health

How Urban Planners Disenfranchised Black Communities in West Oakland

How Urban Planners Disenfranchised Black Communities in West Oakland

In keeping with mid-20th century segregationist federal guidance, West Oakland, California officials in the 1940s deliberately put the most polluting industries and biggest highways in Black neighborhoods – saddling them with cancer, asthma, and other health impacts. In white neighborhoods, diesel-powered trucks were banned from operating, as planners chose to divide Black communities with highways instead.

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    How to Make Your Own Kombucha

    How to Make Your Own Kombucha

    This fizzy, fermented tea is great for gut health, but the single-use plastic and glass bottles it’s packaged in are bad news for the environment. Instead of shelling out four dollars for a single bottle of kombucha at the corner store, try making your own at home with a few simple ingredients. What Is Kombucha? […]

    Which Cities and Countries Have the Unhealthiest Air?

    Which Cities and Countries Have the Unhealthiest Air?

    Swiss air quality technology company IQAir released its fifth annual assessment of particulate matter (PM) 2.5 pollution in cities, nations and regions around the world and found that only six countries met the World Health Organization’s (WHO) updated safe levels of the deadly air pollutant.

    Climate-Fueled Fires, Warming Threaten Western Forests

    Climate-Fueled Fires, Warming Threaten Western Forests

    Two new studies highlight the vulnerability of California forests. Climate change, mainly caused by the extraction and combustion of fossil fuels, has heated the atmosphere faster than conifer forests in the Sierra Nevada mountains can adapt, shifting their ideal elevation 600 feet above where it was nearly a century ago, according to a study published in PNAS Nexus.

    EPA Releases $550M for Environmental Justice Grants

    EPA Releases $550M for Environmental Justice Grants

    The EPA  will disburse $550 million meant to boost efforts to address environmental inequities, the agency announced Thursday. The funds will be distributed among 11 entities, including large non-profits, tribal nations, and universities, that will in turn serve as grantmakers.