Our Neighborhood

Earth

Keeping It Green

Fracking's Toll on the Indigenous
• Climate Justice Defined

Environmental Justice

Stories of Interest

• Recent News Stories

Page Updated:
Oct. 29, 2025

• • CDFW Investigators Seize Suspected Rhino Horns

  And Thousands of Pieces of Elephant Ivory in Los Angeles County
  
  {Cal Dept of Fish and Wildlife}
  
  

  Oct. 23, 2025 -California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) law enforcement from the Special Operations Unit (SOU) uncovered extensive evidence linking a business in Los Angeles County to suspected trafficking of animal parts, including rhino horn and elephant ivory.

  CDFW investigators discovered what appears to be at least nine rhino horns, thousands of pieces of elephant ivory, several large, intricately carved tusks and a sea turtle shell. All samples will be tested and identified at CDFW’s Wildlife Forensics Lab.

• • Mining Activists Targeted as South Africa Delays Energy Transition

  ‘We Are Just Waiting to Die’
  
  
  

  Oct. 23, 2024 -Environmental justice activists have spoken out against coal and iron mining in South Africa, telling a recent human rights hearing that the industry violently undermines the country’s promised energy transition. They also pointed to the continued threats, displacement and killings faced by community organizers resisting land grabs by mining companies.

  The fifth Human Rights Defenders People’s Hearings, held at Constitution Hill in Johannesburg on Oct. 22, was convened by Life After Coal, a joint campaign by local NGOs Earthlife Africa, groundWork, and the Centre for Environmental Rights.

• • Paris Verdict Due in TotalEnergies 'Greenwashing' Case

  Lawsuit Filed By Three Environmental Groups Accuses TotalEnergies of "Misleading Commercial Practices" For Ads Saying it Could Reach Carbon Neutrality While Continuing Oil and Gas Production.
  
  {ET Energy World}
  
  

  Oct. 22, 2025 -A Paris court is due to hand down a ruling Thursday whether French oil and gas giant TotalEnergies misled consumers with claims overstating its climate pledges, a case that could help shape greenwashing jurisprudence in Europe and beyond.

  It is the first such case in France targeting a major energy company and could set a legal precedent for corporate environmental advertising, which is starting to face tighter regulations in the European Union.

• • In Georgia, Trump’s Cuts to Solar Projects Hit Some of His Voters

  The Administration Canceled a $7 Billion Program Intended to Help Low- And Moderate-Income Families Install Rooftop Solar Panels
  
  
  

  Oct. 11, 2025 -When Jennifer McCoy entered a drawing for the free installation of solar panels on her home, she was desperate for help with electric bills that have soared to more than $500 a month.

  So Ms. McCoy, 39, was disappointed when the drawing was abruptly canceled. And as a supporter of President Trump, she was shocked by the reason: His administration had revoked $7 billion in federal grants intended to help low- and moderate-income families get access to solar energy.

• • Shuttered Canadian Marine Park Warns
  It May Euthanize 30 Beluga Whales

  Prompting a Global Outcry
  
  
  

  Oct. 9, 2025 -The uncertain future of 30 beluga whales still living in tanks at Marineland—a shuttered aquarium and amusement park in Niagara Falls, Ontario—has drawn global outcry from animal rights activists this week after park officials warned they may euthanize the animals without immediate financial aid from the government.

  “The idea that one would consider euthanizing them is just not morally acceptable, and it’s certainly something the government and the public should not accept,” said Charles Vinick, chief executive officer of The Whale Sanctuary Project, a Nova Scotia-based nonprofit that seeks to end the exploitation of whales and dolphins.

• • UK Plastic Waste Exports to
  Developing Countries Rose 84% in a Year

  Campaigners Say Increase in Exports Mostly to Malaysia and Indonesia is ‘Unethical and Irresponsible Waste Imperialism’
  
  
  

  Oct. 8, 2025 -Britain’s exports of plastic waste to developing countries have soared by 84% in the first half of this year compared with last year, according to an analysis of trade data carried out for the Guardian.

