How To Talk To People About the Climate Crisis When Scary Facts Are Not Enough
20h
Insights + Opinion
Climate change can evoke intense feelings, but a conversational approach can help. Reed Kaestner / Getty Images
Anger, anxiety, overwhelm … climate change can evoke intense feelings.
<p>"It's easy to feel dwarfed in the context of such a global systemic issue," says psychologist Renée Lertzman.<br/></p><p>She says that when people experience these feelings, they often shut down and push information away. So to encourage climate action, she advises not bombarding people with frightening facts.</p>
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<p>"When we lead with information, we are actually unwittingly walking right into a situation that is set up to undermine our efforts," she says.<br></p><p>She says if you want to engage people on the topic, take a compassionate approach. Ask people what they know and want to learn. Then have a conversation.</p><p>This conversational approach may seem at odds with the urgency of the issue, but Lertzman says it can get results faster.</p><p>"When we take a compassion-based approach, we are actively disarming defenses so that people are actually more willing and able to respond and engage quicker," she says. "And we don't have time right now to mess around, and so I do actually come to this topic with a sense of urgency… We do not have time to not take this approach."</p><p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/11/why-frightening-facts-dont-always-move-people-to-action-on-climate-change/" target="_blank">Yale Climate Connections</a>.</em></p>
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Jobs and justice are two key areas where Biden can focus attention to push transformative climate action. DisobeyArt / Getty Images
By Steve Trent
Joe Biden's election is a huge positive in a year that has been extremely difficult across the globe. I speak for a vast number of people who watched anxiously from outside the United States when I heartily thank those who mobilized, campaigned and voted to make it happen. Your hard work affects us all.
But we're not at the end of the line. Far from it.
<p>Biden shows promise, but there can be no backsliding and or watering down. In fact, the ambition needs to grow. Now is the time for truly bold vision, leadership and action. For instance, Biden has said repeatedly that he will not ban fracking, a destructive and polluting practice that uses high-pressure injections of water, chemicals and sand to suck yet more fossil fuels from the ground. Instead he turns to carbon capture to offset these emissions, a plan that relies on untested technology and does nothing to deal with fracking's <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/08/fracking-boom-tied-to-methane-spike-in-earths-atmosphere/" target="_blank">methane release</a>, <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fracking-can-contaminate-drinking-water/" target="_blank">water pollution</a> and <a href="https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/3/12/e1603021" target="_blank">health issues</a>.</p><p>He can and must do better. And there are two key areas where he can focus to help push transformative climate action: jobs and justice.</p><h1>Jobs</h1><p>The fact that Biden ran and won with a proposal to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 highlights one key aspect he got right: A transformation to sustainability means innovation, new livelihoods, revitalization and importantly, jobs.</p><p>The green economy in the United States already <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2219927-us-green-economy-has-10-times-more-jobs-than-the-fossil-fuel-industry/" target="_blank">employs</a> 10 times as many people as the fossil fuel industry, and Biden's plan specifically focuses on the economic opportunities that tackling climate change will bring.<span></span></p>
<p>But climate action is not a flail that we must use to flog ourselves in penitence, seeking absolution for past sins. Action for our planet creates untold opportunities for us. It will provide different ways of living that will reimagine and reinvigorate our relationship with the natural world, making us <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2017/02/nature-fix-brain-happy-florence-williams/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">happier</a> and <a href="https://ejfoundation.org/reports/why-ban-commercial-wildlife-markets" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">healthier</a>.</p><p>It will give us livelihoods that are truly sustainable, not based on the myth of infinite growth on a finite planet.</p><p>Biden's plan for net zero in energy production by 2035 is a good example of how a climate-smart jobs boom could work. At present <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/07/30/biden-calls-100-percent-clean-electricity-by-2035-heres-how-far-we-have-go/?arc404=true" target="_blank">62%</a> of energy in the United States comes from fossil fuels. Wind, hydroelectric and solar power are all growing industries, and renewable energy is expected to be the biggest global energy source <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/nov/10/renewable-energy-covid-19-record-growth-2020" target="_blank">by 2025</a>. Shifting U.S. energy production to net zero will create solid, reliable and well-paid jobs across the nation as renewable energy truly takes off. Funding training to enable workers to shift from fossil fuels will be a key part of that transition.</p>
<h1>Justice</h1><p> Biden has also referenced the need for equality in climate action, setting a goal for disadvantaged communities to receive 40% of all the clean energy and infrastructure benefits his plan would generate.</p><p>While this goal is a relatively small step for a big problem, the recognition is important. Ninety-nine percent of all deaths from weather-related disasters occur in the <a href="http://www.ghf-ge.org/human-impact-report.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">world's 50 least developed countries</a> — countries that have contributed less than 1% of global carbon emissions.</p><p>In every nation around the world, including the United States, this is played out again on a smaller scale. We can't continue to allow the poorer, marginalized and more vulnerable communities to bear the brunt of a crisis they did not cause. </p><p>The U.S. government is uniquely placed to drive forward international progress on climate.</p><p>Biden's climate plan <a href="https://joebiden.com/climate-plan/" target="_blank">explicitly includes</a> environmental justice as a key target. Within the United States this encompasses standing up to polluters who disproportionately harm marginalized communities.</p>
<p>The United States must reduce its own emissions and maintain strong diplomacy with its international partners. This leadership will allow the Biden-Harris administration to champion environmental justice around the world.</p><p>The <a href="https://twitter.com/FijiPM/status/1324941240731840512" target="_blank">swift congratulations</a> on Biden's victory offered by Frank Bainimarama, the Fijian prime minister, show what can now be achieved. The United States being back in a leading role on global climate action means that small island nations, responsible for minimal emissions but suffering outsized, unjust climate impacts, may have a chance of survival. <a href="https://ejfoundation.org/what-we-do/climate/protecting-climate-refugees" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Tens of millions</a> of people have already been displaced by climate breakdown, a grave global environmental injustice. The new administration has a chance to reverse this.</p><p>As a major developed economy and one of the worst emitters, action from the United States would put pressure on others — such as China — to do more. Meaningful progress within the United States and European Union, and strong, progressive voices from both parties at the negotiation table could be the change we need.</p><p>The votes for this election have been counted, but now the real work begins. We will all be needed — both in and outside the United States — to show again and again that we are watching and we will fight for our future, and our planet, with everything we have.</p>
<p class=""><em></em></p><p><a href="https://therevelator.org/author/stevetrent/" target="_blank"><em>Steve Trent </em></a><em>is executive director and co-founder of the </em><a href="https://ejfoundation.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Environmental Justice Foundation</em></a><em> and has more than 30 years experience in environmental and human rights campaigning. He also co-founded WildAid serving as president for over a decade, and leading WildAid's work in China and India. </em><em><em><a href="https://ejfoundation.org/" target="_blank">https://ejfoundation.org</a></em></em></p><p><em><em><a href="https://ejfoundation.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"></a></em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://therevelator.org/biden-climate-plan-trent/" target="_blank">The Revelator</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Like many other plant-based foods and products, CBD oil is one dietary supplement where "organic" labels are very important to consumers. However, there are little to no regulations within the hemp industry when it comes to deeming a product as organic, which makes it increasingly difficult for shoppers to find the best CBD oil products available on the market.
<p>Here you can learn about the importance of organic hemp oil, why it's better for the environment, and which CBD companies actually make trustworthy products with sustainable farming processes. origins which weigh heavily on many consumers who want to buy a product that's produced in the best way possible for not only themselves to ingest, but for the environment as well through sustainable farming methods. </p><h2>What Is CBD Oil?</h2><p>First things first, CBD stands for cannabidiol, and it's a cannabinoid found within cannabis sativa plants. This plant compound is believed to have many potential benefits, and it is primarily derived from hemp plants via a CO2 extraction process. </p><p>Since CBD is extracted from industrial hemp, which contains only trace amounts of THC (the psychoactive component in cannabis plants), this means that CBD won't make you feel high like marijuana, which has much higher levels of THC that causes psychoactive effects. Instead, the effects of CBD are much more subtle and promote a general sense of calm and relaxation in most users.</p><h2>What Makes a CBD Oil Organic?</h2><p>In terms of organic labels, perhaps the most important (and prominent) certification comes from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). This government organization has been labeling foods as "organic" for many years, but what exactly does this certification entail? Essentially, a label indicating that a product is "USDA Organic" or "Certified Organic" means that at least 95% of the ingredients are obtained from organic sources.</p><p>For a crop to be considered organic by the USDA, it must be grown without the use of industrial solvents, irradiation, genetic engineering (GMOs), synthetic pesticides, or chemical fertilizer. Instead, farmers rely on natural substances and <a href="https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2012/03/22/organic-101-what-usda-organic-label-means" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">mechanical, physical, or biologically based farming</a> techniques to cultivate healthy and organic crops.</p><p>Before the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill, no hemp-derived products could be dubbed as "certified organic" since the hemp plant and its extracts were still categorized as a Schedule I Controlled Substance. However, it's still difficult for CBD companies to obtain a USDA certified organic label for their products due to the legal grey area that still surrounds CBD extracts. </p><p>Because of these challenges, and due to the fact that industrial hemp has only recently become an agricultural crop, very few CBD oils are USDA certified organic. Rather, many CBD products contain hemp extracts from plants that were grown in organic conditions but may not be federally certified.</p><h2>What are the Best Organic CBD Oil Brands?</h2><p><em>Each product featured here has been independently selected. If you make a purchase using the links included, we may earn commission.</em></p>
<h2>Why Organic Hemp Oil Matters</h2><p>Hemp is a unique plant, not only for its rich cannabinoid content, but also for its ability to absorb a wide variety of components in soil. But this trait poses great risks when it comes to the creation of CBD products derived from hemp.</p><p>Because hemp has a high capacity for compound uptake, this means that the plants can retain <a href="https://www.remedyreview.com/industry/lab-test-results/" target="_blank">harmful chemicals like pesticides</a>, heavy metals, and other residual solvents. This is especially true when it comes to synthetic chemicals that are more toxic to humans, and difficult to remove once they have been absorbed by the hemp plant.</p><p>Organic farming practices help reduce the risk of hemp crops absorbing harsh chemicals that may later end up in CBD oil after extraction. When you're taking CBD as a wellness supplement to help alleviate your symptoms or improve your overall well-being, the last thing you want is to ingest compounds that might negatively outweigh the benefits of CBD. This is an important reason to look for third party lab test results when shopping for CBD products since these certificates of analysis can show the full cannabinoid and terpene profile of a hemp extract, as well as test results that search for the presence of any residual solvents.</p><p>In addition to creating a better end product, organic farming practices are also better for the environment. Sustainable and organic farming methods may <a href="https://www.helpguide.org/articles/healthy-eating/organic-foods.htm" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">reduce pollution, conserve water, reduce soil erosion, increase soil fertility, and use less energy</a>. The use of natural pest deterrents as opposed to chemical pesticides is also better for nearby animal populations and ecosystems.</p><h3>Organic vs. Natural</h3><p>While there are only a select few companies offering certified organic ingredients in their products, almost every brand in the CBD market creates "natural" products. The term "all-natural" or "plant-based" does not mean that a product is organic, and since hemp oil is a natural derivative of hemp plants, these products are often referred to as all-natural. However, there are some synthetic CBD oils that should be avoided because they are chemically constructed and may produce unwanted side effects that are not caused by naturally derived CBD extracts.</p><h2>What are the Benefits of Organic CBD Oil?</h2><p>There's a long list of potential CBD oil health benefits, and some of the most common wellness advantages include:</p><ul class="ee-ul"><li><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2503660/" target="_blank">Chronic pain relief</a></li><li><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4604171/" target="_blank">Anti-anxiety effects</a></li><li>Better sleep</li><li><a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/inner-source/201901/cbd-oil-mental-health-should-you-take-it-too" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Improvements in mood</a></li><li>Internal balance and regulation</li></ul><p>When dealing with pain, inflammation, sleep issues, and mental health struggles, it can be hard to find sufficient treatment options. The use of certain prescriptions can cause unwanted side effects, yet they are often the only solution for patients with these medical conditions. In search of other therapies, people have started to flock towards CBD oil as an alternative remedy for a variety of conditions. However, it should be noted that CBD products are not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and you should seek your doctor's advice before using CBD if you have a serious medical condition.</p><h2>Look at the Labels Before You Buy CBD Oil</h2><p>When you go online to buy CBD oil, you'll quickly realize there is an overwhelming number of brands that are saturating the market. It can be difficult to determine which products are truly as good as they make themselves out to be. Always look for up-to-date third-party lab tests so you know you are getting a great product, and don't hesitate to contact the brand if you have any additional questions. And if you're intent on purchasing 100% organic CBD oil, it's best to look for certified products or brands that are held to strict regulatory standards.</p><p><strong>Melena Gurganus </strong>is the Reviews Editor at EcoWatch. She is passionate health and wellness and her writing aims to help others find products they can trust. Her work has been featured in publications such as Health, Shape, Huffington Post, Cannabis Business Times, and Bustle.<br></p>
