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From the 50th anniversary of Earth Day to the presidential election, this year was supposed to be a monumental one for climate activism. Coming off 2019 in which we saw a wave of youth climate strikes, the COVID-19 pandemic has made mass public demonstrations temporarily impossible. So does this mean 2020 will be a year […]
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Farmers are being forced to destroy tens of millions of pounds of fresh food because of COVID-19’s impact on their usual markets, according to the New York Times. Producers are depending on $9.5 billion from the CARES Act stimulus package for their farms to survive this pandemic.
Why This Matters: As the unemployment rates sky-rocket due to national shutdowns, it’s hard to imagine food going to waste.
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It’s not only conventional oil and gas that is suffering due to the pandemic and price war, demand for corn-based ethanol fuel has also plummeted by 20% — the lowest since the Energy Information Administration began publishing weekly data in 2010, according to the Houston Chronicle.
Why This Matters: The Clean Air Act requires every gallon of gas sold during the summer contains about 10% ethanol.
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by Lee Hannah, Senior Scientist, Conservation International Right now, money is flowing from Capitol Hill to provide us with much needed economic support in response to the coronavirus pandemic. As this happens, we need to make sure that money also flows towards preventing similar pandemics from happening in the future. To stop this cycle of […]
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The coronavirus pandemic has been yet another reminder of how many Americans live on the edge. Whether it’s food insecurity, economic insecurity, housing insecurity, existing health risks, or racial injustice, we’re seeing the ways in which vulnerable groups are disproportionately affected by the virus and are unable to cope with its shock. As CNN explained, […]
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Harvard researchers looked at the death rates for people who have had long term exposure to high levels of soot pollution (particulate matter or PM that comes from coal plants and older cars) and found they are higher than the death rates for people who lived in areas with cleaner air.
Why This Matters: This study should be raised every time the Republicans (or anyone) says that a stimulus measure tied to reducing air pollution is unrelated to recovery from COVID-19. That is just flat out wrong. Long term exposure to air pollution by its victims makes this virus more deadly.
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