The community groups are calling BCDC’s vote a historic moment given the deep-seated inequities that have resulted in people of color and low-income communities disproportionately bearing the environmental and public health burdens of the climate crisis.
On Dec 3rd, 2018, the State Lands Commission voted unanimously to adopt a new Environmental Justice Policy designed to support more fair and inclusive management of California’s public lands. The revised policy incorporates many of the recommendations released in June by the Environmental Justice Working Group, a coalition of organizations representing environmental justice and Tribal communities throughout the state. The Working Group called the new policy a step in the right direction to honor the relationship of Indigenous Peoples to state lands, accelerate a just transition to clean energy, and reduce the impact of transportation and commercial activities on low-income communities and people of color.
Environmental Justice Working Group released case studies that are drawn from the experience of California Native American Tribes and environmental justice (EJ) communities to illustrate the need for a strong Environmental Justice Policy at the California State Lands Commission (SLC).
The California Environmental Justice Alliance (CEJA) and California Environmental Justice Alliance Action (CEJA Action) are proud to release our 6th Environmental Justice Scorecard for the 2018 Legislative Session. is scorecard is the only one in the state that assesses how well California’s elected o cials have supported actions to address environmental issues that impact low-income communities and communities of color.
California is a global leader in using, investing in, and advancing research to set proactive climate change policy, and its Climate Change Assessments provide the scientific foundation for understanding climate-related vulnerability at the local scale and informing resilience actions. The Climate Change Assessments directly inform State policies, plans, programs, and guidance to promote effective and integrated action to safeguard California from climate change.
The Climate Justice Working Group developed a climate justice policy and funding strategy to address the physical, environmental, economic, and health impacts on vulnerable communities caused by climate change.
How do voters of color perceive climate change in California? They see it as a major threat to the future generations and an issue we must address before it’s too late.
There is a frustrating truth in the world of community development: new large-scale development, no matter how much it is designed to support the existing neighborhood, often displaces or alienates some longtime residents.
Prigi Arisandi, who founded the environmental group Ecological Observation and Wetlands Conservation, picks through a heap of worn plastic packaging in Mojokerto, Indonesia.
Each of the five mass extinctions over the last 500 million years that saw at least 75% of species disappear was accompanied by a surge in carbon entering the ocean.
At this very moment, we have the dubious honor of living through an event whose impact will span generations: climate change. Never before has our kind faced such omnipresent peril, from supercharged storms to rising seas to drought to crop failure to biodiversity crises.
As the ocean gets warmer, lionfish get hungrier, a new study indicates. With climate change happening now, that’s bad news for the Atlantic marine ecosystems the invasive lionfish has ravaged for decades.
Microplastics from product packaging and other sources are present in the stomachs of 20 percent of commercially important fish from three regions in Mexico, according to new tests by conservation groups and scientists from prominent Mexican universities.
Harvest season has just begun in California's Napa Valley. But the $160 billion wine industry could dry up if something isn't done to combat a changing climate.
If the prospect of climate change makes you stressed, anxious or depressed, you aren’t alone. With reports of some children becoming terrified by climate change and the protest group Extinction Rebellion holding “grief-tending workshops”, there is an increasing awareness of so-called eco-anxiety.
Not all parks in Kern County are created equal. Whereas The Park at River Walk and Hart Park have recently been filled with cheerful residents out to enjoy the relatively mild weather, parks in Oildale aren’t so lucky.
Pacific green sea turtles spend years cruising this northern Australia feeding ground, fattening up on sea grasses before heading to nesting areas to mate and lay eggs.
To better manage plastic waste, Los Angeles is in talks with Technisoil, an innovative manufacturing company, to viably incorporate plastic into the city’s roads.
It was a Sunday tradition at Bethany Slavic Missionary Church. After morning services, Florin Ciuriuc joined the line of worshipers waiting to fill their jugs with gallons of free drinking water from a well on the property, a practice church leaders had encouraged.