Spruce
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDY4NjI3OC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyOTM2NzgzOX0.axY0HjeqRctJsR_KmDLctzDpUBLBN-oNIdqaXDb4caQ/img.jpg?width=980" id="774be" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="8379f35b1ca8a86d0e61b7d4bfc8b46e" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="spruce organic cbd oil" /><p>As one of the best brands in the business, Spruce CBD is well-known for its potent CBD oils that feature many additional beneficial phytocannabinoids. This brand works with two family-owned, sustainably focused farms in the USA (one located in Kentucky and one in North Carolina) to create its organic, small product batches. The max potency Spruce CBD oil contains 2400mg of full-spectrum CBD extract, but the brand also offers a lower strength tincture with 750mg of CBD in total.</p>
$89
CBDistillery
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDcwMjkzNC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyMTU4OTM4Nn0.ypRdeDSBcE87slYrFfVrRwtJ2qGIK6FD5jBB4pndTMo/img.jpg?width=980" id="b473b" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="9930b53c9d58cb49774640a61c3e3e75" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="cbdistillery cbd oil" /><p>All of the products from CBDistillery are <a href="https://ushempauthority.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">U.S. Hemp Authority Certified</a>, and for good reason. The company only uses non-GMO and pesticide-free industrial hemp that's grown organically on Colorado farms. Its hemp oils are some of the most affordable CBD products on the market, yet they still maintain a high standard of quality. CBDistillery has a wide variety of CBD potencies across its product line (ranging from 500mg to 5000mg per bottle) and offers both full-spectrum and broad-spectrum CBD oils to give customers a completely thc-free option.</p>
$35
FAB CBD
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDY4NjIyNS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2NDIwOTEyMn0.MlTjz096FJ0ev_-soK7_Z-FeQeJczWoeh9Qi9SSkHsY/img.jpg?width=980" id="04b26" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="76aa4862f44603242e318982acea6646" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="fab cbd oil" /><p>For an organic CBD oil that has it all, FAB CBD offers plenty of variety for any type of consumer. All of its products are made with zero pesticides and extracted from organically grown Colorado industrial hemp. FAB CBD oil comes in five all-natural flavors (mint, vanilla, berry, citrus, and natural) and is also available in four strengths (300, 600, 1200, and 2400mg per bottle).</p>
$39
NuLeaf Naturals
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDY4NjIxOS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1NzExNTgyMX0.D6qMGYllKTsVhEkQ-L_GzpDHVu60a-tJKcio7M1Ssmc/img.jpg?width=980" id="94e4a" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="3609a52479675730893a45a82a03c71d" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="nuleaf naturals organic cbd oil" /><p>As an industry-leading brand, it comes as no surprise that NuLeaf Naturals sources its CBD extract from organic hemp plants grown on licensed farms in Colorado. The comany's CBD oils only contain two ingredients: USDA certified organic hemp seed oil and full spectrum hemp extract.</p><p>NuLeaf Naturals uses one proprietary CBD oil formula for all of its products, so you will get the same CBD potency in each tincture (60mg per mL), but can purchase different bottle sizes depending on how much you intend to use.</p>
$38.50
Charlotte's Web
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDcwMjk3NS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0MzQ0NjM4N30.SaQ85SK10-MWjN3PwHo2RqpiUBdjhD0IRnHKTqKaU7Q/img.jpg?width=980" id="84700" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="a2174067dcc0c4094be25b3472ce08c8" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="charlottes web cbd oil" /><p>Perhaps one of the most well-known brands in the CBD landscape, Charlotte's Web has been growing sustainable hemp plants for several years. The company is currently in the process of achieving official USDA Organic Certification, but it already practices organic and sustainable cultivation techniques to enhance the overall health of the soil and the hemp plants themselves, which creates some of the highest quality CBD extracts. Charlotte's Web offers CBD oils in a range of different concentration options, and some even come in a few flavor options such as chocolate mint, orange blossom, and lemon twist.</p>
$60
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What Portland’s Smoky Summer Can Do for Air Quality Equity Across the Country
23 November
Insights + Opinion
Smoke covers the skies over downtown Portland, Oregon, on Sept. 9, 2020. Diego Diaz / Icon Sportswire
By Isabella Garcia
September in Portland, Oregon, usually brings a slight chill to the air and an orange tinge to the leaves. This year, it brought smoke so thick it burned your throat and made your eyes strain to see more than 20 feet in front of you.
<p><br/></p>
<p>As historic wildfires burned more than 1 million acres and displaced more than 40,000 people in Oregon, photos of the red haze cloaking the Pacific Northwest were spotlighted on national newscasts and ogled on social media. Portland's air quality was the worst in the world for several days, peaking at <a href="https://aqicn.org/city/usa/oregon/portland/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">an Air Quality Index </a>of 486 on Sept. 13. In comparison, the <a href="https://aqicn.org/city/beijing/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">mean AQI in September in Beijing</a>, known for its smoggy skies, was 77. Just a year before, in September 2019, Portland enjoyed an average AQI more typical for the city: 22.</p><p>The hazardous air of the 2020 fires brought a new awareness of air quality issues in areas that don't normally have to think about them. It prompted fresh conversations about climate change, too: A <a href="https://multco.us/air-quality-public-health-problem/news/wildfire-pollution-obliterates-portland-bad-air-records-and" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Multnomah County news release</a> called the wildfires a "full-on disaster siren that climate change is fully here."</p><p>But when the rain finally came on Sept. 19 and cleared the air, Portlanders rejoiced in the ability to breathe deeply again. The climate conversation and talk of air quality slowly but surely fell out of the news cycle, replaced with the election and the pandemic.</p><p>But what about the communities whose air is filled with dangerous emissions every day without the drama of an apocalyptic glow? What about the people who don't get the reprieve of a breath of fresh air? Poor air quality can be seen in metro areas across the U.S., but the distribution of that burden overwhelmingly falls on communities of color.</p><p>Communities in Texas and Michigan are home to some of the most polluted air in the country, but they are also home to groups that are fiercely fighting for — and making — change.</p>
<h2>Manchester United</h2><p>Houston is known as the energy capital of America, but that title comes with industrial refineries and chemical plants that release toxic emissions into the air. Having grown up in East Houston, near smokestacks and petrochemical plants, Bryan Parras knows this particular toxic air well. He now works for the Sierra Club as a healthy communities organizer and environmental justice advocate. His job is to identify local issues and leverage Sierra Club resources to address them most effectively.</p><p>"In some ways you're like a triage doctor, stopping the bleeding and dressing wounds," Parras explains. "In that process, you learn about the policy decisions that have led to things to begin with. You begin to understand the dynamics that people are dealing with, and you get a deeper grasp of the intersections of housing, environment, immigration status, and all these things."</p><p>Those intersections are clear in an ongoing case against Valero Energy, a midsize oil refinery that <a href="https://www.valero.com/en-us/Pages/Houston.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">produces 235,000 barrels of oil and petroleum products per day</a> in Houston's Manchester neighborhood. Valero applied for a permit to emit poisonous hydrogen cyanide in its refining process in March 2018. To fight back, Manchester community representatives are seeking party status during the permit hearings with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. According to the CDC, exposure to <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/ershdb/emergencyresponsecard_29750038.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">this chemical asphyxiant</a> interferes with nearly every organ in the body, especially the brain, heart, and lungs, and can be fatal in high concentrations.</p><p>The toxin is better known in other contexts. Hydrogen cyanide has been <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-04-11-mn-180-story.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">used for lethal injection</a> and is the primary component of Zyklon B, the gas used for mass murder in Nazi WWII gas chambers. Parras says Valero has long been emitting hydrogen cyanide into the air in the Manchester community, but the amount is unclear because the emission was only discovered, or revealed, after a change in EPA requirements during the Obama administration.</p><p>The permit request is for 512 tons of hydrogen cyanide per year. To put that number in context, community leaders and elected officials in Denver were appalled when the <a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2018/04/19/suncor-energy-cyanide-gas-poor-denver-neighborhoods/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment imposed a new limit</a> that allowed nearly 13 tons of hydrogen cyanide to be emitted in 2018.</p><p>The permit request in Houston caught the attention of Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services (t.e.j.a.s.), an organization aiming to provide Texas communities with environmental and legislative expertise to advocate for environmental justice. The group's co-directors, Juan and Ana Parras, founded the group in 1995. Bryan Parras is their son and a member of the t.e.j.a.s. board of directors.</p><p>"[Valero] were releasing without a permit for over 10 years," Ana says. "These people are just being dumped upon."</p>
<h2>Houstonians Can't Breathe</h2><p>Manchester is one of <a href="https://www.yesmagazine.org/social-justice/2013/04/23/houston-s-most-polluted-neighborhood-draws-line-keystone-tar-sands/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Houston's oldest neighborhoods</a>. It is surrounded on three sides by a chemical plant, synthetic rubber plant, oil refineries, and a car-crushing facility, all of which belly up to the Houston Ship Channel, one of the busiest sea ports in the world. The fourth side is a train yard.</p><p>A <a href="https://airalliancehouston.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/AAH-Executive-Summary.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">2019 study commissioned by Air Alliance Houston</a>, an environmental advocacy organization, found that the city's polluting facilities are routinely clustered in and around communities where most of the residents are people of color, or where more than 30% of households are considered low-income. Manchester qualifies as both. As of 2015, <a href="https://www.houstontx.gov/planning/Demographics/docs_pdfs/SN/65_Harrisburg_Manchester.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">82% of Manchester residents are Hispanic</a>, 14% are Black, and 3% are White. Some 41% of residents make $25,000 or less per year.</p><p>The Valero Energy plant is just two blocks from nearby residential homes — or "fence line communities" as Ana and Juan Parras describe them. A <a href="https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/double-jeopardy-houston%252523.Wxa161OUv1y" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">2016 study from the Union of Concerned Scientists</a> found that 90.2% of the Manchester population lives within 1 mile of at least one regulated industrial facility. The <a href="https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2013-11/documents/appendix-a-final.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">EPA estimates that each year, these types of facilities have about 150 catastrophic releases</a>, which can be fires, explosions, or emissions that pose immediate and significant danger to people and the environment.</p><p>The same study also found the Manchester neighborhood's respiratory hazard index to be 2.56. That far exceeds the EPA's acceptable level, which is less than 1.0. In comparison, Portland, Oregon, has an average <a href="https://regionalbarometer.oregonmetro.gov/datasets/respiratory-hazard-index-map" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">respiratory hazard index of 0.57</a>.</p><p>T.e.j.a.s and two other community representatives have received standing in the administrative hearings for the Valero permit moving forward. But Ana Parras anticipates the case lasting well into 2021, and all the while, Valero continues to emit hydrogen cyanide unrestricted.</p>
<h2>Pushing Back Against Discrimination</h2><p>On a faster track is the Title VI language justice case t.e.j.a.s. filed against the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.</p><p>Title VI prohibits discrimination based on race, color, and national origin in programs that receive federal assistance. Many of the notifications for the community hearings for the Valero case were in English only, even though <a href="https://www.houstontx.gov/planning/Demographics/docs_pdfs/SN/65_Harrisburg_Manchester.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">70% of Manchester residents speak Spanish</a> at home. Also, because there weren't adequate translators, Spanish-speaking parents would bring their bilingual children — some as young as 7 years old — to the hearings to translate for them.</p><p>In this case, t.e.j.a.s. is asking that all notifications be translated into languages congruent with the community demographics, not just the first notification as stated under the current rule.</p><p>"In an unprecedented two weeks, we had a hearing," Ana says.</p><p>The case has the potential to change the national EPA rules, in addition to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality rule.</p><p>"The system is hard to change," Juan says, but if t.e.j.a.s. and other organizers stop fighting these systemic environmental ills, he says, the fence line communities will suffer even greater losses. "Community is always first."</p>
