Environmental justice groups operate at the intersection of progressive issues, where liberal constituencies find common cause. Organizers don’t talk about the environment or climate as discrete issues. Rather, they link climate to jobs, health and social justice. They advocate for a just economy, where everyone has the right to be safe and healthy, and everyone has the chance to get ahead. And they work at the grassroots level.
There is no question that the President-elect and his appointees are waging war on climate change, women’s rights, racial justice, and so many other important progressive values. While we here at CleanTechnica usually focus on the climate change aspect, I think it’s important to focus on the convergence of these topics and the connection between climate change and gender equality, between conservation and racial justice. If you care about climate change, you must also care about these other topics too.
Originally published on ilsr.org. For over 100 years, the American economy has been fueled by enormous expansion of fossil fuel energy. It has emitted a disproportionate share of its environmental impact (too much) and economic rewards (too few) on those less fortunate. More than any 21st century energy source, solar … [continued]
The carbon tax debate continues in the US Congress as sponsors and stakeholders assert carbon-pricing legislation would address the most challenging, and interrelated, problems facing the US today. Amounting to a tax on carbon emissions, the discussion draft’s sponsors are soliciting public feedback on how best to allocate proceeds.
The drive to develop and deploy renewable energy worldwide has been no ‘blip on the radar screen,’ but rather a sustained effort, the cumulative magnitude and effects of which are laid out in two industry standard reference reports released yesterday: the United Nations Environment Programme’s “Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment 2012” and the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century’s (REN21) 2012 Renewables Global Status Report.
Substantial headway in forging a green economy has been made across Europe. While the success of efforts in Germany, Italy, Spain, and the Czech Republic are all noteworthy, Denmark and Scotland stand out when it comes to reducing the environmental impact of our economic activities, whether they originate on the production or consumption side of the ledger. […]
Open venting of geothermal gases and liquids rife with toxic chemicals and heavy metals, poor environmental monitoring, control and reporting, lax oversight and a particularly troubling, even seemingly nonchalant disregard for residents’ repeated requests to local government and state authorities to investigate their concerns and claims are just some of the issues raised by residents living near the Puna Geothermal Venture.
Directing “just 2 percent of global GDP into 10 key sectors would kick-start” the global transition to a more sustainable, ‘Green Economy,’ according to a UN Environmental Program report. All the elements to enact a transition to a “low-carbon, resource-efficient and socially inclusive global economic model” are here now, and businesses and governments are already promoting and fostering greater investments in 10 key sectors UNEP has singled out: agriculture, energy, buildings, water, forestry, fisheries, manufacturing, waste, tourism and transport.
Environmental justice groups who believe that a carbon tax will be more effective than cap and trade in lowering pollution sued and won in California’s lower court in February, and the case went to Superior Court in San Francisco.
