In a letter shared with the community on Oct. 18, Mount Holyoke President Sonya Stephens outlined several new “climate action commitments,” including the decisions to divest from fossil fuels and take steps toward carbon neutrality. The letter was sent via email soon after the Board of Trustees’ October meeting. In addition to announcing new commitments and initiatives, Stephens enumerated past actions taken by the College towards achieving the recommendations of the Sustainability Task Force, which convened in 2017. The Task Force’s recommendations were approved by the Board of Trustees in 2018. They included achieving carbon neutrality by 2037, improving the energy efficiency of campus buildings and utilizing the campus as a “living laboratory for cross-disciplinary teaching, research and learning.”
Carbon footprint calculator focuses attention on personal responsibility
After its popularization in the 1990s by oil and gas company BP in a $250 million advertising campaign, the term “carbon footprint” has been heavily discussed, particularly around Earth Day. In 2004, as a response to BP’s campaign, the first carbon footprint calculator was invented. Since then, the Environmental Protection Agency and others have released other carbon footprint calculators, promoting individual responsibility in reducing personal carbon footprints.
Weekly Climate News
March 4, 2021
The U.N. has suspended climate projects in Myanmar after the military seized control of the Myanmar government in a coup executed on Feb. 1.
Claude Nyamugabo, environmental minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo, has been brought to court on accusations of illegal allocation of logging claims in the Congo rainforest to a Congolese cleaning company and two Chinese firms.
The U.S. said it will terminate funding for “carbon-intensive” fossil fuel projects overseas.
Environmental racism has impacted the health of marginalized communities for decades. Read this article on environmental justice advocates fighting pollution in Black communities by calling for civil rights protections to be included in the National Environmental Policy Act.
Arkansas, Kansas, Minnesota and Montana, among other U.S. states, have proposed stricter penalties for protests against fossil fuel and pipeline projects.
The gulf stream is weakening as a result of climate change. Check out this interactive article.
Mexico City initiated a plastic ban, which has raised concerns for women’s access to period products.
New initiatives in the travel industry suggest a future of sustainable travel for the post COVID-19 world.
More than 100 Chicagoans, motivated by environmental justice concerns, are involved in a hunger strike in protest of the city’s proposed location for a scrapyard in Southeast Chicago.
Seville, Spain, is using oranges to generate electricity.
Saudi Arabia Plans New City Entirely Dependent on Clean Energy
The Middle Eastern kingdom of Saudi Arabia owns around 16 percent of the world’s proven petroleum reserves and is the second-largest member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. On Jan. 5, Saudi Arabia announced that it would unilaterally cut 1 million barrels of crude oil production a day starting in February. The decision was made to benefit Saudi Arabia’s economy and that of its partnering countries by increasing oil prices as a response to the weakened global economies caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Weekly Climate News
November 19, 2020
U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a 10-point plan for a “green industrial revolution” with the long-term goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. The plan includes an increase in green investments along with the creation of 250,000 jobs in the sector.
The U.N. approved a fuel efficiency deal with the International Maritime Organization that allows shipping emissions to decrease by only 1 percent until 2030, despite much opposition to the inadequacy of the deal.
With no plans to achieve carbon neutrality before the end of the century, Russia is looking to expand its Arctic gas industry.
U.S. President-elect Joe Biden stated that he will “name and shame global climate outlaws,” indicating that a hard line on climate will be drawn under the incoming administration. Potential climate outlaws may include Australia, Brazil, Russia, Mexico, Indonesia, China and Saudia Arabia.
The Trump administration will face challenges if it moves forward with its plan to sell the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced that Line 5, an underwater pipeline that provides Ontario with oil from refineries in Michigan, will be shutting down due to environmental concerns. The pipeline has been in operation since the 1950s.
Tucson, Arizona, experienced record-breaking heat this September, which prompted city officials to declare a climate emergency. Read this article on where they stand now.
Astypalea, a Greek island in the Aegean Sea, will be replacing all fossil fuel cars with electric vehicles as part of its climate-neutral approach.
A new study found that urban greenery adds CO2 to the atmosphere through decomposition, which increases overall greenhouse gas emissions.
Weekly Climate News
October 29, 2020
Indigenous Mayan communities are suing the Mexican government over plans to install more than 1 million solar panels near their homes, a project that would require clearance of 600 hectares of trees from their communities.
Vietnam prepares for Typhoon Molave, the fourth storm to hit the central region of the country in the past few weeks in a series of the most intense tropical storms they have experienced in decades. Currently, 130 people have been reported dead and 18 missing, and about 300,000 homes have been damaged or completely collapsed by the floods.
The Trump administration has rolled back nearly 100 climate policies and rules in regards to clean air, water, wildlife and toxic chemicals. Here is the full list.
Ranchers and activists have taken sides in a proposed plan to cull the Tule Elk Herd in Point Reyes National Seashore, located north of San Francisco, California.
Check out this list of key Senate races which could largely determine the future of U.S. climate policy.
Japan announced ambitious plans to become carbon neutral by 2050.
Fossil fuel companies are losing favor with investors, as many are turning toward the renewable energy sector.
Poor air quality in Asia has been linked to billions of premature deaths, and a new report claims that breathing air in New Delhi can shorten life expectancy by more than nine years.
A new study by NASA will look at how particulate matter in air pollution affects human health.
