Artwork stating 'Education Destroys Barriers', 'We Demand Treatment', and 'I Need A Chance'

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  • Latinx 'promotores' lead the way for environmental action

    A leadership program in the Chesapeake Bay region gives members of the Latinx community to become change makers in the environmental movement. Since 2016, Chispa Maryland has produced more than 100 graduates from its “promotores” program, where they learn the basics of climate justice, advocacy, and community organizing. While the work is difficult and the COVID-19 pandemic has affected operations, the promotores have seen some success in organizing community gardens and lobbying the county to purchase electric school buses.

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  • Coastal Louisiana tribes team up with biologist to protect sacred sites from rising seas

    Indigenous communities in Louisiana are working with scientists to restore wetland ecosystems and protect tribal mounds along the Gulf Coast through backfilling projects. Depleted oil wells and canals in the area are often abandoned, creating reservoirs of stagnant water that affects freshwater plants and animals. The group has started to identify priority canal sites to fill in and seek funding to kick off the project, which can be challenging to get.

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  • How Philadelphia Has Tried to Address Water Debt

    An income-based payment structure has alleviated water debt in Philadelphia. Decreasing federal aid to municipal water utilities in conjunction with rising costs associated with climate change has increased the cost of water, making it unaffordable for many. Philadelphia created an income-based program, which caps water bills at three percent of income. The Tiered Assistance Program, or TAP, also provides debt elimination for those who make their minimum payments. Advocates have successfully pushed for similar reforms in Baltimore.

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  • Fishing for change: Local management of Amazon's largest fish also empowers women

    After high demands for arapaima fish led to near extinction, a co-management system in the Amazon rainforest has resulted in the recovery of the fish as well as the economic empowerment of local women. The work includes counting, catching, protecting, harvesting, and bringing fish to market. When more workers were needed, women stepped in and gained respect in the community as being essential members of the fishery. The women collecting an income from the program previously fished for subsistence and now receive payment for their work.

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  • Green teen memes: how TikTok could save the planet Audio icon

    Many young TikTok users are sharing videos about environmental issues, like climate change and biodiversity, and it is leading to resource sharing, personal connections, and people reaching out to learn more about environmental topics like gardening, soil restoration, renewable energy, and environmental racism. Some believe the Covid-19 lockdown has increased engagement even further. A subculture called “grass TikTok” emerged to share information about plant species and has nearly 380 million views. The potential ban of TikTok in the US could lead to declining biodiversity engagement online.

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  • Truth and Redistribution

    Racial injustice in America and the resulting wealth gap are a result of entrenched systemic inequities that can only be addressed if a collective acknowledgement of the past is made much like it was in South Africa. The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) identified and cataloged the trauma endured during the apartheid era in order to shed light on the physical, mental, and economic toll of South African apartheid. Publicly and collectively acknowledging the trauma allowed the nation to peacefully transition into post-apartheid. Acknowledgement is the first step to undoing inequity.

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  • To Manage Wildfire, California Looks To What Tribes Have Known All Along

    To combat wildfires in California, Native American tribal leaders and government officials are coming together to facilitate “cultural burnings” or controlled burns. Regularly burning the landscape prevents thick, dried out vegetation from catching fire and causing massive wildfires. Tribal groups used to perform this ritual in the 1800s, but as settlers moved West, many of them prevented Native Americans from doing these cultural burnings. While controlled burns can be challenging in places where there’s too much underbrush, these partnerships can bring together indigenous knowledge and wildfire management.

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  • ‘It's like paradise for us': the Cree Nation's fight to save the Broadback Forest

    Canopy works to preserve the untouched Broadback Forest, which stores twice as much carbon as the Amazon and is central to the Cree Nation. The nonprofit works with 750 corporations, including fashion brands, commercial printers, and publishers to reduce the amount of packaging they use and eliminate sourcing from biodiverse, ancient, and endangered forests. They help source waste from grain and other food harvests for packaging, paper, and fabric production and enlist companies’ support of conservation initiatives. They also partner with other groups to lobby the government to protect the Broadback forest.

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  • Amazon ‘women warriors' show gender equality, forest conservation go hand in hand

    Women “warriors” of the indigenous Guajajara people in Brazil use drones to patrol their territory of the Amazon rainforest in an effort to prevent deforestation. Because of their work, they have been able to cut deforestation down to just 63 hectares in 2018 compared with 2,000 hectares in 2016. While the work can be dangerous and difficult at times, the women are committed to protecting the forests as a way to combat climate change. “If we don’t act, there would be no forest standing,” says one of the women warriors.

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  • Metro Detroit's environmental organizations are largely white. Some are working to change that.

    Several environmental groups in the Detroit area are coming to terms with the lack of racial diversity in their organizations. Huron-Clinton Metroparks released a plan to make their parks more welcoming and accessible to everyone, regardless of race and ethnicity. The Friends of the Rouge watershed organization has partnered with other nonprofits to explore race and organizational culture within their own groups. While many of these initiatives have just launched, many groups are taking crucial steps to address environmental injustice within their ranks and how it trickles down to the people they serve.

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