As parties to the United Nations Environment Assembly gather this week in Paris to negotiate a first-ever Global Plastic Treaty, they have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to prevent public heath crises and mitigate climate change.
Countries should negotiate a rights-respecting treaty that fully encompasses the impacts of plastic production, use and disposal on human health and the environment.
Delegates should push for a treaty that takes a full-lifecycle approach to plastic pollution, including specific and time-bound steps to end the production of unnecessary virgin plastics, like single-use packaging, and to establish a cap on plastic production.
The treaty should also ban the use of toxic chemical additives in plastics, like the 3,200 plastic chemicals known to harm human health.
Petrochemical industry problems
Shell's new petrochemical complex in southwestern Pennsylvania.
Credit: Nate Smallwood for Environmental Health News and Sierra Magazine
Almost all plastics are made from a combination of noxious chemicals and fossil fuels: oil, gas and even coal. Communities living near plastic and petrochemicals plants are exposed to air and water pollution that contribute to high rates of cancer, respiratory diseases, and other illnesses. They are disproportionately located in low-income communities and communities of color, including on the U.S. Gulf Coast, where the chemicals in the disastrous February Ohio train-derailment were made.
Plastics are not just a threat to human health, but also a major contributor to the climate change crisis.
The petrochemical industry is rapidly becoming the largest driver of global oil consumption, projected to account for roughly half of the growth in oil demand by 2050. At its current rate of growth, petrochemical production will account for an astonishing 15% of the global carbon budget by 2050. If plastic and petrochemical production continue to increase, it will be difficult, if not impossible, to avoid the most catastrophic consequences of climate change.
The plastics plague is a relatively new problem. Since plastics became a common product in the 1950s, their popularity has skyrocketed, with global plastic production growing from 2 million metric tons in 1950 to 400 million metric tons in 2022.
Perversely, in the midst of the climate crisis public financing of fossil fuels and petrochemicals continues to prop up the plastics sector. A recent study found that governments provided $33.4 billion to large-scale petrochemical projects from 2010 to 2020. More broadly, from 2019 to 2021, G20 countries and multilateral development banks provided at least $55 billion per year for fossil fuels.
Big polluters in attendance
Negotiations over the Global Plastic Treaty provide a key moment for countries to shift the tide away from toxic, climate-destructive plastics. For example, the High Ambition Coalition to End Plastic Pollution, a group of roughly 50 countries, is calling for the treaty to “restrain plastic consumption and production to sustainable levels,” as well as promote a circular economy that protects the environment and human health and achieves environmentally-sound management of plastic waste.
In March 2022, countries agreed to negotiate an international, legally binding mechanism on plastic pollution by the end of 2024. Next week’s convening of negotiators at UNESCO headquarters will be the second of five meetings of the International Negotiating Committee.
Unfortunately, this second round of treaty negotiations is off to a rough start. Last week, the Secretariat overseeing the treaty negotiations announced that only a small number of the registered observers – including scientists, Indigenous Peoples, and civil society groups – would be allowed into the building. This is unfortunate, as a strong plastics treaty requires that scientists, experts and impacted communities can meaningfully participate in the process. The UN should prioritize those voices over the big polluters in attendance by taking steps to increase public participation in Paris, including by providing overflow rooms from which representatives of civil society can actively participate.
While many industries are making significant, if unrealized, commitments towards renewables and away from fossil fuels, the plastics industry blithely carries on making the problem worse. To protect human health and address the climate crisis, it is imperative for governments to step up and negotiate a strong Global Plastic Treaty that respects human rights and protects our environment.
Eighth graders reflect on the state of the planet.
HOUSTON — This week EHN is publishing letters from eighth grade students at YES Prep Northbrook Middle School in the Houston-area neighborhood of Spring Branch, Texas.
English educators Cassandra Harper and Yvette Howard incorporated the environment into a series of lessons in December last year. Each student conducted their own research to begin drafting letters to EHN about their concerns or hopes. EHN reporter Cami Ferrell visited their classrooms to share information about her personal reporting experiences in Houston.
The collection of letters, some of which were lightly edited, do not represent the opinions of YES Prep Northbrook or EHN, but are offered here as a peek into the minds of children and their relationship with environmental issues. Read the first and second set of letters.
Anali Lopez
I am writing to discuss the problem of climate change and how we, citizens, are impacted by it, and how we can prevent the situation from worsening. Although people are familiar with this problem, it also feels like it is not addressed enough for people to start advocating for the world. People are not very persuaded when it comes to changing their actions, until they start seeing the dangers of what they caused, so I hope while you are reading this, you can start being more cautious of what you do or at least spread more awareness.
Climate change is an issue because it is affecting people's daily lives, health, and environment. People barely want to go outside now because of the rising temperatures and the air pollution. Some are even scared to take their children outside or while pregnant because of the fear of their kids having cancer or developing an illness. Air pollution is not getting worse by itself, it is getting worse by the number of forests burning, and the gas people use for their everyday needs. Even on some days people go outside and see that it is completely fogged outside, but it is all the smoke roaming around from factories burning supplies or gasoline from cars. I have seen people check the weather or air quality on their phone before they go outside to see if it is safe enough to have your skin contact the sun or breathe in the air.
