environmental racism

More than 1,600 gallons of oil have spilled in the Inglewood Oil Field — the largest urban oil field in the country, where more than a million people live within five miles of its boundaries, the Sierra Club wrote in a statement on Wednesday. The spill was caused by a human error when a valve […]

By Nina Sevilla Food insecurity rates have skyrocketed during the COVID-19 pandemic, but even before March 2020, many Americans already faced challenges accessing healthy and affordable food. “Food desert” has become a common term to describe low-income communities — often communities of color — where access to healthy and affordable food is limited or where […]

By Breanna Draxler The term “urban forest” may sound like an oxymoron. When most of us think about forests, we may picture vast expanses of tall trunks and dappled sunlight filtering through the leaves, far from the busyness of the city. But the trees that line city streets and surround apartment complexes across the U.S. […]

Homes in redlined neighborhoods are 25% more likely to be flooded, according to a report from the real estate firm Redfin. Climate change, caused by burning fossil fuels like gas, oil, and coal, is increasing U.S. flooding risk, and the report is yet another example of the compounding harms caused by racism and climate change. […]

A group of teenagers, living in some of London’s most polluted communities, are posting roadsigns highlighting the disproportionate impact air pollution has on people of color. The campaign, organized by Choked Up, a group made up of self-described “Black & brown teens,” has posted signs throughout the city which warn “breathing kills” and “pollution zone,” […]

By Kate Whiting From Greta Thunberg to Sir David Attenborough, the headline-grabbing climate change activists and environmentalists of today are predominantly white. But like many areas of society, those whose voices are heard most often are not necessarily representative of the whole. Environmental issues are deeply interconnected with racial justice as Black people have historically […]

By Michael Svoboda The COVID-19 pandemic has confirmed again a fundamental truth about the Anthropocene: When disaster strikes, the vulnerable take the hardest punches. Communities of color have suffered much higher rates of infection, hospitalization, and mortality, both because they are disproportionately represented in frontline service positions and because their access to routine healthcare is […]

At the beginning of quarantine, the nine-time Grammy nominee, SZA, was releasing new songs because she was “bored” and “losing my mind,” she told BAZAAR.com. But new music wasn’t the only endeavor the singer-songwriter had underway. On Wednesday, SZA along with the nonprofit organization American Forests and the TAZO tea company announced their partnership to […]