pollution

London Saw A Surprising Benefit To Fining High-Polluting Cars

September 24, 2024 Syris Valentine, Next City. Create! Car-Free Community, Cars, Children, emissions, England, Environment, Europe, London, pollution, Transportation, United Kingdom (UK)

Restricting the volume of high-emitting vehicles roaming city streets carries many benefits, from clearing the air to quieting the urban din and beyond. Recognition of this simple fact has led to the proliferation of clean air zones, designated regions within a city where vehicles must meet strict pollution standards or pay a fee to operate within it. At last count, over 300 such areas had been established across Europe. In London, which boasts the largest ultra-low emissions zone in the world, a study has found a secondary benefit: Kids started walking and biking to school more. In 2018 — the year before London’s rule took effect in the center of the city, and five years before the zone encompassed its entirety — researchers at the University of Cambridge and Queen Mary University saw in the impending policy an opportunity to conduct a natural experiment.

Honolulu City Council Passes Resolution To Protect Water From Navy Pollution

September 6, 2024 Sierra Club of Hawai‘i, Popular Resistance. Resist! Hawaii, pollution, Red Hill, US Navy, Water, Water Protectors

The Sierra Club of Hawaiʻi is deeply grateful to the Honolulu City Council for Wednesday's passage of Resolution 24-216, FD1, urging the Navy to heed the calls of the Honolulu Board of Water Supply and the Red Hill Community Representation Initiative for data needed to help keep our drinking water system safe from potentially catastrophic contamination. To be clear: the City Councilʻs no-nonsense call for more frequent and reliable data gathering and sharing by the U.S. Navy will be absolutely critical to tracking a contamination plume of approximately 200,000 to 2 million gallons of fuel, forever chemicals, and other hazardous substances that the Red Hill Facility has released since World War II.

Climate Activists Celebrate Shutting Down Major Polluter

August 18, 2024 Whitney Wildman, Fight Back! News. Resist! Climate Justice, Environment, Minneapolis, pollution

Minneapolis, MN – On August 16, over 100 activists and community members held a celebratory rally in response to winning the struggle to shut down a long-time polluter, Smith Foundry. The Smith Foundry is one of several heavy industrial sites located in the residential Minneapolis neighborhood of East Phillips, one of the most diverse and working-class neighborhoods in Minnesota. The city has long used East Phillips as its toxic dumping ground, and, as a result, East Phillips has some of the highest rates of asthma and cardiovascular disease in the state. Notably, Smith Foundry operated as the top lead polluter in the county, further poisoning an already environmentally overburdened community.

A Breath Of Fresh Air In San Diego Port Community

August 13, 2024 Roberto Camacho, Next City. Organize! California, Environment, pollution, San Diego

For decades, San Diego’s port communities like Barrio Logan and National City have been plagued with unhealthy air quality. Residents of communities bordering the 34 miles of coastline encompassed by the Port of San Diego face a barrage of toxic pollutants and other hazardous conditions from industrial shipyards, intersecting neighborhood freeways, and even the U.S. Navy. They believe these hazardous conditions would never be tolerated in San Diego’s more affluent areas. The fight for clean air has been a long, uphill battle for these working-class, historically Mexican-American and immigrant communities.

Airport Disruption Entered Fourth Day; Starmer’s Government A Target

July 28, 2024 The Canary. Resist! airplanes, Airports, Austria, Canada, climate crisis, Climate Justice, Montreal, pollution, Switzerland, The Netherlands, United Kingdom (UK)

On Saturday 27 July, peaceful protests took place in at least six cities across six countries in support of Oil Kills – an international uprising to end oil, gas and coal by 2030. Airport disruption was a key feature, again – with more arrests amid blockades. However, in the UK things went up a gear – as activists targeted Keir Starmer’s new Labour Party government. Across the UK, Switzerland, Austria, the Netherlands, the USA, and Canada, protesters are gathering to demand their governments commit to establishing a legally binding treaty to stop extracting and burning oil, gas and coal by 2030 as well as supporting and financing poorer countries to make a fast, fair, and just transition.

