Justice Archives - Inside Climate News

The Libertarian Developer Looming Over West Maui’s Water Conflict

By Anita Hofschneider and Jake Bittle, Grist — Wed, 29 Nov 2023 09:55:00 +0000

Peter Martin spent decades guzzling water around Lāhainā. Then came the fire.

By Anita Hofschneider and Jake Bittle, Grist

This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Sign up for Grist’s weekly newsletter here.

Cleveland Resilience Projects Could Boost Communities’ Access to Water and Green Spaces

By Kathiann M. Kowalski — Tue, 28 Nov 2023 17:24:00 +0000

Planners stress the need for ongoing community input from underserved communities as proposals evolve to reduce flooding from extreme weather.

By Kathiann M. Kowalski

CLEVELAND—Climate resiliency proposals could help reduce flooding on Cleveland’s east side while increasing recreational access to shoreline and stream areas for people in underserved communities. But, planners stress, ongoing input from underserved communities will be vital for final decisions—including whether some proposed work moves ahead at all.

“Carbon Cowboys” Chasing Emissions Offsets in the Amazon Keep Forest-Dwelling Communities in the Dark

By Sam Schramski and Cícero Pedrosa Neto — Tue, 28 Nov 2023 10:00:00 +0000

Indigenous and traditional groups in the forest are rarely consulted about carbon credit projects they see as the latest gold rush on their lands, and question the community and climate benefits the projects promise.

By Sam Schramski and Cícero Pedrosa Neto

“The first time I heard about carbon credits, I didn’t understand what they were about at all,” says Queila Couto, a lawyer, while staring into the Itacuruçá River in the Brazilian state of Pará, “and it was bad.”

A New Law Regulating the Cosmetics Industry Expands the FDA’s Power But Fails to Ban Toxic Chemicals in Beauty Products

By Victoria St. Martin — Mon, 27 Nov 2023 10:00:00 +0000

The Modernization of Cosmetics Regulation Act empowers the FDA to recall harmful cosmetics. Advocates want to know why manufacturers still don’t have to prove their products are safe before they’re sold to millions of consumers.

By Victoria St. Martin

Dereliction of Beauty: Second in a series on how lax regulation of beauty care products victimizes women of color.

Black Women Face Disproportionate Risks From Largely Unregulated Toxic Substances in Beauty and Personal Care Products

By Victoria St. Martin — Sun, 26 Nov 2023 10:00:00 +0000

The FDA has finally proposed a ban on formaldehyde in hair straighteners, and new regulations on the cosmetics industry take effect next month. But one activist called them “a floor, not a ceiling.”

By Victoria St. Martin

Dereliction of Beauty: First in a series on how lax regulation of beauty care products victimizes women of color.

Ahead of COP28, a Call for a ‘Tangible Phase-Out of Fossil Fuels as Soon as Possible’

By Bob Berwyn — Wed, 22 Nov 2023 22:06:16 +0000

As the world’s largest oil and gas producer, the U.S. could be a spoiler in global efforts to wind down the use of oil, gas and coal.

By Bob Berwyn

A decades-long push by small island nations and other developing countries to put fossil fuels squarely at the center of United Nations climate talks got a boost this week as the European Union Parliament passed a resolution calling for a “tangible phase-out of fossil fuels as soon as possible.”

As New York Officials Push Clean Hydrogen Project, Indigenous Nation Sees a Threat to Its Land

By Nicholas Kusnetz — Wed, 22 Nov 2023 10:00:00 +0000

The Tonawanda Seneca see the industrial development next door as a threat to the woods they depend on for game and medicines, and the failure of the company and permitting agencies to consult them as another assault on their treaty rights.

By Nicholas Kusnetz

When Chief Roger Hill speaks about the clean energy project going up along the border of the Tonawanda Indian Reservation, he turns quickly to the past. Hill’s Seneca ancestors once controlled a large territory across the rolling, wooded hills in what is now western New York, but most of their lands were taken through a series of treaties that shrank the reservation to its current size.

Corruption and Rights Abuses Are Flourishing in Lithium Mining Across Africa, a New Report Finds

By Katie Surma — Wed, 15 Nov 2023 10:00:00 +0000

The global clean energy transition could be a game changer for Africa, but exploitation of miners continues as many foreign mining companies ignore local opposition.

By Katie Surma

On a Sunday afternoon in March 2023, Darlington Vito was shot in the head outside an industrial lithium mine in Masvingo Province, Zimbabwe.

Environmental Justice a Key Theme Throughout Biden’s National Climate Assessment

By Kristoffer Tigue, Georgina Gustin, Liza Gross, Victoria St. Martin — Tue, 14 Nov 2023 10:00:00 +0000

The report finds that societal factors, including historic racism, have shaped the climate reality for many communities of color. It also details the impacts of climate change on Indigenous people, public health and agriculture.

By Kristoffer Tigue, Georgina Gustin, Liza Gross, Victoria St. Martin

WASHINGTON—Whether it’s the likelihood of living in a flood zone, lacking access to parks or having fewer resources to recover from a destructive storm, the consequences of climate change are not experienced equally in the United States. That’s a key message from some of the nation’s leading climate scientists, public health experts and economists in a landmark federal report released Tuesday.

Inside Climate News Freelancer Anne Marshall-Chalmers Honored for her Feature Story Showing California Wildfires Plague Mobile Home Residents

By ICN Editors — Mon, 13 Nov 2023 23:08:58 +0000

The Society of Environmental Journalists said her first-place story “finds human beings whose situation and personal traumas easily speak to a situation similar to so many more communities in the U.S.”

By ICN Editors

The Society of Environmental Journalists announced last week that Anne Marshall-Chalmers, a freelancer for Inside Climate News and former ICN reporting fellow, won first place for feature writing in its 22nd annual awards for Reporting on the Environment for her story on the convergence of California’s wildfire and affordable housing crises.