Eleanor Krause and Richard V. Reeves. Brookings Institute, Sept 18, 2017 Hurricane Harvey displaced more than 30,000 people, was responsible for at least 70 deaths, and is expected to cost between $70 and $108 billion. The economic damages from Hurricane Irma might be even higher. As hurricanes and other extreme weather events become more commonplace (and as coastal population density grows), so too do the costs associated with …
A food system based on poverty and exploitation will never be sustainable. It must be changed.
Eric Schlosser’s introduction to Prince Charles’s speech was as strong a statement as I’ve ever heard or read about food justice, income inequality, and the necessity of thinking about every part of the food system — particularly the people who grow and pick and pack it — when buying food and eating. The wealthy will always eat well. It is …
Democratic Candidates Flake on Detroit Environmental Justice Forum
Seats sit empty for candidates who cancelled on a July 31 educational forum about Detroit’s most polluted ZIP code, convened by Frontline Detroit, Climate Justice Alliance and other environmental justice activists. (Still courtesy of Climate Justice Alliance) In These Times, Aug 9 2019 Most candidates tout a just transition for “frontline communities” like Detroit, but only Jay Inslee showed up …
Long-term exposure to ground level ozone is like smoking a pack of cigarettes a day. Just a slightly elevated level of air pollution can lead to lung damage, even for people who have never smoked.
Aug 2019 It turns out you don’t need to smoke for a lifetime to get emphysema. Just breathing polluted air can give it to you, according to a new study that is the largest and the longest of its kind. “We found that an increase of about three parts per billion [of ground-level ozone] outside your home was equivalent to smoking a pack of …
Fracking causing rise in methane emissions, study finds
Researchers can track a marker of fracked gas and say the boom in shale oil and gas major contributor to climate emergency. The amount of methane — a powerful greenhouse gas — has increased dramatically in the atmosphere since 2008. The rise in fracking began about the same time. Credit: Robert Howarth via Biogeosciences. This work is distributed under the …
Babies born near oil and gas wells have congenital heart defects
By Julie Conley, Commondreams, July 24, 2019 | EDUCATE! Researchers At The University Of Colorado Studied Pregnant Women Who Are Among The 17 Million Americans Living Within A Mile From An Active Oil Or Gas Well “Looking at where mothers lived immediately before pregnancy and during the first critical weeks after conception and what was going on at nearby fracking wells, researchers found startling …
California cities begin banning natural gas hook-ups in new buildings, in a historic move
By Susie Cagle in Oakland, for The Guardian, 23 Jul 2019 More than 50 cities and counties in California are now considering similar policies to Berkeley’s, either banning or limiting gas and incentivizing full electrification in new buildings. This week Berkeley, California became the first city in the United States to ban natural, fossil gas hook-ups in new buildings. The landmark …
‘Toxic Stew’ Stirred Up by Disasters Poses Long-Term Danger, New Findings Show
By Christopher Flavelle, on July 15, 2019, NYTimes.com WASHINGTON — New research shows that the extreme weather and fires of recent years, similar to the flooding that has struck Louisiana and the Midwest, may be making Americans sick in ways researchers are only beginning to understand. By knocking chemicals loose from soil, homes, industrial-waste sites or other sources, and spreading them …
Black People’s Land Was Stolen
Any discussion of reparations must include how this happened, who did it, and the laws, policies and practices that allowed it. By Andrew W. Kahrl, an associate professor of history and African-American studies at the University of Virginia. June 20, 2019 The aftermath of the Tulsa Race Riot in Oklahoma in 1921, when whites burned down “Black Wall Street.”CreditOklahoma Historical Society/Getty …
One in every three Americans struggle to pay their energy bills, and that burden is three-times greater on low-income households.
One in every three Americans struggle to pay their energy bills, and that burden is three-times greater on low-income households. One in three U.S. households faced challenges in paying energy bills in 2015 Nearly one-third of U.S. households (31%) reported facing a challenge in paying energy bills or sustaining adequate heating and cooling in their home in 2015. According to the …