<h2>Environmental Justice Hot Spots</h2><p>In Michigan, organizers with the Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition are using scientific research to find and calculate the impact of environmental racism in their state's fence line communities. For years, MEJC members had been showing up to permit hearings for industrial polluters, mobilizing and providing support for the various communities that were at risk. After a while, the coalition realized a flaw in the permitting system.</p><p>"We recognized that these permits were not being considered in relationship to each other," says Jamesa Johnson-Greer, the climate justice director at MEJC. "So, when an air permit is considered for nitrous oxide, for example, that's only considered for that one entity, and that's not considering the fact that these polluting facilities might by near other polluting facilities that are also emitting the same nitrous oxide." Those facilities are often concentrated in and around low-income neighborhoods of color.</p><p>The coalition commissioned a <a href="https://seas.umich.edu/sites/all/files/AssessingtheStateofEnvironmentalJusticeinMichigan_344.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">cumulative impact study</a> by the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability. Researchers assigned an environmental justice score for each census tract in the state based on social, demographic, and environmental data.</p><p>In 2019, the researchers reported hot spots of environmental injustice — communities around the state experiencing compounding impacts from 11 environmental factors, including the respiratory hazard index, diesel exposure, <a href="https://www.epa.gov/urban-air-toxics/about-urban-air-toxics" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">air toxics cancer risks</a>, nearby hazardous waste facilities and regulated industrial facilities, as well as traffic proximity. Unsurprisingly, those hot spots were disproportionately clustered in communities of color that had higher levels of poverty, unemployment, and educational attainment (the percent of the population over 25 without a high school diploma) than the statewide average.</p><p>The report confirmed some of what MEJC already knew, such as the intense air pollution in southwest Detroit, particularly <a href="https://www.metrotimes.com/detroit/struggling-to-breathe-in-48217-michigans-most-toxic-zip-code/Content?oid=23542211" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the 48217 ZIP code</a>, which is surrounded by more than two dozen industrial polluting facilities. The environmental justice scores around Detroit were as high as 87 out of 100. But there were also surprises, according to Johnson-Greer, like the fact that Grand Rapids, Michigan, had the highest EJ score in the state: 93.99. And despite the egregious water issues in Flint, Genesee County, where the city is located, didn't even make the top 10% of census tracts.</p><p>"That actually influenced the way we did our work this year," Johnson-Greer says, "recognizing that we needed to go and talk to people in those areas who have been doing work around environmental justice or social justice and see what the issues were on the ground."</p><p>By developing relationships with environmental advocates in Grand Rapids, MEJC learned that the town has a long history of logging and paper mills, considered <a href="https://www.intechopen.com/books/environmental-management-in-practice/pollution-prevention-in-the-pulp-and-paper-industries" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">one of the most polluting industries in the world</a> because of the high concentration of chemicals in the wastewater. Johnson-Greer says that recognizing the patterns and similarities across the EJ hot spots throughout the state can help highlight the weaknesses — and, thus, the starting points for equitable environmental transitions — in statewide and national environmental policies.</p><p>In particular, she points to the importance of "prioritizing those communities that are most vulnerable and recognizing that those are the communities that we need to start resourcing immediately, because they have probably also been most under-resourced and have also been left behind in past policies."</p>
<h2>A Shift in the Collective Consciousness</h2><p>For Bakeyah Nelson, the executive director of Air Alliance Houston, putting the most affected communities' needs first means using a diversity of tactics. Air Alliance Houston supports community interests by advocating for long-term legislative solutions, like developing industrial zoning laws in Houston, and by responding as-needed to threats against local communities' air quality, such as monitoring permits for new concrete batch plants so they can alert the nearby residents of their options to fight the permit.</p><p>"In advocacy, I would say there is no one size fits all," Nelson says. "It can be proactive; we can work with groups and coalitions to put forth state level legislation to try to prevent concrete batch plants from being placed near neighborhoods. But, on a day-to-day basis, it's more reactive in that we are tracking the permits; we see a permit and then we respond."</p><p>With limited time and resources, striking an effective balance of reactive and proactive responses can be a challenge, says Bryan Parras of the Sierra Club. But Parras is inspired by the community he serves, as well as the overall shift in public conversation he's seen around pollution and climate change over the past few years. While affluent White communities are typically untouched by environmental racism, they are now facing the unavoidable sign of climate change, as was the case with Portland in this year's wildfires. That can prompt powerful empathy and is moving the needle toward action on environmental justice.</p><p>"Despite all of the problems, you see some real change happening in the collective consciousness," Parras says. "There is a growth, a renaissance of activism and participation in civic life that is really beautiful to see."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.yesmagazine.org/environment/2020/11/18/smoke-portland-air-quality-equity/" target="_blank">YES! Magazine</a>.</em><br/></p>From Your Site Articles
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A black rhino in Addo Elephant National Park, Eastern Cape, South Africa. Mikael Drackner / Moment / Getty Images
By Richard Thomas
Joseph Biden was elected to office as the world continues to struggle with a global pandemic that has killed more than a million people and wreaked devastating economic havoc. The pandemic has highlighted how humankind's abuse of our planet and the irreversible loss of the biodiversity and ecosystem services upon which we all rely for our very existence simply can't go on.
<p>I work for <a href="https://www.traffic.org/" target="_blank">TRAFFIC</a>, a nongovernmental organization addressing issues related to wildlife trade, and the COVID pandemic has thrust this topic into the limelight. While we fully acknowledge and appreciate support received under previous administrations, it's clear that the world has underestimated the importance and potential impacts of failing to manage wildlife trade in a way that's legal, sustainable and, critically, includes measures to mitigate against the risk of zoonotic-disease spillover events.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDc4ODcyNy9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzOTA3NDU5OH0.NL7wbROAyi1nTbXopeJyKo6Sk7BXm88CBlzjVtqNYWc/img.jpg?width=980" id="921d9" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="44d0625aef9d48fb6c51463ed13d3634" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Centers for Disease Control staff inspect bushmeat being imported into the U.S. CDC
<p>How do we move forward? First, I would argue that allocating resources to understanding the risks associated with trade in animals — from any source — and how to lessen the danger of disease spillover events is a wise investment. At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, USAID gave the go-ahead to activities under a second phase of a Wildlife Trafficking Response, Assessment and Priority Setting (Wildlife TRAPS) Project implemented by TRAFFIC, with a renewed zoonotic disease risk focus. TRAFFIC will endeavor to ensure it's money well spent.</p><p>Meanwhile welcome global attention has been paid to addressing the wildlife crime that undermines society and threatens the future of many of the world's wild plants and animals. But we're still not there in curbing these crimes. More resources will help get us over the line.</p><p>These include better equipment, training and working conditions for the rangers on the front lines; enhanced use of wildlife forensics; training of detector dogs; and even access to skilled translators to assist enforcement agencies with interpreting transactions involving foreign nationals. We also need to see renewed efforts by governments, helped by nongovernmental organizations and others, to reduce the consumer demand that fuels such trade.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDc4ODcyOS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1MDE0MjAwOH0.ApfXBIoKeOYb-BWrVpjD4drHARMCQCHkws9uG8lQTJY/img.jpg?width=980" id="77dd0" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="622b956c2f412021bd4807d6909cabfc" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Rangers on patrol in Kruger National Park, South Africa. Bernard DuPont / CC BY-SA 2.0
<p>Finally, the Biden era must go down in history as the turning point when world governments came together in a united front to address the conservation crisis and start down the long road to repair. Next year the delayed <a href="https://www.cbd.int/cop/" target="_blank">15th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity</a> will take place, when world governments will finalize the goals and policies of the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework that will guide humankind to a biodiverse and sustainable future. The current draft of the Framework features, for the first time, a target on wildlife trade. It calls on governments to ensure that the harvesting, trade and use of wild species of fauna and flora are legal, at sustainable levels, and safe by 2030. It would be entirely appropriate if the Biden administration were at center stage throughout the negotiations. Given the role of the United States on the world stage, if Biden takes strong action, other countries will doubtless follow his lead.</p><p>Already the U.S. intention to rejoin the Paris Climate agreement has been a major symbolic step, signaling the country's aim to be at the forefront of global efforts to begin the healing process. Make no mistake: Building a green future is an enormous opportunity for businesses in the United States and beyond to meet the challenges of, and profit from, achieving the goal of a zero-carbon economy. Biden's policies should encourage achievement of that goal on every level. The future is bright, but only if it's green.</p><p>With the world's climate, forests and other natural resources under ever-increasing pressure, there has never been a more urgent need for the robust guidance, sound policies and strong leadership needed to protect our planet. The next four years could be the make-or-break moment.</p><p><em>The opinions expressed above are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of</em> The Revelator, <em>the Center for Biological Diversity or their employees.</em></p><p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://therevelator.org/biden-leadership-wildlife-crime/" target="_blank">The Revelator</a>. </em></p>From Your Site Articles
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As the Trump Administration’s Tiny Windows Close, Giant Doors Open for Science Advice
18 November
Insights + Opinion
U.S. President Donald Trump (L) is seen during an NBC News town hall event in Miami on October 15, 2020, and President-elect Joe Biden (R) participates in an ABC News town hall event in Philadelphia on October 15, 2020. Brendan Smialowski and Jim Watson / AFP / Getty Images
By Genna Reed
In his first week as president-elect, Joe Biden instituted an advisory board of experts to provide science-based recommendations to respond to COVID-19. This could be a signal that independent science advice under a Biden administration is valued. After four years of watching the norms of science advisory structures eroded and undermined, especially at the EPA, it is hard to visualize the possibilities of a government informed by experts. Once Biden takes office in January, here are the actions I hope his administration will take to shore up the government's fifth arm of external expert advice:
1. Rescind EO 13875 and Reinstate Disbanded Committees
<p>In Executive Order 13875, titled "Evaluating and Improving the Utility of Federal Advisory Committees," issued in June 2019<strong>, </strong>President Trump mandated the elimination of one-third of federal advisory committees with an aim of <a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/genna-reed/trump-executive-order-advisory-committee" target="_blank">reaching the arbitrary total of 350</a>. Some agencies followed the order, cutting committees like <a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/genna-reed/the-first-cut-of-epa-advisory-committees-is-the-deepest" target="_blank">EPA's Environmental Laboratory Advisory Board (ELAB) and the National Advisory Council for Environmental Policy and Technology (NACEPT)</a>, <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/465001-trump-officials-eliminate-board-that-advised-on-smart-grid" target="_blank">The Department of Commerce's Smart Grid Advisory Committee</a> and <a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/genna-reed/science-advice-shouldnt-be-at-the-whim-of-a-president-and-his-appointees" target="_blank">Marine Protected Areas Advisory Committee, and DOI's Invasive Species Advisory Committee</a> and CDC's <a href="https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/science/" target="_blank">Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry's Board of Scientific Counselors</a> and its <a href="https://www.facadatabase.gov/FACA/apex/FACAPublicCommittee?id=a10t0000001gzkCAAQ" target="_blank">Advisory Committee to the Director</a>. Yes, you read that right. As the CDC director responded to a national public health crisis, he did not have a sounding board of leading public health experts to help guide a federal response, as <a href="https://www.facadatabase.gov/FACA/apex/FACAPublicCommittee?id=a10t0000001gzkCAAQ" target="_blank">had been readily available since 1962</a>.</p><p>Neither the White House nor federal agencies released criteria or a full justification for disbanding these committees to the public. This is likely not an exhaustive list. Thus, the Biden administration should allow agencies to bring back disbanded committees quickly so that they can get back to work on projects left unfinished and take on new ones, especially those with direct relevance to providing expertise to the government on responding to COVID-19.</p>2. Issue a Proactive Executive Order to Affirm the Value of Advisory Committees