  Campaigners described the rise in exports, mostly to Malaysia and Indonesia, as “unethical and irresponsible waste imperialism”.

• • Solar for All Beneficiaries Sue EPA for Terminating Program

  Arguing the Agency Had No Right to Pull the plug on the Solar for All Program
  
  
  

  Oct. 7, 2025 -The lawsuit, filed Monday in federal court by the Southern Environmental Law Center and Lawyers for Good Government, says the EPA wrongly ended the $7B program after Congress passed its recent budget bill.

  Plaintiffs—including the Rhode Island AFL-CIO, several solar companies, and a Georgia homeowner—say the money was already committed and legally protected.

• • Maryland Judges Weigh Whether
  Cities Can Sue Over Climate Change

  Communities Including Baltimore and Annapolis are Asking the State’s Top Court to Revive a Case Accusing Oil Companies of Spreading Disinformation
  
  
  

  Oct. 6, 2025 -The Maryland Supreme Court heard arguments Monday on an issue facing judges nationwide: Whether or not local communities can sue oil companies over their role in climate change.

  The leaders of Baltimore, Annapolis and Anne Arundel County sued some of the world’s biggest oil and gas companies in 2018 and 2021, alleging a decades-long disinformation campaign to mislead the public about what causes global warming. The companies’ deception, they argued, encouraged the burning of oil and gas, which unleashed more of the greenhouse gases that are dangerously warming the world and causing damage in Maryland including storms, extreme heat and sea-level rise.

• • New Report Examines Fossil Fuel
  Ties of Dozens of Trump Administration Hires

  The Trump administration has Stocked Key Energy and Environmental Agencies With Fossil Fuel Insiders—43 of Them, to Be Exact
  
  
  

  Oct. 6, 2025 -The Trump administration wasted no time in tapping individuals with ties to fossil fuel industries and right-wing think tanks funded by oil tycoons for key environmental and energy policy positions, according to a new report.

  Public Citizen and the Revolving Door Project, two nonprofit organizations that monitor corporate influence in government, analyzed the backgrounds of 111 nominees and appointees to executive branch positions in agencies including the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of the Interior (DOI) that chart environment and energy policy. They found 43 people with ties to the fossil fuel industry and 12 people tied to right-wing think tanks, many of which receive funding from oilmen, including Texan Tim Dunn.

• • The Scientists Making the Case for Nature’s Rights

  A Group of Wetlands Scientists Wants the Critical Ecosystems They Study to Be Next
  
  
  

  Oct. 5, 2025 -VICTORIA FALLS, Zimbabwe—On a bright and clear day, Gillian T. Davies reached the end of a winding dirt track where armed guards waited.

  The ecologist from Massachusetts was attending an international conference on wetlands that would influence the future of the world’s fastest-disappearing ecosystems. The sessions were not going well.

• • Powering the Grassroots Movement We
  Need to Meet This Moment of Climate Action

  Get Involved!
  
  {Jane Fonda Climate Pac}
  
  

  Oct. 3, 2025 -Everyone has a role to play in combating the climate crisis. When you volunteer with JanePAC, you’re taking a stand for environmental justice, holding polluters accountable, and electing leaders who will fight for a livable future for all of our communities. Whether you’re knocking on doors, making phone calls, circulating petitions, or helping amplify our message, you can help power the grassroots movement we need to meet this moment.

  Sign up to receive updates.

• • Indigenous Land Defender Killed in Ecuador as Government
  Cracks Down on Environmental and Human Rights Activists

  He Was Gunned Down While Marching in Protest Against High Costs of Living and Government Crackdowns That Include Freezing the Bank Accounts of Activists
  
  
  

  Sept. 29, 2025 -An Indigenous land defender was shot and killed on Sunday in Cotacachi, Ecuador, where he was marching in protest of high costs of living and government crackdowns on Indigenous and environmental activists.

  Efraín Fueres, 46, a community leader, was one of thousands of Ecuadorians who have taken to the streets over the past two weeks amid a wave of authoritarian moves by the government, including freezing activists’ bank accounts and suspending a media organization. The Indigenous Kichwa federation Chijallta FICI, which Fueres belonged to, released a statement condemning his killing and attributing blame to “military bullets.”

