Freda Linder walks daily past a small sign donned with 20 words in Crescent Park Apartments, a majority-Black housing complex in Northern California’s Bay Area. “WARNING,” the placard reads. “This area contains chemicals known to the state of California to cause cancer, birth defects, or other reproductive harm.” Linder lives in Richmond, a city of […]
Climate Change
Posted inClimate Change, Environmental Justice, Partner Content
History of Racism Leaves Black Californians Most at Risk from Oil and Gas Drilling, Research Shows
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. Decades before movie moguls produced celluloid heroes, oil claimed the spotlight in Los Angeles. California’s oil industry took off in the mid-1870s just 30 miles […]
Posted inClimate Change, Environmental Justice
A Growing Call for Climate Reparations, Explained
America is finally joining the global movement of wealthy nations agreeing to pay poorer countries for the damage they’ve endured because of climate change. To the dismay of many Republican legislators, last year the Biden administration agreed to participate in the United Nations’ fund for “loss and damage,” also known as climate reparations. Although the […]
Posted inClimate Change, Environmental Justice, Partner Content
Long burdened by environmental racism, activists in Memphis are turning the tide
This story was originally published by The 19th. First, the butterflies disappeared. Then, the family dog died; and then the neighbors did, too. But Marquita Bradshaw’s biggest loss of those adolescent days was probably her great-grandmother. Susie Hall died in 1995 after developing uterine and kidney cancers. “We lost our matriarch. … She was the […]
Posted inClimate Change, Environmental Justice
Black Americans Are Moving to Phoenix in Historic Numbers. Few Are Finding a Better Life.
This story was produced in partnership with High Country News. In late October 2012, the 80 mph winds of Hurricane Sandy pelted the tiny suburb of Pennington, New Jersey, where Brian Watson worked. Watson’s job as a fraud analyst for Bank of America Merrill Lynch required him to be on call 24/7 despite the severe […]
Posted inClimate Change, Environmental Justice
Meet the Trailblazing Black LGBTQ Official at ‘Ground Zero’ for Climate Justice
In 1969, a state-mandated consent decree desegregated the school system in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Forty years later, continuing conflict over that desegregation effort in the city — evenly split between Black and white residents — inspired a young Davante Lewis’ first foray into public service. His high school was strapped for cash and required much-needed […]
Posted inClimate Change, Environmental Justice
Addressing Seasonal Depression in Black Communities Impacted by Climate Change
For years, Black Twitter has affectionately named the gloomy, drawn-out winter months as “cuffing season,” made perfect by dropping temperatures and “cuddle weather.” It’s when you hole in with your chosen partner or community, binge-watch television, and, if you’re lucky, crank up the heater while darkness takes over outside. But the winter months are not […]
Posted inClimate Change, Environmental Justice
Can Biden’s New Environmental Justice Leader Make Climate a Public Priority?
Jalonne White-Newsome sees a path towards climate justice despite the seeming “insurmountable barrier” created by a conservative Supreme Court.
Posted inClimate Change, Environmental Justice
How Will Climate Change Affect the Search for a New Black Mecca in the South?
Rhiana Gunn-Wright knows Black life in America is fragile — by design. The idea of “home” has constantly been threatened: Slavery and segregation legally dictated where Black Americans could live for centuries, and the residual effects of those racist institutions continue to guide where they plant their roots. When you think about it, Gunn-Wright says, […]
Posted inClimate Change, Environmental Justice
These Maps Show the Risks of the New Great Migration
When the coronavirus began its deadly sweep through the streets of New York City, Pilar Johnson knew she needed an escape route. The convergence of rising living costs, growing segregation, and a tight job market had already pushed out more than 200,000 Black residents since 2000. The pandemic was the last straw for Johnson. Once […]