In Cancer Alley

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LISTENING: to the silverware of the chase sapphire lounge
FEELING: a little tipsy 🥴
SEEING: the blank page before me

I'm in the airport preparing to head to New Orleans for a reporter briefing on the connections between fossil fuels and plastics. I'm relieved to look around this space, at least, and see minimal use of plastic. The waiter didn't bring me a straw with my drink. The silverware is, well, silver.

I'm grateful for this opportunity to reflect on the ways single-use plastics appear in my life. I'm also grateful to reconnect with the communities in Louisiana that face the brunt of our consumerist obsession with petrochemicals. These days, the fossil fuel industry is collaborating with Big Tech in an attempt to build out and expand existing data centers throughout Cancer Alley, too. Data centers have become a hot-button issue in the state's congressional races.

I haven't been following this news, but I'm excited to learn more during my few days on the ground. Maybe a story or two will come out of the trip.

Stay tuned! 🌀

Currently Reading

I know nothing about TikToker Nava Rose, but everything Rachel Ramirez writes is gold. Read the profile for Cero Magazine.

Bill McKibben reminds us that the climate and peace movement are one and the same.

A decade has passed since the historic Indigenous gatherings at Standing Rock against the Dakota Access oil pipeline. That story marked the beginnings of my relationship to Native Tribes and Nations in the U.S. I didn't get to meet North Dakota and the Oceti Sakowin peoples in person, but I spent many months on the phone and watching Facebook livestreams to keep up. I was moved to hear that there was a 10-year reunion, which Sophie Sullivan wrote about for the Guardian.

Jenni Monet is always so talented. I hadn't read her words in a while, so I was excited to see her name on this Alaska Beacon feature about how Typhoon Halong displaced Yup'ik villages still waiting for resolution.

I loved reading about the chocolate conspiracy this morning in New York Magazine's Grub Street, story by Rachel Handler.

Poetry

RELEASE
my new therapist tells me my body and mind are / disconnected / I know I should wake, but instead, I lie / dreaming, reckless / my body needs to release / the miles my mind races / so I flow / I sweat / and my body is strong / my heart is tender / but I know I belong / tears and sweat / who can tell? / I release the rivers / the rivers that swell inside me

-ylf-

- Yessenia