Environmental Justice

"Lisa Emery loves to talk about her “boys.” With each word, the respiratory therapist’s face softens and shines with pride. But keep her talking, and it doesn’t take long for that passion to switch to hurt. She knows the names, ages, families and the intimate stories of each one’s scarred lungs. She worries about a whole community of West Virginia coal miners — including a growing number in their 30s and 40s — who come to her for help while getting sicker and sicker from what used to be considered an old-timer’s disease: black lung."

"The Trump administration is rapidly reshaping the Environmental Protection Agency to weaken enforcement against polluters and slash regulation of industry, according to data reviewed by The Washington Post, with the government shutdown accelerating the shift."

"The environmental group gave up its singular focus on climate change for a broader agenda. The ensuing internal strife left it weakened as it takes on the Trump administration."

"A federal judge in Rhode Island ordered the Trump administration to release full funding for November’s food assistance benefits by Friday. It comes after the partial funding disbursed by the Agriculture Department earlier this week had yet to reach those who qualify for the benefits."

"Millions of Americans apply each winter for help with their energy bills. Now the funding is in limbo."

"World leaders warned Thursday that time is running short for urgent and decisive action to prevent the worst effects of climate change, and blasted the United States for its retreat from those efforts, as they gathered at the edge of Brazil’s Amazon rainforest for the annual United Nations climate summit."

"In one of the poorest states in America, the local utility earns massive profits producing dirty energy with almost no pushback from state regulators."

"Exxon funded rightwing thinktanks to spread climate change denial across Latin America, according to hundreds of previously unpublished documents that reveal a coordinated campaign to make the global south “less inclined” to support the UN-led climate treaty process."

"Communities around Louisiana, in a bid to get more information about the environmental and health impacts of industrial pollution, are taking data collection into their own hands — despite a law restricting how their research findings can be used to enforce state regulations. "