<p>The president-elect should issue an executive order affirming the value of advisory committees and direct agencies to improve the integrity and transparency of processes to ensure committees meet their chartered objectives. <a href="https://www.ucsusa.org/sites/default/files/2020-09/si-of-federal-advisory-committees.pdf" target="_blank">Our fact sheet</a> includes a long list of measures that should be included in that order, but the goal of the executive order should be threefold:</p><ul><li>address committee membership by requiring agencies to be more transparent and make decisions based solely on experience and technical qualifications in the topic the committees address, and not based on inappropriate criteria (e.g., party affiliation, political opinions, <a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/michael-halpern/the-epa-science-advisory-board-is-being-compromised-heres-why-that-matters" target="_blank">having received a government grant</a>);</li><li>protect the independence and integrity of advisory committees by protecting against <a href="https://www.ucsusa.org/sites/default/files/2020-09/conflicts-of-interest-at-federal-agencies.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">conflicts of interest</a>;</li><li>ensure that the processes used to establish and terminate advisory committees are clear and transparent and that the government seeks out the advice it needs.</li></ul><p>An order that sets a high ethical bar for external advice can help protect against some of the more egregious violations we saw under the Trump administration, like the appointment of a majority of members with <a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/genna-reed/biased-science-board-threatens-fetal-tissue-research" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">clear issues of impartiality to the HHS's Human Fetal Tissue Ethics Advisory Board,</a> which then issued sweeping rejections of grant proposals for critical research using fetal tissue.</p>3. Go Back to the Drawing Board at the EPA
<p>The Biden administration should begin to reverse the damage done by former Administrator Pruitt and Administrator Wheeler to <a href="https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/512063-americans-need-the-best-science-more-than-ever-from-government" target="_blank">gerrymander science at EPA</a> and signal a commitment to balanced, independent advice by instituting a new nominations process for all EPA committees, while promoting transparency and public input and listening to its own staff recommendations. The administration should begin by scrapping the <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/521044-shuffle-of-epas-science-advisors-elevates-those-with-industry-tries" target="_blank">Science Advisory Board</a> and <a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/gretchen-goldman/the-epa-cut-science-out-of-air-pollution-standard-setting-were-putting-it-back" target="_blank">the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee</a> and start over. Here's why.</p><p>There are still qualified experts on EPA's advisory committees, but since the <a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/genna-reed/epas-chance-to-get-science-advice-right" target="_blank">process barred EPA-funded scientists from applying from fall 2017 to 2020</a>, the expertise is not balanced and not the most relevant for the issues currently facing EPA. Further, it is unclear whether membership was adequately vetted for conflicts of interest. These are all fair questions, since <a href="https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-19-280" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">we know Wheeler's administration failed to provide documentation on its selection process</a>.</p><p>The only way to fix a broken process is to start from scratch, instituting some of the norms and processes that were in place before the Trump administration came in, but also updating them to ensure even more transparency. For example, <a href="https://www.ucsusa.org/sites/default/files/2020-09/si-of-federal-advisory-committees.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">we recommend</a> that all agencies, including EPA, publish relevant basic information about each committee member on a public online portal (e.g., integrity.gov), including qualifications, background, employers, and funding sources for the previous five years, along with any conflict-of-interest waivers granted. Additionally, the decisionmaking processes used for committee formation, including how agencies screen members, how they assess committees for balance, and which political officials are involved, should be made public.</p><p>All members of committees re-formed could reapply if they wished to remain. But importantly, a new vetting process would ensure that expertise was prioritized and that conflicts of interest or appearance of impartiality was avoided.</p>4. Work With Congress on Bipartisan Legislation That Would Increase Transparency and Public Input
<p>The <a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/andrew-rosenberg/improving-transparency-and-disclosure-of-conflicts-of-interest-for-science-advisory-committees" target="_blank">Federal Advisory Committee Act Amendments of 2019</a> would require agencies to open nominations for committee positions, select and publicize from those nominations, and clearly distinguish independent scientists from those representing a particular interest group. The bill would also require disclosure of conflicts of interest to the agency and the public and greater transparency of the meetings themselves. Also, political party affiliation cannot be used as a criterion for selection for a committee, which is important as such political litmus tests have been used in the past to <a href="https://www.ucsusa.org/center-for-science-and-democracy/scientific_integrity/abuses_of_science/a-to-z/fogarty-international-center.html" target="_blank">distort and stack</a> advisory committees under previous administrations.</p><p>Congress could also consider legislation that would institute a formal petition process for the public to request an agency assemble a federal advisory committee for an issue based on a set of criteria. This could ensure a more inclusive and equitable approach to deciding what issues get paid adequate attention by agencies.</p>Making a Sound Investment in Science Advice
<p>We have studied the ways in which science advisory committees have been sidelined or hijacked and over the past four years saw very clearly how changes to norms and the erosion of processes built to uphold integrity can wreak havoc on environmental and public health policy decisions.</p><p>As a new administration takes office, I hope that it takes advantage of this hindsight and sees the opportunities I see: not just bringing back old policies and signaling the importance of government science advice, but finding new ways to make it more responsive to the public than to special interests, and more inclusive of a diverse set of scientists and experts whose voices need to be heard right now. There's no time like the present to modernize our government advisory infrastructure, and <a href="https://www.ucsusa.org/sites/default/files/2020-09/si-of-federal-advisory-committees.pdf" target="_blank">our recommendations feature actions that can help get us there.</a></p>From Your Site Articles
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The Sherburne County generating station, a coal-fired power plant owned by Xcel Energy, in Becker, Minnesota. Tony Webster / CC BY 2.0
By Elizabeth Sawin
The next president will be inaugurated in the midst of a raging pandemic, an economic recession, a crisis of structural racism and an escalating climate emergency. The best chance for making progress on any of these issues is to tackle them all together.
<p>That's an approach called <a href="https://www.climateinteractive.org/ci-topics/multisolving/" target="_blank">multisolving</a> — ensuring that every dollar invested in solving one problem solves others at the same time. It's the preferred approach when facing intersecting problems with tight budgets and an urgent timeline.</p>
<p>A COVID-19 economic recovery package will be one of the biggest opportunities to multisolve in 2021. A well-designed recovery could lock in decades of low-carbon emissions. It could reap the public health benefits that come along with replacing air-polluting energy sources with clean energy generation. And it could steer benefits, like good jobs that can't be offshored, to the communities that have historically been left out of economic opportunity.</p><p>But multisolving doesn't happen by accident. It happens by design. If the next administration wants to achieve four benefits — climate protection, economic recovery, health and equity — for the price of one, it will need to place multisolving at the center of its plans.</p><p>Nine months into the pandemic, there are bright spots around the world that show what might be possible if economic recovery investments were designed to achieve multiple goals. These can be found in small developing countries and in major economies. Their focus ranges from clean energy to ecosystem restoration to walking and cycling infrastructure.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDc4MjE0Ni9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyMzYwNDI3Nn0.rcnnOoURkrdrGUlQeNEE9h7qKHgL-2XnW1KeXVenl7U/img.jpg?width=980" id="c50df" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="eae52511e1d1402812b640966a68b242" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Separated bike lane. Paul Krueger / CC BY 2.0
<p>Here are a few cases drawn from a growing <a href="https://www.climateinteractive.org/ci-topics/multisolving/great/great-recovery-policies/#section-1-nat" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">database</a> of examples my colleagues and I are tracking:</p><ul><li>The Nigerian government is focusing on solar electricity as part of its recovery <a href="https://www.energyvoice.com/otherenergy/245447/nigeria-plans-solar-household-boost/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">plan</a>, with a goal of installing solar-generation capacity on 5 million homes;</li><li><a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/10/08/spain-pins-covid-recovery-hopes-green-investment-plan/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Spain</a> has pinned its recovery on an "ecological transformation" including installing 100,000 electric vehicle charging stations, making 500,000 homes more energy efficient and accelerating progress toward its goal of 100% renewable electricity by 2050;</li><li>A joint EU-Africa <a href="https://www.eib.org/en/press/all/2020-218-eib-and-afreximbank-direct-eur-300m-of-support-to-african-covid-response" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">project</a> will direct €300 million ($354 million) to projects that help businesses in Sub-Saharan Africa, especially ones owned by women. At least 25% of the funds are for projects involving renewable energy, energy efficiency and climate change resilience;</li><li>The United Kingdom has launched a £2 billion ($2.6 billion) <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/2-billion-package-to-create-new-era-for-cycling-and-walking" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">plan</a> to increase cycling infrastructure as part of its COVID-19 response. In the short term this will help people travel safely through the pandemic. In the long term it will reduce emissions from transportation and capture the health benefits of active travel.</li></ul><p>Sadly, these bright spots are so far the exception, not the rule.</p><p>A <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/370/6514/298.full" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">study</a> published last month in <em>Science</em> highlights the potential of this moment. Countries around the world have already committed $12 trillion to economic recovery packages. If only 12% of that amount were to be invested in the next five years in clean energy and energy efficiency the world could place itself on a path to meeting the goals of Paris Climate Agreement, while also driving job opportunities and improving human health. But so far, the world as whole is falling short of even this modest amount of multisolving.</p><p>Some regions are doing well, though. In the European Union, for instance, somewhere between <a href="https://rhg.com/data_story/green-stimulus-and-recovery-tracker/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">19%</a> to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/nov/09/revealed-covid-recovery-plans-threaten-global-climate-hopes" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">30%</a> of recovery investments are rated as "green." But many other governments are allowing this opportunity to multisolve slip away. Estimates are that only <a href="https://rhg.com/data_story/green-stimulus-and-recovery-tracker/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">1%</a> of U.S. recovery funding so far has been green. For China the estimate is 0.3%; for India it's 2.4%.</p><p><br>With recovery plans still taking shape, and with many of the opportunities for investment on hold until the public health threat of the virus is under control, the window of opportunity has not yet closed. That is good news. The United States, under the incoming administration, could direct the funds needed to stimulate the economy in a way that simultaneously helps us meet climate, health and equity goals.</p><p>To ensure this quadruple benefit is captured, each element of a recovery plan will need to be designed with multiple criteria in mind. Policy makers should be asking questions such as:</p><ul><li>Does an energy infrastructure project lock in low carbon emissions while also providing good jobs?</li><li>Does a particular investment include racial, gender and economic equity provisions to make sure benefits go to communities that have been left out of past opportunities?</li><li>Are investments like home weatherization targeted towards low-wealth communities, where the resulting utility bill savings will make the most difference?</li><li>Are job training, healthcare and childcare offered so that everyone can benefit from new employment opportunities?</li></ul><p>Success will require sustained effort well beyond the design phase. It will require agencies to work together. Can an energy efficiency program coordinate with a jobs program? Can a cycling project be designed with input from housing and public health?</p><p>A true multisolving recovery will invest authority in local communities. While the federal government functions in silos, all the elements of carbon emissions, health, jobs, equity and well-being come together on the ground, at the grassroots level. Funding mechanisms will need to be flexible to allow communities to steer their own green and equitable recoveries.</p><p>That's a tall order, and even the most effective multisolving recovery plan will not be enough if it focuses only within the United States. The transition to a zero-carbon future needs to be a global one. Rich nations like the United States can offer financial assistance so that all countries can recover in ways that are green, resilient and equitable.</p><p>The country and the world could emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic more resilient, more equitable, and on track to meet climate goals. But that won't happen by accident. It's time to start multisolving.</p><p><em>You can learn more about <a href="https://www.climateinteractive.org/ci-topics/multisolving/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">multisolving</a> on Climate Interactive's website, where you can also explore a <a href="https://www.climateinteractive.org/ci-topics/multisolving/great/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">database</a> of green, resilient, equitable recovery measures being taken around the world.</em></p><p><em>The opinions expressed above are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of</em> The Revelator,<em> the Center for Biological Diversity or their employees.</em> </p><p><span></span><a href="https://therevelator.org/author/elizabethsawin/" target="_blank">Elizabeth Sawin</a> is co-founder and co-director of Climate Interactive a think-tank that helps people find solutions to climate change and related issues like equity, health, food and water.</p><p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://therevelator.org/multisolving-covid-recovery/" target="_blank">The Revelator</a>. </em></p>
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A rainbow is seen over windmills in Oahu, Hawaii. Naomi Rahim / Getty Images
By Dan Farber
With the next president of the United States finally decided, we can now begin moving on to the work at hand.
