2020:
A Year in Earthjustice
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2020 was a year of deep sorrow.
Yet, in the face of the unrelenting challenges,
you accomplished extraordinary things,
for the earth and its people.
Photographer Sasha Arutyunova made this image of a spring blossom in Brooklyn, New York, in mid-April when the city’s hospitals were being overwhelmed by COVID-19 cases.
Because of you,
Earthjustice’s 160 lawyers
represented 576 clients
in hundreds of legal battles —
for our health, our wild places, and our climate.
You saved Clean Water Act protections for rivers, lakes, and oceans in the “Clean Water Case of the Century” at the U.S. Supreme Court.
You stood with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, as they were vindicated in the court of law, after years of perseverance against the Dakota Access Pipeline.
At the Oceti Sakowin Camp in 2016, from left, T. Peterson, K. Morrisseau, N. Scanie, and F. Youngbear-Tibbetts. (Joey Podlubny / CC BY-NC 2.0)
You protected the gateway to Yellowstone National Park from industrial gold mining in a monumental ruling at the Montana Supreme Court.
Visual courtesy of Eric Ian
You loosened the fossil fuel industry’s grip on our climate, lives, and lungs, battling polluting coal plants from Pennsylvania to South Africa, and celebrating the end to the Constitution Pipeline.
In the shadow of a coal-fired power plant in Pennsylvania. (Chris Jordan-Bloch / Earthjustice)
You held accountable the fossil fuel industry’s massive petrochemical buildout from St. James Parish to the Ohio River Valley.
Sharon Lavigne, of RISE St. James, kneels in a pew at St. James Parish, La. (Julie Dermansky)
You saved endangered North Atlantic right whales from the deafening harms of seismic airguns surveying for oil and gas.
NOAA
In the global pandemic,
our lives and work changed.
Court arguments were delivered virtually.
Legal filings carefully mailed.
But two things remained constant:
your unwavering support, and
Earthjustice’s work to hold the powerful accountable.
You helped us take on new work to raise the public’s voice in the changed virtual world
Nuiqsut resident Martha Itta (right) spoke out against BLM's practices in virtual public hearings. (Bonnie Jo Mount / The Washington Post via Getty Images)
And called for equitable and just investments of COVID-19 relief funds and a halt to electricity and water shut-offs.
Receiving care after taking a COVID-19 test. (Eva Marie Uzcategui / AFP / Getty Images)
You held the line
against the Trump administration’s
unlawful assaults on our environment.
We filed more than 160 lawsuits in four years,
prevailing in 83% of legal challenges decided so far.
In this year alone,
you won ten of those critical victories.
You saved ancient forests on Prince of Wales Island in the Tongass National Forest from illegally approved logging.
Colin Arisman
You kept our Arctic Ocean free from oil drilling, when an appeals court tossed out the administration’s illegal approval of the first offshore development in federal Arctic waters.
Vicki Beaver / NOAA
You halted the fire-sale giveaway to the oil and gas industry of hundreds of thousands of acres of public lands in Montana, Utah, and critical sage grouse habitat.
Noppadol Paothong
You supported 30 million kids and science-backed standards, when a court struck down a Trump administration attempt to reduce school nutrition standards.
Benjikat / Getty Images
You defeated the Justice Department’s opposition to funding for environmental projects in Michigan communities overburdened by decades of pollution.
Lizzie Gill for Earthjustice
You pushed forward with us
to solve our climate crisis,
by moving urgently to zero emissions
and 100% clean energy.
You secured $500 million in new investments for electrification of transportation and the passage of the nation’s first electric truck mandate.
You accelerated the rise of clean energy in energy forums nationwide — from Kansas to Puerto Rico, Wisconsin to California — where good lawyers are making an outsized impact on our climate future.
When we say we’ll sue,
it’s not a threat.
It’s a promise —
a promise that we will keep fighting
for our earth and its people.
For the treaty rights of Tribal Nations
Gravelle, of the Bay Mills Indian Community, lays tobacco down in prayer at a Line 5 pipeline protest.(Whitney Gravelle)
For an end to the menace of coal ash
Pete Harrison / Earthjustice
United Mountain Defense
For the waters of the United States
Ami Vitale / National Geographic
For communities threatened by the “forever chemical” known as PFAS
Drinking water is a common exposure route to PFAS. (Atakan / Getty Images)
For our right to breathe and our right to a healthy environment
The Navajo Generating Station's smokestacks were demolished on Dec. 18. (Darcy Padilla)
And for much more.
You did a lot of good in 2020.
Thank you.
Now, let’s talk about 2021.
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Make a tax-deductible donation before Dec. 31. Because the earth needs a good lawyer.
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