by Katie Chicojay-Moore, Oceans and Vessels Fellow
Air pollution from large container ports has been a historically neglected environmental justice issue. Near-port communities tend to be communities of color, low-income, or otherwise disadvantaged and are disproportionately exposed to pollutants. While there have been significant efforts to reduce emissions from the transportation sector, efforts to reduce emissions at ports have been slow and far behind other industries. However, as the harms of environmental injustices are increasingly recognized, port emissions have received heightened focus.
Port operations release high amounts of climate change-causing greenhouse gases (GHGs), as well as particulate matter (PM) and nitrogen oxides (NOx), which are known to…
by Lukas Ross, climate and energy program manager
One of the biggest presents Trump ever sent to Big Oil was hidden on page 157 of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the GOP tax bill passed at the end of 2017. Practically unnoticed at the time, the Biden administration has a new plan to close this loophole and raise $84.7 billion from the biggest of the Big Oil companies over the next decade.
Separate from this sum is an additional $36.5 billion the Biden administration wants to raise from repealing fossil fuel tax breaks. These are the special carve outs for oil, gas and coal that allow the…
by Luisa Abbott Galvao, international policy campaigner
The U.S. government has spent more than $44 billion on fossil fuel projects overseas over the last decade. From fracking projects in Argentina to liquified natural gas development in Mozambique, this finance has not only resulted in pollution and environmental degradation, but displacement, violent conflict and human rights abuses. But much harder to measure are the hidden ways U.S. tax dollars entrench coal, oil and gas overseas through the international financial institutions (IFIs) in which the U.S. participates.
The tide would appear to be turning: soon after taking office this year, President Biden issued an Executive Order promoting an end…
by Sarah Lutz, climate campaigner
The Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) is the most important federal policy you have never heard of. It is also undoubtedly the most broken. For 15 years, it has forced dirty corn ethanol into the nation’s fuel supply.
Now, the Biden Administration is contemplating using this broken mandate to subsidize some of our dirtiest electricity sources — woody biomass, factory farm gas, and landfill gas. The plan? Declare that electric vehicles (EVs) charged with these false solutions are actually being powered by renewable fuel.
Special interests, including factory farmers, are lobbying hard to implement this change quickly. But President Biden’s new…
by Sarah Lutz, climate campaigner
In 2012, then President Obama alarmed climate activists during his State of the Union by saying,
“The development of natural gas will create jobs and power trucks and factories that are cleaner and cheaper, proving that we don’t have to choose between our environment and our economy.”
A few minutes later, the President implored Congress to pass a Clean Energy Standard. The two issues — natural gas and Clean Energy Standards — have been deeply connected since the inception of the term. …
The vote at the massive soy trader signals greater financier focus on forests
by Jeff Conant, senior international forests program manager
When you think of the biggest drivers of the climate crisis, soy beans probably aren’t the first thing that come to mind.
And for most people, a huge soy trading company from Missouri with the unpronounceable name of Bunge may not be among the first companies you would reckon to be a climate villain. But the massive expansion of industrial soy plantations is one of the world’s leading drivers of deforestation and forest degradation. Deforestation, in turn, is one of the primary drivers of the climate crisis.
So, when a majority of shareholders voted yesterday for Bunge to explain its…
by Erich Pica, president of Friends of the Earth
Last week, Friends of the Earth lost a deep friend and a former leader, and communities fighting against coal mining lost an undeterred champion with the passing of Louise Dunlap. On the first Earth Day in 1970, Louise responded to the call and acted to prevent Congress from funding the SST (supersonic transport). This super-fast jet was considered a threat to the earth’s ozone layer. Thanks to her work along with others at Friends of the Earth, the funding for the SST was defeated and the earth’s ozone layer was secured. …
To: Mark Zuckerberg, CEO, Facebook, and Facebook climate, disinformation, and policy teams
From: Climate Disinformation Coalition
Date: March 25, 2021
Re: Stopping climate change disinformation on Facebook
Climate change disinformation is spreading rapidly across Facebook’s social media platform, threatening the ability of citizens and policymakers to fight the climate crisis. To explain how Facebook will stop climate change disinformation in the future, we would like your answers to the following questions:
- Facebook recently announced the creation of a Climate Science Information Center to expose its users to accurate information about climate change. Since the creation of the center, have you…
by Paolo Mutia, food and agriculture campaigner
In New York, beekeepers have lost more than 40 percent of their bee colonies on average nearly every year for the last decade. A relatively new class of pesticides threatens pollinators that are critical to top state crops, and emerging research suggests that early exposure to them could impact human health as well.
This type of pesticide, called neonicotinoids (neonics), can be approximately 1,000 times more acutely toxic to honeybees than the infamous pesticide DDT from Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring. Since they were introduced in the 1990s, neonics have made U.S. agriculture nearly 48-times more toxic to insects. …
by Chloë Waterman, climate-friendly food program manager
The COVID-19 crisis has highlighted how deeply interconnected and fragile our food system is. Our highly concentrated meat processing infrastructure buckled early in the pandemic, and to date, more than 57,000 meatpacking workers became infected with COVID-19. Lines for food banks stretched down blocks. Diet-related chronic disease became one of the biggest risk factors for hospitalization and death from the virus. People of color bear the largest share of COVID-19 infections, deaths, and economic suffering.
As we scrutinize our food choices and the policies that influence them, we must acknowledge the impacts not only to our own health but to…
Friends of the Earth
Friends of the Earth U.S. defends the environment and champions a healthy and just world. www.foe.org