Climate change is heating the oceans and altering their chemistry so dramatically that it is threatening seafood supplies, fueling cyclones and floods and posing profound risks to the hundreds of millions of people living along the coasts, according to a sweeping United Nations report issued Wednesday.
Nearly 300 wells and other sources of drinking water across California contain toxic chemicals linked to cancer, developmental issues in infants, and harm to the liver and immune system.
Race bears the strongest relationship to slow and ineffective enforcement of the federal drinking water law in communities across the nation, according to a new report released today.
A vast region of unusually warm water has formed in the northeastern Pacific Ocean, and scientists are worried that it could devastate sea life in the area and fuel the formation of harmful algal blooms.
California became the first state in the nation to ban hotels from offering mini toiletries in plastic bottles Wednesday when Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill to that effect into law.
Climate change dominates the headlines and our news feeds and infiltrates our daily conversations. It’s a problem that weighs heavily on our society, but a promising solution could be lying right beneath our feet — in the soil.
Cars may be doing more damage to our environment than we realized. The harmful effects that fossil fuels have on our environment are well documented -- a study from March found that global fossil-fuel emissions account for nearly 70% of climate cooling.
The Japanese utility giant Tepco is considering a plan to dump roughly 1 million cubic meters of treated radioactive water -- enough to fill 400 Olympic-size swimming pools -- from the wrecked Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean, part of its nearly $200 billion effort to clean up the worst atomic accident since Chernobyl.
Loading the atmosphere with CO2 and greenhouse gases has spawned a host of consequences, starting with irreversible sea-level rise, according to a draft Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) special report obtained by AFP.
Wells of nearly two dozen Southern California water agencies have reportable levels of PFAS, a chemical family increasingly linked to cancer, liver and kidney damage, thyroid disease, high cholesterol, low fertility, low birth weight and ulcerative colitis.
Tiny plastic bottles of shampoo, conditioner and body wash in hotels may soon be a thing of the past in New York as lawmakers continue efforts to reduce plastic waste statewide.
A leading group of international climate scientists is warning that “large-scale strategies” are needed immediately to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and avert “catastrophic circumstances” that threaten every part of the world.
It’s a big feat to get 65,000 people to do anything, let alone spend three hours picking up soiled trash. Yet, state officials are expecting around that number to turn out Saturday for the 35th annual Coastal Cleanup Day. The event attracts volunteers who spread out across more than 1,000 coastal beaches, rivers and parks in 55 of California’s 58 counties. Merced, Sutter, and Trinity counties do not participate.
In the mid-1950s, domesticated cats in Minamata, Japan mysteriously began to convulse and fall into the bay. The people of Minamata took on similar symptoms shortly after, losing their ability to speak, move, and think.
These distressing photos reveal the devastating impact of the plastic crisis that is blighting the planet's oceans. The images, which have been taken by photographers around the world, show everything from turtles trapped in fishing nets to dead whales with their bellies full of debris.
The estate house grounds at Spottswoode Winery look like a postcard from a 19th-century dream. A sprawling Victorian mansion commands a view of lush gardens, a shimmering swimming pool and 45 acres of grape-filled vines that soon will be harvested.
There were dance parties, DJ sets, drum classes and tutu-making workshops. Still, despite the buoyant mood it wasn’t just another festival tailor-made for glossy Instagram photos. Instead, Catharsis on the Mall, which was inspired by Burning Man and took place on the National Mall in May, had a different aim— healing.
This summer, we reported that one out of five California schools found detectable levels of lead in drinking water, but we also told you, hundreds of schools still hadn’t reported the required lead test results.
California and 23 other states on Friday sued the Trump administration over its bid to restrict their authority to limit auto emissions, setting the stage for a bitter court battle over states' rights and climate change.
