Ice Roads, a Lifeline For First Nations, Disappearing As Canada Warms
"Indigenous peoples are navigating the slow collapse of winter roads — and an even slower pace of help."
Source: Grist, 05/16/2025
EJToday: Top Headlines
EJToday is a daily weekday digest of top environment/energy news and information of interest to environmental journalists, independently curated by Editor Joseph A. Davis. Sign up below to receive in your inbox. For queries, email EJToday@SEJ.org. For more info, read an EJToday FAQ. Plus, follow EJToday on social media at @EJTodayNews, and flag stories of note by including the @EJTodayNews handle on your posts. And tell us how to make EJToday even better by taking this brief survey.
Want to join the EJToday team? Volunteer time commitments can vary from just an hour a month up to a daily contribution, and would involve helping to curate content of interest. To learn more, reach out to the director of publications, Adam Glenn, at sejournaleditor@sej.org.
Note: Members have additional options to choose from (you'll need your log-in info).
"After Disasters, AmeriCorps Was Everywhere. What Happens When It’s Gone?"
"After devastating fires tore through Los Angeles in January, a crew of more than 300 young people showed up to help, many of them members of the national service program AmeriCorps." "Elon Musk's DOGE has gutted the 30-year-old national service agency."
Source: Grist, 05/16/2025"Trump Admin Moves to 'Neuter' America's Most Important Wildlife Law"
"For more than 50 years, the Endangered Species Act has helped scores of species — from whooping cranes to red wolves to California condors — claw their way back from the edge of extinction. Its success has made it supremely popular with the American public — far more popular, for instance, than Congress. But now, like all those species it helps protect, the law itself is in grave peril. The Trump administration, Congress, and their allies have launched a barrage of legislation, litigation and regulatory maneuvers in recent months that together could tear the teeth out of our most powerful wildlife conservation statute."
Source: Public Domain, 05/16/2025"Trump Administration Moves to End Major Conservation Rule"
"The Trump administration is set to reverse a sweeping conservation rule for public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the latest in a series of actions to reverse Biden-era environmental protections. Announced without much public fanfare in early April, the sudden reversal of the rule, which sought to put conservation on an equal playing field with industrial activities, is a blow to conservation efforts, said environmental groups."
Source: Sierra, 05/16/2025"Trump Admin Launches Far-Reaching Audit Of Energy Awards"
"The Trump administration on Thursday announced a wide-ranging review of more than $15 billion in federal awards approved under President Joe Biden."
Source: E&E News, 05/16/2025Toxic Cleanups in San Francisco Take 4+ Years Longer in Communities of Color
"Toxic site cleanups take longer in parts of San Francisco where fewer residents are white, a new data analysis from the San Francisco Public Press shows. The analysis also shows that a higher proportion of residents who are Black, Indigenous and other people of color in an area correlates directly with longer cleanup durations."
Source: SF Public Press, 05/16/2025"China’s Mega Dam Project Poses Big Risks for Asia’s Grand Canyon"
"China’s plans to build a massive hydro project in Tibet have sparked fears about the environmental impacts on the world’s longest and deepest canyon. It has also alarmed neighboring India, which fears that China could hold back or even weaponize river water it depends on."
Source: YaleE360, 05/16/2025"Green Gold: Why Seagrass Is A Hidden Climate Hero"
"The destruction of seagrass could derail progress in reining in planet-warming emissions and cost billions in environmental damage."
"JOHANNESBURG - Alongside forests, soil and wetlands, another powerful natural carbon absorber critical to tackling climate change lies hidden beneath the ocean surface: seagrass.
The loss of these underwater meadows, also known as blue carbon, could hobble efforts to tackle climate change, both financially and environmentally, a new study has found.
So what exactly is this marine vegetation, and what else did the research find?
Source: Thomson Reuters Fdn., 05/16/2025"EPA Ditches Historic ‘Forever Chemicals’ Rule"
"The Trump administration will roll back a landmark regulation on “forever chemicals” in drinking water, two weeks after EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin promised to address contamination from the toxic, man-made substances."
Source: E&E News, 05/15/2025Georgia Shields Maker Of Roundup Weed Killer From Some Cancer Claims
"In a victory for global agrochemical maker Bayer, Georgia has become the second state to shield pesticide manufacturers from some lawsuits claiming that they failed to warn customers of potential dangers."
Source: AP, 05/15/2025"EPA Tells Scientists To Apply For New Jobs Within The Agency"
"Political leaders at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have told scientists there to apply to new jobs, implying that those who do not may be fired, according to an official with a union representing the agency’s employees."
Source: The Hill, 05/15/2025"Another PFAS-Containing Pesticide Headed For US Registration"
"US regulators are poised to approve a pesticide made with a controversial class of toxic chemicals, stoking concerns of new risks for farms across the country."
Source: The New Lede, 05/15/2025NOAA Seeks To Reassign Employees To Understaffed Weather Service Offices
"The Trump administration is seeking to reassign other employees to “critically understaffed” offices in the National Weather Service (NWS), according to an internal document. The move to reassign these other employees comes after the administration fired hundreds of people at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), including some staff at the NWS."
Source: The Hill, 05/15/2025"Louisiana: Controversial Denka Plant Suspends Production After Dire Losses"
"A controversial chemical plant in the centre of Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley” region has indefinitely suspended all production following dire financial results, the facility’s operators announced on Tuesday."
Source: Guardian, 05/15/2025"Eight Of The Top 10 Online Shows Are Spreading Climate Misinformation"
"Often backed by large advertising budgets, a new breed of climate denial is gaining popularity."
Source: Yale Climate Connections, 05/15/2025
