A (non-comprehensive) list of interesting and relevant climate change, climate policy, and environmental justice stories.
The Supreme Court Just Pushed Environmental Justice Even Further Aside. The recently paused “good neighbor” rule was the Environmental Protection Agency’s attempt at reducing interstate pollution by making those responsible pay for it. (read the full story here)
Textbook authors told climate change references must be cut to get Florida’s OK. The directive appears similar to requirements the state imposed on math and social studies textbooks said to include “critical race theory” and “social justice” material. (read the full story here)
First Heat Protection Standards for Workers Proposed by Biden Administration. The rule, which had been promised early in the Biden administration, faces legal and political challenges. (read the full story here)
In New York’s Finger Lakes Region, Long-Haul Garbage Trucks Trigger Town Resolutions Against Landfill Expansion. Skaneateles, Geneva, Interlaken and Yates County have all passed resolutions opposing expansion plans of Seneca Meadows Inc., the state’s largest landfill. (read the full story here)
Billions of Gallons of Freshwater Are Dumped at Florida’s Coasts. Environmentalists Want That Water in the Everglades. Environmental groups want to use engineered wetlands to help replenish the river of grass and address toxic algae. The state’s politically powerful sugar growers say those wetlands are for their own polluted water. (read the full story here)
UN action on gender and climate faces uphill climb as warming hurts women. At June’s Bonn talks, governments made little progress on gender equality while evidence shows women bear a heavy climate burden. (read the full story here)
How America’s ‘most powerful lobby’ is stifling efforts to reform oil well cleanup in state after state. In New Mexico, oil companies agreed to work with regulators to find a solution to the state’s more than 70,000 unplugged wells. After months of negotiations, the industry turned against the bill it helped shape. (read the full story here)
A Biden effort to conserve oceans is leaving out Indigenous peoples, report finds. U.S. Pacific territories bear the burden of marine protected areas while missing out on economic benefits. (read the full story here)
Restoring the Great Salt Lake would support environmental justice as well as have ecological benefits, researchers say. Inland seas around the world are drying up due to increasing human water use and accelerating climate change, and their desiccation is releasing harmful dust that pollutes the surrounding areas during acute dust storms. (read the full story here)