Factories are one of the causes of the poor air around the world. Some of the materials people recycle get burned at the end by these factories. Factories are not the only ones guilty of this mess though, vehicles like cars, trucks and planes are also causes of air pollution. Since most motor vehicles need to operate on gasoline, it tends to create harmful fuels and byproducts like carbon or nitrogen dioxide. Which is why you pass by a car sometimes and you will be able to smell the gasoline because of all those strong harmful fuels the gasoline is producing.
These situations do not happen once every month or year, this happens every day. Now as a teenager, I see how people mistreat the world and lack the empathy to make a change knowing that it affects people and every living organism like plants and animals. It makes me wonder if I will even be able to have a future, let alone, see the next generation walking on Earth.
To address climate change, it is important that Environment Health News spreads more awareness of the danger that climate change has such as public health and environmental impacts. Environmental Health News should also acknowledge publishing more internationally especially in more languages for everyone to be more aware of the situations on Earth. To my readers, I want you to understand that climate change will not get better by itself until we citizens, act and take responsibility because if we do not act, we might not see another day of Earth. One way that environmental activists can help with this is by getting more involved with news and other government agencies to see what methods or steps to take, so we can better our world.
With all, thank you for taking your time to read this. I would hope that after, you have a different perspective on how climate change is a very serious topic, and that you decide to at least spread a little bit of awareness. Please if you are willing to save and take action for our world, act now.
- Anali Lopez
Evelyn Nunez
I know we have many issues in the world, but climate change needs to be addressed, or no other problem will matter. Each day it’s starting to get hotter and hotter. In Houston, Texas families live by refinery companies and suffer every day with health problems because of the toxic chemicals in the air that they breathe in. Climate change has gotten worse and worse over the years. We the people who live on earth need to speak more about climate change and figure out a way to stop it.
Climate change makes me feel worried about our Earth because it can get to the point where we will not have a place to live, and that makes me wonder if I am going to have a future. Climate change increases the health issues for people. Some of the health problems that people face are heat stroke, kidney disease, heart disease, and pregnancy complications. These problems affect us a lot because they can end up causing us to die. Climate change is a problem we must discuss more. People do not focus on the problems that climate change causes.
Taking steps toward positively impacting the environment is something we need to do to end climate change. We might not be able to fix what happened in the past, but we can try and make the future better for everyone else. Make sure that you do not throw trash in the ocean, take the bus, etc. There are multiple ways to stop climate change. Younger people will have a better life if people try to help the Earth.
- Evelyn Nunez
Uriel Mata
Climate change is a serious problem as it’s affecting both people and the environment, heatwaves, droughts, crops drying, sea water levels increasing, and natural disasters becoming more common are some of the effects on the environment.
Global warming is one of the worst and most impacting forms of climate change as this year many cities across Texas experienced triple-digit record temperatures! Also natural disasters such as hurricanes are occurring out of hurricane season due to the change in temperature. This is also causing glaciers to melt which leads sea water levels to rise while also putting many species in danger. Increase in temperatures is also causing many health problems such as heat exhaustion, heat strokes, and respiratory issues which is mainly affecting people with asthma. These extreme temperature conditions are greatly affecting my community not only physically but economically as well. Farmers and outside workers can’t work in such harsh temperatures as it is far too dangerous leading to decrease in money and jobs. Many people in my community have experienced the intense heat including myself, I witnessed an intense heatwave that forced people to carry water to avoid dehydration. I am greatly concerned about the climate circumstances we are in and what will be of the future, because if global warming isn’t taken care of it will only get hotter and hotter which is worse not only for us but for the future generations to come.
In order to address climate change, it is important that we avoid releasing damaging chemicals and gasses in the air that harm the environment. The gasses are mainly released by factories and refineries therefore, they should be cautious of the amounts of gasses they’re releasing. If there is anybody who can help improve the circumstances it’s the government. The government’s actions might help improve the situation however, we can’t sit with our arms crossed as we are capable of helping too.
- Uriel Mata
Melani Caceres-Caballero
I am writing to discuss the dangerous effects climate change has on people. This topic is an issue because everyone on earth is affected by this. Even the little ants to the big lions, everyone is experiencing climate change.
Each year the summer is hotter than the earlier one. This year Houston broke a record for seeing the hottest temperature it's seen of 109 degrees. Of course, in this case breaking a record is not a good thing at all. This affects mostly the people in Houston, since a lot of people in Houston work jobs that are outdoors. For example, my dad works in construction so he must be outside for his job. He comes home exhausted from the heat but that’s what he has to do to provide for us. This makes me concerned for the future, how much longer will this have to go on? Will we be able to survive another extremely scorching summer?
