Who has been waiting for a train, plane, or a bus and heard that? Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano hopes that you all have.
Tuesday morning aboard the new Rainbow Warrior, Greenpeace launched a new online map that allows communities to see for the first time whether they live in the vulnerability zone of one of 483 high risk chemical plants, and then it allows them to say something to President Obama. Each of the plants puts 100,000 or more people at risk of a poison gas disaster by accident or terrorist attack. All together that’s more than 110 million people, or 1 in 3 Americans.
Representatives from Center for Health, Environment & Justice, WEACT for Environmental Justice, Physicians for Social Responsibility, and NY Public Interest Research Group joined Greenpeace on our newest ship to support the launch and call on President Obama to eliminate these hazards.
While hundreds of plants across the country have converted to safer alternatives, proving that disaster prevention is feasible and cost effective, the large majority of the highest risk plants have done little. Luckily the President has the authority under the Clean Air Act to require these facilities to upgrade to safer technology and eliminate these hazards.
Greenpeace has joined with over 100 labor, public health, environmental justice, and public interest groups to call on the President to do just that. Find out if you are put at risk by one of these facilities then add your name to the petition to the President to ask him to protect you and the rest of the country from chemical disasters.
You can also read our Press Release.
