environment

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• 11/13/2022
  

  A Loss for Bolsonaro is a Win for the Amazon and the Planet

  by Alon Ben-Meir

  Much work remains to preserve the Amazon, but the defeat of Jair Bolsonaro's regime was a precondition to any progress on this key aspect of the climate crisis. 

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• SOURCE: Informed Comment
  10/31/2022
  

  Lula's Defeat of Bolsonaro is a Victory for Brazil and the Planet

  by Juan Cole

  A second Bolsonaro term would have promised more of the dangerous combination of resource extraction and anti-indigenous racism that have guided accelerated deforestation of the Amazon. 

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• SOURCE: Associated Press
  10/16/2022
  

  Radioactive Pollution from WWII-Era Atomic Bomb Projects Contaminates St. Louis Elementary School

  Waste from weapons production was dumped into streams near an airport and still contaminates a suburban elementary school. 

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• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  10/4/2022
  

  Southwest Florida's Overdevelopment Made Ian Worse

  by Zeke Baker

  Massive hydrological projects undertaken to make Southwest Florida's wetlands into developable agricultural land and then high-priced real estate removed the key buffers for coastal floods. Storms like Ian are a rebuke to the idea that humanity and commerce can bend nature to their will. 

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• SOURCE: Smithsonian
  6/1/2022
  

  Shirley Temple Black's Second Act as a Diplomat

  An unpublished memoir of her late life, recently released to the Smithsonian, shows how Shirley Temple Black worked to thwart pervasive sexism in the diplomatic arena while advocating for a global environmental awareness.

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• 6/5/2022
  

  The Environmental and Humanistic Sensibility of Pasternak and Lessons from Dr. Zhivago for Today

  by Walter G. Moss

  Boris Pasternak's masterwork exhibited a profound awareness of the onenness of creation – human and natural alike – that should guide the projects of peace and environmental protection.

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• 5/29/2022
  

  Putin's Ukrainian War and Ecocide

  by Walter G. Moss

  The Russian invasion of Ukraine shows us how gravely the environment is harmed by war and militarism. 

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• SOURCE: TomDispatch
  5/22/2022
  

  Will the War in Ukraine Doom International Climate Action?

  by Michael Klare

  The international tension provoked by Russia's invasion of Ukraine couldn't come at a worse moment for efforts to advance action to fight climate change.

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• SOURCE: NPR
  5/2/2022
  

  Despite Decades of Warnings, Lead Still Poisons Kids in the Midwest

  Residual lead from paint and industry remains present in and around enough homes to make chronic, low-level poisoning an ongoing concern. 

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• SOURCE: Jacobin
  2/24/2022
  

  The US Military is an Obstacle to Climate Action

  by Michael Franczak

  The Kyoto protocols are inherently undermined by negotiated pledges that preserve the ability of the Pentagon to burn fossil fuels around the globe. 

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• SOURCE: New Left Review
  3/7/2022
  

  Thanatos Triumphant

  by Mike Davis

  Russian's invasion of Ukraine has revealed the nihilism of the world's leaders from Moscow to Washington, and the failure of the American left to develop a meaningful alternative to a global death-wish led by oligarchs.

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• SOURCE: TomDispatch
  12/16/2021
  

  There are No Human Rights Without Human Survival

  by Alfred McCoy

  The political struggles of the current international order will be rendered meaningless by climate change unless that nation-based order can learn to cooperate. 

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• SOURCE: TomDispatch
  5/20/2021
  

  Lithium, Cobalt, and Rare Earths: The Post-Petroleum Resource Race and What to Make of It

  by Michael Klare

  Renewable energy may close the door on the era of oil war, but it's imperative that industrial nations not allow a new global conflict over access to the materials needed to build a renewable energy infrastructure. 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  2/21/2021
  

  Why Texas Republicans Fear the Green New Deal

  by Naomi Klein

  The Texas blackouts show the political and social dead ends of the market revolution and the fossil fuel economy, says Naomi Klein. Politicians and industries wedded to the status quo are attacking the idea of a "Green New Deal" because it's encouraging people to imagine alternatives. 

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• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  2/17/2021
  

  Texas’s Power Grid Failing Shows why Biden Needs to Go Big on Infrastructure

  by Teal Arcadi

  The lesson of the Interstate Highway system is that when it comes to large and necessary infrastructure programs, opportunistic partisanship is better than laboriously building a bipartisan coalition.

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• SOURCE: LA Progressive
  12/2/2020
  

  "A Life on Our Planet" Provides Environmental Hope

  by Walter G. Moss

  Although the recent Netflix documentary on the global environment describes a grim present, it explains a path forward that is simple (if the political will can be found). 

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• 6/21/2020
  

  Viral Consequences

  by David Marks

  The indifferent response of the Trump administration to the COVID-19 pandemic and the repressive police response to protests are a signal that we need a political and social transformation to address the ongoing global climate crisis. 

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• SOURCE: Counterpunch
  5/22/2020
  

  Greening the Old New Deal

  National service and a green new deal, with lessons from the old new deal, could be the first step in “civilianizing” our nation, and beyond recovery, enhancing the world’s prospects for health, justice, and sustainability.

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• 5/24/2020
  

  Honor the Work of Brazil's Villas-Bôas Brothers by Protecting the Amazon's Indigenous

  by John Hemming

  The Villas-Bôas brothers worked with Brazil's indigenous people to balance the preservation of their Amazonian lands with inclusion in modernizing society. The policies of Jair Bolsonaro are a dire threat to their work, the survival of indigenous peoples, and the planet.

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  5/18/2020
  

  7.7 Million Young People Are Unemployed. We Need a New ‘Tree Army.’

  by Collin O'Mara

  Today, there’s plenty to do for a revitalized conservation corps that would put young Americans back to work.