<p>Joe Biden's election creates an exciting opportunity for climate action. But there's one clear hurdle: Unless the January runoff elections in Georgia for two Senate seats deliver surprising success to the Democrats, President-elect Biden will face a Senate led again by Mitch McConnell. That narrows the range of available policy instruments, but Biden should still be able to make real progress.</p><p>He has the advantage of the tide moving in the direction of clean energy. Market forces are shifting strongly away from fossil fuels and toward renewables and energy storage. State governments are moving in the same direction. And public opinion has shifted, with more people recognizing the importance of climate change and the benefits of clean energy. The trick will be to leverage these trends into faster and larger changes.</p><p>I'd advocate a three-pronged approach to take advantage of these trends: (1) aggressive use of established regulatory tools; (2) funding to improve and deploy new technologies; and (3) government support for state and private sector climate efforts.</p><p>The first prong was utilized heavily by the Obama administration.</p>
<p>Like Obama Biden needs to make aggressive use of existing law. Given a 6-3 conservative Supreme Court, it would be best to <a href="https://legal-planet.org/2020/10/27/climate-policymaking-in-the-shadow-of-the-supreme-court/" target="_blank">avoid</a> anything that looks legally innovative and instead push as hard as possible on legally established channels.</p><p>That would mean strictly regulating conventional pollution from fossil fuels, using the Clean Air Act as well as other environmental statutes. Additional avenues include ramping up standards for methane emissions, cutting back on leasing public lands for fossil fuels, and higher fuel-efficiency standards.</p><p>There will be industry resistance to these efforts, but economic trends may help dampen that.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDc3NDAzOS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxMTczNzI1MX0.0GzLj7MBuLV3VcoUP0D66KDYVifIfLnqhL7XNbBLFQY/img.jpg?width=980" id="8623b" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="49a6ad7ff81ac80bdaecfa3736ee1baf" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Wind turbines. Photo: Shawn Meng, Oregon Department of Agriculture (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
<p>The second prong is legislative.</p><p>Although a GOP or 50-50 Senate will be a challenge, some kinds of legislation may have a chance of sneaking through.</p><p>Sen. Lisa Murkowski has an <a href="https://www.utilitydive.com/news/comprehensive-senate-energy-bill-draws-industry-bipartisan-support-but-la/573326/" target="_blank">energy bill</a> she has been trying to get to the floor that seems to have bipartisan support. The bill focuses on spending for research and demonstration projects. Even when the GOP controlled Congress during the first two years of Trump's presidency, Congress voted to increase funding for renewable energy for the Defense Department and to increase funding for research into innovative new energy technologies.</p><p>If Murkowski and fellow Republican Sen. Susan Collins can be brought on board, it may also be possible to adopt energy-related amendments to must-pass bills.</p><p>Finally, increased funding for adaptation-related spending by FEMA, the Defense Department and the Army Corps of Engineers may also be feasible.</p><p>The third prong involves climate efforts outside the federal government.</p><p>During the Trump administration, many states increased their use of renewable energy and a smaller group have adopted serious carbon reduction targets. The federal government can defend these efforts in court; can provide states technical resources; and can use its regulatory powers over energy markets to reinforce state climate programs.</p><p>We've also seen a serious movement by investors away from fossil fuels and toward renewables. The federal government can support these trends through its regulation of financial markets.</p><p>And the power of presidential jawboning should not be underestimated. Presidential appeals to business leaders can carry considerable clout, as can public praise or shaming.</p><p>Even if Biden is handicapped by the lack of Senate control, a lot can still be done. And the climate crisis is too urgent for us to pass up any available tool for addressing it.</p>
<p><em><a href="https://therevelator.org/author/danfarber/" target="_blank">Dan Farber </a>teaches environmental law and directs the Center for Law, Energy and the Environment at the University of California, Berkeley. <br/></em></p><p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://therevelator.org/biden-climate-farber/" target="_blank">The Revelator.</a></em></p>From Your Site Articles
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How to Host a Safe Holiday Meal During Coronavirus – an Epidemiologist Explains Her Personal Plans
10 November
Insights + Opinion
martin-dm / E+ / Getty Images
By Melissa Hawkins
Like many people in this unusual year, I am adjusting my family's holiday plans so that we can all be safe during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
<p>I am an epidemiologist and mother of four with a large extended family. Given the serious <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa/u-s-sets-single-day-record-for-covid-19-cases-during-new-surge-idUSKBN2781UF" target="_blank">nationwide resurgence</a> of COVID-19 infections, <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/daily-life-coping/holidays.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">gatherings of family and friends over the upcoming holidays</a> have the potential to amplify the spread of the virus. Several <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6944e1.htm" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">recent studies</a> have further confirmed that <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.04.20188417v2" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">indoor socializing at home carries a significantly higher risk</a> of viral transmission than outdoor activities. Health officials, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, have warned that much of transmission this fall is happening across all age groups at <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/fauci-says-small-gatherings-driving-new-covid-outbreaks-worries-about-n1245159" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">small indoor gatherings</a>.</p><p>For the past 15 years my family tradition is to travel from Washington, D.C., along with both grandparents, to sunny Florida to celebrate Thanksgiving with cousins. This year we decided to skip the travel and will have fall and winter celebrations at home.</p><p>We are not canceling the holidays, but to keep ourselves and others safe, we are keeping plans small and flexible and remembering that the health of those we love is most important as we enter the season of gratitude.</p>
Before You Gather
<p>First, it is important that everyone who will be attending any holiday celebration is on the same page about how to take precautions before getting together. The idea is to lower infection risk in the weeks leading up to the holidays and then test to confirm.</p><p>In general, everyone should plan to be vigilant in their public health practices beforehand, especially since grandparents are at higher risk. In my family, we have <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-use-covid-19-testing-and-quarantining-to-safely-travel-for-the-holidays-147154" target="_blank">agreed to limit contact with other people</a> as much as possible the week before Thanksgiving. We have also agreed that everyone <a href="https://theconversation.com/quarantine-bubbles-when-done-right-limit-coronavirus-risk-and-help-fight-loneliness-140134" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">needs to be extra cautious around the few close people we see regularly</a>.</p><p>In conjunction with quarantining, <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-use-covid-19-testing-and-quarantining-to-safely-travel-for-the-holidays-147154" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">testing</a> is the second strategy.</p><p>Research has consistently shown that people are most contagious a day or two before they show symptoms, so everyone <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-use-covid-19-testing-and-quarantining-to-safely-travel-for-the-holidays-147154" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">plans to get tested with an RT-PCR test</a> within 72 hours of Thanksgiving, while still being able to get results in hand before we gather.</p><p>If the demand for <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-tests-are-pretty-accurate-but-far-from-perfect-136671" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">tests</a> is high and wait times are long, we will get rapid tests. But these are a second choice, as they are <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-use-covid-19-testing-and-quarantining-to-safely-travel-for-the-holidays-147154" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">less reliable and can be expensive</a>.</p>Where and How to Eat and Socialize
<p>No matter how careful you and your family are, there is some risk that someone will be infected. With that in mind, the goal is to reduce the conditions that lead to <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2020/09/29/science.abd7672" target="_blank">viral spread</a>. The biggest risks are indoor spaces with <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-use-ventilation-and-air-filtration-to-prevent-the-spread-of-coronavirus-indoors-143732" target="_blank">poor ventilation</a>, large groups and close contact. So we are planning the opposite: a short outdoor Thanksgiving with a small group and plenty of space between everyone.</p><p>To reduce the risk of infection from flying and to keep the gathering small, the only people coming to Thanksgiving at my family's home in D.C. are my mother, my aunt and my uncle – all of whom live within driving distance. This is in addition to myself, my husband and our kids. When deciding how many people will come to the holidays, keep it small and consider the amount of space you have to maintain social distancing.</p><p>If the weather cooperates, we plan to be outside for trivia games and the turkey meal. Rather than eat around one table, we will have individual tables and place settings spaced far apart and space heaters around. I've got a mini care package planned for each guest so that everyone will have their own blanket, hand sanitizer, utensils and a festive mask. My mother won't be helping out in the kitchen this year and, unfortunately, that goes for cleanup too. We won't take a group picture but I will be sure to capture some of the special moments.</p><p>If the weather doesn't cooperate, Plan B is to be inside in the large family room with as many windows open as possible and with everyone spaced as far apart as possible. Being outside is safer, but if you must be indoors, <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-use-ventilation-and-air-filtration-to-prevent-the-spread-of-coronavirus-indoors-143732" target="_blank">improve ventilation</a> by opening doors and windows. Consider turning on exhaust fans and <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-use-ventilation-and-air-filtration-to-prevent-the-spread-of-coronavirus-indoors-143732" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">using an air purifier</a>.</p><p>Everyone who lives in the household will be in one section while my mom will have her own individual area, as will my aunt and uncle. Even though we won't hold hands before sharing the meal, we will still recite that we are "thankful for family, friends and food."</p><p>Whether outside or inside, everyone will wear masks when they aren't eating, maintain 6 feet of distance and use the hand sanitizer that I will place throughout the house.</p><p>It is also important to be mindful of alcohol consumption, as a pandemic is not the time for lowered inhibitions and bad judgment.</p>After the Event
<p> I hope everyone enjoys the meal and quality time spent with one another in this melancholy year, but the work is not done once the dishes are clean and everyone is home safely. </p><p> Everyone is planning to get another COVID–19 test one week after the meal. Additionally, Thanksgiving is our family's trial run for Christmas, so a few days after, I plan to call everyone and discuss what worked well and what didn't. If all goes well, I hope to repeat this quarantine, test and gather process for Christmas.<br> </p><p> The ending of 2020 deserves to be celebrated, given this difficult year. This Thanksgiving will be different from those of other years, and my kids understand they need to manage their expectations. But we still plan to uphold our tradition of writing all that we are thankful for and reading our messages aloud to one another. We will still share love, some laughs and a good meal while everyone does their part to protect one another. </p><p> <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/melissa-hawkins-1116324" target="_blank">Melissa Hawkins</a> is a professor of Public Health and the Director of Public Health Scholars Program at American University.</em> </p><p> <em>Disclosure statement: Melissa Hawkins receives funding from USDA.</em> </p><p> <em style="">Reposted with permission from <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-host-a-safe-holiday-meal-during-coronavirus-an-epidemiologist-explains-her-personal-plans-149144" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="">The Conversation</a>.</em> </p><script type="text/javascript" src="https://theconversation.com/javascripts/lib/content_tracker_hook.js" id="theconversation_tracker_hook" data-counter="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/149144/count?distributor=republish-lightbox-advanced" async="async"></script>From Your Site Articles
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LaDonna Brave Bull Allard, right, a Water Protector and member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in North Dakota and South Dakota, at a demonstration in New York City on April 23, 2019, to show solidarity with "Terra Livre," the national Indigenous mobilization in Brazil. ERIK MCGREGOR / LIGHTROCKET / GETTY IMAGES
By Rena Priest
Storytellers are the makers of culture and the shapers of consciousness. The word "author" is from the Latin word auctus, which translates literally to "one who causes to grow." As storytellers, we plant beliefs that blossom into the structure of the world. In these times, we need a new structure — a narrative built on climate justice.
