The Navajo Nation is a Native American reservation that lies on a tract of land that is spread throughout Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico. In total, the nation takes up 71,000 square kilometers (27,413 sq mi) and has a population of around 174,000 based on 2010 census data. The area also contains something toxic: 500 …
Continue reading “Environmental Injustice: A History of Uranium Mining on the Navajo Reservation”
Last week, I mentioned that Norfolk Southern, the railway that operated the train that derailed and contaminated an Ohio town with vinyl chloride, had set up a $1 million fund for the victims of this disaster. That amount is a pittance compared to the amount the company has spent on stock buybacks and CEO pensions. …
Continue reading “Disgraceful Situation in East Palestine, Ohio Continues”
As of 2021, only around 3% of the net energy produced within the state of Maine comes from solar energy. About half of the state’s energy comes from hydropower and wind power. According to a 2016 US Department of Energy study, solar panels could potentially provide 60% of the state’s electricity needs. Construction on Maine’s …
Right now, solar power is the main way that renewable energy is produce in a decentralized manner. Rooftop solar panels are not an uncommon sight in many countries across the world, but a new technology for decentralized wind power may soon by joining those panels. In collaboration with researchers from Texas Tech University, the company …
Continue reading “New Bladeless Rooftop Device Generates Energy from Wind”
Globally, food companies spend billions of dollars each year on advertising, and they don’t expend this cash just for the sake of it. The ads from these companies are meant to shape people’s desires for and perceptions of various types of food. Children in particular may be especially sensitive to food advertising, since they are …
Continue reading “Reflections on the World’s First City to Ban Meat Advertising”
We usually don’t think about it, but trees can have astounding lifespans. Giant sequoias, for instance, the tallest trees in the world, can live for 3,000 years, and many of the entries in the list of oldest trees in the world are sequoias. Until recently, the oldest tree on Earth was Methuselah, a bristlecone pine …
Continue reading “New Contender for World’s Oldest Tree Found in Chile”
In a typical investor-owned company, the first responsibility goes to the shareholders. These individuals should reap the benefits of the company’s activity, and the firm should be loyal and even deferential to these individuals. What happens when an environmental law firm joins the list of shareholders of a major oil company, meaning that the corporation …
Continue reading “Fighting from Within: Shell Shareholder Sues for Climate Action”
The 70s were a tumultuous time in many senses. The realm of energy and the environment is one area in which the policy scene changed rapidly in just a few years. Nuclear energy, once seen as so promising in the public eye, was now viewed with more distrust. Protests and negative public opinion made it …
Continue reading “The National Coal Policy Project: A Political Experiment”
People’s values are far more than abstract assignments of worth that rarely make themselves evident in real life. Instead, values can and have been used in myriad situations to explain human behaviour. The concept of environmental values is particularly important to those working in resource management agencies, since such values are crucial to explaining people’s …
Continue reading “The Value of Values in Natural Resource Management”
There is always a price to pay for truly standing up to power. When your actions threaten the profits or power of a nation’s largest corporations, these dominant entities will come after you to either silence you, halt your actions, or make an example of you so that others do not attempt to upset the …
Continue reading “Free Steven Donziger: This is What Totalitarianism Looks Like”
Green Humanist 