In order to address climate change, it is important that the city of Houston attempts to use less nonrenewable resources. These nonrenewable resources cause greenhouse gasses to be released into our atmosphere and that’s what makes our earth warm up. The government should have stricter regulations. (Texas Governor) Greg Abbot has passed a bill that cars will no longer need to be inspected. This means that they do not need to do the emissions tests anymore. The emissions tests are there to make sure your car isn’t a contributor to air pollution. Greg Abbott passing this law means that there will be more cars that have high emissions and will be contributors to air pollution. Our lives and our future are in the government’s hands. I want people to understand that you cannot just look away from this issue, this is something that you cannot run from. One thing we can call do is use less electricity. Such as, unplugging your charger before you leave work or school. Since electricity is also used by nonrenewable resources.
- Melani Caceres-Caballero
Evelyn G. Ramirez Loredo
The issue is that we humans are causing climate change. How? You might ask yourself, well by polluting our earth, by not recycling, or throwing away trash, using too much of something like plastic, burning fossil fuels, trees, or things that can’t be recycled, because of that it is causing extreme weather. This is a problem, and although not everyone realizes that it is, others can because they lose their homes and loved ones because of extreme weather.
For example, I live in Houston, Tx which is near the Gulf of Mexico at Galveston. Since the sea levels are rising there is a risk that Houston will submerge. This is scary for me because maybe one day Houston won’t exist anymore, my home, the place where I grew up at. Another example is that here in Houston, Texas in the Spring Branch area there was a fire of burning trees and what not. Personally I wasn’t affected by it, but the people that live around there were. Smoke was getting in their home to the point where they couldn’t breathe and had to evacuate their home.
As I stated above, I am scared. I'm scared that Houston won't be here to show my kids where I grew up. I'm scared that my home will just be in the past. I'm scared that these fires will become a common thing risking kids, adults and family's health. To address climate change, it is important that the world knows what's happening so that they know how to act if in any way they get affected by climate change. Not everyone knows what's happening because it's not being translated in their language, so journalists need to start translating reports that they do on climate change so that those that don’t speak English know what's happening because we are all humans that live in the same world. We all have a right to know about this to help to stop this problem. Climate change is not something to ignore because sooner or later we are all going to be more affected by it if we don’t do something fast.
CAMERON PARISH, La. — Late into the night, John Allaire watches the facility next to his home shoot 300-foot flares from stacks.
He lives within eyesight of southwest Louisiana’s salty shores, where, for decades, he’s witnessed nearly 200 feet of land between it and his property line disappear into the sea. Two-thirds of the land was rebuilt to aid the oil and gas industry’s LNG expansion. LNG — shorthand for liquified natural gas – is natural gas that's cooled to liquid form for easier storage or transport; it equates to 1/600th the volume of natural gas in a gaseous state. It’s used to generate electricity, or fuel stove tops and home heaters, and in industrial processes like manufacturing fertilizer.
In the U.S., at least 30 new LNG terminal facilities have been constructed or proposed since 2016, according to the
Oil and Gas Watch project. Louisiana and Texas’ Gulf Coast, where five facilities are already operating, will host roughly two-thirds of the new LNG terminals – meaning at least 22 Gulf Coast LNG facilities are currently under construction, were recently approved to break ground or are under further regulatory review.
Although the U.S. didn’t ship LNG until 2016, when a freight tanker left, a few miles from where Cameron Parish’s LNG plants are today, last year the country became the global leader in LNG production and export volume, leapfrogging exporters like Qatar and Australia. The
EIA’s most recent annual outlook estimated that between the current year and 2050, U.S. LNG exports will increase by 152%.
Allaire, 68, watches how saltwater collects where rainwater once fed the area’s diminishing coastal wetlands. “We still come down here with the kids and set out the fishing rods. It's not as nice as it used to be,” he told
Environmental Health News (EHN).
That intimacy with nature drew Allaire to the area when he purchased 311 acres in 1998. An environmental engineer and 30-year oil and gas industry veteran, he helped lead environmental assessments and manage clean-ups, and although retired, he still works part-time as an environmental consultant with major petroleum companies. With a lifetime of oil and gas industry expertise, he’s watched the industry's footprint spread across Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico’s fragile shores and beyond. Now that the footprints are at the edge of his backyard, Allaire is among a cohort of organizers, residents and fisher-folk in the region mobilizing to stop LNG facility construction. For him, the industry’s expansion usurps the right-or-wrong ethics he carried across his consulting career. For anglers, oil and gas infrastructure has destroyed fishing grounds and prevented smaller vessels from accessing the seafood-rich waters of the Calcasieu River.
From the view of Allaire’s white pickup truck as he drives across his property to the ocean’s shore, he points to where a new LNG facility will replace marshlands. Commonwealth LNG intends to clear the land of trees and then backfill the remaining low-lying field.
“You see what’s happening with the environment,” Allaire said. “When the facts change, I got to change my mind about what we’re doing.”
