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up marine monuments to industrial
fishing and/or artisanal fishing.

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They're not monitoring those programs
either as a way to actually look at what

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kind of data they can get out of that
and looking at the benefits of what a

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marine protected area has over the last
10, 16 years, or 15 years, has been

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able to do to replenish those numbers.

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Unfortunately, they're just not gonna get
the value out of that by monitoring that.

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And in many cases, like this case where
there were the EPA unlawfully terminated

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environmental justice grant funding, that
gets held up in court, which is good.

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So we're starting to see some
movement on there, but there's

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still a lot of stuff that people are
fighting that environmental justice

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people, environmental advocates are
fighting, and activists are fighting

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against the Trump administration.

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And nonprofit organizations and NGOs
who have law divisions, who have

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people able to take the government
to court, they're taking them to

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court, and they're winning these
battles, which is really great to see.

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Now, there's stuff that you can do.

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You can understand that protecting the
environment and protecting people are

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the same fight in some communities.

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I think sometimes you'll hear
me or you'll hear people be

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like, " Hey, you know what?

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We need to protect the environment.

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This is one of the best things we
need to do." But while protecting the

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environment, you're also protecting
the economy, you're making it more

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sustainable, you're saving money for
businesses, and you're protecting people.

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You are protecting people.

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And people will start to say, " Why
do we care about the environment?

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We need to care about the economy." We
also need to take care of the health

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of people, which often gets ignored
when we talk about climate change.

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When we talk about pollution, it
gets ignored a lot of the times.

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And we've seen some really big mistakes
that have happened in countries all

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over the world, but especially in the
US, especially as these laws are being

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contested for protecting the environment.

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So that's it for today's episode.

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It's a short one.

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I just wanted to get that through.

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Protecting the environment,
being sustainable protects

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people, and that's a very big,
important part of sustainability.

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So I'd love to hear your thoughts.

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You can DM me in my socials,
go to the show notes.

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You can also support the show by
going to speakupforblue.com/patreon.

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I put an episode Monday to Friday.

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I do The Ocean Decoded live on YouTube.

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I, uh, do The Beyond Jaws
podcast with David Ebert.

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We edit shows.

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We do all this wonderful stuff,
to get you the ocean resources you

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need so that you can make - a better
decision on protecting the ocean.

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And this is how you learn how to protect
the ocean, by listening to this podcast.

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So follow on your favorite podcast
app, and don't forget to go

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speakupforblue.com/patreon if
you wanna support the show and

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become part of the community.

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I wanna thank you so much for
joining me on today's episode of the

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How to Protect the Ocean podcast.

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I'm your host, Andrew Lewin.

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Have a great day.

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We'll talk to you next time,
and happy conservation.