Birth Defects Linked to Mountaintop Removal

Climate change skeptics, industries in denial, regulators avoiding environmental cleanup… They all sound alike when it comes to evidence of environmental harm. They argue there isn’t enough data. They insist the data is skewed. They see no reason to take action on some of the most obvious negative impacts of industrial activity.   Let’s take a…

Read More

Friday Finds: Big Coal’s Big Sugar Daddies

Report finds allegedly “green” banks finance dirty coal A recent investigation by a group of non-governmental organizations found that a number of supposedly “green” banks fall into the top 20 institutions to finance coal-mining and coal-fired energy generation, reports the UK Guardian. Taking the first three places is JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup and Bank of…

Read More

Aussie Energy Co. Buys Into U.S. Coal Mines

“This is a good company from Australia who is well funded, well banked, and they have bought a mine in Montana and have every intention to ship it to Asia. It’s a great story.” – Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer Yes, governor, it’s a great story. It’s a story of air pollution, global warming and ruined…

Read More

Air Watch

Tom Frantz grew up in California’s central valley. The once sparse rural area is now the source of food for millions of Americans, and throughout his life Tom has seen the bucolic pastures of his childhood transform into modern-day mega-farms. When Tom’s daughter was 10 she started to develop migraines. Then Tom started having breathing…

Read More

Survivor: The Sea Turtle Edition

It’s not every day that a wild animal gets a lucky break, but a few months back that’s exactly what happened to Karsten, a peaceful loggerhead sea turtle that was released off of Sombrero Beach in the Florida Keys after months of rehabilitation. Karsten was found back in May with a fishhook in his jaw…

Read More

Stepping Out of the Shadows

What’s it like to live in the shadow of a smokestack? Ask Kim Wasserman, executive director of the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO) and a resident of Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood—a culturally vibrant area on the city’s west side that many, including Wasserman, refer to as the “Mexican capital of the Midwest.” Wasserman and…

Read More

Big Air Announcement Coming in December

Mark your calendars. Dec. 16 is going to be a big deal—particularly for families with children across the country. I know that Alvin, Simon and Theodore are getting Chipwrecked that day, but that’s not what I’m thinking about. There’s something even bigger coming down: the Environmental Protection Agency is going to release final standards to…

Read More

Yellowstone Grizzly Bears Safer For Now

Yellowstone grizzly bears warrant protection under the Endangered Species Act. So says the federal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals which recently upheld a lower-court ruling that rejected a federal government effort to strip the bears of their protections. When the government “delisted” the bears in 2007, which stripped them of protections under the Endangered Species…

Read More

Stormy Waters: National Geographic’s David Doubilet, Part II

This is the sixth in a series of Q and As on Earthjustice’s oceans work, which works to prevent habitat loss and overfishing, as well as to reduce the impacts of climate change on the ocean. David Doubilet, an acclaimed underwater photographer for National Geographic, talks about his experiences as an underwater photographer and provides tips…

Read More

Stormy Waters: National Geographic’s David Doubilet, Part I

This is the fifth in a series of Q and As on Earthjustice’s oceans work, which works to prevent habitat loss and overfishing, as well as reduce the impacts of climate change on the ocean. David Doubilet, an acclaimed underwater photographer for National Geographic, has spent decades photographing underwater images and has seen firsthand how…

Read More