Community bands together
John Allaire, left, purchased 311 acres in Cameron Parish in 1998, and has watched the oil and gas industry's footprint spread to his property.
Credit: John Allaire
During an Earth Day rally in April, community members gathered in the urban center of Lake Charles to demand local oil and gas industries help deliver a safer, healthier future for all. In between live acts by artists performing south Louisiana’s quintessential zydeco musical style, speakers like James Hiatt, a Calcasieu Parish native with ties to Cameron Parish and a Healthy Gulf organizer, and RISE St. James organizer Sharon Lavigne, who’s fighting against LNG development in rural Plaquemines Parish near the city of New Orleans, asked the nearly 100 in attendance to imagine a day in which the skyline isn’t dotted by oil and gas infrastructure.
Not long ago, it was hard to imagine an Earth Day rally in southwest Louisiana at all. For decades, the area has been decorated with fossil fuel infrastructure. Sunsets on some days are highlighted by the chemicals in the air; at night, thousands of facilities’ lights dot the dark sky.
“It takes a lot of balls for people to start speaking up,” Shreyas Vasudevan, a campaign researcher with the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, told EHN in the days after the rally. In a region with its history and economy intertwined with oil and gas production, “you can get a lot of social criticism – or ostracization, as well – even threats to your life.”
Many are involved in local, regional and national advocacy groups, including the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, Healthy Gulf, the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Turtle Island Restoration Network, the Center for Biological Diversity and the National Audubon Society.
“You see what’s happening with the environment,” Allaire said. “When the facts change, I got to change my mind about what we’re doing.” - John Allaire, environmental engineer and 30-year oil and gas industry veteran
But environmental organizers are fighting a multi-billion-dollar industry with federal and state winds at its back. And LNG’s federal support is coupled with existing state initiatives.
Under outgoing Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards — a term-limited Democrat — the state pledged a goal of reaching net-zero greenhouse emissions by 2050. Natural gas, which the LNG industry markets as a cleaner-burning alternative, is cited as one of the state’s solutions. Louisiana is the only state that produces a majority of its carbon emissions through fossil fuels refining industries, like LNG, rather than energy production or transportation. Governor Edwards’ office did not return EHN’s request for comment.
This accommodating attitude towards oil and gas industries has resulted in a workforce that’s trained to work in LNG refining facilities across much of the rural Gulf region, said Steven Miles, a lawyer at Baker Botts LLP and a fellow at the Baker Institute’s Center on Energy Studies. Simultaneously, anti-industrialization pushback is lacking. It’s good news for industries like LNG.
“The bad news,” Miles added. “[LNG facilities] are all being jammed in the same areas.”
One rallying cry for opponents is local health. The Environmental Integrity Project found that LNG export terminals emit chemicals like carbon monoxide –potentially deadly– and sulfur dioxide, of which the American Lung Association says long-term exposure can lead to heart disease, cancer, and damage to internal or female reproductive organs.
An analysis of emissions monitoring reports by the advocacy group the Louisiana Bucket Brigade found that Venture Global’s existing Calcasieu Pass facility had more than 2,000 permit violations.That includes exceeding the permit’s authorized air emissions limit to release nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, particulate matter and volatile organic compounds 286 out of its first 343 days of operation.
The Marvel Crane, the first liquid natural gas carrier to transport natural gas from the Southwest Louisiana LNG facility, transits a channel in Hackberry, Louisiana, May 28, 2019.
“This is just one facility,” at a time when three more facilities have been proposed in the region and state, Vasudevan said. Venture Global’s operational LNG facility — also known as Calcasieu Pass — “is much smaller than the other facility they’ve proposed.”
In an area that experienced 18 feet of storm surge during Hurricane Laura in 2020 — and just weeks later, struck by Hurricane Delta — Venture Global is planning to build a second export terminal Known as “CP2,” it’s the largest of the roughly two dozen proposed Gulf LNG export terminals, and a key focal point for the region’s local organizing effort.
Residents “don’t really want LNG as much as they want Cameron [Parish] from 1990 back,” Hiatt told EHN of locals’ nostalgia for a community before storms like Rita in 2005 brought up to 15 feet of storm surge, only for Laura to repeat the damage in 2020. Throughout that time, the parish’s population dipped from roughly 10,000 to 5,000. “But the wolf knocking at the door is LNG. Folks in Cameron think that's going to bring back community, bring back the schools, bring back this time before we had all these storms — when Cameron was pretty prosperous.”
“Clearly,” for the oil and gas industry, “the idea is to transform what was once the center of commercial fishing in Louisiana to gas exports,” Cindy Robertson, an environmental activist in southwest Louisiana, told EHN.
Helping fishers’ impacted by LNG is about “actual survival of this unique culture,” Cooke said.
In a measure of organizers’ success, she pointed to a recent permit hearing for Venture Global’s CP2 proposal. Regionally, it’s the only project that’s received an environmental permit, but not its export permit, which remains under federal review. At the meeting, some spoke on the company’s behalf. As an organizer, it was a moment of clarity, Cooke explained. Venture Global officials “had obviously done a lot of coaching and organizing and getting people together in Cameron to speak out on their behalf,” Cooke said. “So, in a way, that was bad. But in another way, it shows that we really had an impact.”