In the fight against climate change, gas-guzzling cars are increasingly seen as the biggest enemy. Carbon dioxide from automobiles has surged in the U.S. at the same time that the emissions have declined from power plants. The transportation sector is now the nation’s single biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions -- beyond electrical generation from coal, leaking oil wells and burping cows.
The United States boasts some of the cleanest tap water in the world thanks to a slate of laws — notably the Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974 —sthat set standards for permissible levels of pollution.
In 2016, global plastic waste amounted to some 242 million metric tons. Of this, 137 million tonnes (or more than 57%) originated in East Asia, the Pacific, Europe, Central Asia and North America, much of which made its way into the ocean.
By the time David Kaisel got back from selling his flour at a farmers' market, a wildfire in California's Capay Valley had burnt both his tractor and the shipping container where he kept some tools. His insurer is set to pay out a sixth of his losses.
Ocean heat wave “blobs” are emerging in the world’s oceans, posing a serious threat to marine life. The heat waves have been reported recently near both California and Uruguay, according The Washington Post. Marine heat waves have also been observed near Australia.
A study from the nonprofit Environmental Working Group found that contaminants in US drinking water could lead to nearly 100,000 cases of cancer among people who drink it for a lifetime.
Southern California waters, famous for being much cooler than Atlantic Ocean waters, are warming up. Scientists recorded a temperature of 78.3 degrees Thursday in the water off Scripps Pier in La Jolla – the warmest September temperature recorded since 1916.
A couple of times a week, I find myself in the early morning hours alone on a quiet bluff over the Pacific Ocean at the Korean Friendship Bell not far from my home in San Pedro. I love these stolen moments of quiet, but it never occurred to me that my brain did too.
City parks have long been a place for urban residents surrounded by the gray of asphalt and concrete to get a small dose of green. As cities increasingly feel the impacts of rising seas and temperatures, city planners are rethinking the roles of urban parks.
A mass of warm water extending from Baja California in Mexico all the way to Alaska and the Bering Sea could result in death for many sea lions and salmon, as well as toxic algae blooms that can poison mussels, crabs and other sea life.
Every year, the state Lands Commission makes decisions that impact the lives of millions of Californians and over 150 indigenous nations. This little-known agency manages more than four million acres of the state’s public lands. From managing oil and gas leases along the coast, to overseeing development in the vicinity of the Tijuana River in the south, and Goose Lake in the north, the commission’s decisions have consequences that last for generations.
Each year, the level of sound caused by humans increases in the world’s oceans. This noise—from a host of sources, including shipping, military exercises, and oil and gas industry activity—disturbs marine life, including fish, sea turtles, invertebrates, and mammals.
It’s no secret that too many of the plastic products we use end up in the ocean. But you might not be aware of one major source of that pollution: our clothes.
As North Carolina continues to recover from the devastation and flooding caused by Hurricane Florence, many residents lack access to clean drinking water.
Members of the Canoga Park community building a community garden, one of several projects launched as part of Champions for Change. Photo courtesy of Viridiana Ortiz.
LAMU, Kenya (Reuters) - Kenyan islanders have built a boat made entirely of recycled plastic collected during clean-ups of the ocean to highlight the growing menace of plastic waste that ends up in the sea.
Prior to Hurricane Florence’s arrival in the Carolinas, concerns were raised about the environmental and health risks of the storm. There was fear that torrential rain may flood power plants, industrial sites or animal-manure lagoons, causing toxic waste to threaten drinking water.
Scientists recently put this belief to a test. A new study examined 20 years of documented bites in California correlating weather patterns and climate changes.
Los Angeles residents want to bring back a 14-acre community garden that once served more than 300 low-income families. The South Central Farmers Restoration Committee has filed a lawsuit to stop proposed development of the tract.
California is investing a lot of money, from a variety of sources, in finding ways to slow climate change and improve the environment. The state legislature has also recognized that those investments need to benefit everyone in California.
