human rights

Greta Thunberg, Fridays for Future Movement Win Amnesty Human Rights Award

Greta Thunberg, Fridays for Future Movement Win Amnesty Human Rights Award

Swedish teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg and her Fridays for Future protest movement on Friday won an Amnesty International human rights award for their “unique leadership and courage in standing up for human rights.” Thunberg and the millions of school students she inspired to skip school and protest on Fridays won the Ambassador of Conscience […]

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    How Residents of South LA Are Tackling Environmental Racism

    How Residents of South LA Are Tackling Environmental Racism

    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 […]

    Police Open Fire on Pollution Protesters in India, Killing at Least 9

    Police Open Fire on Pollution Protesters in India, Killing at Least 9

    A protest of a controversial copper smelter in the Tamil Nadu state on the southeastern tip of India took a violent turn Tuesday when police opened fire on demonstrators, killing at least nine, Reuters reported. On Wednesday, as another person was killed and others injured by gunfire during continued unrest, the Madras High Court ordered […]

    Culture Shift: Redirecting Humanity’s Path to a Flourishing Future

    Culture Shift: Redirecting Humanity’s Path to a Flourishing Future

    By Jeremy Lent What do all these ideas have in common—a tax on carbon, big investments in renewable energy, a livable minimum wage and freely accessible healthcare? The answer is that we need all of them, but even taken together they’re utterly insufficient to redirect humanity away from impending catastrophe and toward a truly flourishing […]

    Pollution, Race and the Search for Justice

    Pollution, Race and the Search for Justice

    By Bartees Cox and Shravya Jain Without a touch of irony, the EPA celebrated Black History Month by publishing a report that finds black communities face dangerously high levels of pollution. African-Americans are more likely to live near landfills and industrial plants that pollute water and air and erode quality of life. Because of this, […]

    Why We’ll March Again

    Why We’ll March Again

    This Sunday marks the first anniversary of the Women’s March that happened on the day after Donald Trump’s inauguration—the largest protest march in our nation’s history. The Sierra Club was there that day, and we’ll be there this year, too—at a significant moment for women’s rights and justice. Some people still ask whether “rights and […]

    Climate Crisis to Uproot Millions in the Coming Decades: Nations Need to Be Ready

    Climate Crisis to Uproot Millions in the Coming Decades: Nations Need to Be Ready

    By Gulrez Shah Azhar Wildfires tearing across Southern California have forced thousands of residents to evacuate from their homes. Even more people fled ahead of the hurricanes that slammed into Texas and Florida earlier this year, jamming highways and filling hotels. A viral social media post showed a flight-radar picture of people trying to escape […]