EarthJustice
After This Year, We All Deserve to Breathe a Little EasierAfter This Year, We All Deserve to Breathe a Little Easier COVID-19 is an environmental justice problem. Electric vehicles can be part of the solution. It’s clear that COVID-19’s burdens have fallen heaviest on communities of color. What’s less well known—but critical to understand—is what that has to do with electric vehicles. By moving toward a clean energy transportation system, we can potentially save hundreds of thousands of lives. The pandemic has highlighted the need for this transition more urgently than ever. In coalition with environmental justice organizations, Earthjustice is working to bring about a zero-emissions future. And despite a…
Something in the Air: Public Backlash to Broken Promises in a Polluted CitySomething in the Air: Public Backlash to Broken Promises in a Polluted City Energy company PSEG promised jobs and local investments to the residents of Bridgeport, Connecticut, to get their new gas-fired power plant built. Seven years later, none of that has happened. The residents — and the city — are done waiting. The new PSEG gas-fired power plant plant sits next to Bridgeport Harbor, Conn. Allison Minto for Earthjustice When Rev. Carl McCluster stands on the front porch of Shiloh Baptist Church and gazes across Broad Street, his eyes take in the towering smokestacks of PSEG’s 50-year-old coal-fired plant…
For Orcas and Salmon, This Dam Plan Is a DisasterFor Orcas and Salmon, This Dam Plan Is a Disaster Leaders in the Pacific Northwest must step up where federal agencies have failed. The removal of dams on the Snake River could save the Pacific Northwest's dwindling orca population. MILES RITTER / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 Federal agencies had a once-in-a-generation opportunity to save wild salmon and the orca whales that depend on them. The agencies had four years to get it right — but when they stepped up to the plate, they whiffed. In early 2016, a judge ordered three federal agencies to revise their operating plans for hydroelectric dams…
Los Jóvenes No Necesitan Un Título Universitario Para Luchar Por Su FuturoLos Jóvenes No Necesitan Un Título Universitario Para Luchar Por Su Futuro La activista climática juvenil Mishka Banuri describe cómo venció sus temores sobre el llamado “síndrome del impostor” para unirse a la lucha climática y exhorta a los jóvenes alrededor del mundo a exigir soluciones audaces a la crisis climática. Cactus como el que se ilustra en esta imagen florecen en el desierto que se encuentra cerca del hogar de Mishka Banuri, ubicado en Utah. RACHELLE BAKER PARA EARTHJUSTICE Mishka Banuri es una activista de 19 años de edad y cofundadora de Utah Youth Environmental Solutions (UYES), una organización…
Rising Temperatures in the Land Down Under are a Human Rights IssueRising Temperatures in the Land Down Under are a Human Rights Issue A coalition of international and Australian environmental and human rights lawyers are calling for the United Nations Human Rights Council to review Australia’s human rights record in light of the government's inaction on climate change. Hundreds of thousands of Australians joined the global climate strike in September 2019, calling for urgent climate action from one of the world's top exporters of fossil fuels. John Englart / Flickr Earlier this year, a group of 25 young Australians with Youth Verdict made history with a legal challenge they brought against a proposed…
In the Heartland, Human Waste Floods HomesIn the Heartland, Human Waste Floods Homes Centreville community members are pushing for solutions to this environmental injustice. Danny Lane, right, gives his friend Walter Byrd a push as Byrd prepares to head down a flooded Centreville street in June 2015. Firefighters evacuated residents earlier in the day. Robert Cohen / Post Dispatch / Polaris The last time Walter Byrd drank his tap water, he suffered a heart attack. “At the hospital, my doctor warned me never to drink the water again. I haven’t drank it in 10 years,” he says. While the timing of Byrd’s heart attack may have…
Young People Don’t Need a Degree to Fight for Their FutureYoung People Don’t Need a Degree to Fight for Their Future Youth climate activist Mishka Banuri describes how she pushed past her fears of imposter syndrome to join the climate fight and calls on young people everywhere to demand bold solutions to the climate crisis. Utah teen Mishka Banuri is working to hold government officials accountable for addressing the climate crisis. Rachelle Baker for Earthjustice Mishka Banuri is a 19-year-old climate activist and the co-founder of Utah Youth Environmental Solutions (UYES), an organization that empowers youth to hold government officials accountable in combating the climate crisis. In 2018, Banuri and…
Líderes Ambientales De Michigan Luchan Por Mejorar La Calidad Del Aire En Su ComunidadLíderes Ambientales De Michigan Luchan Por Mejorar La Calidad Del Aire En Su Comunidad El Departamento de Justicia se opone a un acuerdo para proporcionar millones de dólares en beneficios de salud pública a las comunidades locales. La fábrica River Rouge de la compañía automotriz Ford en Michigan, como se ve en esta imagen tomada en 2008, es una de las muchas instalaciones industriales que rodean la ciudad de River Rouge. Christian Burkert / Redux River Rouge, una ciudad vecina de Detroit, Michigan, fue una otrora localidad llena de esperanza que atrajo a los padres de Vicki Dobbins y otras…