“It also shows that we have a lot to do,” Cooke added.
Environmental organizers like Alyssa Portaro describe a sense of fortitude among activists — she and her husband to the region’s nearby town of Vinton near the Texas-Louisiana border. Since the families’ relocation to their farm, Portaro has worked with Cameron Parish fisher-folk.
“I’ve not witnessed ‘community’ anywhere like there is in Louisiana,” Portaro told EHN. But a New Jersey native, she understands the toll environmental pollution has on low-income communities. “This environment, it’s so at risk — and it’s currently getting sacrificed to big industries.”
“People don’t know what we’d do without oil and gas. It comes at a big price,” she added.
Southwest Louisiana’s Cameron Parish is one of the state’s most rural localities. Marine economies were the area’s economic drivers until natural disasters and LNG facilities began pushing locals out, commercial fishers claim.
Credit: Xander Peters for Environmental Health News
Residents “don’t really want LNG as much as they want Cameron [Parish] from 1990 back,” James Hiatt , a Healthy Gulf organizer, told EHN. "But the wolf knocking at the door is LNG."
Credit: Xander Peters for Environmental Health News
For the most part, Cameron Parish’s life and economy has historically taken place at sea. As new LNG facilities are operational or in planning locally, locals claim the community they once knew is nearly unrecognizable.
Credit: Xander Peters for Environmental Health News
A disappearing parish
The stakes are seemingly higher for a region like southwest Louisiana, which is the epicenter of climate change impacts.
In nearly a century, the state has lost roughly 2,000 square miles of land to coastal erosion. In part driving the state’s erosion crisis is the compounding impacts of Mississippi River infrastructure and oil and gas industry activity, such as dredging canals for shipping purposes, according to a March study published in the journal Nature Sustainability. Louisiana’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority said Cameron Parish could lose more land than other coastal parishes over the next 50 years. A recent Climate Central report says the parish will be underwater within that time frame.
On top of erosion and sea level rise impacts, in August, 2023, marshland across southwest Louisiana’s Cameron Parish burned. The fires were among at least 600 across the Bayou State this year. Statewide, roughly 60,000 acres burned — a more than six-fold increase of the state’s average acres burned per year in the past decade alone.
But while the blaze avoided coastal Louisiana communities like Cameron Parish, the fires represented a warning coming from a growing chorus of locals across the region — one that’s echoes by the local commercial fishing population, who claimed to have experienced unusually low yields during the same time, according to a statement from a local environmental group. At the site of the Cameron Parish fires are locations for two proposed LNG expansion projects.
"The idea is to transform what was once the center of commercial fishing in Louisiana to gas exports.” - Cindy Robertson, an environmental activist in southwest Louisiana
It was an unusual occurrence for an area that’s more often itself underwater this time of year due to a storm surge from powerful storms. For LNG expansion’s local opposition, it was a red flag.
As the Louisiana Bucket Brigade has noted prior, the confluence of climate change’s raising of sea levels and the construction of LNG export terminals — some are proposed at the size of nearly 700 football fields — are wiping away the marshland folks like Allaire watched wither. Among their fears is that the future facilities won’t be able to withstand the power of another storm like Laura and its storm surge, which wiped away entire communities in 2020.
Amidst these regional climate impacts, LNG infrastructure has shown potential to exacerbate the accumulation of greenhouse gasses that cause global warming. For the most part, LNG is made up of methane — a greenhouse gas that’s more than 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Among the 22 current LNG facility proposals, the advocacy group Sierra Club described a combined climate pollution output that would roughly equal to that of about 440 coal plants.
The climate impacts prompt some of the LNG industry’s uncertainty going forward. It isn’t clear if Asian countries, key importers of U.S. LNG, will “embrace these energy transition issues,” said David Dismuke, an energy consultant and the former executive director of Louisiana State University’s Center for Energy Studies. Likewise, European nations remain skeptical of embracing LNG as a future staple fuel source.
“They really don't want to have to pull the trigger,” Dismukes added, referring to Europe’s hesitation to commit more resources to exporting LNG from the American market. “They don't want to go down that road.”
While there will be a tapering down of natural gas supply, Miles explained, “we’re going to need natural gas for a long time,” as larger battery storage for renewables is still unavailable.
“I'm not one of these futurists that can tell you where we're going to be, but I just don't see everything being extreme,” Dismukes said. “I don't see what we've already built getting stranded and going away, either.”
For now, LNG seems here to stay. From 2012 to 2022,U.S. natural gas demand — the sum of both domestic consumption and gross exports — rose by a whopping 43%, reported the U.S. Energy Information Administration, or EIA. Meanwhile, in oil and gas hotbeds like Louisiana and Texas, natural gas demand grew by 116%.
