Waterkeeper Alliance
By Donna Lisenby
Watauga Riverkeeper Donna Lisenby takes water samples on December 27, 2008 while paddling between giant ash bergs created by the 1 billion gallon TVA Kingston coal ash spill into the Emory River in Tennessee. Photo credit: John Wathen, Hurricane Creekkeper.
Waterkeeper Alliance salutes today's ruling by federal district court Judge Thomas Varlan stating that the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) was negligent in its conduct and will be held liable for damages caused by their massive coal ash spill into the Emory River and the surrounding community of Harriman, Tennessee on Dec. 22, 2008.
This ruling is an important victory for the people and the waterway that were devastated by this preventable tragedy when a 70 foot tall dam catastrophically and suddenly failed at 1 a.m., sending more than 1 billion gallons of toxic coal ash from TVA's Kingston coal fired power plant into the surrounding community and the Emory River.
Varlan ruled today that the spill was caused by a combination of TVA's dike design, continued wet coal ash storage at the plant and geological conditions.
"Had TVA followed its own mandatory policies, procedures and practices, the subsurface issues underlying the failure of North Dike would have been investigated, addressed and potentially remedied before the catastrophic failure of December 22, 2008," said Varlan.
This case has national significance not only because it is the largest coal ash spill in the history of the U.S., but because there are 1,000 more coal ash ponds at coal fired power plants across the nation. As illustrated in the video below by Alexandra Cousteau of Blue Legacy, coal ash is toxic to waterways and aquatic life because it contains a vast array of heavy metals and other pollutants:
In order to protect communities from toxic coal ash, the U.S. EPA released new rules to regulate the waste but they have been stalled by legislative interference in Congress. A handful of Senators working for the benefit of the polluting coal industry is seeking to remove the U.S. EPA's federal authority to regulate coal ash with the rotten new Senate Bill 3512.
Let Judge Varlan's ruling inspire you to take action to defeat Senate Bill 3512. Join Waterkeeper Alliance and Alexandra Cousteau to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Clean Water Act in Washington, DC on Thursday, Sept. 13.
Visit EcoWatch’s CLEAN WATER ACT and COAL pages for more related news on this topic.
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'Another Blow to the Black Community': Trump Waives Environmental Law That Gives Public a Voice in Infrastructure Projects
56m
Politics
A pipeline being constructed in Pennsylvania. Robert Nickelsberg / Getty Images
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday mandating federal agencies bypass key environmental reviews of energy and infrastructure projects.
<p><br/></p>
<p>Trump said the rule was designed to stimulate the economy in response to the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coronavirus" target="_self">coronavirus</a> pandemic, but critics say the move will disproportionately impact communities of color amidst ongoing <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/protestors-publich-health-coronavirus-covid-19-testing-2646141562.html" target="_self">national protests</a> following the police murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and many other Black Americans. The order instructs agencies to work around the<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/national-environmental-policy-act" target="_self"> National Environmental Policy Act</a> (NEPA), which gives communities a chance to weigh in on projects that would impact them, as<a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/06/04/870098279/trump-waives-environmental-reviews-citing-pandemic-economic-emergency" target="_blank"> NPR explained</a>. <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels" target="_self">Fossil fuel</a> projects and highways tend to have a greater effect on Black and Brown communities, as <a href="https://m.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/trump-executive-order-infrastructure-covid-19_n_5ed91e46c5b68d57cbcf9961?ri18n=true" target="_blank">HuffPost pointed out</a>.</p>
<p>"Today President Trump is dealing another blow to the Black community, during a worldwide pandemic and nearly a week into nationwide Black Lives Matter protests against police brutality and structural racism," House Natural Resources Chairman Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) said in a statement reported by HuffPost. "Gutting NEPA takes away one of the few tools communities of color have to protect themselves and make their voices heard on federal decisions impacting them."</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Today Trump is taking action to make it harder for Black and brown communities to have a say on major decisions that will impact quality of life and the environment.<br><br>He did this in the middle of <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BlackLivesMatter?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BlackLivesMatter</a> protests against structural racism. <a href="https://t.co/lXypKm91a0">https://t.co/lXypKm91a0</a></p>— Natural Resources Committee (@NRDems) <a href="https://twitter.com/NRDems/status/1268626357254262784?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 4, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<p>NEPA was signed by Richard Nixon in 1970, NPR summarized. It requires federal agencies to review the environmental consequences of projects like <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/pipelines" target="_self">pipelines</a> and consult the public. It may also invoke the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/endangered-species-act" target="_self">Endangered Species Act</a> if vulnerable plants or animals would be threatened.</p><p>This isn't the first time the Trump administration has targeted NEPA. It proposed a <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-environment-infrastructure-review-2644664081.html" target="_self">major rollback</a> in January that would limit the length of the review process and the number of projects subject to it.</p>
<p>The current executive order gives the Transportation Department, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of the Interior, the Defense Department and the head of the Army Corps of Engineers 30 days to compile a list of expedited projects, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/04/climate/trump-environment-coronavirus.html" target="_blank">The New York Times reported</a>. The agencies were ordered to "use all relevant emergency and other authorities" to speed the projects.</p><p>"Unnecessary regulatory delays will deny our citizens opportunities for jobs and economic security, keeping millions of Americans out of work and hindering our economic recovery from the national emergency," Trump wrote in the order.</p>
<p>However, environmental groups accused the administration of using the pandemic as a smokescreen for its broader deregulatory agenda. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has already <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/epa-coronavirus-regulating-polluters-2645582013.html" target="_self">suspended</a> the enforcement of clean air and water laws, HuffPost pointed out.</p><p>"When it comes to trying to unravel this nation's environmental protection laws, this administration never sleeps," professor of environmental law at Harvard University Richard Lazarus told The New York Times.</p>
<p>The new order is so broad that environmental groups say it may be vulnerable to legal challenges, according to NPR.</p><p>Lazarus agreed.</p><p>"The president's assertion of authority to waive the application of environmental laws in the way described seems wholly untethered from law," he said.</p>
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U.S. Ranks 24th in New Environmental Performance Index, Near Bottom of Developed Countries
19h
Politics
A coke storage area is seen as steam rises from the quench towers at the US Steel Clairton Works on Jan. 21, 2020, in Clairton, Pennsylvania. White plumes of smoke billow above western Pennsylvania's rolling hills as scorching ovens bake coal, which rolls in by the trainload along the Monongahela River. BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI / AFP via Getty Images
President Trump's claim that the U.S. has the cleanest air and water in the world has been widely refuted by statistics showing harmful levels of pollution. Now, a new biannual ranking released by researchers at Yale and Columbia finds that the U.S. is nowhere near the top in environmental performance, according to The Guardian.
