John Beard takes no pleasure in being right. In January, he told Capital B that he feared U.S. military action in Venezuela, which ultimately gave America preferential access to the South American nation’s vast oil reserves, would lead to disaster in southeast Texas. “The chickens have come home to roost,” Beard said over the phone, […]
Environmental Justice
Posted inEnvironmental Justice, Politics & Policy, Unsafe Water
This Black Town Has E. Coli in Its Drinking Water, but Feds Just Cut Support
At 76, Patricia Greenwood has given up on trying to name whatever now grows in the yard. It isn’t grass, she said. That died many floods ago and never returned. The water in her kitchen has never run clear in her memory. Even the dog refuses to drink it. She is one of many Cahokia […]
Posted inBlack Migration, Climate Change, Economic Development, Environmental Justice, Housing, Politics & Policy
The Black Mecca’s Climate Plan Is Costing Black Atlanta Residents Their Homes
This is the first story in a series on “climate gentrification” in Black neighborhoods. Support for this series was provided by The Neal Peirce Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting journalism on ways to make cities and their larger regions work better for all people. ATLANTA — By the time Atlanta hosts a World Cup […]
Posted inEconomy, Environmental Justice
Congo Miners Keep Dying for Minerals That Power U.S. Tech
When the earth caved in eastern Congo last week, more than 200 Congolese miners were buried alive. Those who survived spent the next several days pulling hundreds of bodies from the red clay that has become increasingly essential to powering the evolution of technology within the U.S. The collapse came less than a month after […]
Posted inEnvironmental Justice, Extreme Weather, Housing
Insurance Crisis Leaves Black Homeowners One Disaster Away From Homelessness
The insurance check to rebuild Zaire Calvin’s family properties came in at just under $300,000, a drop in the bucket compared to the roughly $2.1 million they had been worth. His family had five homes sprawled across two lots in the leafy suburb of Altadena, California, before the Eaton Fire unleashed its wrath, leveling both […]
Posted inEnvironmental Justice, Politics & Policy
Chemical Plants Keep Exploding, but Trump’s EPA Is Rolling Back Safety Rules Anyway
In September 2023, sirens blared again across Hopewell, Virginia, after oleum, commonly known as fuming sulfuric acid, leaked from the AdvanSix chemical plant. The plant, one of many big polluters in the predominantly Black city, had at least 66 violations of the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act at the time. And this […]
Posted inEnvironmental Justice, Partner Content
Drone Footage Shows Musk’s AI Power Plant Flouting Clean Air Regulations in Black Community
This story is from Floodlight, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates the powers stalling climate action, and produced in partnership with The Guardian. Sign up for Floodlight’s newsletter here. Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company is continuing to fuel its data centers with unpermitted gas turbines, according to a Floodlight visual investigation. Thermal drone footage shows xAI […]
Posted inAir Pollution, Environmental Justice, Health Equity
The U.S. Government Now Says Climate Change Doesn’t Harm Human Health
In one sweeping move, President Donald Trump on Thursday erased the scientific and legal foundation of America’s clean air protections and modern climate policies. For the first time in a generation, the U.S. government no longer officially recognizes carbon pollution as a danger to public health. Black people are exposed to more pollution, on average, […]
Posted inEnvironmental Justice
Black Residents Win Key Ruling in ‘Cancer Alley’ Environmental Racism Case
In a pocket of Louisiana known as “Cancer Alley,” Black residents bear the generational toll of “plantation country” becoming “pollution country.” Now, a federal district court has given those residents something they almost never get: a chance to put the whole system on trial. On Feb. 9, a judge in New Orleans ruled that groups […]
Posted inEnvironmental Justice
A Rural S.C. County Quietly Approved a $2B Data Center During the Winter Storm
As a rare winter storm bore down on South Carolina, bringing conditions that historically paralyze the state for days, local officials in a rural county quietly pushed through a massive $2.4 billion data center without most residents knowing it was even on the table. “There was a public meeting, which most were unaware of,” Jessie […]