Throughout 25 years, Allaire has witnessed southwest Louisiana’s land slowly fade, in part driven by the same industrial spread regionally. Near where the front door of his travel trailer sits underneath the aluminum awning, he points to a chenier ridge located near the end of the property. It’s disappearing, he said.
“See the sand washing over, in here?” Allaire says, as he points towards the stretches of his property. “This pond used to go down for a half mile. This is all that's left of it on this side.”
In the quiet seaside village of Capesterre on Marie-Galante island in Guadeloupe on April 18, 2023, the air-quality monitoring institute Gwad’Air issued a “red alert” to warn people away from coastal areas.
The culprit was sargassum. After washing ashore for days, the floating seaweed was emitting a dangerous level of hydrogen sulfide gas as it rotted on the beach.
The problem was not new for residents of Marie-Galante, a sleepy agricultural island of 11,000 inhabitants that is part of Guadeloupe’s biosphere reserve.
Since the first mass strandings more than ten years ago, rotting sargassum has frequently plagued residents and tourists and forced several businesses and restaurants to close their doors for months at a time.
Among the struggling proprietors are sisters Marie-Louise and Lyselène Bade, who recently shuttered their small hotel Le Soleil Levant.
Marie-Louise Bade is the owner of the small hotel Le Soleil Levant, which had to close due to the sargassum invasion in Guadeloupe.
Credit: Marie-Louise Bade
Though they still operate a bakery and grocery store they inherited from their mother, Marie-Louise said a Gwad’Air technician recently asked her a worrying question: “How do you manage to stay here?”
She often wonders the same thing.
“You know, I love wearing costume jewelry, but now I can’t keep it on my skin for more than a quarter of an hour. They oxidize and make my skin itch. When you see what it does to electrical equipment and metal, you wonder what it does inside your body, to your lungs,” she said.
According to Marie-Louise Bade, since sargassum has increased in Guadeloupe, metal furniture and artifacts have begun to corrode more quickly.
Credit: Olivia Losbar/RCI Guadeloupe
Thanks to recent research carried out in the French Caribbean — much of which has struggled with similar problems as Marie-Galante — scientists can now better answer that question.
But this knowledge has not been enough to protect Bade and many other Guadeloupe residents.
Even as the French Caribbean has emerged as a regional leader in the fight against sargassum, researchers such as Martinique-based doctor Dabor Resiere have said response efforts there have fallen far short.
As a result, many residents regularly face dangerous health risks — and the French government has turned to the world stage to call for an international response to address sargassum as a global problem.
‘Airborne poisoning outbreak’
By the time 2018 brought a record sargassum influx to Caribbean shorelines, the health effects of the rotting seaweed had become much better known. In December of that year, a group of sargassum researchers in Martinique issued a stark warning.
In a letter published in The Lancet medical journal, they noted that doctors in Martinique and Guadeloupe — French islands with a combined population of nearly 800,000 — had recently recorded more than 11,000 cases of acute sargassum toxicity during an eight-month period. Among them were three cases admitted to intensive care.
“To mitigate this emerging airborne poisoning outbreak, the French government has already promised €10 million [US $10,835,600] to supply equipment that can be used to remove the seaweed within 48 hours, to monitor hydrogen sulfide concentrations on the affected shores, to train doctors, and to assign experts in toxicology in affected areas,” wrote Resiere and 10 other researchers based in Martinique and France.
“Despite this commendable first effort by the French government, a mitigation plan to address this enigmatic sargassum invasion should urgently be discussed at an international level to boost marine research, pool resources, and consolidate local political priorities,” Resiere said.
The French government — which for decades has struggled with algae washing ashore on its European coasts — has launched two national sargassum plans funded with about $26 million for 2018-2022 and about $40 million for 2022-2026. Millions more were spent by local authorities in sargassum collection operations and investment in dedicated equipment.
“You know, I love wearing costume jewelry, but now I can’t keep it on my skin for more than a quarter of an hour. They oxidize and make my skin itch." - Marie-Louise Bade, owner of the small hotel Le Soleil Levant
As a result, the French islands of Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint Martin and Saint Barthelemy have launched some of the most extensive response efforts in the Caribbean in recent years. Besides the ongoing research, these efforts have included air-quality-monitoring programs, clean-up initiatives, and one of the rare national response strategies that has been officially adopted by the government.
In 2019, Guadeloupe also hosted the first International Sargassum Conference, where the Guadeloupe Region — in partnership with the French government, the French National Research Agency and two Brazilian agencies — launched a call for projects with financial support from the European Union and other sources.
This effort ultimately funded 12 projects — the results of which were presented on Feb. 28, 2024 — as part of the National Sargassum Prevention and Control Plan. Besides probing the algae cycle and the environmental effects of sargassum, these projects have also investigated health impacts.
One of the outcomes, the SargaCare project, led to a July 2022 study on more than 3,000 pregnant women on Martinique, which reported finding evidence of a higher risk of potentially fatal preeclampsia in expectant mothers exposed to sargassum fumes.