<p>Not only is the U.S. not in the top 10, it's not in the top 20. It ranks 24th in the 2020 <a href="https://epi.yale.edu/2020-epi" target="_blank">Environmental Performance Index</a> (EPI), which was released on Thursday. The top ranked country, Denmark, has made commitments to a carbon-free future, renewable energy and sustainable agriculture. By contrast, the U.S., during the Trump administration, has worked at breakneck speed to rollback environmental regulations, expand <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels" target="_self">fossil fuel</a> development, and ditch international treaties protecting the environment. He has even questioned climate science and ridiculed its findings.</p><p>"If you look at Denmark, they're doing great but they're a tiny fraction of overall carbon emissions or greenhouse gas emissions broadly," said Zach Wenderling, lead researcher on the index, as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jun/04/us-ranks-24th-in-the-world-on-environmental-performance" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> reported. "The U.S. is one of the top five players in every greenhouse gas, so we need to do better than just OK if we're going to generate the best practices."</p>
<p>Many signatories to the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/paris-agreement">Paris agreement</a> have ramped up their commitments to have net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, especially in Europe. European countries performed the best in the new index. After Denmark, Luxembourg, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom rounded out the top four, according to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jun/04/us-ranks-24th-in-the-world-on-environmental-performance" target="_blank">The Guardian</a>.</p><p>Researchers at Yale and Columbia universities produce the global report, which is released every two years. It ranks 180 of the world's nations on 24 key indicators in 10 categories related to environmental health and ecosystem vitality.</p><p>The data-driven and empirical approach to environmental protection makes it easier to spot problems, track trends, highlight policy successes and failures, identify best practices, and optimize the benefits of investing in environmental protection, said Daniel Esty, a professor of environmental law and policy at Yale, in a university <a href="https://environment.yale.edu/news/article/dan-esty-on-the-2020-environmental-performance-index" target="_blank">press release</a>.</p><p>"[T]he EPI provides a clear and compelling way to see which countries are leading issue by issue, who is lagging, and what the best policy practices look like across a range of critical environmental challenges," said Esty, in the university <a href="https://environment.yale.edu/news/article/dan-esty-on-the-2020-environmental-performance-index" target="_blank">press release</a>.</p>
<p>Since the EPI was created in the year 2000, the U.S has never reached the top of the rankings.</p><p>"Countries that make an effort do better than those that don't don't and the U.S. right now is not making an effort. That shows up in a stagnation in the rankings where others are really seeing some significant improvements," said Esty, as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jun/04/us-ranks-24th-in-the-world-on-environmental-performance" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> reported.</p><p>The U.S., which is the second largest contributor of greenhouse gas emissions after China, is near the bottom of the rankings for advanced industrial countries. China, which suffers from poor air quality, has made significant investments in solar energy and reducing its dependence on coal, and climbed the rankings to 120th place. China is still a big polluter but has made "much more dramatic progress than other countries," Esty said, as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jun/04/us-ranks-24th-in-the-world-on-environmental-performance" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> reported.</p><p>China's ranking as the world's worst contributor to the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-crisis">climate crisis</a> is only recent. Over time, the U.S. has put more heat trapping gases into the air than any other country. India, which also sees its cities choking under polluted air quality, ranked 168th.</p>
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Students walk by a sign reading "Climate Change" at the Doctor Tolosa Latour public school in Madrid, Spain on Sept. 9, 2014. In the U.S., New Jersey will be the first state to make the climate crisis part of its curriculum for all K-12 students. PIERRE-PHILIPPE MARCOU / AFP via Getty Images
New Jersey has invested in the future health of the planet by making sure the next generation of adults knows how human activity has had a deleterious effect on the planet. The state will be the first in the nation to make the climate crisis as part of its curriculum for all students, from kindergarten all the way to 12th grade, as NorthJersey.com reported.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">BIG NEWS: <a href="https://twitter.com/GovMurphy?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@GovMurphy</a> and I are proud to announce that New Jersey is the FIRST STATE IN THE NATION to incorporate climate change education across our K-12 learning standards – preparing our students for the future green economy.🌎 <a href="https://t.co/SJ2NS8DtWh">pic.twitter.com/SJ2NS8DtWh</a></p>— Tammy Murphy (@FirstLadyNJ) <a href="https://twitter.com/FirstLadyNJ/status/1268285809611816961?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 3, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<p>The Garden State's Board of Education adopted the standards on Wednesday, with the intention of implementing them for the start of school in September 2021.</p><p>The move drew praise from former Vice President Al Gore, who said in a statement, according to <a href="https://www.nj.com/news/2020/06/nj-schools-will-teach-climate-change-education-with-new-curriculum.html" target="_blank">NJ.com</a>: "I am incredibly proud that New Jersey is the first state in the nation to fully integrate climate education in their K-12 curricula. This initiative is vitally important to our students as they are the leaders of tomorrow, and we will depend on their leadership and knowledge to combat this crisis."