environmental justice

Melting Glacier Study Could Establish Legal Liability for Climate Polluters

Melting Glacier Study Could Establish Legal Liability for Climate Polluters

New research shows global warming caused by human activity is to blame for a shrinking Andean glacier that threatens to flood 120,000 people and could be used to establish legal liability for polluters. The study, published in Nature Geoscience on Thursday by scientists at the University of Oxford and the University of Washington, found human […]

Join our newsletter

The best of EcoWatch, right in your inbox. Sign up for our email newsletter!

    New Charges Over Flint’s Water Crisis Offer Only a Trickle of Justice

    New Charges Over Flint’s Water Crisis Offer Only a Trickle of Justice

    By Derrick Z. Jackson No punishment has yet fit the crime of the Flint water crisis, complete with its child poisoning and lethal outbreak of Legionnaire’s disease. After a prior investigation fell apart in 2019, Michigan state prosecutors unveiled a slew of fresh charges against nine figures involved in the fateful penny-pinching move to switch […]

    Dutch Court Orders Shell Oil to Pay for Harm Done to Nigerian Farmers

    Dutch Court Orders Shell Oil to Pay for Harm Done to Nigerian Farmers

    By Andrea Germanos Global environmental justice campaigners heralded a Dutch court’s ruling Friday that Royal Dutch Shell’s Nigerian subsidiary must pay punitive restitution to Nigerian villages for oil spill contamination that brought death, illness, and destruction to Nigerian farmers and communities. “After 13 years, justice!” tweeted Friends of the Earth Europe. The legal effort seeking […]

    EPA Launches Environmental Justice Investigation in Chicago

    EPA Launches Environmental Justice Investigation in Chicago

    The U.S. EPA launched an environmental justice investigation this week into the relocation of a polluting scrapyard from a predominantly white and wealthy neighborhood on Chicago’s North Side to a predominantly poor and Latinx neighborhood on the city’s Southeast Side last year. The investigation stems from complaints brought by Southeast [Chicago] Environmental Task Force and […]

    Biden Signs Sweeping Executive Orders on Climate and Science

    Biden Signs Sweeping Executive Orders on Climate and Science

    President Joe Biden signed a sweeping executive order Wednesday to address the climate crisis. The order set out a bold plan to prioritize climate action for both domestic and international policy while moving away from fossil fuels, creating jobs and emphasizing environmental justice. “In my view, we’ve already waited too long to deal with this […]

    Appeals Court Agrees that Dakota Access Pipeline River  Crossing Is Illegal

    Appeals Court Agrees that Dakota Access Pipeline River Crossing Is Illegal

    A federal appeals court has struck another blow against the contested Dakota Access Pipeline. A three-judge panel on the U.S. District Court of Appeals from the D.C. Circuit agreed Tuesday with a lower court ruling that the pipeline‘s crossing at the Missouri River near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation is illegal and requires an in-depth […]

    Biden Has Pledged to Advance Environmental Justice – Here’s How the EPA Can Start

    Biden Has Pledged to Advance Environmental Justice – Here’s How the EPA Can Start

    By David Konisky On his first day in office President Joe Biden started signing executive orders to reverse Trump administration policies. One sweeping directive calls for stronger action to protect public health and the environment and hold polluters accountable, including those who “disproportionately harm communities of color and low-income communities.” To lead this effort Biden […]

    Consequential Biden Actions Nobody Is Talking About

    Consequential Biden Actions Nobody Is Talking About

    By Andrew Rosenberg The first 24 hours of the administration of President Joe Biden were filled not only with ceremony, but also with real action. Executive orders and other directives were quickly signed. More actions have followed. All consequential. Many provide a basis for not just undoing actions of the previous administration, but also making […]