Superfund. The word, at least for me, conjures up images an empty warehouse filled with metal drums leaking toxic sludge, dirt barely covering a hazardous waste sites, maybe some illegal dumping. This Tuesday, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency added 10 sites to its “Superfund” priority cleanup list, and proposed 15 more for consideration. One of the […]
Climate change
Posted inMarch 7, 2011: High Tension
Crowdsourcing helps tackle environmental injustice in California’s Imperial Valley
The border city of Calexico, Calif. — population 27,000; 95 percent Latino; 25 percent poverty rate — is the kind of place where environmental laws are enforced last, if at all. But a local task force of residents, academics, and environment and health officials hope to change that. Last year, they launched the Imperial Visions […]
Posted inBlog
An atlas of equity
Portland, OR often receives credit for green leadership, but that doesn’t mean that the city is free from environmental risks. Like anywhere else, the commerce, industry and daily activities of millions of people in Portland’s metropolitan area combine to strain the environment; and, like in any city, Portland’s disparate neighborhoods don’t feel these strains evenly. […]
Posted inGoat
Missing the subdivisions for the trees
At first it’s hard to tell what we’re looking at. The tiny plane bumps and bounces through turbulence that warns of an incoming winter storm, repeatedly bucking my too-tall self (despite tight seatbelt) into the low ceiling and knocking the lens of my camera against the window. Beyond the smeared glass, rolling mountains spread eastward […]
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Will the EJ legacy of Southwest coal be addressed?
I have been busy this year chasing my two young ones around the house trying to get giddy little happy people to take a few moments from their daily joy to drink some water, gulp vitamins and brush their teeth before bed so they can stay healthy. The need to play is often prioritized over […]
Posted inGoat
Coal in the courts
When environmentalists began taking the climate change fight to the courts, their focus was strategically narrow. In the early part of this decade, most climate-related lawsuits focused on taking out the most immediate threat: new coal-fired power plants. It was a logical approach; had a slew of new plants come online, “they would’ve overwhelmed any […]
Posted inFebruary 7, 2011: Obama and the West
Religious leaders shouldn’t duck their responsibility
On a Sunday morning last fall, leaders from Christian, Jewish, Muslim and other faiths led the third annual “blessing of the waves” in Huntington Beach, Calif. The event celebrated the ocean’s spiritual value and also protested marine pollution, including the rapid acidification of the world’s oceans associated with climate change. Over 3,000 people participated, and […]
Posted inGoat
Tricking beetles and protecting whitebark pine – a video
Whitebark pine are an important forage species for grizzly bear, as we — and others — have written. They’re also a species that writers and nature lovers seem to specially connect with; our own Ed Marston and Earthjustice’s Doug Honnold have written odes to them in these pages. Writer and photographer David Gonzales has founded […]
Posted inRange
Washington’s bill of (coal-free) health
By Jennifer Langston Under a bill introduced today, Washington State would stop burning dirty coal for electricity within its borders. But aside from healthier air and clearer views of Mt Rainier, would the state’s electricity customers notice any difference? Probably not. Washington’s only coal-fired power plant – located n Centralia and owned by the Canadian […]
Posted inGoat
When deer mice attack
Graying, skeletal aspens and fluid-filled lungs. No connection, right? Wrong. This little guy is a deer mouse. Cute, sure. But deer mice are the primary vectors for the “sin nombre” form of hantavirus — a nasty bug transmitted primarily through the rodent’s feces and urine which causes flu-like symptoms and, in later stages of infection, […]
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Tribes: The Overlooked U.S. Climate Delegate
Editors Note: This piece is cross posted from Mother Earth Journal, where reporter Terri Hansen writes about indigenous people and the environment. The Cancun dust has settled, though I can’t shake the images of tourist luxury. As one of 10 Earth Journalism Network U.S. Climate Media Fellows I spent two weeks last December reporting the […]
Posted inGoat
New Mexico caps again
A New Mexico regulatory board took another stand against climate change last week, approving its second set of greenhouse gas rules in just over a month. The first round, OK’d by the state’s Environmental Improvement Board in November, laid the groundwork for New Mexico’s participation in the Western Climate Initiative, a regional cap-and-trade program, and […]
Posted inDecember 6, 2010: Toxic Past, Toxic Present
Western Climate Initiative moves forward, smaller than imagined
The toxic politics of cap-and-trade
Posted inDecember 6, 2010: Toxic Past, Toxic Present
A contaminated history unearthed
Yellow Dirt: An American Story of a Poisoned Land and a People BetrayedJudy Pasternak336 pages, hardcover: $26.Free Press, 2010. In 2006, the L.A. Times ran an exposé by reporter Judy Pasternak on the effects of uranium mining in the Navajo homeland. The articles had a remarkable impact, inspiring congressional hearings and Superfund cleanups. But Pasternak […]
Posted inGoat
What to do with all that carbon?
Capturing carbon dioxide emitted by power plants and factories and storing it in deep geologic formations could prove a critical arrow in the quiver of efforts to combat climate change. Plus there’s a bonus: it makes coal and natural gas — and the reliable energy they produce — a whole lot cleaner, protecting them from […]
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Good news and bad news for New Mexico’s Navajo communities
At the end of a year defined by the Gulf oil spill, failed climate legislation, and an ever-mounting urgency as the weather intensifies, federal leadership makes strides towards clean energy at the same time that leaders continue to dig in their heels in favor of fossil fuels. And, as everywhere in the world, indigenous peoples […]
Posted inGoat
If you can’t catch it, you can’t cut it
Let’s get this one thing straight: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s plan for regulating greenhouse-gas emissions from stationary sources under the Clean Air Act — a “tailoring rule,” which goes into effect January 2, 2011 — is nothing radical. States may be suing, a bipartisan swarm of senators may be politicking to stop it, energy […]
Posted inNovember 8, 2010: Dr. No
Coal reality check
It’s a risky time to invest in coal. Production was down almost 8 percent in 2009, and consumption fell even further. Environmentalists have fought new coal-fired power plants tooth and nail — and won. Some plants are already planning a switch to natural gas. Meanwhile, the shape of future federal carbon regulation, a looming threat […]