</p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.nj.com/news/2020/06/nj-schools-will-teach-climate-change-education-with-new-curriculum.html" target="_blank">NJ.com</a> reported, the <a href="https://www.nj.gov/education/cccs/2020/" target="_blank">New Jersey Student Learning Standards</a>, which outline what is taught in New Jersey's public schools, now include language that requires <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-change">climate change</a> education across seven areas: 21st Century Life and Careers, Comprehensive Health and Physical Education, Science, Social Studies, Technology, Visual and Performing Arts, and World Languages.</p><p>The move makes New Jersey the first in what is likely to be a nationwide trend. <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/04/22/714262267/most-teachers-dont-teach-climate-change-4-in-5-parents-wish-they-did" target="_blank">According to a NPR/Ipsos poll published last year</a>, more than 80 percent of American parents and nearly 90 percent of American teachers said that climate change should be taught in schools.</p>
<p>New Jersey's First Lady Tammy Murphy had pushed for the change and was thankful to the board for the initiative on Wednesday, saying that it is a symbol of the state's commitment to the health and well-being of future generations.</p><p>"The adoption of these standards is much more than an added educational requirement; it is a symbol of a partnership between generations," said Murphy, in a statement, as <a href="https://patch.com/new-jersey/wyckoff/new-jersey-curriculum-feature-climate-change-education" target="_blank">Patch</a> reported.</p><p>"Decades of short-sighted decision-making has fueled this crisis and now we must do all we can to help our children solve it. This generation of students will feel the effects of climate change more than any other, and it is critical that every student is provided an opportunity to study and understand the climate crisis through a comprehensive, interdisciplinary lens," her statement added.</p><p>The release noted that climate change standards have also been added to the appendices of the math and English language arts guidelines, which are up for review in 2022, according to <a href="https://patch.com/new-jersey/wyckoff/new-jersey-curriculum-feature-climate-change-education" target="_blank">Patch</a>.</p>
<p>Governor Phil Murphy first announced the future curriculum change in his State of the State speech in January, saying that it was a cornerstone of his clean energy push, according to <a href="https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/environment/2020/06/03/nj-becomes-first-state-require-climate-change-k-12-curriculum/3136671001/" target="_blank">NorthJersey.com</a>.</p><p>Murphy said in a statement that the new standards will prepare a new generation for an economy that will be shaped by impacts from the climate crisis, particularly the energy sector.</p><p>"A top priority of my Administration has been to reestablish New Jersey's role as a leader in the fight against climate change," Murphy said in the statement, as <a href="https://www.nj.com/news/2020/06/nj-schools-will-teach-climate-change-education-with-new-curriculum.html" target="_blank">NJ.com</a> reported. "The adoption of these standards across our K-12 schools is an important step forward that will strengthen the future of New Jersey's green energy economy."</p>
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Some reservations are reporting infection rates many times higher than those observed in the general U.S. population. grandriver / Getty Images
By Lindsey Schneider, Joshua Sbicca and Stephanie Malin
The SARS-CoV-2 virus is novel, but pandemic threats to indigenous peoples are anything but new. Diseases like measles, smallpox and the Spanish flu have decimated Native American communities ever since the arrival of the first European colonizers.
<p>Now COVID-19 is having similarly devastating impacts in Indian country. Some reservations are reporting infection rates <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/how-covid-19-is-impacting-indigenous-peoples-in-the-u-s" target="_blank">many times higher</a> than those observed in the general U.S. population.</p><p>We are social scientists who study many aspects of <a href="http://environmentaljustice.colostate.edu/" target="_blank">environmental justice</a>, including <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=p3jvlSAAAAAJ&hl=en" target="_blank">the politics of food access and food sovereignty</a>, the impacts of <a href="https://www.libarts.colostate.edu/people/samalin/" target="_blank">extractive resource industries</a> like uranium and fossil fuels, and how Indigenous communities <a href="https://ethnicstudies.colostate.edu/people/schneidl/" target="_blank">navigate relationships</a> with state and federal governments to maintain their traditional practices. As we see it, Native American communities face structural and historical obstacles related to settler colonial legacies that make it hard for them to counter the pandemic, even by drawing on innovative indigenous survival strategies.</p>
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="63731ca7097bffc9347667697aea3206"><iframe lazy-loadable="true" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_TUc0iDWzfE?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span>
History Reverberates on Native Lands
<p>Native communities in North America have been disrupted and displaced for centuries. Many face long-standing food and water <a href="http://www.nativepartnership.org/site/DocServer/2017-PWNA-NPRA-Food-Insecurity-Project-Grow.pdf?docID=7106" target="_blank">inequities</a> that are further complicated by this pandemic.</p><p>On the Navajo reservation, which covers more than 27,000 square miles in Arizona, Utah and New Mexico, 76% of households already <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/235390130_High_levels_of_household_food_insecurity_on_the_Navajo_Nation" target="_blank">have trouble affording enough healthy food</a>, and the nearest grocery store is often hours away. COVID-related restrictions have further curtailed access to food supplies.</p><p>Clean water for basic sanitary measures like hand-washing is also scarce. Native Americans are <a href="http://uswateralliance.org/sites/uswateralliance.org/files/Closing%20the%20Water%20Access%20Gap%20in%20the%20United%20States_DIGITAL.pdf" target="_blank">19 times more likely</a> to lack indoor plumbing than whites in the U.S. Nearly one-third of Navajo households <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/coronavirus-hits-indian-country-hard-exposing-infrastructure-disparities-n1186976" target="_blank">lack access to running water</a>.