<p>Think of all the books you've read, the movies you've seen, the male voices who've spoken to you from pages and screens. Think of times when athletes, celebrities, and fictional characters have been your heroes. Did they look like you?</p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAfGMAuuwjc" target="_blank">Elvis Presley once said</a>, "When I was a child … I was a dreamer. I read comic books, and I was the hero of the comic book. I saw movies, and I was the hero in the movie. So every dream I ever dreamed has come true a hundred times." He identified with heroes who looked like him. He grew up to be the King.</p><p>For millennia, storytellers have written about <a href="http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/the-lady-heros-journey" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the hero's journey to celebrate men</a> (particularly men of means or athletic ability) and to uphold the status quo. They become heroes by vanquishing villains who are almost always Brown, foreign, or feminine. The fight for climate justice requires a shift away from stories that elevate the White, male warrior or protector. In these times, the war they are fighting is not against the forces of evil. These supposed heroes today are <a href="https://qz.com/quartzy/1624617/marvels-avengers-endgame-is-a-climate-change-movie-in-disguise/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">fighting against the forces of change</a> — much-needed change. Though the faces they're fighting are the same.</p>
<p>What if none of the heroes in books or movies ever looked like you? What if you always resembled the villain? What if you and everyone else in the world believed in that vision, so when you placed your Brown body in front of a wall of armored police, by default you became the villain and the police became the heroes? And when you cried out from your Brown face, "Water is life!" your message was not heard as a profound truth, but as defiant madness to be put down. When they tear gas you, turn fire hoses on you, and beat you on live TV, then take you to jail, society looks on and believes justice is being done. This is the tragedy we are living.</p><p>Climate protesters are collectively identified as agitators. At the same time, <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2015/05/the-myth-of-the-hero-cop-police-unions-have-spread-a-dangerous-message-about-americas-law-enforcement-officers.html" target="_blank">cops are seen as heroes</a> based solely on their chosen occupation. Changing the mythology requires changing how we identify a hero.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://progressive.org/dispatches/canadian-oil-companies-trample-rights/" target="_blank">Winona LaDuke said</a>, "Someone needs to explain to me why wanting clean drinking water makes you an activist, and why proposing to destroy water with chemical warfare doesn't make a corporation a terrorist." You may have seen this quote before. It's made the rounds on the internet, but it bears repeating. Every advertiser knows the power of repetition. If you have the money or leverage, you can repeat your message a hundred times an hour. You can repeat it until everyone gets it and buys what you're selling.</p><p>As a culture, we need to learn to celebrate climate defenders as heroes. We need stories that reflect the Brown, foreign, and female among us in a positive light so that their strength is passed on to those who might be inspired to become real heroes. This is how climate defenders, as the heroes they are, will truly save the world.</p>
<h2>The "Indian" Story</h2><p>Fifty years ago, <a href="https://www.denofgeek.com/comics/why-steven-spielberg-is-right-about-superhero-movies-being-the-new-western/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the taming of the Wild West</a> was among the most widely told stories on the planet. On any given weekend, a boy could turn on the TV and see his blue-eyed hero gun down Indians in the street. Classic movie networks rerun these stories in movie marathons so you can watch White men protecting their townsfolk from "savages" all day long. Repetition is how <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1484114/?ref_=ttfc_fc_tt" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the cowboy and Indian story</a> was sold to the generation of baby boomers who now govern.</p><p>Yes, it's fiction, but it's also the only representation of Indigenous identity that some people have encountered. Duncan McCue, creator of the journalist's guide to "Reporting in Indigenous Communities," was once told by a tribal elder that <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/what-it-takes-for-aboriginal-people-to-make-the-news-1.2514466" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the only way an Indian would make news</a> "is if he or she were one of the 4Ds: drumming, dancing, drunk, or dead."</p><p>To correct this, and to better steward this planet on which we depend, we must tell stories that celebrate Indigenous world views and values. And then we must repeat them, not just during Indigenous history month, but all day, every day, all week, every week, all year round, every year for decades, until the oversold fallacy that nature must be subdued and "settled" is dispelled and replaced by the truth that nature must be restored and protected.</p>
<p>Elevating Indigenous voices addresses the climate crisis because <a href="https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/mandated-areas1/environment.html" target="_blank">Indigenous issues are environmental issues, which are human rights issues</a>. When tribes win fights against pipelines and coal trains, your rights to a healthy sustainable world are protected too. When the rights of nature are restored, your rights are restored too.</p><p>Scientists usually categorize Indigenous cultures as "hunter-gatherer" societies, but the truth is that before ecological disruption wrought by newcomers, we were more like permaculturists. The Earth cultivates a beautiful variety of sustenance. Before nature was "conquered," it provided a prosperous way of being, which required a civilized amount of effort together with a deep understanding of the behaviors of native flora and fauna. To be reliant on delicately balanced ecosystems requires an understanding that the consequences of disrupting the balance are hunger, or struggle, or death.</p>
<h2>Collective Heroes</h2><p>We fight to protect our treaties and the environment because <a href="https://www1.carleton.ca/fass/story/stories-are-for-thinking-the-art-and-research-of-professor-zoe-todd/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">our traditional stories tell us</a> that we are a part of the environment and that people exist within a finite set of circumstances. Part of maintaining those circumstances is celebrating the heroic sacrifices of the beautiful plants and animals that give themselves as food. Yes, salmon as a collective can be heroes, too. And why not? They embody all the characteristics that qualify a hero as worthy of celebration.</p><p>Adventurous and brave, they swim from the shallows of their natal rivers out into the perils of the open ocean where their bodies soak up the rich nutrients of the sea. Persistent, resilient, and strong, they swim upstream against swift currents for hundreds of miles to return home to spawn and complete the cycle of life. When they die, the marine-derived nutrients are transferred from their bodies to all the animals, insects, soil, and plants of their original forest home. In this way, their hero's journey powerfully transforms barren inland landscapes into lush ecosystems. They are a keystone species, meaning <a href="http://elwahfilm.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">without them, the whole system could collapse</a>.</p><p>How can storytellers shift global perspectives to make us love salmon and pollinators and clean water more than we love John Wayne or Tony Stark? Keystone species are the heroes we need and should turn to.</p><p>People say the youth will solve the climate problem. But if we let matters play out as we wait for our children to create a cultural shift, we are shirking our responsibility to their future. We are also ignoring the risk that climate disasters will become so normalized in their lives that they may not feel a need to take up the mantle of an unsung climate hero, especially when they have only upholders of the status quo as role models.</p><p>Renowned Nisqually hero <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihFWdpyUAaE" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Billy Frank Jr. said</a>, "We have to work together, all of us. … In the status quo we don't have long. We have to somewhere make a transition."</p><p>Collectively, we can embody a new type of hero that challenges mainstream iconography. We can begin by embracing mythologies aimed at exalting environmental sustainability and social equality in order to have heroes who truly do save the planet.</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.yesmagazine.org/opinion/2020/11/05/native-climate-heroes/" target="_blank">YES! Magazine</a>.</em><br/></p>From Your Site Articles
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The Dangerous Fringe Theory Behind the Great Barrington Declaration and Herd Immunity
26 October
Insights + Opinion
A memorial project installation of 20,000 American flags on September 22, 2020 in Washington, D.C. represents the more than 200,000 American lives lost to COVID-19. Win McNamee / Getty Images
By Derrick Z. Jackson
Officials at the highest levels are discussing the possibility of caving in on controlling the coronavirus and instead letting it run rampant throughout the United States until we reach "herd immunity," the point where the virus effectively runs out of people to infect. More than 6,200 scientists, health professionals, and research organizations say this is inhumane and have signed a memorandum rejecting herd immunity as a legitimate strategy.
<p>Published last week in the <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/action/showPdf?pii=S0140-6736%2820%2932153-X" target="_blank"><em>The Lancet, </em></a>the document is named for John Snow, considered the father of modern epidemiology for mapping out the 1854 London cholera epidemic to pinpoint its source and cause, deadly water contaminated by sewage that was managed by a particular water company. The John Snow Memorandum, signed by the Union of Concerned Scientists (and individually by my wife, a physician and epidemiologist at the Harvard School of Public Health), warns that many factors render herd immunity a "dangerous fallacy unsupported by scientific evidence."</p><p>Chief among them are that the coronavirus is <a href="https://thehill.com/changing-america/well-being/prevention-cures/487086-coronavirus-10-times-more-lethal-than-seasonal" target="_blank">much deadlier</a> than the seasonal flu, and it remains unclear how long any immunity lasts after one recovers from an infection. That makes it likely that a herd immunity strategy, according to the memo, will surely cause a huge number of preventable deaths, run the risk of triggering recurrent epidemics, and potentially "overwhelm the ability of healthcare systems to provide acute and routine care."</p><p>The upwelling of concern behind the memorandum is the legitimacy being given in key corners of the White House to herd immunity, as represented in a new, high-profile document called The Great Barrington Declaration. It was written by three scientists with fringe views and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/covid-herd-immunity/2020/10/10/3910251c-0a60-11eb-859b-f9c27abe638d_story.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">concocted</a> in a gathering hosted by a libertarian think tank with ties to the climate-denying Koch Industries. The declaration's top authors were invited earlier this month to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/19/health/coronavirus-great-barrington.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">meet</a> with Scott Atlas, a member of the Coronavirus Task Force and an open advocate of herd immunity, and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar.</p><p>The declaration claims, with not a single fact or scientific study to back it up, that "current lockdown policies are producing devastating effects on short and long-term public health." Paternalistically oblivious to systemic and political reasons why Black, Latinx, and Indigenous people die from COVID-19 at higher rates than White people, the declaration says lockdowns are a "grave injustice" to the working class and school children and that keeping lockdowns in place until there is a vaccine "will cause irreparable damage, with the underprivileged disproportionately harmed."</p>
<p>Given all that so-called injustice, the authors say everyone who is "not vulnerable" should be free to move about the country and dance, sing, and play with the virus. They slyly skirt the notion that herd immunity is really about reopening the economy at all costs—which many governors did with catastrophic spikes in coronavirus cases. Instead, they say:</p><p>"Schools and universities should be open for in-person teaching;"</p><p>"Extracurricular activities, such as sports, should be resumed;"</p><p>"Young low-risk adults should work normally, rather than from home. Restaurants and other businesses should open. Arts, music, sport and other cultural activities should resume."</p>
Herd Immunity’s Unacceptable Toll
