This is the fifth installment of a yearlong Capital B series on the country’s current Black migration, the most significant movement of Black people in the U.S. in 50 years. It was made possible, in part, by a grant from the Environmental and Epistemic Justice Initiative at Wake Forest University. Stephanie Roberson wasn’t expecting this phone call from […]
Climate Change
Posted inAir Pollution, Climate Change, Environmental Justice
At COP28, a Growing Sense of Alarm Over Air Pollution Crisis
This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. It is republished with permission. Sign up for their newsletter here. In one home video, Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah bops to a choreographed Beyoncé dance. In another, she looks at the camera, and her mom, and plants a big […]
Posted inClimate Change, Environmental Justice
Black Louisianans Grapple With a Climate Change-Denying Governor-Elect
Every 100 minutes, a football field-sized piece of Louisianan land is swallowed by rising seas. But the state, the second-Blackest in America, recently elected a governor who says that climate change is a “hoax.” Just a year removed from Louisiana’s release of its first climate action plan, Black activists fear that Republican Gov.-elect Jeff Landry […]
Posted inClimate Change, Environmental Justice
New Fed Report Outlines the Unequal Burden of Climate Change
Athens, Alabama, isn’t unique – and that’s the issue. Streetlights are nonexistent, homes aren’t connected to the city’s sewage lines, and streets are poorly maintained. But in the town, which is the third-fastest growing in Alabama, residents say this reality disproportionately impacts Black people, contributing to residents being expected to live shorter lives than 94% […]
Posted inClimate Change, Environmental Justice
Why Upgrading the Nation’s Electric Grid Is a Racial Issue
Having grown up in Minnesota, the second-coldest state in the continental United States, Mia Brooks smiled at the thought of the year-round soggy Southern heat before moving to Texas. But as climate change makes summer more oppressive nationwide, it’s made Southern winters particularly more intense. Over the past two decades, the South’s winter and spring […]
Posted inClimate Change, Environmental Justice
Is Your Neighborhood at Risk? New Climate Risk Map Breaks Down 184 Hazards by Community
Globally, this year’s hottest summer on record was deadly, and researchers estimate that numbers will continue to rise in the United States. But those deaths aren’t equally distributed, and the disparities result from hundreds of different social, economic, and health factors, which leave Black and Indigenous people most susceptible to extreme heat. A new mapping […]
Posted inClimate Change, Environmental Justice
How the Country’s Largest Climate Bill Threatens to Leave Black Communities Behind
One year after the signing of the Inflation Reduction Act — the largest bill in U.S. history aimed at mitigating climate change — examples of the bill’s key policies harming Black communities continue to surface. Capital B has reported on several, including: Experts like Rhiana Gunn-Wright, climate policy director at the Roosevelt Institute, contend that […]
Posted inClimate Change, Environmental Justice, Partner Content
Marvin Hayes Is Spreading ‘Compost Fever’ in Baltimore. He Thinks it Might Save the City.
This story is published in partnership with Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for the ICN newsletter here. Marvin Hayes pulled up outside a beige brick home in Baltimore’s leafy Mount Washington neighborhood in his white cargo van to collect the bucket of food scraps his […]
Posted inClimate Change, Environmental Justice, Partner Content
On a ‘Toxic Tour’ of Baltimore, a Hidden Part of the City is Revealed
This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. It is republished with permission. Sign up for their newsletter here. Harm City: First in a series about environmental justice and climate adaptation in Baltimore’s neighborhoods. Nicole Fabricant seemed like a natural guide. A professor of anthropology at […]
Posted inClimate Change, Environmental Justice, Partner Content
A Tree Grows in Birmingham
This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. It is republished with permission. Sign up for their newsletter here. BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Sometimes Thomasine Jackson can’t get to work. Jackson, 65, said if there’s been a hard rain, water covers her entire street, leaving her […]