Phil McKenna, Inside Climate News, March 24, 2020 Ten miles north of Pensacola, Florida, on the west bank of the Escambia River, an aging chemical plant, its tanks, smokestacks and stainless steel pipes sprawling across hundreds of acres, is a climate killer hiding in plain sight. The plant, owned by Houston-based Ascend Performance Materials, makes adipic acid, one of two …
Shell’s activities in Ogoniland region of Nigeria have led to polluted air and water as well as decimated natural habitats, violating the rights of the 832,000 people who live there
From Common Dreams, March 2020 350.org surveyed the region of Ogoniland in Nigeria, where Shell Oil has dumped an estimated nine to 13 million barrels of crude oil into the Niger Delta since 1958. “Companies are actively disregarding the right of entire populations to a healthy environment, sufficient and quality food, and a political and social scenario of stability.”—Aaron Packard, …
Deserted oil wells haunt Los Angeles with toxic fumes and enormous cleanup costs
By MARK OLALDE, RYAN MENEZES, LA Times, MARCH 6, 2020 Thick oil was once so abundant beneath Southern California that it bubbled to the surface, most famously at the La Brea Tar Pits. But after more than a century of aggressive drilling by fossil fuel companies, most of Los Angeles’ profitable oil is gone. What remains is a costly legacy: nearly …
Mental health effects from air pollution + air pollution in childhood linked to schizophrenia
January 7, 2020, Science Daily, Source: Aarhus University. Summary: Children who grow up in areas with heavy air pollution have a higher risk of developing schizophrenia. Air pollution affects physical health, and research results now conclude that it also affects our psychological health. The study, which combines genetic data from iPSYCH with air pollution data from the Department of Environmental …
‘Saving Life on Earth’ for Just $100 Billion: New Roadmap Shows How US Can Address Global Extinction Crisis
10 actions the president should take on their own: Declare the global extinction crisis to be a national emergency. Establish 500 new national parks, wildlife refuges and marine sanctuaries. Strengthen public-land management to prioritize biodiversity and maintain abundant wildlife. Protect all critically imperiled wildlife and plants that are not yet on the endangered species list. Implement an ecosystem-approach to recovery …
Candidates Debate Climate in Sixth Democratic Debate, The Short Word on Nuclear
By Olivia Rosane Dec. 20, 2019, POLITICS The climate crisis had its strongest showing to date in the sixth Democratic primary debate hosted by Politico and PBS in Los Angeles Thursday. For the first time, a climate question was asked during the first 30 minutes of the debate, HuffPost reported. The issue got 13 minutes total of discussion time, according to Grist, and those …
Methane in atmosphere increased massively 2008-2014, due to fracking
About two-thirds of all new gas production over the last decade has been shale gas produced in the United States and Canada. The Carbon-13 signature means that since the use of high-volume hydraulic fracturing — commonly called fracking — shale gas has increased in its share of global natural gas production and has released more methane into the atmosphere, according …
Hurricanes hit the poor the hardest
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 …