Links Between Fossil Fuel Companies and Police Groups
By Siona Ahuja ’24
Staff Writer
A new wave of investigations by the watchdog network LittleSis has revealed that major fossil fuel corporations are responsible for funding police groups in several cities. Corporate giants like Chevron and Exelon are official sponsors for police foundations — entities that provide grants to local police departments and innovate policing through new technology. The funds provided add to the 20-45 percent of municipal discretionary funding that already exists, ranging from $160 million to $5 billion annually.
Chevron is a corporate sponsor for the New Orleans Police Department and also has a position on the board of the Houston Police Foundation. The energy provider Exelon is a notable backer of police foundations in Baltimore, Chicago and Washington.
Wall Street firms that are the top financiers of fossil fuels are also inextricably linked to police foundations. JPMorgan, Chase, Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs have all collectively donated millions of dollars to the police.
Since police foundations are nonprofit bodies and the money is raised through galas or benefits, the gargantuan donations they receive often avoid public scrutiny. Reports from the New York Police Foundation state that it raised roughly $5.5 million from its 2019 annual benefit, the deep-pocketed donors including Goldman Sachs and Blackrock, among others.
Companies which thrive only through extraction and exploitation are openly weaponizing the police and garnering their support in order to protect their interests in the face of community opposition and environmentalists. Oil and gas companies are disproportionately located in minority communities, which contributes to environmental racism. These areas are often overly policed with little surveillance, creating a dangerous intersection of environmental destruction and racism.
Demographically, Black, brown and low income communities are disproportionately exposed to toxic wastes and pollutants released by petrochemical facilities, smelters, refineries and waste incinerators. Fatemeh Shafiei, director of Environmental Studies at Spelman College, has found evidence to confirm the adverse effects of living in proximity to such facilities.
Joanne Kilgour, director of the Pennsylvania Chapter of the Sierra Club, told Pittsburgh’s radio station WESA that drilling for oil is primarily done in low-income neighborhoods because residents cannot afford the legal counsel paramount to combating drilling plans. Kilgour also called these neighborhoods the “front lines” of environmental justice.
For the smooth operation of their industries and to eliminate opponents, oil and gas companies have joined hands in support of conservative legislation that seeks to criminalize pipeline protests. Since 2017, several bills have been put forward in at least 18 U.S. states. Texas, the largest oil producing state (4,637,000 barrels produced every day), recently passed a pipeline protest law that came into effect on Sept. 1, 2019. According to this, an activist having “intent to damage or destroy” a pipeline facility or even trespass a “critical infrastructure” can face a third-degree felony charge, equivalent to that of attempted murder. Similarly, any organization having similar intentions is liable to be fined up to $500,000.
Enraged activists are pushing for action plans to stop this environmental racism as individuals and in groups. They believe that, to change this situation, a change in white supremacacist ideals in both policing and pollution is required. “The road to solving the climate crisis includes addressing connected predatory systems,” Tamara Toles O’Laughlin, the North America director of the collective 350.org, told the Guardian. Stop The Money Pipeline, a collective of over 130 climate, Indigenous and social justice organizations was launched in January 2020. Their recent campaigns target Wall Street and the fossil fuel corporate giants backed by them, and their demands ring of only one message: to halt investment in climate destruction and racial injustice.
Environmental Inequality and COVID-19
by Abby Wester ‘22
When COVID-19 emerged earlier this year, the virus seemed to equally affect people, no matter their life circumstances. Everyday people, celebrities, professional athletes and world leaders alike have all been diagnosed with the virus. However, the past few weeks have proven that to be untrue. Instead, the effects of the pandemic have highlighted societal inequality, specifically in the United States. One form of inequality tied to the effects of COVID-19 is environmental conditions.
A study published by Harvard University on April 5 concluded that “a small increase in long-term exposure to PM2.5 [particulate matter] leads to a large increase in COVID-19 death rate.” PM2.5 is fine, organic or inorganic particles found in the air, some of which can be caused by pollution (such as burning fossil fuels) and are harmful to human health. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), long-term exposure to air polluted with PM2.5 can result in respiratory and heart problems. As COVID-19 is a viral respiratory illness, there is a link between long-term exposure to PM2.5 and increased death rates of COVID-19.
“[We] have known for quite some time (early 2000s) that there is a correlation between air pollution exposure and increased severity (morbidity) and death rates (mortality) of viral respiratory infections,” says Professor Jennifer Albertine, visiting lecturer in environmental studies at Mount Holyoke. Professor Albertine teaches courses relating to the environment and human health. She wrote her dissertation on the intersection between climate change, air pollution, plant biology and human health.
“We find the highest levels of environmental pollution in our poorest communities. A majority of which are also communities of color. We also see the lowest access to health care in these communities as their minimum wage jobs do not provide health insurance and the access to doctors is reduced due to financial access.” Professor Albertine explains. The inequity in the placement of pollution creates a detrimental compounding effect on the lives of poorer communities and communities of color. This makes the pandemic not only a health crisis, but an economic crisis as well.
However, Professor Albertine explains that the racial and economic inequities of the coronavirus pandemic do not stop at those individuals. “[It] is these same communities that grow our food, stock our grocery shelves, work in our factories and essentially make our economic system go and so we are looking at reduced access to the goods and a huge impact on our economy. Thus even the richest are affected by this inequity.”
In the conclusion of the Harvard University study, the authors said “[the] study results underscore the importance of continuing to enforce existing air pollution regulations to protect human health both during and after the COVID-19 crisis.”
Professor Albertine says that regulations alone are not the only solution. “We need to stop putting profit over people. Capitalism needs to be put in check. And we need equitable access to health care for all. This pandemic has shined a light on these inequities and showed us that we can’t continue this way.”