Staring Down The Barrel Of The Mountain Valley Pipeline

July 5, 2024 Deborah Kushner, Substrack. Resist! Fossil Fuels, Mountain Valley Pipeline, pollution, West Virginia

Communities along the ROW are frequently reminded they are collateral damage to MVP. Violations here range from the immediate danger of explosion to the discovery that some of the emergency numbers on the yellow and white poles along the route are wrong, to the lack of courtesy, such as heavy construction work immediately adjacent to a convening church on a Sunday morning. Despite the green-light for the MVP to go in service, on-the-ground work in these endangered communities continues to keep themselves aware and safe. Monroe County, WV is rural Appalachia. Few roads here are 2 lanes wide, and most are a single lane. Cars pass one another by both swerving off to their respective shoulders.

Red Hill Whistleblower Details How Her Warnings Were Ignored

June 25, 2024 Christina Jedra, Honolulu Civil Beat. Educate! Fossil Fuels, health, pollution, Red Hill, US Navy, Water, Whistleblowers

As the new director for the U.S. military’s largest fuel depot in May 2020, she realized almost immediately that something was wrong. The fire suppression system for the massive Honolulu storage system, which was holding 100 million gallons of fuel, was essentially turned off. Firefighting foam necessary to put out a potential fuel fire had been removed by officials who feared a leak could contaminate the drinking water aquifer below, she said. As a result, those working in the facility’s underground tunnels, and those residing in surrounding neighborhoods, were at risk of facing an out-of-control blaze, she said. So Bencs did what the Navy itself had trained her to do: She said something.

The Air In Louisiana’s ‘Cancer Alley’ Is Even Worse Than Expected

June 22, 2024 Naveena Sadasivam, DeSmog. Educate! Cancer, Cancer Alley, EPA, Health Care, Human Rights, Louisiana, pollution

Since the 1980s, the 85-mile stretch of the Mississippi River that connects New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, has been known as “Cancer Alley.” The name stems from the fact that the area’s residents have a 95 percent greater chance of developing cancer than the average American. A big reason for this is the concentration of industrial facilities along the corridor — particularly petrochemical manufacturing plants, many of which emit ethylene oxide, an extremely potent toxin that is considered a carcinogen by the Environmental Protection Agency and has been linked to breast and lung cancers.

Shell’s Exit From Nigeria

June 17, 2024 Andy Rowell, and James Marriott Consortium News. Strategize! Accountability, Environment, Fossil Fuels, Nigeria, pollution, shell

Nigerian activists believe Shell’s apparent end to its 87-year operation in the country is an effort to avoid its legal responsibilities while holding onto the potentially profitable side of the business. In January, the oil giant revealed it had “reached an agreement to sell its Nigerian onshore subsidiary” to Renaissance, a consortium of four Nigerian oil firms and one based in Switzerland. But despite the $2.8 billion deal, Shell will effectively still own part of the business and will continue to bankroll Renaissance’s onshore exploration in Nigeria going forward. The company’s press statement confirmed it will loan the new buyers up to $1.2 billion to help them buy their stake in the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC).

Mine Water Is Spewing Into This West Virginia Community

June 8, 2024 Ellie Heffernan, In These Times. Educate! Accountabiity, Corporatism, Environment, pollution, Water, West Virginia

Wolf Pen, W.Va.—Trees line Tina Christian’s driveway, and the rolling mountains of southern West Virginia rise around her yard. Her grandchildren play in the peaceful creek that twists through the woods behind her trailer. Or, at least, they did — until a geyser of dirty mine water shot out of an abandoned gas well behind the home in February 2023. It flooded the yard for weeks. Now, Tina and her husband, Jamie, are afraid to have their grandchildren visit at all. “I’d hate for them to come down here and visit and spend the night, and ten years down the road, they find out they’ve got cancer from playing at momaw and popaw’s house,” Tina Christian says.

