climate

The Bipartisan Climate Solution: A Tax Swap

You wouldn’t know it from today’s polarized politics, but protecting the environment used to be a bipartisan effort.  There were, of course, the path-breaking conservation achievements of Theodore Roosevelt, a Republican. And, in the 1970s through the 1990s major federal environmental legislation – the National Environmental Policy Act, the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Council on Environmental Quality, the Clean Air Act  and Clean Water Act  – occurred under Republican administrations in cooperation with Democratic Congressional leadership. 

An inclusive climate movement starts to rise in the Southeast

It’s no secret that the climate movement, despite some recent successes, has its problems. Spoken by mostly white voices, our messages are sometimes out of touch with the priorities of frontline communities: the ethnic minorities and low-income people who unfairly absorb the health and economic costs of climate change and environmental pollution.

Getting Real About Resilience in South Brooklyn

Beverly Corbin is disabled; she navigates the courtyard at Wyckoff Gardens—the South Brooklyn public housing complex where she lives—on a scooter.

Guest Opinion: We need a moon-shot for the environment more than ever

This week, more than 193 nations will celebrate Earth Day. The annual event is a marker for the environmental movement begun on April 22, 1970, when Wisconsin Sen. Gaylord Nelson organized a peaceful teach-in. At the time, rivers were on fire, oil spills fouled Santa Barbara’s coastline, spaceships were headed to the moon, and the nation was at war.

What happens when NAACP leaders becomes climate activists?

Kathy Egland was one of the first black students to desegregate her high school in Hattiesburg, Miss., in 1967. As a child and young adult, she marched for the right to vote and against segregated buses and drinking fountains. Now she’s fighting for the right to a clean, safe environment, serving as chair of the NAACP National Board’s committee on environmental and climate justice.

Primary Forests Take Center Stage in Paris Climate Agreement

Following a fortnight of negotiations, an unprecedented agreement has been signed by all the world’s 196 nations which identifies forests and ecosystems as fundamental to the world’s climate change response. For the first time, the UN’s Paris Agreement has formally recognized in international law that conserving ecosystem-based carbon stocks including forests is central to achieving climate mitigation goals and that both biodiversity and human rights must be protected when taking climate action.
Photo Credit: Rockaway Youth on Banner by Flickr.com user Light Brigading

Cutting Back: IP Authors Reflect On Their Carbon Footprints

With the end of COP 21 and the signing of the historic Paris Agreement, it’s not just countries that are thinking about how to reduce emissions—individuals are reflecting on how their habits and actions impact climate change as well. Island Press authors shared what they’re doing to reduce their carbon footprints and, in some cases, what more they could be doing. Check out their answers and share your own carbon cutbacks—or vices—in the comments. 

What frontline communities are pushing for at the Paris COP

As representatives of communities of color on the frontlines of climate change, we appreciate the sentiments of hope, ambition, accountability, and commitment in President Obama’s remarks at the Paris climate talks.

Pages