Social Justice

Pioneers Of Citizen-Led Solar Revolution Sound Alarm Over ‘Corporate Capture’

June 21, 2025 Ana Muñoz and Jairo Marcos, DeSmog. Educate! Analysis, Energy, European Union (EU), Politics and Policy, Renewable Energy, Social Justice, Solar Energy

For decades, advocates of renewable energy have argued that solar panels and wind turbines can be so much more than clean sources of power. By allowing communities to come together to generate their own electricity, small-scale projects can serve the twin goals of decentralising power markets and fostering democratic participation. And that’s before counting the savings for members on their monthly bills. This vision appeared to come a step closer to reality in 2020, when the European Union allocated 750 billion euros in NextGenerationEU post-pandemic recovery funds to boost green and digital industries.

Declaration Of The International Conference Cuba 2024

December 18, 2024 Conference Organizing Committee, Black Agenda Report. Organize! Cuba, Equality, Equity, International Conference, Social Justice

From December 9th to the 13th, the 240 delegates, coming from 30 nations from four continents, gathered for the International Conference “Cuba 2024 Decade for People of African Descent. Equality - Equity - Social Justice”, that took place in the cities of Havana and Matanzas. Attended by 103 delegates from Cuba and 137 from the following geographical áreas: From the Americas: Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Barbados, Belize, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, United States, Guyana, Jamaica, Mexico and Panama. From the African continent: Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Comoros, Ghana, Niger, Senegal, Somalia, Togo and Kenya.

Mapped: How Big Industries Hope To Sway The UN Biodiversity Talks

October 30, 2024 Hazel Healy and Rachel Sherrington, DeSmog. Educate! Activism, Big Ag, Big Pharma, Biodiversity, Colombia, COP16, Environment, Finance and the Economy, Food and Agriculture, Pesticides, Social Justice, United Nations (UN)

Under thundery tropical skies, and amid ever more dire warnings on the precarious state of the world’s ecosystems, the United Nations Biodiversity Conference is unfolding in Colombia. This year’s summit, known as COP16, follows on from the last biodiversity conference held in Montréal in 2022, when negotiators struck an historic deal – the equivalent of the Paris Agreement on climate change – to “halt and reverse” nature loss. Now, government representatives from nearly 200 countries, along with scientists, Indigenous groups, and environmental activists, are gathered in the southern city of Cali to negotiate how to put this plan into action: protect earth’s habitats and the people who depend on them.

Why More Doctors Are Joining Unions

September 8, 2024 Lambeth Hochwald, Medscape. Organize! Doctors, Health Care, Privatization, Social Justice, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

With huge shifts over the past decade in the way doctors are employed — half of all doctors now work for a health system or large medical group — the idea of unionizing is not only being explored but gaining traction within the profession. In fact, 8% of the physician workforce (or 70,000 physicians) belong to a union, according to statistics gathered in 2022. Exact numbers are hard to come by, and, interestingly, although the American Medical Association (AMA) " supports the right of physicians to engage in collective bargaining," the organization doesn't track union membership among physicians, according to an AMA spokesperson.

Imperial Oil Tailings Spill Fine A ‘Toothless Slap On The Wrist’

August 25, 2024 Taylor Noakes, DeSmog. Resist! Canada, Energy, Environment, Indigenous Activism, Oil Spill, Social Justice

A major Canadian oil producer responsible for a toxic tailings pond leak that dumped 5.3 million litres of contaminated waste into the environment has been fined just $50,000 by the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER). Environmental Defence, a prominent Canadian environmental advocacy organization, called the AER’s response “toothless.” The Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN), an Indigenous community in Northern Alberta whose territory has been impacted by the tailings pond spill at Imperial Oil’s Kearl tar sands mine since at least 2022, called the fine “laughable” and further condemned what they called the AER’s “weak response.”

California Regulators Refuse To Enforce New Orphan Well Rules

July 18, 2024 Joe Fassler, DeSmog. Resist! California, Environment, Oil and Gas, Politics and Policy, Social Justice

As two of California’s largest oil and gas companies join by corporate merger, state regulators are declining to apply tough new rules governing the transfer of defunct oil and gas wells, DeSmog has learned. But a growing chorus of California legislators say that nonenforcement stance violates a groundbreaking law they fought to pass just months ago — and they, along with dozens of environmental groups, are demanding that regulators change course. “They’re just ignoring the statute,” Kassie Siegel, director of the Climate Law Institute at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in an interview. “We need the governor to step in and tell the agency to follow the law,” she added

What Cities Can Learn From Seattle’s Racial And Social Justice Law

May 6, 2024 Serin Houston and Dan Trudeau, Next City. Create! Race, Racial Justice, Racism, Seattle, Social Justice, Washington

The right-wing political campaign against diversity, equity and inclusion policies taking place in several states across the U.S. has called into question the nation’s commitment to achieving racial equality. In this landscape, Seattle is marking a milestone of sorts – the first anniversary of adopting its Race and Social Justice Initiative ordinance. This ordinance, signed into law in April 2023, places the Race and Social Justice Initiative under the Seattle Office of Civil Rights and states that all departments in city government are responsible for “implementing change toward ending institutional racism,” which is defined in Seattle as “policies, practices, procedures, and culture of an institution or system that work better for white people and cause harm to people of color, often inadvertently or unintentionally.”

Landmark Study Reveals Gas Stove Emissions Boost Childhood Asthma

May 6, 2024 Diane Bernard, DeSmog. Educate! Child Welfare, Energy, Gas Stoves, Health Care, Nitrogen, Oil and Gas, Politics and Policy, Science Denial, Social Justice

People who use gas or propane stoves in their homes are regularly exposed to harmful levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2), a new study shows. The household appliances emit pollutants that can be linked to approximately 200,000 current cases of childhood asthma, with 25 percent of those cases tied to nitrogen dioxide alone. The study, published Friday in Science Advances, represents the first time researchers have quantified the link between gas stoves and asthma from NO2 exposures inside homes. “I didn’t expect to see pollutant concentrations breach health benchmarks in bedrooms within an hour of gas stove use, and stay there for hours after the stove is turned off,” Rob Jackson, a professor at Stanford University and the lead scientist on the study, said in a statement.