</p><p>Many <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6915e3.htm" target="_blank">health issues</a> that can increase COVID-19 mortality rates occur at high levels among Native Americans. These <a href="http://www.ncai.org/news/articles/2020/03/18/the-national-congress-of-american-indians-calls-for-more-attention-to-covid-19-impacts-to-indian-country" target="_blank">underlying</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30893-X" target="_blank">preexisting</a> conditions – things like hypertension, diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease – are <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6913e2.htm" target="_blank">linked to diet</a> and stem from <a href="https://www.oupress.com/books/15107980/indigenous-food-sovereignty-in-the-united-sta" target="_blank">disruption and replacement</a> of Indigenous food systems.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzM3MTU0NC9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyOTk2NTM0NX0.3CE9pzZY4kFQuxBt-qbXzL3k3eZ2kWECmfUQDuaXB1g/img.png?width=980" id="9280a" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="ce361030764cdb944feafe177d19b2c1" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/AN) experience higher rates of chronic diseases than non-Hispanic Whites. Urban Indian Health Institute; data from CDC, CC BY-ND
<p>Meanwhile, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/04/07/828688372/overcrowding-makes-it-hard-for-native-americans-to-socially-distance" target="_blank">housing shortages</a> on reservations and <a href="https://indiancountrytoday.com/news/homeless-vulnerable-and-no-option-for-self-isolation--DGU3-v-FEWmTxrdIH73OA" target="_blank">homelessness</a> in urban Native communities make social distancing to reduce COVID-19 transmission impossible.</p>High Exposure Rates
<p>These factors have clear health impacts. On the Navajo reservation, for instance, through May 27, 2020, <a href="https://www.navajo-nsn.gov/News%20Releases/OPVP/2020/May/FOR%20IMMEDIATE%20RELEASE%20-%201620%20recoveries_102%20new%20cases%20of%20COVID-19_and%20one%20more%20death%20reported.pdf" target="_blank">4,944 people</a> out of a population of 173,000 had tested positive for COVID-19, and 159 had died.</p><p>This infection rate per capita exceeds those in hot spots such as <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexandrasternlicht/2020/05/19/navajo-nation-has-most-coronavirus-infections-per-capita-in-us-beating-new-york-new-jersey/#11a4fac08b10" target="_blank">New York and New Jersey</a>. Importantly, however, it may also reflect a much <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/news/2020/04/19/navajo-nation-has-higher/" target="_blank">more proactive approach to testing</a> on reservations than in many other jurisdictions.</p><p>The fact that elderly people are especially vulnerable to COVID-19 could worsen the pandemic's effects in Indian Country. Elders are the <a href="https://ais.washington.edu/research/publications/spirits-our-whaling-ancestors" target="_blank">keepers of traditional knowledge, tribal languages and culture</a> – legacies whose loss already threatens the persistence of indigenous communities.</p><p>Elders also play key roles in preserving traditional plant and medicine knowledge. In the absence of COVID-19 interventions from Western medicine, many elders have been called on to perform healing practices, which increases their exposure risk.</p>Little Help From Federal and State Governments
<p>Many tribal members rely on the federal government's <a href="https://www.ihs.gov/" target="_blank">Indian Health Service</a> for health care. But <a href="https://theconversation.com/tribal-leaders-face-great-need-and-dont-have-enough-resources-to-respond-to-the-coronavirus-pandemic-134372" target="_blank">lack of capacity</a> at the agency has hampered its response. Budget shortfalls, <a href="https://indiancountrytoday.com/news/report-grossly-inaccurate-data-used-to-divvy-up-relief-funds-for-tribes-9qkkHmeXj0uhRC42mXYqCA" target="_blank">inaccurate data</a>, the challenges of providing <a href="https://indiancountrytoday.com/news/coronavirus-risk-is-compounded-by-the-rural-DC-rMTUzzE6WDGee8jbENQ" target="_blank">rural health care</a> and ongoing personnel shortages in IHS clinics are compounded by staff being <a href="https://navajotimes.com/reznews/dikos-ntsaaigii-doodaa-nation-musters-defense-against-covid-19/" target="_blank">pulled away</a> to fight the virus in large cities.</p><p>And while many states have raised frustrations with the Trump administration's unwillingness to distribute protective supplies from the <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/4/3/21206170/us-emergency-stockpile-jared-kushner-almost-empty-coronavirus-medical-supplies-ventilators" target="_blank">dwindling national stockpile</a>, IHS and tribal health care authorities <a href="https://www.azpm.org/p/home-articles-news/2020/3/17/167874-bill-calls-for-more-tribal-community-access-to-federal-stockpile-of-medical-supplies/" target="_blank">never had access</a> to the stockpile at all.</p><p>Although the federal government has begun <a href="https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2020/05/22/hhs-announces-500-million-distribution-to-tribal-hospitals-clinics-and-urban-health-centers.html" target="_blank">distributing relief funds</a> to IHS agencies, there have been serious problems with the accompanying supplies. The Navajo Nation has received <a href="https://www.indianz.com/News/2020/05/22/propublica-former-trump-aide-provided-fa.asp" target="_blank">faulty masks</a>, and a Seattle Native health center asked for tests but <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/native-american-health-center-asked-covid-19-supplies-they-got-n1200246" target="_blank">received body bags instead</a>.