<p>Resumption of normal life in the United States under a herd immunity approach would result in an enormous death toll by all estimates. Former CDC director Tom Frieden <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/tom-frieden-herd-immunity-wrong-solution-coronavirus/2020/10/16/acb4ae8a-0fe6-11eb-8074-0e943a91bf08_story.html" target="_blank">estimates</a> that another 500,000 people would have to die to achieve 60 percent herd immunity. "And that's the best-case scenario," Frieden wrote in a <em>Washington Post</em> op-ed. "The number of deaths to get there could be twice as high."</p><p>Frieden said that is the best-case scenario because no one really knows if the <a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/coronavirus/in-depth/herd-immunity-and-coronavirus/art-20486808" target="_blank">actual percentage needed</a> to see the virus peter out is to have it <a href="https://thehill.com/opinion/healthcare/521834-covid-19-vaccine-barriers-efficacy-availability-and-acceptability" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">infect</a> more like <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/08/31/herd-immunity-covid-19/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">65, 70,</a> or even <a href="https://www.vox.com/21451282/herd-immunity-explained-covid-19-pandemic" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">75 percent</a> of the population. Even if immunity could be miraculously achieved at 50 percent, an estimate <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41577-020-00451-5" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">published</a> in <em>Nature Reviews Immunology</em> places the range of sacrifice somewhere between 500,000 and 2.1 million deaths.</p><p>That makes it little wonder that Anthony Fauci, the most respected scientist advising the Trump administration on the pandemic, called herd immunity for the coronavirus "total nonsense." Fauci is backed up by the likes of National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins, who said herd immunity is a "dangerous" and "fringe" component of epidemiology. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Health <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/10/20/nation/scores-mass-scientists-doctors-sign-open-letter-against-herd-immunity-proposal/?outputType=amp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">called</a> herd immunity "junk science."</p><p>The head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, <a href="https://www.who.int/dg/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-the-media-briefing-on-covid-19---12-october-2020" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">said this month</a> that the only acceptable form of "herd immunity" is achieved through vaccination. "Herd immunity is achieved by protecting people from a virus, not by exposing them to it," the secretary general said. "Never in the history of public health has herd immunity been used as a strategy for responding to an outbreak, let alone a pandemic... Allowing a dangerous virus that we don't fully understand to run free is simply unethical. It's not an option."</p><p>Nowhere does the Great Barington Declaration acknowledge that <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2020/p0625-update-expands-covid-19.html" target="_blank">60 percent</a> of adults in the United States have at least one chronic medical condition that makes them more vulnerable for worse outcomes from COVID. That means that only 40 percent of adults would have the privilege of resuming normal breathing among work colleagues and shouting and singing in sports and worship.</p><p>Nor does the declaration acknowledge <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)32009-2/fulltext" target="_blank">a study</a> in <em>The Lancet</em> that finds that less than 10 percent of people in the United States currently have the antibodies for the coronavirus. As proponents of herd immunity wax poetically about letting the virus loose among children and young adults, a grim reality is that <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid_weekly/index.htm#AgeAndSex" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">one out of every five</a> COVID deaths has occurred among people under the age of 65.</p><p>The herd immunity approach is also inherently racist, given the context of the systemic health, employment, residential, and environmental injustice inequities that make people of color more susceptible to the virus. Even though the virus is raging throughout nearly the entire nation, with cases increasing in 42 states and Guam, according to the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">October 22 tracking</a> by the <em>New York Times</em>, any public health response to the virus must factor in the impact on people of color.</p><p><a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/covidview/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">According</a> to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the COVID hospitalization rate for Latinx, Indigenous Americans, and African Americans, when adjusted for age, were all more than four times higher the hospitalization rate for white Americans, and the age-adjusted death rate for all three groups are triple the rate for white Americans, <a href="https://www.apmresearchlab.org/covid/deaths-by-race" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">according</a> to the APM Research Lab. The lab says that if racial death rates were equal, nearly 22,000 Black people and about 11,400 Latinx would still be alive today.</p><p>And while proponents of rushing children back into classrooms say we can do so because young kids rarely get sick from coronavirus, nearly four out of every five children <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/09/15/covid-deaths-hispanic-black-children/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">who do die</a> are African American, Latinx, or Indigenous, according to the CDC, <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6937e4.htm?s_cid=mm6937e4_w#F1_down" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">double</a> their combined share of the U.S. population.</p>
Herd Immunity Is the National De Facto Strategy
<p>Somehow, none of that has culled herd immunity from being considered as a legitimate approach for fighting COVID-19. Rather, the Great Barrington Declaration has much in common with the Trump administration's approach to the coronavirus, which has led to more people dying from COVID-19 in the United States than in any other nation on Earth.</p><p>A de facto herd immunity approach is the only thing that can explain the push by governors of so many states to <a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/derrick-jackson/the-push-to-relax-covid-19-protections-exposes-age-old-racial-wounds" target="_blank">reopen</a> bars, restaurants, beaches, bowling alleys, and gyms in states even as the virus has raged and case numbers have been increasing. It is the only thing that can explain the federal designation of meatpackers as essential workers and state demands that teachers go back into classrooms despite outbreaks and deaths related to those professions.</p><p>It also explains how so many of the nation's most respected scientific voices have been silenced. Despite the virus's current "uncontrolled spread" in 34 states and Puerto Rico, according to October 21 <a href="https://www.covidexitstrategy.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">tracking</a> by CovidExistStrategy.org, the White House has pushed aside Fauci, Coronavirus Task Force Coordinator Deborah Birx, Surgeon General Jerome Adams, and Robert Redfield, the head of the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control.</p><p>In their place, the administration has handed the pandemic podium to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trumps-den-of-dissent-inside-the-white-house-task-force-as-coronavirus-surges/2020/10/19/7ff8ee6a-0a6e-11eb-859b-f9c27abe638d_story.html?utm_campaign=wp_to_your_health&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_tyh&wpmk=1&pwapi_token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJjb29raWVuYW1lIjoid3BfY3J0aWQiLCJpc3MiOiJDYXJ0YSIsImNvb2tpZXZhbHVlIjoiNWE1ZDQ3N2M5YmJjMGYyNmNiMTViMmI0IiwidGFnIjoiNWY4ZGZhZmQ5ZDJmZGEwZWZiNGViMzQyIiwidXJsIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cud2FzaGluZ3RvbnBvc3QuY29tL3BvbGl0aWNzL3RydW1wcy1kZW4tb2YtZGlzc2VudC1pbnNpZGUtdGhlLXdoaXRlLWhvdXNlLXRhc2stZm9yY2UtYXMtY29yb25hdmlydXMtc3VyZ2VzLzIwMjAvMTAvMTkvN2ZmOGVlNmEtMGE2ZS0xMWViLTg1OWItZjljMjdhYmU2MzhkX3N0b3J5Lmh0bWw_dXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPXdwX3RvX3lvdXJfaGVhbHRoJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX3NvdXJjZT1uZXdzbGV0dGVyJndwaXNyYz1ubF90eWgmd3Btaz0xIn0.MyoXrwQD-PwWqdbb70_JfrI_fxHO0be_O_tpTTMXBgE" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Scott Atlas</a>, a radiologist and conservative pundit with <a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/derrick-jackson/public-wants-science-based-policies-for-covid-19" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">no background</a> in infectious disease science or epidemiology in measuring disease prevalence. Inhumanely ignoring the more than half of U.S. adults having a pre-existing condition that could compromise them for COVID-19, he blithely praises herd immunity, <a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/derrick-jackson/public-wants-science-based-policies-for-covid-19" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">saying,</a> "We can allow a lot of people to get infected. Those who are not at risk to die or have a serious hospital-requiring illness, we should be fine with letting them get infected."</p><p>He <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/521688-birx-confronted-pence-about-atlas" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">pooh-poohs</a> expanded testing, saying, "you are destroying the workforce." Twitter recently took down one of Atlas's tweets for falsely claiming, "Masks work? NO" and then lying that the WHO says widespread mask use is "not supported." The first sentence of the WHO's <a href="https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public/when-and-how-to-use-masks" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">webpage</a> on masks says, "Masks are a key measure to suppress the spread of COVID-19 and save lives."</p><p>Atlas denies that the White House has a "wide-open strategy of achieving herd immunity." But there's little doubt that the White House is wide open to the idea. Last week, Atlas <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/transcript/trump-adviser-calls-nbc-town-hall-brazen-display-of-media-duplicity" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">appeared</a> on Fox News <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/white-house-touts-document-calling-for-herd-immunity-approach-to-covid-19-crisis-11603051550" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">to say</a> the thrust of the Great Barrington Declaration "is exactly aligned with the president." That was seconded by a senior administration official who <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/covid-herd-immunity/2020/10/10/3910251c-0a60-11eb-859b-f9c27abe638d_story.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">told reporters</a> in a conference call that the Great Barrington Declaration "is endorsing what the president's policy has been for months."</p><p>The freezing out of scientists on the Coronavirus Task Force reached deep space levels this week (a metaphoric minus 455 degrees Fahrenheit), with multiple buckets of ice dumped on Fauci. Atlas diminished Fauci as "just one person" on the force, offering only a "limited approach." President Trump called Fauci a "disaster," <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-fauci-campaign-biden/2020/10/19/30b2fe58-1226-11eb-82af-864652063d61_story.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">claiming,</a> "People are tired of hearing Fauci and these idiots, all these idiots who got it wrong."</p>Many Thousands of Lives Can Still Be Saved
<p>Atlas's malpractice already merits his dismissal. He should be forced to step down because his disregard for science will surely lead to incalculable disaster if a herd immunity approach becomes official government policy. Calls for his ouster have already begun even from inside the task force. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trumps-den-of-dissent-inside-the-white-house-task-force-as-coronavirus-surges/2020/10/19/7ff8ee6a-0a6e-11eb-859b-f9c27abe638d_story.html" target="_blank">According</a> to the <em>Washington Post</em>, Birx went to Vice President Mike Pence to suggest removing Atlas. All Pence reportedly did was ask Birx and Atlas to work out their problems on their own.</p><p>There is no time left for such discord within the task force and for discordant messages to come from the White House on how people should protect themselves from COVID-19. The thousands of scientists and public health professionals who signed the John Snow Memorandum say "it is critical to act decisively and urgently," to launch a "robust" response on the level of New Zealand, Vietnam, or Japan—all of which have shown success in containing the virus and keeping the numbers of cases and deaths relatively low.</p><p>The approach that has been proven effective starts with face coverings and social distancing and reducing the temptation we all will feel during the oncoming winter holidays to have extended family gatherings. Researchers from MIT and the Vancouver School of Economics <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.27.20115139v6.full.pdf" target="_blank">estimate</a> in a working paper that, if the United States had established a national mask mandate in mid-March, between 19,000 and 47,000 lives could have been saved by the end of May. Now that the nation's death toll approaches a quarter million lives lost, and is <a href="https://covid19.healthdata.org/united-states-of-america?view=total-deaths&tab=trend" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">projected</a> to reach nearly 400,000 by February 1, according to the Institutes for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, the institute estimates we could avoid 74,000 new deaths with universal mask use.</p><p>Importantly, masks protect others, including the most vulnerable among us. This week, the <em>Washington Post</em> reported how coronavirus outbreaks among college students partying in unmasked packs in LaCrosse, Wisconsin was found to have <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/10/21/la-crosse-wisconsin-covid-outbreak-nursing-home-deaths/?utm_campaign=wp_to_your_health&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_tyh&wpmk=1&pwapi_token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJjb29raWVuYW1lIjoid3BfY3J0aWQiLCJpc3MiOiJDYXJ0YSIsImNvb2tpZXZhbHVlIjoiNWE1ZDQ3N2M5YmJjMGYyNmNiMTViMmI0IiwidGFnIjoiNWY5MWU3YjU5ZDJmZGEwZWZiNTE3OGNmIiwidXJsIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cud2FzaGluZ3RvbnBvc3QuY29tL2hlYWx0aC8yMDIwLzEwLzIxL2xhLWNyb3NzZS13aXNjb25zaW4tY292aWQtb3V0YnJlYWstbnVyc2luZy1ob21lLWRlYXRocy8_dXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPXdwX3RvX3lvdXJfaGVhbHRoJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX3NvdXJjZT1uZXdzbGV0dGVyJndwaXNyYz1ubF90eWgmd3Btaz0xIn0.6Ep-AvkJkNqGTE08UsekVlNWR01vYzQe-qg5BPruSQM" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">led to 19 deaths so far of people over the age of 60</a>. Before that, the city had gone without a single pandemic death in its nursing homes.</p><p>That is on the heels of the wedding in Millinocket, Maine that resulted in an outbreak that <a href="https://bangordailynews.com/2020/09/19/news/eight-deaths-now-tied-to-millinocket-area-wedding-outbreak-including-seven-at-nursing-home/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">killed eight elderly people</a>, none of whom attended the event, and the 500,000-person Sturgis, South Dakota motorcycle rally that is <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/10/17/sturgis-rally-spread/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">now tied</a> to the massive coronavirus outbreak in the Upper Midwest and Mountain States. The Germain IZA Institute of Labor Economics estimates that the illness generated from the rally <a href="https://www.iza.org/publications/dp/13670/the-contagion-externality-of-a-superspreading-event-the-sturgis-motorcycle-rally-and-covid-19" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">will cost</a> the nation $12.2 billion in health care costs.</p><p>Atlas and the proponents of the Great Barrington Declaration have not yet said why this is just fine. That is why they must be unmasked for the charlatans that they are.</p>From Your Site Articles
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The Trump administration has weakened fuel-efficiency requirements for the nation's cars and trucks. Drew Angerer / Getty Images
As the days tick down to next month's presidential election, debate rages over the U.S. government's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic with critics of President Donald Trump calling for his ouster due to his failure to protect the American public.