Environmental Leaders in Michigan Fight to Improve Air Quality in Their CommunityEnvironmental Leaders in Michigan Fight to Improve Air Quality in Their Community The DOJ objects to an agreement to provide millions of dollars in public health benefits to local communities. The Ford Motor Company's River Rouge Factory in Michigan, shown here in 2008, is one of many industrial facilities surrounding the town of River Rouge. Christian Burkert / Redux River Rouge, Michigan, a city that neighbors Detroit, is not the same city full of hope that drew Vicki Dobbins’ parents and other Black families from the Deep South to its factories and steel mills in the 1940s. “I bet you…
Grizzlies ‘Saved His Life’ and Now He Fights To Save TheirsGrizzlies ‘Saved His Life’ and Now He Fights To Save Theirs Naturalist and author Doug Peacock talks about why we need to “fight like hell” to save the endangered and iconic Yellowstone grizzlies. Doug Peacock stands on the edge of the Yellowstone River in Emigrant, Montana. Tom Robertson Yellowstone's iconic grizzly bears are at risk of extinction. Yet the Trump administration has persistently tried to gut protections for this endangered species. On July 8, 2020, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld these protections, stopping plans for trophy hunts in Wyoming and Idaho. "This is a tremendous victory for those…
Southern California Can’t Afford an Air District That Lets Polluters Poison Black and Brown CommunitiesSouthern California Can’t Afford an Air District That Lets Polluters Poison Black and Brown Communities Our state leadership must ensure that working families in the communities that are most affected by pollution are prioritized over the interests of polluters. The 60 freeway runs through Jurupa Valley, California, near the offices of the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice. Image Courtesy of Anthony Victoria-Midence / CCAEJ Earthjustice is sharing this blog from our partners at the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice. We stand in solidarity with their call for state leaders to protect the communities that are most…
Five Takeaways From the House Select Committee’s Climate Crisis Action PlanFive Takeaways From the House Select Committee’s Climate Crisis Action Plan The roadmap includes bold policies that Earthjustice and our partners have championed. The U.S. Capitol building. PHOTO BY ARCHITECT OF THE CAPITOL We have a decade to avoid the worst impacts of the climate crisis. Now is the time for strong leadership and urgent action to get to a pollution-free, 100% clean energy future. But instead of listening to experts and the people across this country demanding solutions, the Trump administration continues to put the fossil fuel industry first. In the absence of leadership from the executive branch, Congress…
An Attempt to Silence Environmental Activism in South AfricaAn Attempt to Silence Environmental Activism in South Africa This mining company's defamation suit is a classic example of a strategic lawsuit against public participation. A mineral sand deposit on the west coast of South Africa, where Mineral Resources Commodities wants to mine. Babakathy / Wikimedia Commons In January 2017, two attorneys from the Center for Environmental Rights (CER), a South African environmental law organization and a close partner of Earthjustice, gave a presentation to students at the University of Cape Town about the “environmentally destructive” Tormin sand mine on the west coast of South Africa. Local community groups and…
Why Queer Liberation Is an Environmental Justice IssueWhy Queer Liberation Is an Environmental Justice Issue Once we stop seeing these fights for humanity as separate, we open ourselves up to the possibility of learning from each other in deeper ways. A participant in New York's Queer Liberation March for Black Lives and Against Police Brutality holds an umbrella over the crowd on June 28, 2020. Erik McGregor / LightRocket via Getty Images As the uprisings all around the country remind us, the first Pride march was the anniversary of the Stonewall riot led by Black and Latinx trans and gender non-confirming individuals against police brutality. This rebellion…
With the Great Barrier Reef on the Brink, Australia’s Climate Policy is Adrift at SeaWith the Great Barrier Reef on the Brink, Australia’s Climate Policy is Adrift at Sea The World Heritage Committee should encourage Australia to take meaningful action to protect this ocean treasure. A green sea turtle in the Great Barrier Reef VLAD61 / SHUTTERSTOCK Oceans are essential to human life. Not only do billions of people depend on them for food and livelihoods, they are our first line of defense against climate change, absorbing carbon dioxide and excess heat. But the impacts of climate change are pushing one of the world’s most emblematic ocean sites, the Great Barrier Reef, to the…
