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1/ “They're killing people by doing this.”
In 2008, a sugarcane fire in Palm Beach County, FL, left six elementary school students hospitalized. Two weeks later the school board renewed a lease of its land to U.S. Sugar. https://grist.org/justice/the-glades-florida-sugarcane-burn/
In 2008, a sugarcane fire in Palm Beach County, FL, left six elementary school students hospitalized. Two weeks later the school board renewed a lease of its land to U.S. Sugar. https://grist.org/justice/the-glades-florida-sugarcane-burn/
2/ The school year coincides with the annual sugarcane harvest burn. Filling the air with smoke, soot, and ash, the burn releases a type of particulate matter linked to health risks.
All while kids sit in class, right next to the fields. https://grist.org/justice/the-glades-florida-sugarcane-burn/
All while kids sit in class, right next to the fields. https://grist.org/justice/the-glades-florida-sugarcane-burn/
3/ The school district facilitates the harvest by leasing a field next to Rosenwald Elementary to one of the largest sugar producers in America. Their latest lease renewal was signed in 2017, despite concerns that emissions are hazardous to human health. https://grist.org/justice/the-glades-florida-sugarcane-burn/
4/ An investigation by @grist and @typeinvestigate found:
) The School District of Palm Beach County has leased land to U.S. Sugar since 2002, despite consistent concerns raised by parents, students, and teachers about the health effects of the burn. https://grist.org/justice/the-glades-florida-sugarcane-burn/
) The School District of Palm Beach County has leased land to U.S. Sugar since 2002, despite consistent concerns raised by parents, students, and teachers about the health effects of the burn. https://grist.org/justice/the-glades-florida-sugarcane-burn/
5/ An investigation by @grist and @typeinvestigate found:
) The @FDACS has for decades maintained discriminatory zoning rules that ban burning only when smoke drifts into wealthier areas of the county. https://grist.org/justice/the-glades-florida-sugarcane-burn/
) The @FDACS has for decades maintained discriminatory zoning rules that ban burning only when smoke drifts into wealthier areas of the county. https://grist.org/justice/the-glades-florida-sugarcane-burn/
6/ An investigation by @grist and @typeinvestigate found:
) Public officials have referred resident complaints about agricultural burning to the sugar industry itself. https://grist.org/justice/the-glades-florida-sugarcane-burn/
) Public officials have referred resident complaints about agricultural burning to the sugar industry itself. https://grist.org/justice/the-glades-florida-sugarcane-burn/
7/ Public agencies at the county, state, and federal level have declined to phase out sugarcane burning despite calls for mechanical harvesting and growing concerns about the practice’s adverse health effects. https://grist.org/justice/the-glades-florida-sugarcane-burn/
8/ This neglect has left the Glades, a low-income, predominantly Black community, acutely vulnerable to respiratory illness at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. https://grist.org/justice/the-glades-florida-sugarcane-burn/
9/ The burn seems like it will proceed as usual this fall, despite a class-action lawsuit and a still-raging pandemic.
“It's taking innocent people’s lives for no apparent reason.” https://grist.org/justice/the-glades-florida-sugarcane-burn/
“It's taking innocent people’s lives for no apparent reason.” https://grist.org/justice/the-glades-florida-sugarcane-burn/