<p>And yet as mass media runs daily tallies of COVID-related cases and deaths, a more sinister threat to public health looms as the Trump administration rolls back regulations that govern the quality of our air, land and water. And though these actions are garnering little public outcry now, they pose grave danger to our children and their children for decades to come. It's a simple truth — a poisoned environment means poisoned people.</p><p>In recent months the Trump administration <a href="https://news.osu.edu/a-watershed-moment-for-us-water-quality/" target="_blank">has stripped protections</a> from wetlands in ways that allow for the dumping of pesticides and other pollutants directly into millions of miles of streams and other waterways; <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/16/climate/epa-mercury-coal.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">relaxed rules on power plants</a> designed to curb air emissions containing brain-damaging heavy metals <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/mercury-and-health" target="_blank">such as mercury</a>; altered automobile fuel efficiency standards to be <a href="https://www.epa.gov/regulations-emissions-vehicles-and-engines/regulations-greenhouse-gas-emissions-passenger-cars-and" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">"less stringent,"</a> allowed more emissions of climate-damaging carbon dioxide; and rolled back requirements governing how coal-fired power plants <a href="https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-finalizes-power-plant-effluent-limitation-guidelines-save-money-and-reduce" target="_blank">dispose of toxic wastewater</a>, a move <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/31/climate/trump-coal-plants.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">praised by coal industry executives</a> but expected to add increased levels of lead, arsenic and other harmful contaminants to the environment. </p><p>If there was any doubt about how little Trump cares for the health of our children, that was made clear last month when the Environmental Protection Agency <a href="https://www.epa.gov/pesticides/epa-takes-next-step-review-process-insecticide-chlorpyrifos-making-draft-risk-assessments" target="_blank">(EPA) announced</a> it would continue to allow <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/may/08/california-pesticide-ban-chlorpyrifos-agriculture" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the neurotoxic chemical chlorpyrifos</a> to be used to grow food despite years of <a href="https://www.publichealth.columbia.edu/public-health-now/news/prenatal-exposure-insecticide-chlorpyrifos-linked-alterations-brain-structure" target="_blank">scientific research</a> showing the pesticide damages babies' brain development. Residues of chlorpyrifos are commonly found in food consumed by young children. A <a href="https://www.ams.usda.gov/sites/default/files/media/2018PDPAnnualSummary.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">USDA report</a> released last year documented chlorpyrifos residues in raisins, peaches, mangoes and asparagus, among other foods. </p>
<p>Amid the rush to ease regulations before the end of Trump's term, the EPA is also working to appoint new <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/521044-shuffle-of-epas-science-advisors-elevates-those-with-industry-tries" target="_blank">industry-friendly individuals</a> to its scientific advisory board. In an October 14 announcement, the agency said the new vice chair of the board would be Dr. Barbara Beck, who works for an industry <a href="https://gradientcorp.com/" target="_blank">consulting company</a> with a history of defending controversial chemicals and other substances. Beck has <a href="https://gradientcorp.com/alerts/pdf/Testimony_040711.pdf" target="_blank">advocated</a> for loosened restrictions on lead despite the fact that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/lead/prevention/health-effects.htm" target="_blank">says lead exposure</a> damages a child's brain and nervous system and can cause learning and behavior problems.</p><p>"Trump is burning down the house," Tim Whitehouse, a former senior attorney with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), told me. Whitehouse now heads an organization representing thousands of government employees called Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), and says government scientists are being ignored as the administration pushes through favors for influential industries.</p><p>"I think it's beyond a difference in policy. It is a feeling that the people who are put in charge are robbing the house," Whitehouse said. "We're in a period of massive biodiversity loss and increasing chemical and toxic burdens on individuals, and the EPA is not responding to the crises at hand." </p>
<p>PEER has joined with other groups in suing the EPA over its elimination of clean water protections, charging in a <a href="https://www.peer.org/epa-political-appointees-violate-science-integrity-rules/" target="_blank">formal complaint</a> that Trump's political appointees are ignoring scientific evidence of the harms certain to be wrought by the rule changes.</p><p>To be sure, the EPA's fealty to industry is not unique to the Trump Administration. Indeed, the agency's loyalty to companies over consumers seems to be a longstanding bipartisan tradition. Trump's predecessor President Barack Obama also <a href="https://www.peer.org/epa-posts-pathetically-weak-scientific-integrity-proposal/" target="_blank">faced criticism</a> for actions – and inaction – by his EPA. </p><p>And numerous administrations are to blame for allowing the broad spread of toxic chemicals known <a href="https://theintercept.com/collections/bad-chemistry/" target="_blank">as PFAS</a> (short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) that are linked to an array of serious health problems. </p>
<p><span style="background-color: initial;">But we simply cannot afford this political bargaining with our health anymore. In taking more than 200,000 lives in less than a year, t</span>he COVID-19 virus has underscored the already fragile condition of our health. People suffering from cancer, chronic kidney disease, obesity, and other problems are at increased risk of becoming seriously ill or dying if stricken with COVID-19, <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/need-extra-precautions/people-with-medical-conditions.html" target="_blank">according to the CDC.</a> Scientists <span style="background-color: initial;">have <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S004896972032221X" target="_blank">rightly pointed out</a></span> that <span style="background-color: initial;">environmental pollution is a contributing factor to the vulnerability of many people to the COVID-19 virus.</span></p><p>Adding more toxins into the air we breathe and water we drink only ensures more vulnerability and more deaths. </p><p>We already are facing frightening levels of neurodevelopmental disorders, cancer and disease in our population: Autism spectrum disorder is now effecting roughly <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/ss/ss6904a1.htm?s_cid=ss6904a1_w" target="_blank">1 in every 54 children</a>, far more prevalent than 20 years ago. The rate at which children are diagnosed with cancer has <a href="https://www.cancerfreeeconomy.org/childhood_cancer_prevention/?fbclid=IwAR2GKNud8wrvPjqvkeyDy03bJsDQK2z0wDVYHwyuQDmz_WgqfLyPosIVgs8" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">increased 34 percent</a> since 1975; in 2020 more than 16,800 kids are expected to be newly diagnosed. Overall, <a href="https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/understanding/statistics#:~:text=Approximately%252039.5%2525%2520of%2520men%2520and,will%2520die%2520of%2520the%2520disease." target="_blank">close to 40 percent</a> of men and women in the United States will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetimes. More than 600,000 people are <a href="https://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/common.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">dying every year</a> from cancer and more than 1.7 million are diagnosed with new cancers each year. </p>
<p>As an environmental journalist, I am astonished at the brazenness with which this administration has made clear that corporate well-being is more valuable than the health and well-being of citizens.</p><p>And as a mother, I agonize over the suffering, sickness and struggles I know lie ahead for our future generations. </p><p>Years from now, when our children tell their children about this time, when they try to explain how much was lost, how cavalierly we allowed their health to be traded for the health of corporate profits, they will be right to blame us. They will also be right to not forgive us. </p>
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Amy Coney Barrett’s Supreme Court Confirmation 'Would Be a Catastrophe for the Climate'
14 October
Insights + Opinion
Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett testifies on the third day of her confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill on October 14, 2020 in Washington, DC. Erin Schaff / Pool / AFP/ Getty Images
By Andy Rowell
This week, President Trump's highly controversial pick for the Supreme Court, Amy Coney Barrett, answers questions in front of the Senate Judiciary committee as part of her nomination hearings for the top legal job.
<p>Coney Barrett's nomination to the vacant seat on the Supreme court vacated by the death Ruth Bader Ginsburg has prompted concern from experts and activists working on a plethora of issues, from abortion, the Affordable Care Act, climate change, and wider environmental policy to which her appointment would spell disaster.</p><p>The hypocrisy cannot be understated. In 2016, the Republican Party and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to allow hearings on President Barack Obama's nominee, Merrick Garland, as it was February of an election year. Now, with less than one month until the next presidential election, the GOP unabashedly intends to ram this nomination through.</p><p>The future of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Roe v. Wade precedent, and even any court cases around the upcoming election are very much uncertain moving forward.</p><p>If she is confirmed, which appears likely, she will tip the Supreme Court to a 6-3 conservative majority. Barrett's mentor was the arch conservative <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/12/21/magazine/the-lives-they-lived-antonin-scalia.html" target="_blank">Antonin Scalia</a>, who was similarly idolized by President Donald Trump.</p>
<p>"Barrett's conservative legal views and her closeness to her former boss and mentor, the conservative icon Justice Antonin Scalia, have raised concerns that she will push the court further to the right in ways that could be difficult to reverse for years or even decades," noted the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/barrett-supreme-court-trump/2020/09/26/20863794-feac-11ea-830c-a160b331ca62_story.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Washington Post</em></a> last month.</p><p>If confirmed, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/20/us/politics/supreme-court-barrett.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Barrett,</a> who is 48 years old, would be the youngest Justice on the Supreme Court, who could shape a generation of American law.</p><p>Although her environmental <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/10/04/amy-coney-barretts-environmental-track-record-is-parse--but-concerning_partner/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">record is sparse,</a> there are deep alarm bells ringing.</p><p>An article in <em>Slate</em> magazine noted last month, that "Barrett and her conservative colleagues would also take a machete to the thicket of laws that protect the health and safety of millions of Americans," including limiting pollution, monitoring Wall Street, and protecting consumers from predatory practices.</p>
<p>Our colleagues at <a href="https://earthjustice.org/blog/2020-september/amy-coney-barrett-supreme-court-environment-science-politics" target="_blank">Earthjustice</a> have been fighting in the courts on behalf of our planet and its people for decades. They have expressed "deep concerned that the rush to confirm Amy Coney Barrett could threaten our shared future."</p><p>Earthjustice also argues that "Judge Barrett <a href="https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2020/09/19/stories/1063714169" target="_blank">appears willing</a> to undermine our environmental laws" and that her "record demonstrates her willingness to interpret environmental laws like the Clean Water Act narrowly in favor of industry interests."</p><p>Finally, they say that "Amy Coney Barrett's record suggests that she may be willing to strip government agencies of the power to protect the environment and to further close the courthouse doors to those seeking justice."</p><p>And justice may be denied on what, to many, is the biggest issue of them all: climate change. Yesterday, Barrett was asked about her views on climate change and took the skeptical line that she could not comment because she was not a scientist.</p>
<div id="76884" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="77420428135283f65982a5ecd6a823dc"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1316166400839487488" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Amy Coney Barrett just said she does "not have firm views" on climate change because she's "not a scientist." What… https://t.co/degGDy7eXI</div> — DJ Koessler (@DJ Koessler)<a href="https://twitter.com/DJKoessler/statuses/1316166400839487488">1602633497.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>This is a deeply worrying sign. Many climate fights in the U.S. right now, focused on trying to hold the government and companies accountable, could end up in the Supreme Court.</p><p><a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/10/04/amy-coney-barretts-environmental-track-record-is-parse--but-concerning_partner/" target="_blank"><em>Salon</em></a> argues her appointment might "tip the scales of justice rightward, opening up a Pandora's box of climate hostility."</p><p>They are not the only ones concerned. "Barrett's confirmation would be a catastrophe for the climate," argues <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/09/amy-coney-barrett-ginsburg-scotus-future.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Slate</em> </a>magazine. "She may well overrule the landmark 5–4 2006 EPA emissions reporting <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/06pdf/05-1120.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">decision</a>, long despised by conservatives, that compels the federal government to regulate carbon emissions."</p><p>And even "if Congress passes new legislation to curb greenhouse gas emissions, the court's conservative supermajority may strike it down, much as the Republican-appointed justices <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/u-s-supreme-court-blocks-obama-s-clean-power-plan/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">blocked</a> the Clean Power Plan in 2016," argues Slate.</p>
<p>One of the landmark legal cases that could be affected is <em>Juliana v. U.S.,</em> the lawsuit brought by 21 youth plaintiffs against the U.S. government in 2015 for taking insufficient action on climate change. As an article in <a href="https://earther.gizmodo.com/what-amy-coney-barrett-would-mean-for-the-youth-climate-1845346697" target="_blank"><em>Earther</em></a>, "Barrett's approach to constitutional law doesn't necessarily look like a promising source of support for the youth plaintiffs."</p><p>Legal experts are worried too. Harvard law professor and former Obama administration official Jody Freeman told <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/10/07/921322803/how-nomination-of-amy-coney-barrett-to-supreme-court-might-affect-u-s-climate-ac?t=1602603057213" target="_blank"><em>NPR Radio</em></a> that with the appointment of Barrett, "it's going to be a corporate court, good for business, good for corporations."</p><p>And that can only be bad for climate, and bad for all of us. <a href="https://earthjustice.org/blog/2020-september/amy-coney-barrett-supreme-court-environment-science-politics" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">EarthJustice</a> argues that "we need Justices who recognize the government's obligation to protect the environment and public lands for all people and who know the difference between science and politics." And by all accounts that person is not Amy Coney Barrett.</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from </em><em><a href="http://priceofoil.org/2020/10/14/amy-coney-barretts-confirmation-to-the-supreme-court-would-be-a-catastrophe-for-the-climate/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+OilChange+(Oil+Change)" target="_blank">Oil Change International.</a></em><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/r/entryeditor/2648206122#/" target="_self"></a></p>
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