Leaking and Looming, Legacy Coal Ash Ponds Spew Poisons. Is There One Near You?Leaking and Looming, Legacy Coal Ash Ponds Spew Poisons. Is There One Near You? Despite a court order, Trump's EPA is dragging its feet on regulating this toxic threat. Andrew Rehn, right, of the Prairie Rivers Network and Lan Richart of Eco-Justice Collaborative paddle past toxic coal ash waste seepage on Illinois' Vermilion River in 2018. Tribune Content Agency LLC / Alamy Stock Photo Legacy ponds are the walking dead of the coal ash universe — toxic waste sites that live long after coal plants have closed, slipping through regulatory cracks as they continue to poison communities. After years of…
La Justicia Ambiental No Sobrepasa La Justicia RacialLa Justicia Ambiental No Sobrepasa La Justicia Racial Este 19 de junio nos preguntamos qué podemos aportar al movimiento transformador de Las Vidas Negras Importan – y comenzamos a obtener respuestas Manifestantes se aglomeran luego de marchar hacia el Capitolio de Luisiana para expresar su rechazo al asesinato de Alton Sterling el 9 de julio de 2016 en Baton Rouge. MARK WALLHEISER / GETTY IMAGES El 19 de junio de 1865, dos años y medio después de la proclamación de emancipación del presidente Abraham Lincoln, el anuncio de libertad llegó a las personas esclavizadas en Texas. Y ahora, 155 años…
Environmental Justice Does Not Transcend Racial JusticeEnvironmental Justice Does Not Transcend Racial Justice This Juneteenth, we are asking — and beginning to answer — what we can contribute to the transformative Black Lives Matter movement. Demonstrators gather after marching at the Louisiana Capitol to protest the shooting of Alton Sterling on July 9, 2016 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Mark Wallheiser / Getty Images On June 19, 1865 — two and a half years after President Lincoln’s emancipation proclamation — the announcement of freedom came to enslaved people in Texas. Here we are, 155 years later, witnessing the relentless state-sanctioned killings of Black people. As an organization…
Senseless Removal of Species Protections Threatens Life in the Gulf of MexicoSenseless Removal of Species Protections Threatens Life in the Gulf of Mexico Sushi is almost as common a choice as any for family dinners, first dates, or even the solo diner. The industry now boasts thousands of restaurants and generates billions in revenue, but our taste for Japan’s hand-rolled sea fare poses a threat you won’t read about on a restaurant menu. The Atlantic bluefin tuna is a top ocean predator that is critical for healthy marine ecosystems. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fourteen years ago, attorneys at Earthjustice joined the effort to save the western Atlantic bluefin tuna, a…
On World Environment Day, the Government Slashes Environmental ProtectionsOn World Environment Day, the Government Slashes Environmental Protections Instead of responding to multiple national crises, the administration is pushing an industry-first agenda that railroads environmental laws. President Donald Trump pauses during a meeting in the White House on Wednesday, May 20, 2020. Doug Mills/The New York Times/Bloomberg via Getty Images June 5 is World Environment Day. This year, the Trump administration is “celebrating” by assaulting environmental protections while other crises divert the nation’s attention. Today — instead of taking action to address police brutality, systemic racism, or the coronavirus pandemic — President Trump issued a proclamation that will allow…
Ways to Help Fight Anti-Black Police ViolenceWays to Help Fight Anti-Black Police Violence “Historically white environmental organizations that once looked away from environmental racism are finally joining a larger, urgent struggle for justice.” Protests erupted across the U.S. calling for an end to systemic racism and police brutality after the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery. Drew Angerer / Getty Images The police violence against black communities that we’re witnessing in the U.S. today is not new, but the scale of demonstrations, dialogue, and introspect it has prompted is unprecedented. This moment is exposing a pattern of brutality dating back to the violent…
Conozca Algunas Formas De Combatir La Violencia Policial Contra La Comunidad AfrodescendienteConozca Algunas Formas De Combatir La Violencia Policial Contra La Comunidad Afrodescendiente "Históricamente, las organizaciones ambientales lideradas por blancos que alguna vez ignoraron el racismo ambiental finalmente se unen a una gran lucha por la justicia". Las protestas estallaron alrededor de Estados Unidos para poner fin al racismo sistémico y el abuso policial a partir de los asesinatos de George Floyd, Breonna Taylor y Ahmaud Arbery. Drew Angerer / Getty Images La violencia policial contra las comunidades afrodescendientes que hemos presenciado en este país no es nueva, pero la magnitud de manifestaciones, diálogo e introspección que ha provocado no tiene…
A Smart Solution to the ‘Deadly’ Mix of Trucking Pollution and CoronavirusA Smart Solution to the ‘Deadly’ Mix of Trucking Pollution and Coronavirus Now, more than ever, clean air and healthy lungs are priceless, says Earthjustice attorney Paul Cort. Jurvetson/Flickr This piece was originally published in the San Francisco Chronicle on April 29, 2020. From Los Angeles to Sacramento to the Bay Area, Californians are breathing in cleaner air than ever before as we shelter in place to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus. But while lighter commuter traffic means that you can now catch a glimpse of the Farallon Islands from the East Bay hills some days, this is a short reprieve.…