A later SargaCare studysuggested that prolonged exposure to the fumes increases the risk of patients developing sleep apnea.
‘The situation remained unchanged’
But despite this work, health researchers have warned that response efforts have not kept pace with the problem in the French Caribbean or the wider region.
In Guadeloupe and Martinique, they wrote, “the situation remained unchanged. Despite the French government’s plans to tackle the sargassum problem, these toxic algae are continuing to inundate the coasts of Martinique, Guadeloupe, and French Guiana in ever-greater volumes.”
The Covid-19 pandemic, they stated, was partially to blame for the problem because it had sucked up health resources. But they also noted the absence of a coordinated regional health response and warned that Caribbean governments eager to jumpstart their post-pandemic tourism economies may be inclined to downplay the sargassum problem.
“The public continues to be adversely affected, some have sold their dream houses which are becoming unlivable, some have abandoned their schools and workplaces for lack of a solution to this scourge,” the researchers wrote. “It is urgent to come to the aid of these families who, in addition to the health consequences due to the significant emanations of hydrogen sulfide, have to bear the material consequences, being often forced to replace all their household appliances or the metal parts of their houses.”
2023 season
By the time the researchers’ letter was published in March 2023, a new sargassum season was already causing health problems across the French Caribbean.
In late January 2023, a 59-year-old woman was treated by emergency services for acute toxicity after taking part in a sargassum clean-up on Tartane beach in Trinité, Martinique.
On March 2, the Martinique municipality of Le Robert partially closed the Four à Chaux school due to high exposure to gas released by sargassum.
Boats float in sargassum off Batelière Beach in Schoelcher, Martinique, on Sept. 12, 2023.
Credit: Jacques Dijon/RCI Guadeloupe
And when the air pollution alert was triggered in Guadeloupe’s Saint-François lagoon area on Sept. 15, people were asked to move away from a populated marina area that hosts hotels, restaurants and tourism businesses offering water activities.
Marie-Galante
Back in Marie-Galante, Marie-Louise Bade continued to struggle as well. Bade, who goes by “Malou,” operates multiple businesses on her island, where the economy is powered by tourism, fishing, sugarcane and banana crops, and a rum distillery.
“For 11 years, I’ve had to put up with this,” Bade said. “For 11 years, every time I open my doors, I think, ‘My God, what other appliance is going to break down this morning?’ No matter how much we repair, clean, the walls turn gray. Algae eats away at all the plumbing. … So everything is destroyed and there are leaks all the time.”
Tourists, she said, stopped coming.
“I can’t rent out the rooms anymore,” she said. “People open the windows, they have a view of the sargassum. There’s the smell. And on the walls, the pipes, the air-conditioning: Everything turns black.”
A great amount of sargassum saturated the coastline of Batelière, Martinique, on September 12, 2023.
Credit: Jacques Dijon/RCI Guadeloupe
Her health has suffered as well.
Bade described continuous itching, small pimples appearing on her skin, vision issues, and respiratory problems that now force her to take asthma medication.
Various governmental efforts have not provided relief in her day-to-day life, she said. About two years ago, for example, the Guadeloupe regional health agency distributed questionnaires for about a month. But since then, she said, no follow-up action has been taken to her knowledge.
The businesswoman said the town doctor regularly monitors the effects of sargassum on the population’s health, and he encourages her to consult him every three months.
Last year, residents got a brief respite when booms were installed offshore in August in hopes of preventing the seaweed from reaching the beach.
For a while, the solution worked, according to the town’s mayor, Jean-Claude Maes. Residents started walking along the coast again as they hadn’t done for years, and a few entrepreneurs decided to set up new businesses, Maes said.
But the respite was short-lived: The booms were swept away last October by swells caused by Hurricane Tammy. Plans to reinstall them by December still have not come to fruition.
An anti-sargassum boom was installed last year to protect La Feuillère Beach in Capesterre de Marie-Galante, but it was damaged by Hurricane Tammy in October. On Dec. 1, 2023, it was lying on the shoreline awaiting reinstallation.
Credit: Olivia Losbar/RCI Guadeloupe
Though such responsibilities normally fall to towns and cities, the French government has decided to bear 80% of the financial cost of combating sargassum. But the mayor said that funding was slow in coming last year.
‘Irritation and anxiety’
While residents suffer, research continues. Professor Dabor Resiere, a sargassum researcher and department head at Martinique University Hospital, said previous studies have focused largely on the effects of acute toxicity caused by high levels of sargassum gasses.
But there is a dearth of information on chronic toxicity at lower doses, he said. To learn more, the professor and his team have been visiting patients in the field as part of a Martinique University Hospital monitoring program they plan to export soon to Guadeloupe, St. Lucia and other islands.
“We don’t know about the average resident who lives near a stranding site, who receives a small amount of [exposure to sargassum gas] every day,” said Resiere. “We can see that the majority of these patients continue to have trouble sleeping, continue to have generalized fatigue, continue to have conjunctivitis, irritation and anxiety. This anxiety, this depressive syndrome: All these symptoms we observe in patients. But now we need to demonstrate it scientifically.”
