Every year the US burns more than 34 million tons of garbage in incinerators. These plants are major pollution sources, and most are clustered in disadvantaged communities.
Nauru is best known as a site of Australian offshore asylum detention. But everyone on the island - not just refugees - is struggling with the issue of environmental change that threatens their lives and homes.
If we are truly invested in addressing the issue of marine plastic and offsetting the potential harms, we have to understand which fish eat plastic and which ones don’t.
Many people who live near large-scale livestock farms complain about noxious smells, air and water pollution and health risks. With little help from regulators, they are turning to lawsuits.
Michigan officials have ended distribution of free bottled water in Flint, but many residents believe the city’s water crisis is not over and have lost all trust in government.
Gentrification is not the only path for improving urban neighborhoods. A cleanup in Brooklyn and Queens offers another, more inclusive model that scholars have dubbed ‘just green enough.’
Most Americans don’t want incinerators in their neighborhoods, so waste management companies are burning trash in other facilities such as cement kilns. Is this a sustainable way to deal with garbage?
The Trump administration’s push for ‘energy dominance’ could spur a new wave of domestic uranium production. A scholar describes the damage done in past uranium booms and the visible scars that remain.
Much of the discussion about “Take a Knee” has overlooked the issues of justice and social exclusion, and especially environmental matters. That’s something to think about during the Super Bowl.
Chris Sellers, Stony Brook University (The State University of New York)
Five years after Superstorm Sandy, we see how disadvantaged social groups suffered more from the storm before and after – much as we’re seeing in Hurricanes Harvey and Maria.
New research shows that noise pollution in US cities is concentrated in poor and minority communities. Beyond regulating airplane noise, the US has done relatively little to curb noise pollution.
A recent study shows that large piles of coal produce measurable quantities of fine particulate air pollution within a 25-mile radius. Covering coal trains and storage piles could reduce the problem.
In Puerto Rico the Trump administration’s ‘energy dominance’ policy echoes colonial practices by fast-forwarding fossil fuel projects over community resistance.