CounterPunch Exclusives

CounterPunch Exclusives

Vampire Planet: How Capitalism Chokes Los Angeles

Port of Los Angeles, photograph by Joshua Frank.

It’s a balmy evening in San Pedro, California. I’m standing on the outskirts of a Little League ballpark atop a knoll, overlooking the arching Vincent St. Thomas Bridge. Below, a sea of shipping containers from the Port of LA and Long Beach are stacked high like Lego blocks, forming mini-skyscrapers along the dusky horizon. Together, these two ports handle 40% of all containerized imports into the United States. It’s a mammoth, sprawling complex spanning 24 square miles. 

It’s also one of the largest sources of pollution in the LA area.

Cargo ships themselves emit a lot of emissions. A single container ship emits up to 5 metric tons of CO2 per hour while at port. Together, the Long Beach and LA ports handle an average of 40 ships per day. Port traffic and idling ships cause more than 2,400 deaths per year. In West Long Beach, which inhales the majority of the pollution emitted from the port, life expectancy is 8 years lower than in wealthier areas in LA County. 

Thanks to the port’s operations and the ships and trucks it handles, this area is now known as the “diesel-death zone.”

The 20-mile-long 710 freeway, which serves as the main transport artery for the vast LA-Long Beach port complex. It’s a massive highway packed full of thundering semi-trucks nearly every hour of the day. 

With their horns belching and tires screeching, the constant hum of big rigs can be heard for miles. This stretch of the 710 is one of the deadliest roads in the nation, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. A 2013 Vox report showed that only Interstate 285 in Georgia ranked higher. It makes perfect sense. I was recently told a gruesome tale from a grieving........

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