</p><p>Meanwhile, federally imposed limits on tribal sovereignty have obstructed tribal governments' efforts to deal with the pandemic themselves. Federal and state governments are <a href="https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/makah-tribe-fights-coronavirus-with-self-reliance-and-extreme-isolation/" target="_blank">challenging tribes' jurisdictional authority</a> to <a href="https://www.azfamily.com/news/mayor-of-page-accused-of-racist-social-media-comment-toward-navajo-nation-president/article_e2e6efd6-8db4-11ea-a8a2-7f6976d702f6.html" target="_blank">close borders to tourists</a> who may carry the virus. South Dakota's governor has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/may/14/sioux-coronavirus-roadblocks-south-dakota-governor" target="_blank">threatened legal action</a> against two tribes who set up checkpoints to monitor incoming traffic on their reservations.</p><iframe width="100%" height="150" scrolling="no" class="rm-shortcode twitter-embed-1263623015209725952" id="twitter-embed-1263623015209725952" lazy-loadable="true" src="/res/community/twitter_embed/?iframe_id=twitter-embed-1263623015209725952&created_ts=1590106178.0&screen_name=WestRiverEagle1&text=%23CheyenneRiverSiouxTribe+Chairman+Harold+Frazier%3A+Our+checkpoints+are+saving+lives+and+no+one%E2%80%99s+going+to+do+it+but%E2%80%A6+https%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2FbAzHmY1CN6&id=1263623015209725952&name=West+River+Eagle+Official" frameborder="0" data-rm-shortcode-id="7f93e7825d266dabf962ece41883a742"></iframe>
Environmental Injustices on Native Land
<p>Energy development and resource extraction have had <a href="https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/898-all-our-relations" target="_blank">disproportionate impacts</a> on tribes for many years. Today, many Native American leaders worry that ongoing energy production – <a href="https://www.ncsl.org/research/labor-and-employment/covid-19-essential-workers-in-the-states.aspx" target="_blank">an "essential" activity under federal guidelines</a> will bring outsiders into close contact with reservation communities, worsening COVID risks.</p><p>The owners of the Keystone XL oil pipeline have announced that they intend to continue construction, which will bring an influx of workers along the proposed route through Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska. The Rosebud Sioux Tribe in South Dakota and Fort Belknap Indian community in Montana have filed for a <a href="https://www.narf.org/keystone-xl/" target="_blank">temporary restraining order</a>, and a key permit for the pipeline was <a href="https://www.democracynow.org/2020/4/16/headlines/us_judge_revokes_crucial_permit_for_keystone_xl_pipeline" target="_blank">revoked in April 2020</a>, but work continues at the U.S.-Canada border.</p><p>Construction is accelerating on the <a href="https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/border-issues/2020/03/17/border-patrol-waives-laws-border-wall-construction-southern-arizona/5063618002/" target="_blank">southern border wall</a>, which bisects the <a href="http://www.tonation-nsn.gov/" target="_blank">Tohono O'odham reservation</a> in Arizona and Mexico. The Trump administration has <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/border-coronavirus-military-immigration/" target="_blank">increased patrols at the border</a>, despite the tribe's concern that the patrols' presence is <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/04/06/coronavirus-cbp-160-cases-covid-19-officers-agents/2958736001/" target="_blank">spreading coronavirus</a> on the reservation.</p><p>And in Bristol Bay, Alaska, a salmon fishing season that brings in thousands of temporary workers is <a href="https://indiancountrytoday.com/news/it-s-hard-when-you-love-something-xlS49l2N20KZjqumwfzZfQ" target="_blank">set to open in June</a> because the federal government has also deemed commercial fishing "<a href="https://www.cisa.gov/sites/default/files/publications/CISA-Guidance-on-Essential-Critical-Infrastructure-Workers-1-20-508c.pdf" target="_blank">essential critical infrastructure</a>." Many local Native villages depend on the fishery for income, but have nonetheless pleaded with state regulators to <a href="https://indiancountrytoday.com/news/urgent-calls-to-close-the-massive-bristol-bay-fishery-8lYsGkUeDUyCBW7FMwpSfA?fbclid=IwAR1710u4rQnriq_MgH2ueQxOFtfGiGiH8I2ZdJRCZS9f28Zl-JNkPLpnzZo" target="_blank">cancel the season</a>. The regional hospital has just four beds for possible COVID-19 patients.</p>Bold Action in Native Communities
<p>Native communities are taking decisive action to reduce the spread of COVID-19. They're imposing aggressive <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/09/us/coronavirus-navajo-nation.html" target="_blank">quarantine</a> measures like lockdowns, curfews and border closures. Communities are <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/mar/18/covidcoronavirus-native-american-lummi-nation-trailblazing-steps" target="_blank">ramping up health care capacity</a> and elder support services, and banishing nontribal members who <a href="https://rapidcityjournal.com/news/local/oglala-sioux-council-banishes-non-member-with-covid-19-from-reservation/article_60b665c3-9d1b-5d48-a576-51774e4fb41a.html" target="_blank">violate travel restrictions</a>.</p><p>Other strategies include helping hunters <a href="https://indiancountrytoday.com/news/ammo-fuel-for-hunters-to-feed-others-Ki3zK6du-ky-UogoB9-aNQ" target="_blank">provide traditional foods</a> to their communities, <a href="https://ndncollective.org/indigenizing-and-decolonizing-community-care-in-response-to-covid-19/" target="_blank">mobilizing to support tribal health care workers</a>, and <a href="https://www.ehn.org/coronavirus-native-americans-2645923635.html" target="_blank">linking the pandemic and the climate crisis</a>. Looking ahead to a post-COVID future, we believe one priority should be attending to <a href="http://www.beacon.org/As-Long-as-Grass-Grows-P1445.aspx" target="_blank">front-line environmental justice struggles</a> that center tribes' sovereignty to act on their own behalf at all times, not just during national crises.</p>From Your Site Articles
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As we continue to grapple with the issues of overfishing, plastic pollution, and climate change, there exists an opportunity to address these existential threats with new innovations. Sawitree Pamee / EyeEm
By Kaya Bulbul
The ocean is our lifeline - we rely on it for the food we eat, the air we breathe, as well as for millions for jobs worldwide.
As we continue to grapple with the issues of overfishing, plastic pollution, and climate change, there exists an opportunity to address these existential threats with new innovations, many of which unidentified or insufficiently supported.
