Today marks the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, which started in large part as a reaction

to what was at the time the country's largest oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara in

California. So it seemed fitting to me to put out our Louisiana episode today because this week

also marks the 10th anniversary of the BP oil spill. Louisiana is still reeling from that spill and

various other oil industry impacts. We've gotten a few tips for our climate COVID-19 policy tracker

about Louisiana that I wanted to dig into because in Louisiana it's not just that there are over 50,000

oil wells in the state's wetlands. It's not even just about the BP spill or Hurricane Katrina. It's

also the petrochemical plants and the refineries that pollute what's now called Cancer Alley. And it's

the way fossil fuel money has infiltrated everything from schools to jazz fest. A study that came out from

Harvard earlier this month correlated exposure to a particular type of air pollution. It's called PM2.5

or SUT, the stuff that's built shut of refineries and power plants and out of car exhaust pipes

with an increased risk of death from COVID-19. So the same people who are vulnerable to a hurricane

exacerbated by climate change and have higher rates of asthma and cancer because they live

near refineries and petrochemical plants are also more likely to die in this pandemic. I also wanted

to do a Louisiana episode this week because I was supposed to be in New Orleans right now. Today,

speaking to people at the Fossil Free Festival, it's a conference convened by antenna, a local artist

and writer collective, focused on having what one of the organizers, Imani Brown, calls the tough

conversations about fossil fuels and climate change. Those tough conversations involve artists and

writers because so much of the cities and the states, arts and culture funding comes from the

fossil fuel industry. Since Katrina and the BP spill, not only have many public entities and services

been privatized, often in ways that benefit industry over people, but also the oil and gas companies

have increasingly pumped philanthropic dollars into Louisiana's local institutions. It seems nice

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