• • Workers Keep Dying From Heat

  Data From Inside Their Bodies Shows Why
  
  
  

  Sept. 30, 2025 -Six hours before she collapsed from the heat in the South Florida tropical plant nursery where she works, Irma wasn’t feeling well.

  By 10 a.m., two hours into her shift weeding long rows of plants on a hot August day, her head hurt and she felt nauseous. By 2 p.m. she had full body cramps and chills. At her boss’s urging, she pushed through the pain without a break until her body gave out at 4 p.m. Her vision went black and she fell to the ground.

  Irma spoke on the condition that she be identified only by her first name for fear of retaliation from her employer. Her boss still won’t let her or her co-workers pause to rest on hot workdays, she said, aside from a half-hour break for lunch at noon.

• • Danger For Environmental Defenders

  Over 2,250 Have Been Killed or Disappeared in the Last 12 Years
  
  
  

  Sept. 18, 2025 -The latest tally from Global Witness is a grim ledger. In 2024, at least 146 people were killed or disappeared while defending land, water and forests. That brings the total to at least 2,253 deaths and disappearances since 2012, a steady toll that turns local acts of stewardship into mortal hazards. The organization’s report reads less like an activist’s briefing than a casualty list from a slow-moving war.

  Latin America remains the deadliest region. Of the 117 killings documented there last year, 48 took place in Colombia, which has led the world in such murders for three years running. Guatemala recorded 20 deaths...

• • Dominion’s Proposed Peaker
  Plant Flouts Environmental Justice

  The Utility’s Environmental Justice Analysis Lacks Community Health Data
  
  
  

  Sept. 18, 2025 -For the first 60 years Duane Brankley lived here, about a mile and a half from a coal plant owned by Dominion Energy, coal ash coated the shingles on his roof and the insides of his lungs.

  The coal plant finally closed in 2023, but soon Brankley could be facing an even more insidious air pollutant: fine particulate matter, or PM 2.5, from a new natural gas plant, the Chesterfield Energy Reliability Center, that Dominion wants to build on the site of the old coal facility.

• • Young Activists Say 3 Trump
  Orders Violate Constitutional Rights

  A Group of Young People Argued That a Judge Should Halt Three of Trump’s Sweeping Executive Orders On Climate and Energy Policy
  
  
  

  Sept. 18, 2025 -A group of young climate activists attempted to put the Trump administration’s energy agenda on trial in Montana this week.

  In two days of hearings in a packed federal courtroom in Missoula, the plaintiffs and a slew of expert witnesses testified that three of President Trump’s executive orders aimed at “unleashing” American energy violated their Constitutional rights to life and liberty.

• • EPA Seeks $140 Million Penalty Against
  DTE Energy in Zug Island Pollution Trial

  Freeze-Thaw Recycling
  
  {energy central}
  
  

  Sept. 17, 2025 -The EPA is asking a federal judge to impose a $140M penalty on DTE and subsidiaries over sulfur dioxide emissions from its ES Coke Battery on Michigan’s Zug Island.

  A federal judge has already ruled DTE qualifies as an operator of the facility under the Clean Air Act, making the parent company liable for violations.An expert witness testified that DTE could afford to pay the fine without financial hardship, estimating the utility gained $185M–$226M in economic benefit during years of noncompliance.

• • Labor, Environmental Abuses
  Detailed in China’s Vast Squid Harvests

  A New Environmental Justice Foundation Report Exposes Violations in the Vast Chinese Squid-Fishing Industry...
  
  
  

  Sept. 16, 2025 -China’s vast, uncontrolled squid-fishing effort in the unregulated waters off South America is putting marine ecosystems at risk of depletion and leaving crew members vulnerable to physical abuse, overwork and even death, according to a new report by the Environmental Justice Foundation.

  The investigation by the London-based nonprofit sheds light on the working conditions of largely Southeast Asian crews and murky fishing supply chains that link to more than 80 U.S. importers and buyers.