<p><span></span><a href="https://www.weforum.org/uplink" target="_blank">UpLink</a> is a response to this demand; a new digital platform to surface the best ideas and solutions for pressing issues and connect them to the world's decision makers.</p><p>The UpLink platform brings together key stakeholders who are championing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): change-makers, social innovators, thematic experts, investors and technology titans.</p><p>The UpLink platform was launched with the <a href="https://uplink.weforum.org/uplink/s/topic/0TO2o000000VefpGAC/ocean" target="_blank">Ocean Solutions Sprint</a>, which has sourced over 50 entrepreneurial solutions from more than 15 countries which respond to the most pressing challenges facing the ocean today and speed up progress being made towards <a href="https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdg14" target="_blank">SDG-14: Life Below Water</a>.</p><p>The sprint culminated at the World Economic Forum's <a href="https://www.weforum.org/events/virtual-ocean-dialogues-2020/" target="_blank">Virtual Ocean Dialogues</a>, where six finalists presented their ideas to a panel of experts and judges from across the industry.</p>
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<p>"We need to get these problems in front of more people so they can pool together their intellect and their heart and add it to this explosive renaissance of ocean problem solving," said Douglas McCauley, Director of the Benioff Ocean Initiative and one of the sprint panelists.</p><p>"We know that just as diversity in a natural system like a coral reef makes it more resilient, more powerful, it makes our problem solving more powerful. I'm excited to have an open platform in UpLink, without any barriers for people to put that diversity together for ocean problem solving."</p>
<p>The three winning innovations helping to save our ocean are:</p><p><a href="https://uplink.weforum.org/uplink/s/uplink-contribution/a012o00001G7khBAAR/cubex-global-marketplace-for-25-billion-revenue-recovery-in-ocean-freight" target="_blank">Cubex Global</a> (Ocean Innovation Award)</p><p>Cubex aims to reduce global shipping emissions by buying and selling unused container space on existing cargo ship routes.<br></p><p>Over 100 million shipping containers are 50% empty while traveling from port to port - a massively wasteful practice that produces 280 million tons of carbon emissions and costs $25 billion USD every year.</p><p>While many traditional companies use phones, fax and email to fill up their containers, Cubex uses a real-time, blockchain-enabled online marketplace which optimizes empty cargo space and can potentially reduce emissions from shipping vessels by up to 20%. Anyone using the platform can buy or sell cubic meters of space on any container going to any destination.</p>
<p><a href="https://uplink.weforum.org/uplink/s/uplink-contribution/a012o00001G7hJOAAZ/recyglo" target="_blank">Recyglo</a> (Action on Ocean Plastic Award)</p><p>Founded in Myanmar in 2017, Recyglo works closely with businesses in the country and surrounding areas on waste management requirements, connecting with logistics and recycling facilities around the world to process waste materials in a safe, non-hazardous manner.<br></p><p>With <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/06/90-of-plastic-polluting-our-oceans-comes-from-just-10-rivers/" target="_blank">8 of the 10 rivers with the most plastic pollution in the world located in Asia,</a> a solution to this problem is desperately needed in the region.</p><p>"The current waste management in Myanmar is fragmented, inefficient and problematic," co-founder and CEO Shwe Yamin Oo has said. As well as helping companies organize their recycling habits and disposing of their waste, Recyglo also provides data analytics on the amounts of waste recycled and the impact on carbon footprint.</p><p>The company is currently managing 500 tons of waste and saving 1470 tons of CO2 every month, and has educated 800,000 people on the merits of proper recycling.</p>
<p><a href="https://uplink.weforum.org/uplink/s/uplink-contribution/a012o00001G7jlbAAB/oceanium-food-and-nutrition-products-from-sustainably-farmed-seaweed" target="_blank">Oceanium</a> (People's Choice Award)</p><p>Oceanium is developing food products and packaging material made from sustainably farmed seaweed.</p><p>What sounds like a simple solution to solving ocean plastic pollution has a raft of environmental benefits. Seaweed farming does not require cleared land which means that deforestation is not necessary. It also sequesters carbon dioxide and nitrogen from the ocean, which reduces atmospheric carbon and ocean acidification, and requires no fertilizer or pesticide to grow.</p><p>Meanwhile, seaweed farms protect the seabed from commercial fishing and create a marine sanctuary for sea life. The company hopes its bio-packaging will replace harmful plastic products. For every ton of plastic replaced by bio-packaging, approximately 1.9 tons of carbon dioxide is prevented from entering the atmosphere.</p><p>Oceanium also believes that seaweed farming could create jobs in coastal communities and developing countries, and could be used to feed livestock and help to end global food insecurity.</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/06/3-innovations-that-are-leading-the-fight-to-save-our-ocean/" target="_blank">World Economic Forum.</a></em></p>From Your Site Articles
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The coronavirus adds a new wrinkle to the debate over the practice of eminent domain as companies continue to work through the pandemic, vexing landowners. Patrick J. Endres / Getty Images
By Jeremy Deaton
Pipeline giant Kinder Morgan is cutting a 400-mile line across the middle of Texas, digging up vast swaths of private land for its planned Permian Highway Pipeline. The project is ceaseless, continuing through the coronavirus pandemic. Landowner Heath Frantzen said that dozens of workers have showed up to his ranch in Fredericksburg, even as public health officials urged people to stay at home.
