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The key to a more equitable outdoors? Democracy.
As the weather begins to warm up (and especially after nearly two months of living under stay-at-home orders), everyone has been looking to get outside. For kids in the Stockyards neighborhood here in...
View ArticleToo many Americans live in ‘sacrifice zones.’ Let’s fix that.
Coronavirus transmission rates may be down in New York City, but in the Bronx, my community is still facing the effects of three pandemics: COVID-19, white supremacy, and climate injustice. My Black...
View ArticleYoung evangelicals used to be skeptical of climate change. Not anymore. And...
Before the coronavirus and economic recession took up all the oxygen, 2020 was shaping up to become the “Climate Election.” Now with historic wildfires raging out west and hurricanes exhausting the...
View ArticleSCOTUS is without its chief dissenter. It’s up to us now.
In the spring of 2014, I sat at the back of the Supreme Court as the justices heard arguments in CTS Corp. v. Waldburger, the ramifications of which would touch some of the most contaminated sites in...
View ArticleAcknowledging Indigenous land is the first step in taking better care of it
In September, Schitt’s Creek, a sitcom created by the Canadian actor Dan Levy and his father, Eugene, won nine Emmys. Levy’s newly raised profile called attention to his efforts to learn about...
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More Indigenous land victories like ours will cool the warming planet
The author. Courtesy of Kynan Tegar Your country and mine are suffering from literal floods (1.5 meters of water in my home as I write this!) as well as a flood of bad news, so I want to share some...
View ArticleDear Gen Z, to protect your right to protest, you must exercise your right to...
Young people have shown again and again how far they’re willing to go for climate justice — organizing and attending some of the biggest global protests the world has ever seen, engaging in mass acts...
View ArticleHow COVID is paving the way for participatory transit planning
As a transportation advocate, it’s weird to work from home. At the beginning of this year, I would hop on the 5 Fulton bus or ride my bike down car-free Market Street to my office, where I direct...
View ArticleWe need a global leader on plastics. Could it be Biden?
Just last month, scientists labeled the United States as the country generating the most plastic waste worldwide. The world is desperately seeking U.S. involvement in not only solving the glut of...
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Guilt at the gas pump? That’s (part of) the idea.
This week, the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts, became the first in the nation to post bright yellow “warming” labels at gas pumps warning consumers of the latent climate and public health harms that...
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America’s ‘climate forest’ is under attack. Biden can protect it.
Within the Alaskan homelands of the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsmishian peoples, there is a saying: “When the tide is out, the table is set.” Cascading from the highest peaks, down to the lowest tide, life...
View ArticleYoung people can do more than organize. We can also help make climate policy.
At a virtual fundraiser last July, then-presidential candidate Joe Biden said, “I want young climate activists, young people everywhere, to know: I see you. I hear you. I understand the urgency, and...
View ArticleClimate change will destroy communities. Let’s help them move now.
Last week, the U.S. rejoined the Paris Climate Agreement. But even if its targets are met — and most countries are far from hitting them — the world will still likely be headed for a 3°C global...
View ArticleThe case for conservation leasing
Last month, the first-ever auction for oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) ended with just three bidders winning drilling rights to more than half a million acres. The...
View ArticleScience — especially climate research — needs a ‘sunshine’ law
Ten years ago, I worked in the United States Senate and helped draft and pass the Physician Payments Sunshine Act. The law requires companies to report monies and gifts they give physicians, which are...
View ArticleThe key to beating fossil fuel corps? Global collaboration.
Last summer, Delaware, Connecticut, and other states joined cities like Hoboken, New Jersey, and Charleston, South Carolina, in suing fossil fuel corporations including Exxon Mobil, BP, Chevron, and...
View ArticleAir pollution kills. Making that official can help us tackle it.
In December, a British coroner ruled that the cause of 9-year-old Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah’s death in 2013 was “toxic air pollution.” On its face this may not seem all that important, given that an...
View ArticleThe key to passing climate policy? Rein in (or win over) utilities monopolies.
Now that we’ve had a couple weeks to process all that went wrong in Texas, people are paying more attention to the national electricity landscape, how it functions, and who’s in charge. And with Joe...
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To get rural Americans involved in climate crisis, see them for who they are
I like small towns. I grew up in the Hudson Valley of New York state, just beyond the reach of the commuter trains to Manhattan; spent 15 years in rural Colorado, living in a town with no traffic...
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What voting rights mean for the planet
As studies increasingly tally the death toll of climate change, the recent stalemate over voting rights legislation in the Senate puts the United States at a grave crossroads. The Republican Party...
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