• • G.O.P. Plan on Pesticides Faces Revolt From MAHA Moms

  The provision in the Government Funding Bill Could Shield Pesticide Companies From Billions in Lawsuits
  
  
  

  Sept. 15, 2025 -China’s vast, uncontrolled squid-fishing effort in the unregulated waters off South America is putting marine ecosystems at risk of depletion and leaving crew members vulnerable to physical abuse, overwork and even death, according to a new report by the Environmental Justice Foundation.

  The investigation by the London-based nonprofit sheds light on the working conditions of largely Southeast Asian crews and murky fishing supply chains that link to more than 80 U.S. importers and buyers.

• • Young People Suing Trump Over
  Climate Have Their Day in Federal Court

  They Claim Trump’s Executive Orders Are Unconstitutional
  
  
  

  Sept. 15, 2025 -Young climate activists suing President Trump have a big ask for a federal judge in Montana this week: Immediately block three of the president’s executive orders aimed at “unleashing” American energy.

  The 22 young people filed a federal lawsuit against the president, 13 agencies and numerous officials in May, arguing that Mr. Trump’s executive orders were unconstitutional. Their lawyers, led by the nonprofit Our Children’s Trust, have asked Judge Dana L. Christensen to block the Trump orders until there is a final judgment in their case.

• • Kids from Marginalized Communities
  Are Learning in the Hottest Classrooms

  The Study Shows That Children From Marginalized Communities Are More Exposed to Extreme Heat Events
  
  {Scientific American}
  
  

  Sept. 5, 2025 -A heat wave can turn a classroom without proper cooling into an oven. Excessive heat can interfere with the learning process of any child—but in the U.S., the students who are most affected are disproportionately from low-income families and communities of color.

  A recent study published in SSM Population Health has now quantified these inequities across U.S. public schools for the first time. Researchers found that Hispanic/Latino, Native American/Alaska Native and Hawaiian/other Pacific Islander students, along with children who are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, are significantly more likely than their white and wealthier peers to attend schools located in places that experience the highest number of days with extreme heat.

• • Pennsylvania Plastics Pollution Settlement
  Could Set a National Precedent for Control of Pellets

  The Case Is the First Citizen Suit to Successfully Settle Over “Nurdles” In an Inland Waterway
  
  
  
  

  Sept. 4, 2025 -A Pennsylvania plastics manufacturer will pay $2.6 million for allegedly violating the federal Clean Water Act and will ensure that no more of its plastic pellets leak into waterways, under a proposed settlement with two environmental groups.

  PennEnvironment and Three Rivers Waterkeeper sued Styropek USA, claiming the company discharged large quantities of “nurdles”—tiny pellets used to produce a wide variety of plastic products—into a western Pennsylvania creek, polluting the water and leaving the pellets on creek-side vegetation.

• • Opposition to an Alabama Medical
  Waste Treatment Facility Boils Over

  Dozens of Residents Opposed to Harvest Med Waste Disposal’s Site In Remlap, Alabama, Packed the Blount County Courthouse to Voice Their Concerns
  
  
  
  

  Sept. 4, 2025 -One of the county commissioners was reading from a list of those who’d asked to speak at a public meeting concerning the potential approval of a medical waste treatment facility in nearby Remlap.

  “Darlene,” a resident at the back of the room repeated to those outside. Community members opposed to the new facility, proposed by Harvest Med Waste Disposal, wouldn’t all fit in the boardroom where commission meetings are typically held. They also lined the hallways of the courthouse nearly to the building’s exit. One court employee said they’d never seen the facility packed with as many citizens. The woman’s name continued down the line.

• • Inside Trump’s Unorthodox Climate Attacks in Courts Nationwide

  The Administration Cranks Up Efforts to Kill State Laws and Legal Cases That Would Force Fossil-Fuel Companies to Pay For Climate Damage
  
  
  
  

  Sept. 4, 2025 -The Trump administration is escalating its attacks on “polluter pays” laws and lawsuits that try to force fossil fuel companies to help cover the costs of climate change.