<p>"There weren't wearing masks. They weren't wearing gloves. They weren't practicing social distancing," he said. Frantzen believes the workers pose a danger to him and his 85-year-old father, whom he cares for. While the laborers are confined to the pipeline's path, he worries they could spread the coronavirus by touching fence railings or gates that he might later handle.</p><p>In Texas, where the governor exempted <a href="https://gov.texas.gov/news/post/governor-abbott-issues-executive-order-implementing-essential-services-and-activities-protocols" target="_blank">pipeline projects</a> from his March <a href="https://gov.texas.gov/news/post/governor-abbott-issues-executive-order-implementing-essential-services-and-activities-protocols" target="_blank">stay-at-home order</a>, companies like Kinder Morgan have <a href="https://www.texasobserver.org/kinder-morgan-texas-hill-country-lawsuit/" target="_blank">few checks</a> on their power of eminent domain, which allows them to build pipelines through privately owned farms and ranches that lie in their way. Eminent domain is <a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdfplus/10.1086/687322" target="_blank">broadly unpopular</a> and, when used for pipelines, <a href="https://www.stanfordlawreview.org/online/the-public-use-clause-in-an-age-of-u-s-natural-gas-exports/" target="_blank">legally contentious</a>. The coronavirus adds a new wrinkle to the debate over the practice as companies like Kinder Morgan continue to work through the pandemic, vexing landowners.</p><p>"It is wild that people are being forced to accept others onto their land at this time, and if they have an issue with what's happening, they have to put themselves at risk to address workers directly," said Erin Zweiner, who represents Blanco County and Hays County in the Texas House of Representatives. "These are workers who hop all over the country, so they're pretty high-risk spreaders."</p><p><span></span>Allen Fore, vice president of public affairs at Kinder Morgan, said the company has instructed workers on how to avoid spreading the coronavirus, though, he added, it is not always possible to take every precaution.</p>
<p>"Once construction is underway and you're on site, there are some limitations on masks and the distance people need to be away from each other simply for safety and construction purposes," he said, "We do leave that to the discretion of the contractor specific to the tasks that they are performing."</p><p>While eminent domain does entitle landowners in the pipeline's path to compensation, it does nothing for those living nearby who may be impacted by construction. In March, Kinder Morgan <a href="https://www.kvue.com/article/news/local/blanco-water-contaminated-kinder-morgan-permian-highway-pipeline/269-b4224661-b5ab-452f-ae68-e75acf6c2ec4" target="_blank">reportedly</a> spilled drilling fluid into an underground water supply in Blanco County. Teresa Albright, who lives close to the site, <a href="https://www.kvue.com/article/news/local/blanco-water-contaminated-kinder-morgan-permian-highway-pipeline/269-b4224661-b5ab-452f-ae68-e75acf6c2ec4" target="_blank">told KVUE</a> that brown fluid later poured out of her faucet, making it harder to wash her hands or clean her clothes, even as the coronavirus demanded she do both.</p><p>Fore said that Kinder Morgan has supplied water and food to affected homeowners and promised to pay for plumbing repairs. He also said that the company, which is currently facing a <a href="https://www.kvue.com/article/news/local/kinder-morgan-to-be-sued-over-drinking-water-contamination/269-e77fcd0a-7761-4984-92c6-07e48d2146b2" target="_blank">lawsuit</a> over the spill, has halted work at the site of the accident and is looking for alternate routes for the pipeline.</p>Rebekah Sale, executive director of the Property Rights and Pipeline Center, emphasized that Texas isn't the only place where pipeline projects are creating headaches for landowners worried about the coronavirus.
<p>"We have people sending us pictures from these pipeline sites all over where no one's wearing a mask," she said. "People are gathered together. In some cases, they need to bring in 'man camps' of workers to build these pipelines in communities."</p><p>Marvin Winstead of Nash County, North Carolina is battling the planned Atlantic Coast Pipeline, which would run through his farm. In March, Winstead learned the project's managers would be sending assessors from Maryland to estimate the value of his property.</p><p>"Not only did they want to be on my property, they wanted to send these assessors into the interior of my home," he said.</p><p>A spokesperson for Dominion Energy, which is leading the project, said the appraisal would have taken place before North Carolina issued its stay-at-home order at the end of March. After conferring with landowners' attorneys, however, it agreed to postpone its appraisals indefinitely. Winstead was nonetheless alarmed that Dominion had planned to send workers into his home during a pandemic.</p>
<p>Stacey McLaughlin of Douglas County, Oregon said the pandemic has made it more difficult to pay for a lawyer, and thus, harder to fight off Pembina, the company behind the Pacific Connector Pipeline, which would run through her property, a plot that she and her husband restored after it had been logged by the previous owners.</p><p>"I personally have lost all of my income from my work for 2020, and now we are being faced with exorbitant and extraordinary legal fees to fight for our land and against eminent domain," said McLaughlin, a consultant for local governments. "They could, at any day, pursue a court order to try to get on our property to do surveying."</p><p>Champions of the project are <a href="https://www.westernnaturalgas.org/post/openlettertogovernorbrown" target="_blank">pressuring</a> Oregon governor Kate Brown to greenlight the pipeline, claiming it would create thousands of jobs, helping to overcome the economic slump. But McLaughlin said that with the virus still raging, she does not want workers to come onto her land. With two parents in their eighties and a son who is a nurse at a nearby hospital, she is already feeling overwhelmed.</p><p>"We're losing sleep at night for a lot of reasons," she said. "Having to deal with this pipeline as we struggle to keep ourselves and our families safe is just inhumane."</p><p>Sale said that the Pacific Connector Pipeline is an especially egregious example of eminent domain. The legal justification for such projects comes from the <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/15/717f" target="_blank">Natural Gas Act of 1938</a>, which allows for the use of eminent domain for pipelines that will serve the interests of the American public — namely to deliver gas to homes and power plants. The Pacific Connector Pipeline will primarily carry gas drilled in Canada and the Rockies to a port in Oregon so it can be shipped to Asia.</p>
