HOUSTON — With their heads bowed, eyes shut, and hands locked, the Southwest Crossing Community Initiative starts every meeting with a prayer: “Please, protect us from a deadly explosion.” “And please, cover us … and ease our minds.” Southwest Crossing is an aging community in Houston where nearly 20% of residents are over 65. They […]
Environmental Justice
Posted inAir Pollution, Environmental Justice
A Detroit Community Fights to Survive as Its Industrial Neighbor Grows
DETROIT— For decades, Detroit has been a poster child for the economic drain of decreased manufacturing across the Midwest. The city has lost hundreds of thousands of mostly Black residents and experienced bankruptcy. Its East Canfield neighborhood hasn’t been spared — but in a rarity, its demise has been caused by industrial growth, not decline. […]
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 inEnvironmental Justice
In Chicago, Environmental Justice Was Birthed by a Black Woman. A New Podcast Tells Her Story.
Like many Black women throughout the history of social movements, Hazel Johnson’s contributions to bettering her community on the South Side of Chicago — and the rest of the country — are often forgotten. But in the 1970s and 1980s, when industrial polluters largely evaded consequences, the Altgeld Gardens public housing resident was one of […]
Posted inEnvironmental Justice
How a Flooding Crisis Unearthed Another Environmental Injustice in Rural Alabama
Brought on by years of incessant flooding, Timothy Williams’ home is sinking — and fast. Over the past few years, it’s sagged nearly 2 feet deeper into the constantly swelling and shrinking clay soil across rural Coffee County, Alabama. He’s not alone. Roughly a dozen of his neighbors in the historically Black community have spent […]
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 […]
Posted inEnvironmental Justice
Biden’s EPA Has Resolved Only One Civil Rights Complaint Brought Since 2021
The Environmental Protection Agency’s recent dismissals of three cases that would fix some of the problems in “Cancer Alley” underscores a difficult complaint process that works against Black communities’ best interests. They fall in line with a history of neglecting marginalized residents and failing to fully realize the legal power of the Civil Rights Act […]
Posted inEnvironmental Justice
Biden’s Big Plan for Environmental Justice May Actually Increase the Racial Pollution Gap
A Biden administration initiative that assured at least 40% of federal investments in climate and clean energy would reach “disadvantaged” communities may prove costly to environmental justice goals because of a metric related to race, a new study reveals. A policy analysis published in Science this week and conducted by a dozen of the country’s […]