During the first three years of California’s 5-year-old cap-and-trade program, the bulk of the greenhouse gas reductions occurred out of state, which means that state residents did not see the benefits of improved air quality from presumed reductions in harmful co-pollutants, such as particulate matter, according to a new study led by UC Berkeley and San Francisco State University researchers.
The first United Nations Children’s Clean Ocean Summit took place in Austria this summer. The children created a whale sculpture using ocean debris to build awareness about the ocean pollution crisis facing us all.
Plastic is not only killing marine animals and ecosystems, but countless studies show it’s hazardous to human health. These shocking statistics may encourage you to rethink single-use plastic products.
Decades after civil rights icons Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta brought worldwide attention to the plight of farm workers in California’s Central Valley, a new generation of activists are making an impact in the region — with the focus now on the myriad issues facing young people and efforts to get them involved in civic affairs.
A $119.5-million settlement announced Wednesday of claims stemming from the Aliso Canyon gas leak marks the biggest action yet to deal with the health effects and climate damage of the largest release of methane in U.S. history.
Climate Justice acknowledges that climate change has a bigger impact on disadvantaged people, as well as economically disadvantaged countries in the Global South. Advocates for Climate Justice also highlight that climate change disproportionately affects those who contribute the least to it.
California has the world’s fourth largest greenhouse gas cap-and-trade program, which raises billions of dollars for the state. An innovative project is directing some of that revenue to bringing renewable power and energy efficiency to some of the state’s most disadvantaged communities.
The scope of California's fires is unprecedented and has resulted in the closure of Yosemite National Park as firefighters battle 17 large fires, one of which is the largest fire in California's history.
A multimillion-dollar floating boom designed to corral plastic debris littering the Pacific Ocean deployed from San Francisco Bay on Saturday as part of a larger high-stakes and ambitious undertaking.
Thirteen percent of the world’s oceans is considered marine wilderness—crucial areas of water mostly undisturbed by humans where biodiversity is able to flourish.
Opponents of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline have warned of possible harm to the environment and challenged Dominion’s right to take private property for this purpose.
Under cloudy skies with an intermittent drizzle, hundreds of thousands of Puerto Rican people and their allies turned out for the annual Puerto Rican Day Parade. But this year was special: It celebrated the rich, proud tradition of the Puerto Rican people whose homeland has been devastated by hurricane Maria.
Add millions of used contact lenses to the plastic waste that's finding its way into oceans and lakes.sA new study released Sunday estimates that these slippery transparent discs, vital to the vision of an estimated 45 million Americans, are often flushed into the sewer instead of placed in the trash or recycled.
Call it the "People's Climate March, Part III." On Saturday, Sept. 8, thousands of people are expected to converge on the streets of San Francisco to demand that government leaders commit to ending all new fossil fuel projects and accelerating the move toward renewable energy
Climate impacts often fall disproportionately and unfairly on society’s most vulnerable, but cities are uniquely well-positioned to do something about these inequities by taking innovative climate action.
Solar industry, renewable energy and environmental justice organizations and advocates applauded a decision today by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) that will increase opportunities for low-income households to go solar, lower their utility bills, and participate in the state's growing clean energy economy.
Ocean heatwaves will become more frequent and extreme as the climate warms, scientists report on August 15 in Nature. These episodes of intense heat could disrupt marine food webs and reshape biodiversity in the world’s oceans.
n California’s San Joaquin Valley—home to many of the nation’s largest fruit, nut, and vegetable operations—agricultural soils have been sterilized and depleted of natural fertility.
Freshwater is crucial for drinking, washing, growing food, producing energy and just about every other aspect of modern life. Yet more than 2 billion of Earth’s 7.6 billion inhabitants lack clean drinking water at home, available on demand.
Reports of climate science being scrubbed from U.S. government websites arrived early in President Donald Trump’s tenure. And the hits keep coming. From the Environmental Protection Agency, to the Energy Department, to the State Department and beyond, references to climate change, greenhouse gases and clean energy keep disappearing.