  There are dozens of these legal fights playing out nationwide. They have become increasingly significant as the Trump administration weakens federal efforts to fight global warming.

• • Leaving EPA Behind, Environmental Justice
  Pioneer Preaches Hope Amid Trump Cutbacks

  In 26 years at the Agency, Charles Lee Worked to Keep the Focus On Communities...
  
  
  
  

  Sept. 2, 2025 -One year ago, Charles Lee could look across the federal government and see his life’s work in action on multiple fronts—new grants awarded to minority communities overburdened with pollution, a new expert science panel established to look at their unique mix of health risks and the first White House Summit on Environmental Justice in Action underway.

  “This has been an incredible week for justice!” Lee posted on LinkedIn, as he detailed the work being done by his colleagues at the EPA and throughout President Biden’s administration.

• • UN Experts Accuse Top Oil Firms of
  Rights Violations Over Nigerian Asset Sales

  Divestments Were Made Without Paying Hefty Clean-Up Bills or Compensating Communities in the Pollution-Scarred Niger Delta
  
  {CLIMATE HOME NEWS}
  
  

  Sept. 2, 2025 -Oil giants Shell, Eni, ExxonMobil and TotalEnergies breached international human rights law by selling their assets in Nigeria without cleaning up decades of pollution or compensating local people in the Niger Delta region, according to a group of UN experts.

  The southern Nigerian region has long been blighted by oil spills, gas flaring and discharges of toxic wastewater that have devastated ecosystems and jeopardized the livelihoods of farmers and fishermen, as well as hitting human health.

• • Leaving EPA Behind, Environmental Justice
  Pioneer Preaches Hope Amid Trump Cutbacks

  In 26 years at the Agency, Charles Lee Worked to Keep the Focus On Communities. Now...
  
  
  
  

  Sept. 2, 2025 -One year ago, Charles Lee could look across the federal government and see his life’s work in action on multiple fronts—new grants awarded to minority communities overburdened with pollution, a new expert science panel established to look at their unique mix of health risks and the first White House Summit on Environmental Justice in Action underway.

  “This has been an incredible week for justice!” Lee posted on the social media site LinkedIn, as he detailed the work being done by his colleagues at the Environmental Protection Agency and throughout President Joe Biden’s administration.

• • Victims of Zambian Copper Mine Disaster
  Demand Multibillion Dollar Payout

  Dozens of Families Are Threatening to Sue China’s Sino-Metals Over a Devastating Spill of Toxic Mining Waste That Caused One of the Nation’s Worst Environmental Disasters
  
  {CLIMATE HOME NEWS}
  
  

  Sept. 2, 2025 -Zambian farmers are threatening to sue a Chinese copper mining company unless it pays billions of dollars in compensation following a massive toxic waste spill in February that killed fish, wrecked crops and contaminated water supplies.

  International mining experts have warned that communities will be exposed to long-term health risks for decades without drastic measures to tackle the pollution.

• • Can the ICJ Opinion Bring Climate
  Justice For Indigenous Peoples?

  The Landmark Ruling By the World’s Top Court Says National Climate Policies Must Protect Indigenous and Minority Rights – But...
  
  {CLIMATE HOME NEWS}
  
  

  Sept. 1, 2025 -For centuries, Indigenous peoples have demonstrated the indivisibility of human and ecosystem well-being. Now, the highest court in the world is behind them.

  A milestone in an existential battle – that’s how the recent advisory opinion on climate change from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has been hailed. Does it signal climate justice for minorities and Indigenous peoples, groups among those most vulnerable to climate change, or is it just another piece of paper?

• • 20 Years After Katrina, We’re
  Less Prepared For Disaster Than Ever

  Hurricane Katrina Remains One of Our Country’s Most Colossal Failures
  
  
  
  

  Sept. 1, 2025 -The disaster was not just in the ferocity of the storm itself, but even more in the dismal ineptitude of every level of government to provide the leadership, aid and resources needed to prevent loss of life and the worst human misery imaginable.

