Projects Archive - Inside Climate News

Indigenous, Essential, Exploited

Wed, 06 Mar 2024 22:51:46 +0000

Indigenous, Essential, Exploited

California Policies Leave Indigenous Farmworkers Particularly Vulnerable to Climate Disasters

A Catastrophic Flood on California’s Central Coast Has Plunged Already Marginalized Indigenous Farmworkers Into Crisis

Dying in the Fields as Temperatures Soar

By Liza Gross, Peter Aldhous

The Education of Judith Kimerling

Wed, 06 Dec 2023 20:22:56 +0000

The Education of Judith Kimerling

An American Lawyer’s Epic Struggle to Stop Expanding Oil Operations Harming Indigenous Peoples in Ecuador’s Amazon

Greenhouse Gases That Live Forever

A class of highly potent and largely unregulated greenhouse gases released by the aluminum, chemical and electric power industries remain in the atmosphere for thousands of years. Once they are released, they are essentially permanent additions to the atmosphere. Simple measures like the use of best available emissions abatement technology and leak detection equipment could bring emissions of these “immortal” pollutants to near zero.

Something in the Water

Tue, 04 Oct 2022 13:56:22 +0000

Something in the Water

California Regulators Say Growing Crops with Oil Wastewater is Safe – But They Don’t Really Know

In Kern County, California drillers need to inject a lot of water into their wells to get the oil out. It resurfaces contaminated with arsenic, uranium, underground toxins and chemicals used in extraction. Regulators say it’s safe to use that water on crops: every year 12.4 billion gallons of it gets used to irrigate California farmland.

We took a look at the science behind the claim in the series of stories below. We found scant evidence, conflicts of interest and potential dangers to an unsuspecting public.

Our findings are vital to climate and energy policymaking, not only in California but in other states imitating the practice, and everywhere California’s agricultural output is consumed.

A California Water Board Assures the Public that Oil Wastewater Is Safe for Irrigation, But Experts Say the Evidence Is Scant

By Liza Gross

California Regulators Banned Fracking Wastewater for Irrigation, but Allow Wastewater From Oil Drilling. Scientists Say There’s Little Difference

Drought-Wracked California Allows Oil Companies to Use High-Quality Water. But Regulators’ Error-Strewn Records Make Accurate Accounting Nearly Impossible

Projects Archive - Inside Climate News

Indigenous, Essential, Exploited

Indigenous, Essential, Exploited

California Policies Leave Indigenous Farmworkers Particularly Vulnerable to Climate Disasters

A Catastrophic Flood on California’s Central Coast Has Plunged Already Marginalized Indigenous Farmworkers Into Crisis

By Liza Gross

Dying in the Fields as Temperatures Soar

By Liza Gross, Peter Aldhous

Milking It

Milking It

How Big Ag has avoided reporting the largest source of methane emissions in the nation

A Texas Dairy Ranks Among the State’s Biggest Methane Emitters. But Don’t Ask the EPA or the State About It.

An analysis by Inside Climate News, building on work by Climate TRACE, shows that tracking cattle emissions, site by site, is doable. But government databases specifically exempt agricultural operations from their greenhouse gas accounting.

By Phil McKenna, Georgina Gustin, Peter Aldhous

California’s Top Methane Emitter is a Vast Cattle Feedlot. For Now, Federal and State Greenhouse Gas Regulators Are Giving It a Pass.

By Phil McKenna, Georgina Gustin, Peter Aldhous

Reducing Methane From Livestock Is Critical for Stabilizing the Climate, but Congress Continues to Block Farms From Reporting Emissions Anyway

By Georgina Gustin, Phil McKenna

A Battle Is Underway Over California’s Lucrative Dairy Biogas Market

By Emma Foehringer Merchant

Is California Overstating the Climate Benefit of Dairy Manure Methane Digesters?

