The glaring numbers that show how disproportionately racial minorities have been affected by the coronavirus and by police brutality go hand-in-hand. The two are byproducts of systemic racism that has kept people of color marginalized and contributed to a public health crisis, according to three prominent medical organizations — the American Academy of Pediatrics, American […]
By Derrick Z. Jackson In the U.S., gun violence kills nearly 40,000 people a year and has killed nearly 40,000 or so children and teenagers since 1999, and yet the nation is still without serious gun control. Another 40,000 people die each year in traffic accidents, including 1,200 children 14 and under. Yet we eschew […]
One of the more positive environmental developments in the U.S. in recent years has been the shutdown of deadly, high-emitting coal-fired plants. But now, a study has found that new oil and gas infrastructure could counteract much of that progress. The report, released by the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) Wednesday, found that the oil and […]
A historic African American community in Virginia has dealt another blow to the embattled Atlantic Coast Pipeline. A federal court threw out a permit Tuesday that the pipeline‘s owners needed to build a natural gas compressor station in Union Hill, a community founded by freed slaves after the Civil War. In doing so, the judges […]
By Robert Valencia In April 2018, Afro-Colombian activist Francia Márquez won the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize, thanks to her work to retake her community’s ancestral territories from illegal gold mining. However, her international recognition comes at a very risky price. Francia was born in Yolombó, a town nestled in the southwestern department of Cauca, where […]
By Daniel Ross For decades, the South Los Angeles neighborhood of Watts has been hemmed in by dangerous pollutants. On one corner sits the Jordan Downs housing project, at the center of which is a toxic former industrial site. Children in Jordan Downs have been found with elevated levels of lead in their blood, and […]