Trump Administration’s Order to Gut Protections in the Name of COVID Will Harm Communities for Polluter ProfitsTrump Administration’s Order to Gut Protections in the Name of COVID Will Harm Communities for Polluter Profits Protecting our air and water is crucial during this global health crisis, says Earthjustice President Abigail Dillen. The Trump administration has used the COVID-19 crisis as an excuse to dismantle environmental protections and advance industry interests. CONSUMERS ENERGY / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 The Trump administration never lets a crisis go to waste. This week, in the middle of a global pandemic that has killed more than 90,000 Americans and left 35 million unemployed, President Trump ordered federal agencies to seek out regulations to…
Victory: California PUC Says Utility Can’t Hike Minimum Bills for Residential CustomersVictory: California PUC Says Utility Can’t Hike Minimum Bills for Residential Customers San Diego Gas & Electric's proposal to charge households a minimum of $38.40 a month would have hurt rooftop solar and disproportionately burdened low-income customers. The skyline of San Diego, where the local utility wants to raise most residential customers' minimum bills to $38.40 each month. a.canvas.of.light / CC BY 2.0 Update, 5/20/20: In March 2020, the California Public Utilities Commission rejected SDG&E’s request to dramatically increase the minimum bills it charges residential customers, which would have discouraged rooftop solar and conservation. The Commission agreed with our argument…
Victoria Para Alimentos Escolares Saludables Mientras La Corte Rechaza Reversión De Estándares De NutriciónVictoria Para Alimentos Escolares Saludables Mientras La Corte Rechaza Reversión De Estándares De Nutrición Madres, maestros, médicos, expertos en salud y abogados de Earthjustice unen fuerzas para proteger la salud de niños y niñas. Un estudiante elige entre las opciones de almuerzo en la escuela primaria East Brainerd en Chattanooga, Tennessee. The Washington Post via Getty Images Más de 30 millones de niños dependen de almuerzos escolares y 14 millones de niños comen desayunos escolares, lo que hace de los programas de alimentación escolar una de las iniciativas de salud pública más importantes de nuestro país. Con una mejor alimentación,…
‘Virtual’ Hearings Are Silencing Indigenous Voices in Alaska‘Virtual’ Hearings Are Silencing Indigenous Voices in Alaska Amidst COVID-19, Trump administration asks Alaska Native communities to log on Zoom and talk about the destruction of their ancestral lands. Residents of Nuiqsut, a small Alaska Native village, say that Bureau of Land Management officials did not take their input seriously during a virtual public hearing about a proposed oil-and-gas drilling plan. Bruce Dale / National Geographic Zoom video conferencing has skyrocketed in popularity since the pandemic forced millions to devise new strategies for socializing — but in Nuiqsut, a tiny Alaska Native village where wild caribou meat is a mainstay,…
Victory for Healthy School Meals as Court Rejects Rollback of Nutrition StandardsVictory for Healthy School Meals as Court Rejects Rollback of Nutrition Standards Mothers, teachers, physicians, health experts, and Earthjustice attorneys join forces to protect children’s health. A student chooses among lunch options at East Brainerd Elementary School in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The Washington Post via Getty Images More than 30 million children rely on school-provided lunches, and 14 million children eat school breakfasts, making school food programs one of our nation’s biggest public health initiatives. They also represent one of our most successful public health programs. With better food, children are healthier, better students, and better equipped for a healthy life.…
Las Refinerías De Phillips 66 Envenenan Nuestras Comunidades. Estamos Listos Para ContraatacarLas Refinerías De Phillips 66 Envenenan Nuestras Comunidades. Estamos Listos Para Contraatacar Hemos informado a Phillips 66 sobre nuestra intención de entablar una demanda si dos refinerías del sur de California continúan violando la Ley de Aire Limpio Kimberly Amaya (centro) marcha con otros miembros del East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice. Imagen cortesía de Hannah Benet El COVID-19 ha hecho la vida de las comunidades de primera línea del sur de California aún más difícil y peligrosa. Si bien las familias en toda la región luchan con las órdenes de hacinamiento, es particularmente difícil para aquellos de nosotros que…
Phillips 66 Refineries Are Poisoning Our Communities. We’re Ready to Fight Back.Phillips 66 Refineries Are Poisoning Our Communities. We’re Ready to Fight Back. We recently notified Phillips 66 that we intend to sue if its two Southern California refineries keep violating the Clean Air Act. Kimberly Amaya, center, marches with other members of East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice. Image Courtesy of Hannah Benet COVID-19 has made life for Southern California’s frontline communities even more difficult and dangerous. While families across the region are struggling with shelter-in-place orders, it’s especially challenging for those of us living next door to large polluters like petroleum refineries. Multiple studies have found that the polluted…
