Climate change rally: Hands Across the Harbor in L.A.

How much do you know about the local effects of climate change?

Join us for a May 17 event called Hands Across the Harbor to learn about the effects of dirty air and pollution. The day begins at 10 a.m.in the Port of Los Angeles for a public workshop (at the community room of the Harbor View Place Apartments, 326 King Avenue, Wilmington, CA) followed by a gathering at 11:30 a.m. at the nearby Wilmington Waterfront Park (C Street and McDonald Avenue).

The event will culminate with participants joining hands at noon to voice their opposition to dirty fossil fuels, and to call for an end to climate change and express the need to make a real commitment for clean energy solutions for a sustainable planet.   

The workshop

The public workshop will inform local residents about environmental issues threatening their communities. Presentations by Communities for a Better Environment and Tar Sands Action SoCal will include practical information on the impacts of tar sands and fracking both locally and globally, along with common sense proposals for greener and cleaner energy sources. The workshop will be in English and Spanish with snacks provided. The Wilmington Waterfront Park is one block away from the meeting location on “C” Street.

The problem

The Port of Los Angeles is home to six major oil refineries and a massive oil infrastructure overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The Port, one of the most polluted communities in the country, is undergoing new threats from tar sands shipping and refining, as well as a regional uptick in fracking. Wilmington, along with nearby San Pedro and the cities of Carson and Long Beach face serious issues with air quality and other pollutants due to Harbor-related activities. This area is known as “cancer alley” because of the high concentration of cancer, heart disease and asthma in the community, which many be attributed to pollutants from heavy truck traffic in and out of the Port and releases from refineries.   

The organizers of Hands Across the Harbor feel there is no better place to stand together in solidarity than with locally impacted communities. Hands Across the Harbor is being organized by Communities for a Better Environment, California Nurses Association, Tar Sands Action SoCal, Wilder Utopia, Miss R*EVOLutionaries, Sierra Club, and Burbank Green Alliance, in partnership with the SoCal Climate Action Coalition 350.