• Land

CA National Guard pulled from border to help prepare for fire season

• California
• climate change
• wildfire

Last Friday, California Governor Gavin Newsom declared a “statewide emergency on wildfires” as a means to expedite prevention projects before the next fire season in the state.

• Land

Brazilian Government Plans Mining on Native Lands

• Amazon
• Brazil
• indigenous rights
• mining
• rainforest

Acting without the consent of the indigenous people of the Amazon, who have a guaranteed right to their land under the Brazilian constitution, the country’s new Minister of Mining and Energy announced a plan to permit mining companies to conduct operations on previously protected indigenous lands. 

• Land

One St. Patty’s Thing: the longest 4-leaf clover hunt ever?

• clover
• St. Patrick's Day

Muriel Alderman, an 85-year-old resident of Riner, VA has been collecting 4-leaf clovers on her farm since 1965 and has amassed a serious collection in that time. Looking for the clovers is her hobby and she keeps a record of her collection. As SW Virginia News reported, in 2018 – which she called “the best […]

• Land

Tornados are survivable yet Americans are still dying

• Alabama
• natural disasters
• poverty
• tornadoes

Tornado warning technology has improved significantly in the past decades yet in states like Alabama, tornadoes still routinely claim human lives when they don’t have to. Just last week more than three dozen tornadoes wrought havoc in the Deep South, killing 23 and razing the ground bare in many areas and just yesterday two tornadoes […]

• Land

America’s leaky septic systems a big problem

• Alabama
• sanitation
• septic systems
• sewage

As many as 1 in 5 Americans rely on a septic system to treat their wastewater, yet as our population grows, these systems are having unintended consequences that are endangering human and environmental health. In many places like Alabama Black Belt’s Lowndes County, septic systems can cost upwards of $30,000 and thus many low-income residents […]

• Land
• People

Federal disaster recovery dollars increase inequality and favor white families

An NPR investigation released this week has revealed that across the country, white Americans and those with more wealth often receive more federal dollars after a disaster than do minorities and those with less wealth. While natural disasters are becoming more common in America as a result of climate change( in the early and mid-20th century, […]