COP30 negotiators from around the world gather next week in Belém, Brazil, at the mouth of the Amazon River. Our Voices of Environmental Justice columnist Yessenia Funes says it’s a vital opportunity to engage with the Indigenous peoples who help protect the vast rainforest region — even for environmental reporters not there in person. Here’s how to tell their stories.
Covering Climate Now and SEJ member Sammy Roth, who writes the new newsletter Climate-Colored Goggles, have convened a panel of leading climate scientists to dissect the Gates memo and respond to journalists’ questions about it. 4:30 p.m. ET.
Efforts under Trump 2.0 to cut funding for environmental justice programs may be the new reality, but the uncertain status of hundreds of Biden-era grants offers important local stories. And as Reporter’s Toolbox finds, a database that rescued federal grant information helps make that reporting possible, with coding by congressional district to put the conflict into political context.
Enter your film to be shown at the European Geosciences Union annual assembly, May 3-8, 2026, in Vienna, Austria and online.
"Earlier this month, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) reported that the global population of green turtles has increased nearly 30 percent since the 1970s, thanks to a suite of international actions aimed at saving the animals."
"Oil companies have polluted groundwater and the environment by injecting oil field waste deep into the earth at pressures high enough to violate Oklahoma law. ... The regulatory agency says it ... has not fined any company for wastewater leaks in the last five years."
"Melissa, one of the strongest storms on record to make landfall in the Caribbean, began to dissipate on Friday after sowing devastation across much of Jamaica, cutting off communities in Cuba, drenching Haiti and leaving at least 50 dead."
"Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, has quietly retreated from plans to eliminate Energy Star, a popular program whose iconic blue labels help consumers choose energy-efficient dishwashers, refrigerators and other home appliances."
"Even though it delivers airtight data and analysis essential for understanding and managing the risks industrial societies pose to water, land, and health, the U.S. Geological Survey is a federal science agency that rarely attracts public notice."
"Sludge and septage are spread across around half a million acres statewide, but most of it has never been tested for PFAS"
Links
[1] https://www.sej.org/publications/voices-environmental-justice/tapping-cop30-cover-indigenous-issues
[2] https://www.sej.org/calendar/bill-gates-memo-climate-scientists-respond-urgency
[3] https://www.sej.org/publications/reporters-toolbox/find-environmental-justice-stories-grants-data
[4] https://www.sej.org/calendar/deadline-geocinema-egu26
[5] https://www.sej.org/headlines/after-decades-green-sea-turtles-have-been-saved-extinction-now
[6] https://insideclimatenews.org/news/31102025/green-sea-turtles-protections/
[7] https://www.sej.org/headlines/oklahoma-regulators-failed-stop-toxic-wastewater-oil-field
[8] https://www.propublica.org/article/oklahoma-oil-gas-wastewater-pollution
[9] https://www.sej.org/headlines/melissa-dissipates-leaves-destruction-and-least-50-dead-caribbean
[10] https://northlandnewsradio.com/2025/10/31/melissa-dissipates-leaves-destruction-and-at-least-50-dead-in-caribbean/
[11] https://www.sej.org/headlines/epa-retreats-plans-end-energy-star-program
[12] https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2025/11/02/nation-world-news/epa-retreats-from-plans-to-end-the-energy-star-program/amp/
[13] https://www.sej.org/headlines/traces-old-farm-chemicals-contaminate-water-across-us
[14] https://www.circleofblue.org/2025/opinion/traces-of-old-farm-chemicals-contaminate-water-across-the-u-s/
[15] https://www.sej.org/headlines/sludge-used-fertilizer-across-wisconsin-how-much-tainted-pfas
[16] https://www.wpr.org/news/sludge-spread-wisconsin-farmland-unclear-tainted-pfas
[17] https://www.sej.org/search_results
[18] https://www.sej.org/search_results?page=62
[19] https://www.sej.org/search_results?page=59
[20] https://www.sej.org/search_results?page=60
[21] https://www.sej.org/search_results?page=61
[22] https://www.sej.org/search_results?page=64
[23] https://www.sej.org/search_results?page=65
[24] https://www.sej.org/search_results?page=66
[25] https://www.sej.org/search_results?page=67
[26] https://www.sej.org/search_results?page=4915