In Alabama’s Black Belt, many residents have to hold their breath every time they attempt to flush their toilets because there’s a great chance that sewage will be sent back through their toilet bowls, bathtubs, and sinks. A group of environmental justice organizations filed a civil rights complaint last week against the state of Alabama, […]
Adam Mahoney
Adam Mahoney is the climate and environment reporter at Capital B. He can be reached by email at adam.mahoney@capitalbnews.org, on Bluesky, and on X at @AdamLMahoney.
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 inCriminal Justice, Policing
Violent Confrontations End Peaceful Stop Cop City Music Festival
A music festival organized by members of the Stop Cop City movement came to a fiery end Sunday evening, with at least 35 arrests. Roughly 1,000 people gathered near the Weelaunee Forest for the second day of a music festival. The unrest began when a group of protesters, separate from the music festival, entered the […]
Posted inEnvironmental Justice, Extreme Weather
A New Phenomenon Threatens to Disrupt Black Homeownership
As Black Americans have strived for generations to own homes — and then to afford to stay in them — a recent study has revealed a new phenomenon that threatens to disrupt Black homeownership once again. Thousands of American homes in flood-prone areas are overvalued by as much as $237 billion, making it even more […]
Posted inHousing, Money
Utility Bills and Shutoffs Are Rising. Here Are a Few Tips to Protect Yourself.
Wykeisha Howe and her eight children lost their home in 2018, sold by her landlord as Atlanta’s BeltLine development project attracted luxury developments and sharp increases in home values. After months of homelessness, Howe mustered up enough money to rent a new home, but the stability didn’t last long before the coronavirus pandemic disrupted her […]
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 inAir Pollution, Environmental Justice
Air Pollution and its Impact on Black Communities, Explained
Across the country, pollution has drastically declined since the 1970s because of the Clean Air Act’s expansion, but the health impact of dirty air is still widely felt. According to the World Health Organization, air pollution is associated with 7 million premature deaths annually, with nearly 200,000 of those happening in the United States. The […]
Posted inAir Pollution, Environmental Justice
The EPA Moves to Limit This Pollutant That Hurts Black People Disproportionately
Dail Chambers knows when the air is unsafe in her North St. Louis neighborhood. It’s when the sky “looks like a 1970s film,” she said. “There’s an orange haze over the whole neighborhood for weeks at a time.” The haze is a mixture of air pollutants anchored by a high concentration of fine-particulate matter, sometimes […]
Posted inHousing, Money
How These NYC Public Housing Residents Became Models for Tenant Rights Activism
This story was published in partnership with The City. Sign up for their newsletter here. The coronavirus pandemic laid bare the critical need for affordable housing across the United States. As millions lost their jobs, many Americans were only able to remain housed thanks to the advent of COVID-19 housing policies, including eviction moratoriums and rent freezes. […]
Posted inAir Pollution, Environmental Justice
In Brooklyn, Public Housing Tenants Struggle Against the ‘Slow Violence’ of Industrial Pollution
This story was published in partnership with The City. Sign up for their newsletter here. Elisha Fye jokes that he was a member of the “true little rascals” while growing up in the New York City Housing Authority’s Cooper Park Houses in North Brooklyn’s industrial corridor. The expansive 700-apartment housing project was erected in 1953, and Fye’s […]