  The agony and horror of U.S. citizens desperately screaming from their rooftops for rescue and tens of thousands packed without sufficient water, food or sanitation in the Superdome and New Orleans convention center will be forever seared into my consciousness.

• • The Shocking Reality of Indoor Heat Deaths in Arizona

  It Happened So Fast
  
  
  
  

  Aug. 31, 2025 -It was the hottest day of the year so far when the central air conditioning started blowing hot air in the mobile home where Richard Chamblee lived in Bullhead City, Arizona, with his wife, children, and half a dozen cats and dogs.

  It was only mid-June but the heat was insufferable, particularly for Chamblee, who was clinically obese and bed-bound in the living room as the temperature hit 115F (46C) in the desert city – situated 100 miles (160km) south of Las Vegas on the banks of the Colorado River.

• • An Industry Insider’s Changes at the
  E.P.A. Could Cost Taxpayers Billions

  The New Version Would Shift Costs From Polluters
  
  
  
  

  Aug. 28, 2025 -Early this year, Steven Cook was a lawyer representing chemical companies suing to block a new rule that would force them to clean up pollution from “forever chemicals,” which are linked to low birthrates and cancer.

  Now Mr. Cook is in a senior role at the Environmental Protection Agency, where he has proposed scrapping the same rule his former clients were challenging in court. His effort could shift cleanup costs away from polluters and onto taxpayers, according to internal E.P.A. documents reviewed by The New York Times.

• • Judge Orders Alligator Alcatraz to Wind Down Operations

  Environmental groups and the Miccosukee Tribe had Sued Over a Lack of Any Environmental Review
  
  
  
  

  August 22, 2025 -A federal judge has ordered a winding down of operations at Florida’s Alligator Alcatraz, the hastily assembled Everglades detention site where the Trump administration aims to incarcerate thousands of undocumented migrants before deporting them.

  Judge Kathleen Williams Thursday granted a preliminary injunction for environmental groups and the Miccosukee Tribe, which had sued to stop the facility on the grounds that it was rushed to completion without any public comment or environmental review. Such a review is necessary under federal laws such as the Endangered Species Act and also the National Environmental Policy Act, which requires environmental impact statements on major federal actions.

• • It Costs Less Than A Hundredth of a
  Cent To Stop An Hour of Chicken Pain

  Researchers Attempt to Measure Animal Pain in Dollars and Hours
  
  
  
  

  August 19, 2025 -Walk into any supermarket and you’ll see rows of cheap chicken. But behind those plastic-wrapped breasts and drumsticks is an invisible ledger — one that tallies not just dollars, but hours of suffering. A new study argues we can finally calculate that hidden cost, and the math may change how we think about food.

  Researchers have developed a way to calculate how many hours of suffering each bird endures under today’s industrial farming system, and how much it would cost to prevent it. Their conclusion: for about one extra dollar per kilogram of meat, we could spare chickens at least 15 to 100 hours of intense pain. It costs less than one-hundredth of a cent to prevent each hour of intense pain.

• • DOE Faces a Slew of Legal Challenges This Week

  DOE is Under Legal Fire on Two Fronts: One From States, the Other From Environmental Groups
  
  
  
  

  August 18, 2025 -19 states and the District of Columbia sued DOE late last week over its effort to cap grant funding used for “indirect costs” (like buildings, equipment, and personnel) at 10%. They say it 1) guts budgets for clean energy, weatherization, and emergency programs 2) violates federal law and 3) was imposed with zero evidence it would “improve efficiency.”

  Two environmental groups (the Environmental Defense Fund and the Union of Concerned Scientists) filed a federal lawsuit alleging DOE secretly assembled climate skeptics who reject the scientific consensus to write a report downplaying global warming, which the EPA then used to justify repealing the 2009 endangerment finding.

• • Texas AG Launches Investigation
  Into Utilities Connected to Wildfires

  The Administration has Almost Fully Redacted a NOAA Study Used to Justify The Stop-Work Order On New York’s Empire Wind Project Earlier This Year
  
  
  
  

  August 15, 2025 -Texas attorney general Ken Paxton has launched an investigation into several utility companies connected to the Smokehouse Creek and Windy Deuce Fires, his office said on Friday.