Fossil Fuel Interests Spent Millions To Tank Clean Air Bills In Colorado

June 7, 2024 Joe Fassler, DeSmog. Educate! Advertising, Colorado, Environment, Fossil Fuels, pollution

Fossil fuel interests spent millions of dollars in an effort to influence Colorado’s recent legislative session, a DeSmog analysis shows — and environmental advocates say the campaign helped to scuttle a raft of clean air bills. Protect Colorado, a group that received more than $4 million from Chevron, Occidental, and other oil and gas interests, spent heavily to support pro-industry ballot initiatives before and during the session — a critical form of political leverage. Those efforts were aided by an extensive PR campaign spearheaded by the American Petroleum Institute (API), an industry group that spent an additional $3 million on lobbying, media buys, and digital ads from February through May, according to public financial disclosures.

Whistleblower: EPA Didn’t Follow Normal Procedures In East Palestine

May 21, 2024 Rich McHugh, NBC4 WCMH-TV. Educate! East Palestine, EPA, health, Ohio, pollution, Train Derailment, Whistleblowers

An EPA whistleblower has stepped forward, saying the Environmental Protection Agency deviated from normal procedures when testing for chemical contamination after a train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. On Feb. 6, 2023, officials in East Palestine, Ohio, vented and burned five tank cars full of vinyl chloride after a Norfolk Southern train derailed near the town. Three days later, the Environmental Protection Agency gave the all-clear for evacuated residents to return to the area. Immediately, people in the area began complaining of sickness and rashes. “I undressed to get into the shower, and I had a rash all over the side of my face on both sides and all over my chest,” said resident Katlyn Schwarzwaelder.

Deregulation Is Turning Oklahoma Into A Factory Farm Sacrifice Zone

May 13, 2024 Ben Felder, In These Times. Strategize! Factory Farming, Food and Agriculture, Oklahoma, pollution

As Barbara Dozhier prepared a ham before the arrival of her great-grandchildren and the rest of her family last Christmas Eve, she prayed for a weather forecast with wind out of the south. A breeze in the opposite direction meant her home four miles outside the east Oklahoma town of Kansas would be overcome with the stench of chicken litter. Ever since a six-building poultry farm opened across the street in 2018 — where 336,000 birds are raised at a time — family gatherings at the Dozhier home have been forced inside. “Sometimes the wind is out of the north and you just hurry up, get in the house and shut your door,” Dozhier said. “At first I was upset all the time but after all these years there is nothing you can do.”

Plastic, Plastic Everywhere, Even At The UN’s ‘Plastic Free’ Conference

May 12, 2024 Lisa Song, ProPublica. Educate! Plastic, Plastics Treaty, pollution, United Nations (UN)

When I registered to attend last month’s United Nations conference in Canada, organizers insisted it would be a “plastic free meeting.” I wouldn’t even get a see-through sleeve for my name tag, they warned; I’d have to reuse an old lanyard. After all, representatives from roughly 170 countries were gathering to tackle a crisis: The world churns out 400 million metric tons of plastic a year. It clogs landfills and oceans; its chemical trail seeps into our bodies. Delegates have been meeting since 2022 as part of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution in hopes of ending this year with a treaty that addresses “the full life cycle of plastic, including its production, design and disposal.”

Justice Department Admits Navy Jet Fuel Leak Caused Thousands To Suffer

April 26, 2024 Li Cohen, CBS News. Resist! Hawaii, health, Navy, pollution, Red Hill, Water

The U.S. government, in what an attorney says is a "monumental admission," said last year that it caused injury to thousands of people on the Hawaiian island of Oahu when jet fuel from its storage facility leaked into the drinking water system. On Monday, thousands of military family members and locals are headed to trial seeking financial compensation. Kristina Baehr, one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs in the case, said her firm has 7,500 clients suing over the leak. Monday's proceedings kick off a bellwether trial, meaning it's a smaller consolidation of lawsuits taken from a larger group.

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