Environmental Justice

"Detainees at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities may be more vulnerable to extreme heat exposure than people housed in federal, state and county prisons, according to a Washington Post analysis, and this disparity is likely to grow as ICE expands the nation’s immigration system."

"Nearly 900 million people are simultaneously exposed to the escalating impacts of the climate crisis, from extreme heat and flooding to drought and toxic air pollution, according to a new United Nations report."

"Only about one-fifth of applicants for federal disaster assistance from Kerr County have been deemed eligible to get financial help so far, leaving hundreds without governmental aid more than three months after deadly floods ravaged the county on July 4."

"President Trump has said he wants to eventually shift the burden of disaster relief and recovery onto states. It’s already happening."

"More than 1,100 incarcerated firefighters were sent to Southern California in January to fight four different wildfires. As the Palisades Fire ran up a hillside, one strike team saved the life of a resident who was still at his home."

"A Texas county is suing EPA over the agency’s cancellation of nearly $250 million in solar energy grants." "The lawsuit says the Trump administration unlawfully revoked funding for low-income communities to access clean, affordable energy."

"Five months before catastrophic floods swept through the Alaska Native village of Kipnuk on Sunday, tearing many houses off their foundations, the Trump administration canceled a $20 million grant intended to protect the community from such extreme flooding."

"The United Nations warned that mercury contamination from illegal gold mining in Colombia’s Atrato River basin has created a “serious and ongoing human rights crisis,” threatening the health and survival of Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities who depend on the river for food, water and culture."

"The water isn’t always brown, but Scarlet Weathers lives like it is. Not once has she drank the tap water from her kitchen sink in her house in Sweeny, Texas. She knows, like everyone else in the town, that it can’t be trusted. Even her small grandchildren have noticed it during bathtime. Why is the water brown?"