Other research is continuing as well. After the results of the 2019 call for projects were presented this February, the Guadeloupe Region and its partners launched a new call for projects. This round will continue studying health impacts, as well as addressing other topics including sargassum’s effects on marine ecosystems and the hydrodynamic conditions that affect blooms.
But in Marie-Galante, Bade and her sister have more immediate concerns.
Currently, the metal roof of their businesses leaks because of holes they blame on corrosion caused by the sargassum gasses. But they are reluctant to invest in repairs as long as they are faced with continued uncertainty.
Despite the risks, they have no plans to leave. For Bade, it is inconceivable to close the business bequeathed to her by her mother, in which she and her sister grew up.
“What would the town be without a bakery?” she asked.
This investigation is the result of a fellowship awarded by the Center for Investigative Journalism’s Training Institute and was made possible in part with the support of Open Society Foundations.
The Solar for All program will fund solar and battery installations in low-income neighborhoods, benefiting approximately 900,000 households.
Funding will be managed by state, municipal and tribal governments along with nonprofits, with implementation slated for the summer.
The initiative will help achieve the administration's clean energy goals and reduce energy expenses for families by an average of $400 annually.
Key quote:
“Low income families can spend up to 30 percent of their paychecks on their energy bills. It’s outrageous.”
— U.S. President Joe Biden.
Why this matters:
As President Biden noted, many low-income families spend a significant portion of their income on utility bills. Solar energy can drastically reduce these costs, easing financial burdens and increasing disposable income for other essential needs.
Thousands gather in Ottawa to draft a legally-binding treaty aimed at halting the surge of plastic pollution worldwide. Will it protect the environment and human health?
Global representatives are working to finalize a treaty that could dramatically alter plastic production and its environmental impacts.
The treaty's scope may include limits on production, hazardous chemicals and waste management, influenced by various international interests.
By the end of 2024, nations aim to adopt the first legally binding treaty to significantly reduce plastic pollution worldwide.
Key quote: "People globally are disgusted by what they see. The straw in the turtle’s nose, the whale full of fishing gear. I mean, this is not the world we want to be in."
— Inger Andersen, executive director of UNEP
Why this matters:
This treaty seeks to address not only the visible effects of plastic pollution but also its underlying ties to fossil fuel use and climate change. Progress was slow in the first three rounds of talks, which started at the end of 2022. Some countries, like the U.S., have largely supported voluntary measures to control plastic pollution -- a position that advocates say is insufficient to solve the plastic problem as global production continues to ramp up. As negotiations move forward in Ottawa, some groups are pushing the Biden administration to take a leadership role in the plastic treaty talks.
A recent landmark decision by the European Court of Human Rights held Switzerland accountable for inadequate climate policies, specifically highlighting the increased risk of heatwave-related deaths among older women. Plastic production is another case where governments have failed to protect vulnerable groups.
The climate case focused on collective rights to a healthy environment.
The ruling opens avenues for future legal actions against governments for failing to protect public health against environmental hazards.
Plastic production, involving hazardous chemicals, represents a similar negligence, affecting reproductive health and increasing disease risks.
Key quote:
"This...decision is about the right of groups of people to enjoy a 'healthy environment'."
— Sian Sutherland, co-founder of A Plastic Planet
Why this matters:
The climate case underscores the legal leverage that groups can use against governments that neglect environmental health policies. As negotiators meet in Ottawa this week to move toward agreement on a binding agreement to control plastic pollution, it's a timely message. Here's what to know about the fourth round of plastic treaty talks.
En el tranquilo pueblo costero de Capesterre, en la isla Marie-Galante de Guadalupe, el 18 de abril de 2023, la Asociación de Monitoreo de Calidad del Aire, Gwad’Air, emitió una “alerta roja” para advertir a la gente que se alejara de las zonas costeras.
La causa: el sargazo. Después de haber llegado durante días a la costa, esas algas flotantes se descomponían en la playa y emitían un nivel peligroso de ácido sulfhídrico, un gas cuyo olor a huevos podridos puede afectar la salud de quienes lo aspiran por periodos extensos.
El problema no era nuevo para los residentes de Marie-Galante, una tranquila isla agrícola de 11,000 habitantes que forma parte de la reserva de la biosfera de Guadalupe.
Desde las primeras acumulaciones masivas ocurridas hace más de diez años, la descomposición del sargazo ha afectado con frecuencia a los residentes y turistas, y ha obligado a varios negocios y restaurantes a cerrar sus puertas por meses.
Entre esos propietarios que luchan por sobrevivir están las hermanas Marie-Louise y Lyselène Bade, quienes recientemente cerraron su pequeño hotel Le Soleil Levant.
Biodegradable food packaging is a step in the right direction, experts say, but when composted carries risks of microplastic and chemical contamination.