  The office said it issued civil investigative demand letters to Xcel Energy (XEL.O), Osmose Utilities Services and Southwestern Public Services for documents related to the wildfires in order to ascertain if any Texas laws were violated.

• • An Environmental Justice Test Case for Trump’s EPA

  A Creek That Smells Like Death
  
  {Inside Climate News}
  
  

  August 13, 2025 -On a summer afternoon in Burton Park, hip-hop throbs from a car stereo over the backbeat of a basketball slapping on concrete. The sun bakes a grid of identical brick buildings, whose wheezing window air conditioners can barely keep pace with the 96-degree heat. Three young boys laugh and shout as they speed down the sidewalk on their bikes.

  They stop and point at a creek. It lies stagnant behind an orange snow fence smothered in kudzu.

  “You can’t go in there,” one of the boys blurts. He pulls the collar of his T-shirt over his nose. “It stinks.”

  Two years ago, in August 2023, the city fenced off the creek in east Durham after chemical distribution company Brenntag Mid-South detected high levels of acetone, toluene and ethanol in water at its property edge a half-mile upstream.

• • Can Colorado Recycle Toxic Water from Oil
  and Gas Drilling Without Increasing Emissions?

  Environmentalists Fear the Answer is “No,”
  
  {Inside Climate News}
  
  

  August 13, 2025 -The vegetation along the Colorado River as it runs next to Interstate 70 is lush in early June, soaking up the tail end of this year’s meager spring runoff as it makes its way West.

  But as you approach Rifle, Colorado, splotches of dry grass begin popping up on the slopes above the river’s southern bank. In the second half of the 20th century, oil shale companies began moving into the small town and “bought up the ranches for the water rights,” said Leslie Robinson as she looked out across the river from a well pad near her home. “Oil and gas gets water first,” she said.

• • After Floods and Failed Harvests, Korean
  Farmers Sue State Power Utility For Damages

  Six Farmers are Seeking Compensation From South Korea’s KEPCO, Arguing Its Fossil Fuel Emissions Have Contributed to Economic and Emotional Harm
  
  {CLIMATE HOME NEWS}
  
  

  August 12, 2025 -Six South Korean farmers have announced plans to sue the country’s state-owned utility company, arguing that its burning of fossil fuels has contributed to climate change and damaged their crops.

  The farmers are seeking compensation from the Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) for the economic and emotional damages they have suffered from extreme weather driven by climate change.

• • Meet the Activist Fighting PFAS Pollution — and Winning

  Emily Donovan Wants to “Make the Polluters Pay” For What They’ve Done to Her North Carolina Community and Others
  
  
  
  

  August 11, 2025 -The mother of twins took on the role of activist when she started fighting for her North Carolina community in 2017. Her main target: PFAS “forever chemicals,” which do not degrade and at even low levels have been linked to a wide range of human health risks, including fertility issues, immune interactions, cancer, liver damage, thyroid disease, asthma, and more.

  A recent report from the nonprofit Waterkeeper Alliance found that 98% of waterways in the United States contain per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, commonly known as PFAS. One of the country’s most polluted rivers, according to the report, sits at the heart of Donovan’s own Cape Fear community in North Carolina.

• • Chemical Makers to Pay N.J. $875
  Million to Settle ‘Forever Chemicals’ Claims

  It Was the Largest Environmental Settlement Ever Achieved by a Single State
  
  
  
  

  August 4, 2025 -In what officials say is the largest environmental settlement ever won by a state, chemical giants Chemours, DuPont and Corteva agreed on Monday to pay New Jersey $875 million over the next quarter-century to settle claims linked to pollution from so-called “forever chemicals.”

  Under the deal, the companies are required to fund the cleanup of four former industrial sites, create a remediation fund of up to $1.2 billion and set aside a reserve of $475 million to ensure that the cleanup will be completed if any of the companies go bankrupt or default.