<p>"Because the frantic oil and gas industry is trying to get the last dollars out of what seems, very clearly, to be a dying industry, they just run roughshod over property rights," Sale said.</p><p>Drillers have flooded the market with cheap fracked gas, driving down prices. As a result, gas has proven <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/11/business/energy-environment/natural-gas-shale-chevron.html" target="_blank">increasingly unprofitable</a>. Companies have <a href="https://ieefa.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Bankruptcies-in-Fracking-Sector-Mount-in-2019_January-2020.pdf" target="_blank">amassed debt</a>. Stock prices have <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/energy-stocks-are-black-eye-on-the-s-p-500-again-11580468400" target="_blank">slumped</a>. And the coronavirus has only <a href="https://www.csis.org/analysis/how-covid-19-will-reshape-global-gas" target="_blank">accelerated</a> these trends.</p><p>"It seems pretty hard to argue with a straight face that these projects are financially essential right now when we're seeing a reduction in production," Zweiner said. "I think a lot of folks are assuming that it will suddenly reverse one day, but I suspect we're looking at a much longer term issue."</p><p>When landowners do triumph over pipeline firms, it usually isn't by challenging the use of <a href="https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2020/05/27/stories/1063242935" target="_blank">eminent domain</a>. More often, it is by persuading officials to deny needed permits. On that front, landowners may have just gotten a big helping hand. A federal judge in Montana recently <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/experts/anthony-swift/federal-court-halts-trump-attempt-fast-track-keystone-xl" target="_blank">revoked</a> a blanket permit allowing pipeline projects to skirt environmental review. The Trump administration is appealing the ruling, which could create major hurdles for pipeline projects.</p><p>Over the long term, lawmakers may seek to narrow the use of eminent domain. In January, House Democrats released a draft climate bill that, <a href="https://www.niskanencenter.org/a-clean-future-eliminates-eminent-domain-for-interstate-natural-gas-pipelines/" target="_blank">experts say</a>, would effectively end the practice for pipeline projects. McLaughlin said landowners should be clamoring for such a measure.</p><p>"You have people across this country who are up in arms — and bearing arms — so they don't have to stay inside their houses and they don't have to wear a mask," McLaughlin said. "That's nothing compared to the violation of our constitutional rights as property owners."</p>
<p><em>This story originally appeared in</em> <em><a href="https://nexusmedianews.com/" target="_blank">Nexus Media</a> </em><em>and is republished here as part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Weeds dying in a soybean field impacted by dicamba spraying. JJ Gouin / iStock / Getty Images
A federal court overturned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) approval of dicamba Wednesday, meaning the controversial herbicide can no longer be sprayed in the U.S.
<p>The product, originally designed by <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/monsanto" target="_self">Monsanto</a>, is opposed by some farmers and environmental groups because it can drift when sprayed, damaging <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildlife" target="_self">wildlife</a> and other crops.</p><p>"Today's decision is a massive win for farmers and the environment. It is good to be reminded that corporations like Monsanto and the Trump Administration cannot escape the rule of law, particularly at a time of crisis like this," lead counsel George Kimbrell of the <a href="http://salsa3.salsalabs.com/o/1881/p/salsa/web/common/public/signup?signup_page_KEY=10186" target="_blank">Center for Food Safety</a> told <a href="https://usrtk.org/pesticides/court-orders-epa-approvals-of-bayer-dicamba-herbicide-vacated-says-regulator-understated-the-risks/" target="_blank">U.S. Right to Know</a>. "Their day of reckoning has arrived."</p>
<p>The Center for Food Safety sued the EPA together with <a href="https://nffc.net/" target="_blank">National Family Farm Coalition</a>, <a href="https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/" target="_blank">Center for Biological Diversity</a> and <a href="http://www.panna.org/" target="_blank">Pesticide Action Network North America</a>. The groups argued that the EPA broke the law when it ruled on the safety of a kind of dicamba designed by Monsanto to be sprayed widely over crops genetically engineered to be resistant to the herbicide. This method means the dicamba can drift to other, non-resistant crops.</p><p>The herbicide is believed to have damaged 3.6 million acres of soybeans in 2017, and more than 1 million in 2018, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-06-03/bayer-s-dicamba-registration-pulled-by-court-on-herbicide-s-risk" target="_blank">Bloomberg News reported</a>.</p><p>The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that the EPA "substantially understated the risks" of the herbicides and also "failed entirely to acknowledge other risks," according to U.S. Right to Know.</p>
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<p>One of the risks the EPA failed to acknowledge was the "enormous social cost to farming communities" where the herbicide's use "has turned farmer against farmer, and neighbor against neighbor," the court wrote, according to Bloomberg. A farmer was shot and killed because of a dicamba-related argument in Arkansas in 2016.</p><p>The ruling impacts the dicamba-based herbicide sold by <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/bayer" target="_self">Bayer</a>, which acquired Monsanto in 2018. It also prohibits the use of BASF's Engenia and Corteva Agriscience's FeXapan, <a href="https://uk.mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUKKBN23B0JA" target="_blank">Reuters reported</a>.</p><p>Bayer told Reuters that the ruling impacted a 2018 EPA approval that expires in December and that it is currently at work on a new 2021 approval.</p><p>"Depending upon actions by the EPA and whether the ruling is successfully challenged, we will work quickly to minimize any impact on our customers this season," Bayer said.</p>
<p>The ruling comes around four months after a jury ruled against Bayer and BASF and in favor of a Missouri farmer who said the companies' dicamba products destroyed his peach orchard, according to Bloomberg.</p><p>That was the first of around 140 pending dicamba suits awaiting trial.</p><p>The dicamba suits are not the only suits Bayer inherited when it acquired Monsanto, Reuters pointed out. Wednesday's dicamba decision came days after arguments were heard in an appeal of the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/jury-finds-monsanto-liable-in-the-first-roundup-cancer-trial--2595446068.html" target="_self">first</a> case to go to trial over whether of not the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/glyphosate" target="_self">glyphosate-based</a> weedkiller <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/roundup" target="_self">Roundup</a> causes cancer.</p>
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