"Debbie Blankenship’s wheelchair carved perfect lines in the grass as she rolled into her backyard garden, passing a wooden arch filled with small grapes, a bush with plump blueberries and yellow crates filled with sprouting potatoes. She stopped at a dirt patch with a burial marker for her beagle — the latest of her dogs to die of cancer."
The Trump administration’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” is anything but, especially in its unraveling of efforts to weave environmental and climate justice into American society, argues the new Voices of Environmental Justice. In her latest column, writer Yessenia Funes calls on journalists to report its ramifications not just for the planet but for the most vulnerable people living on it. Here are key stories to start with.
"Syngenta is another step closer to potentially putting an end to thousands of lawsuits brought by people blaming the company’s paraquat weed killer for causing Parkinson’s disease."
"On Aug. 6, 2012, a fire broke out at the Chevron refinery in Richmond. Liquid hydrocarbon spewed from a leaky pipe in the crude unit and ignited, sending smoke plumes into the air that could be seen across the Bay. Nearby residents struggled to breathe and reported headaches, chest pains and itchy eyes. More than 15,000 people sought medical help."
"The sun was barely up when the three-person medical team pulled into the parking lot of a Phoenix soup kitchen, but the temperature was already around 90 degrees, on its way to 111."
"Desperate for jobs, three communities embraced a bold electric vehicle promise. Now, they’re left with questions—and no jobs."
"A coalition of tribes and the Native American Rights Fund jumped Monday into the legal battle to protect the Chuckwalla National Monument in southern California that President Joe Biden created during his last month in office. Tribes led a long fight to see the monument established."
"The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has unilaterally dissolved a collective bargaining agreement with members of the union that represents its workers, the union said Friday."
"More than 40 years after the Passaic River was declared a Superfund site, cancer-causing toxins still line its bottom. While residents drink from its waters, cleanup stalls under corporate resistance and potential federal budget cuts."
"Though 60 miles (100km) apart, the Brazilian municipalities of Presidente Kennedy in Espírito Santo state and Campos dos Goytacazes in Rio de Janeiro state have one big thing in common: oil. Since late in the last century, their public funds have been bolstered by billions in royalties from oil finds in the offshore Campos Basin. Yet despite having significantly more resources than other towns and cities in Brazil, both still face problems such as poor sanitation and healthcare, inadequate social housing and state education as well as corruption scandals.
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