• People

A Record 227 Climate Defenders were Killed in 2020

• Environmental Justice
• human rights
• indigenous communities
• water protectors

By Amy Lupica, ODP Daily Editor Over 200 environmental activists were murdered in 2020 while protecting lands and waters across the world, averaging more than four deaths per week and setting a new record. Even as emissions dipped due to the COVID-19 pandemic, defenders of the planet faced increasing violence across the world. Now, experts […]

• Health

Fed Creates Office for Climate, Health, and Equity

• blackout
• energy
• Environmental Justice
• hhs

By Ashira Morris, ODP Staff Writer   The connection between public health and the climate crisis now has a specific home in the federal government. On Monday, the Biden administration announced the Office of Climate Change and Health Equity, housed within the Department of Health and Human Services. This week’s announcement came as wildfires are creating hazardous air quality in […]

• People

$50 Million for Environmental Justice Initiatives

• air pollution
• COVID-19
• Environmental Justice
• EPA

By Ashira Morris, ODP Staff Writer The Environmental Protection Agency just announced $50 million in environmental justice funding, sending money to low-income and communities of color to take on the intersecting impacts of the climate crisis, long-term pollution, and COVID-19. The funding comes from the most recent COVID relief package and is the first half […]

• Energy

More than 1000 Protesters Disrupt “Line 3” Pipeline Construction in Minnesota

• climate change
• Enbridge
• Environmental Justice
• Line 3
• oil
• protest
• tar-sands
• tribal treaty rights

Thousands of protesters gathered near the headwaters of the Mississippi River from around the country, including actresses Jane Fonda and Patricia Arquette, in an attempt to disrupt the construction of a major pipeline through northern Minnesota, the Duluth Tribune reported.

Why This Matters: The Line 3 pipeline, at a cost of $4B, will carry hundreds of thousands of barrels of dirty Canadian tar-sands oil through the U.S. across at least 200 bodies of water and sensitive watersheds.

• People

Rethinking Urban Freeways with Rep. Nikema Williams

• Environmental Justice
• equity
• Infrastructure
• transportation
• urban freeways

The American Jobs Plan is an unmissable moment for communities across the country to address the legacy of urban freeways and set a new course for a more equitable future. It’s absolutely critical that as we begin to reimagine and build the transportation infrastructure of the 21st century that we do not repeat the mistakes […]

• Weather

The Inequity of Extreme Heat Must Be Addressed

• climate change
• Environmental Justice
• extreme heat

by Ashira Morris, ODP Staff Writer Climate change is raising temperatures, but it’s not being felt equally. In the U.S., people of color and low-income communities are exposed to higher temperatures and more smog than white residents. Two new studies show this correlation:  A survey of temperatures across 175 of the largest U.S. cities found […]