By Phil McKenna

The Education of Judith Kimerling

The Education of Judith Kimerling

An American Lawyer’s Epic Struggle to Stop Expanding Oil Operations Harming Indigenous Peoples in Ecuador’s Amazon

Judith Kimerling’s 1991 ‘Amazon Crude’ Exposed the Devastation of Oil Exploration in Ecuador. If Only She Could Make it Stop

After her start as a young lawyer working on the Love Canal case, Kimerling refused to take part in class-action litigation that consumed decades and victimized Ecuador’s Indigenous peoples. Now, her day in court has finally come on one group’s behalf.

By Katie Surma

Spanning Two Worlds, Judith Kimerling Explores Ecuador’s Rainforest and the Rule of Law That Might Save Those Who Live There

By Katie Surma

Dereliction of Beauty

Dereliction of Beauty

How Lax Regulation of Beauty Care Products Victimizes Women of Color

Black Women Face Disproportionate Risks From Largely Unregulated Toxic Substances in Beauty and Personal Care Products

The FDA has finally proposed a ban on formaldehyde in hair straighteners, and new regulations on the cosmetics industry take effect next month. But one activist called them “a floor, not a ceiling.”

By Victoria St. Martin

A New Law Regulating the Cosmetics Industry Expands the FDA’s Power But Fails to Ban Toxic Chemicals in Beauty Products

By Victoria St. Martin

For One Environmentalist, Warning Black Women About Dangerous Beauty Products Allows Them to Own Their Health

By Victoria St. Martin

Q&A: Ami Zota on the Hidden Dangers in Beauty Products—and Why Women of Color Are Particularly at Risk

By Victoria St. Martin

What’s in That Bottle?

Interview by Ainsely O’Neill and Steve Curwood, “Living on Earth”

Harm City

Harm City

The quest for environmental justice and climate adaptation in Baltimore

On a ‘Toxic Tour’ of Curtis Bay in South Baltimore, Visiting Academics and Activists See a Hidden Part of the City

Curtis Bay may be Baltimore’s most polluted community, surrounded by industrial facilities strangling the rowhouse neighborhood. The city now wants to close a local recreation center to make way for even more industry, continuing what activists say has been decades of environmental racism.

By Aman Azhar

Marvin Hayes Is Spreading ‘Compost Fever’ in Baltimore’s Neighborhoods. He Thinks it Might Save the City.

By Aman Azhar

Laurel Peltier Took On Multi-Million Dollar Private Energy Companies Scamming Baltimore’s Low-Income Households, One Victim at a Time

By Aman Azhar

In the Ambitious Bid to Reinvent South Baltimore, Justice Concerns Remain

By Aman Azhar

With $25 Million and Community Collaboration, Baltimore Is Becoming a Living Climate Lab

By Aman Azhar

Axed

Axed

How the U.S. Forest Service Depletes the Carbon Sink by Logging Mature Tree Stands

Most Federal Forest is Mature and Old Growth. Now the Question Is Whether to Protect It

The Biden administration completes inventory, launches plan for new rules on "climate resilience" for forests. Meanwhile, logging continues in carbon-rich federal stands.

By Marianne Lavelle

Log and Burn, or Leave Alone? Indiana Residents Fight US Forest Service Over the Future of Hoosier National Forest

By Marianne Lavelle

Longleaf Pine Restoration—a Major Climate Effort in the South—Curbs Its Ambitions to Meet Harsh Realities

By Marianne Lavelle, and Sarah Whites-Koditschek and Dennis Pillion of AL.com

State of Denial

State of Denial

How Texas’ Environmental Regulators Enable Big Oil and Other Polluters

The One-Mile Rule: Texas’ Unwritten and Arbitrary Policy Protects Big Polluters from Citizen Complaints

The policy has been denounced in lawsuits and petitions, but the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality denies that it exists.

By Dylan Baddour

Standards Still Murky for Disposing Oilfield Wastewater in Texas Rivers

By Martha Pskowski

Texas Quietly Moves to Formalize Acceptable Cancer Risk From Industrial Air Pollution. Public Health Officials Say it’s not Strict Enough.

By Dylan Baddour

Oil and Gas Companies Spill Millions of Gallons of Wastewater in Texas

By Martha Pskowski, and Peter Aldhous