Cookies help us run our site more efficiently.

By clicking “Accept”, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts. View our Privacy Policy for more information or to customize your cookie preferences.

‘It’s all we have’: young climate activists on the state of politics around the world

News Feed
Sunday, June 2, 2024

This year elections are taking place across the globe, covering almost half of the population. It is also likely to be, yet again, the hottest year recorded as the climate crisis intensifies. The Guardian asked young climate activists around the world what they want from the elections and whether politics is working in the fight to halt global heating.Adélaïde Charlier, 23, BelgiumElection dates: 3 June to 9 JuneAdélaïde Charlier. Photograph: Olivier Hoslet/EPA“We’re scared, because we have worked really hard for the past five years as a movement to [focus attention on] the climate emergency,” says Adélaïde Charlier. The European Union elections are anticipated to see the parliament swing sharply towards rightwing parties that oppose climate action.She says the EU’s green policies, some of which have already been blocked or weakened, are a scapegoat for the wider social change she sees as necessary to beat the climate crisis, but which are opposed by conservative groups. “We are questioning the norm and so I believe that this is a reaction to our vision, rather than to what [the policies] actually mean in our daily life.”The EU is often cited as a world leader on climate action. “I really believe there are [EU] politicians who want to fight to be ambitious. But the reality is that we are failing on our 2030 emissions target and still have companies, such as TotalEnergies, who are creating huge fossil fuel projects across the world.”Political inertia is seen as the biggest barrier to climate action and must be overcome, says Charlier, a political and social science graduate now at the College of Europe in Bruges. “Throughout my activism, I have seen politics not working to face the climate emergency. But the definition of politics is to organise ourselves as a society and I still believe that reinforcing democracy is the best way for us to solve this problem together.”She says halting global heating is not a challenge of technology. “Climate change has to be solved through systemic change – we have to change everything. Can we do this on the political level? We simply have to.”“We are trying to take the role of engaged citizens and right now we are really trying to mobilise young people to go and vote, while knowing that it isn’t enough. We will go and vote and actively hope for the best. But for the rest, we will fight for it. The climate movement started with the right to protest and we will continue to use it, because it’s in our DNA.”Adriana Calderón, 21, MexicoElection date: 2 JuneIn the Mexico election, the candidates’ campaign materials alone are a signal of how seriously they are taking the environment, says 21-year-old youth climate activist Adriana Calderón.The country is littered with them, hanging from lampposts, bridges and telephone wires. One NGO estimates that, by the end of the election cycle, 25,000 tonnes of “electoral garbage” will have been discarded in Mexico City alone. All made of plastic. “We can know from there how it’s going to go,” Calderón tells the Guardian.Mexico’s nearly 100 million voters go to the polls on 2 June, in mass elections with thousands of seats at play. Seats in local, regional and state governments and the country’s national congress are all up for grabs, as well as the presidency itself.Adriana Calderón (right) embraces fellow climate activists during a protest at Cop28. Photograph: Peter Dejong/APIn the lead to replace Andrés Manuel López Obrador is Claudia Sheinbaum, his anointed successor. Much of his popularity was built on social projects funded by oil and gas exploitation. Environmentalists expect more of the same from Sheinbaum – ironically a former Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) scientist.“She’s going to try to stay on the same track as her current party, which is keep relying on Pemex [Mexico’s state-owned petroleum company],” says Calderón. “They also want to explore lithium expansion with her through Pemex also, because lithium was nationalised in Mexico last year.”As the Guardian speaks to Calderón, from her home in Morelos, just south of Mexico City, she is sweltering in the region’s third heatwave of the year. Much of the country is gripped by water shortages. Last year, the west coast, a popular holiday destination, was battered by Hurricane Otis, the first category five storm ever to hit the country.Other candidates, such as the second-placed Xóchitl Gálvez, have spoken more extensively on the environment, referring to increasing private investment in the energy transition and reversing state exploitation of oil and gas.A third candidate, Jorge Álvarez Máynez, has made more environmental promises but seems unlikely to win.That leaves Mexico’s green voters stuck between a rock and a hard place. Calderón says. “I’m still debating with my friends about this and with my colleagues on the climate sphere, because, you know, it’s either going back to the old party which has some very bad things for the country or is it staying with the current government that is not helping climate at all?Lauren MacDonald, 23, UKElection date: 4 July“We desperately need a change to a government that is actually ready to take urgent action to tackle the climate crisis,” says Lauren MacDonald, a campaigner with Uplift. “Currently, we have a [Conservative] government completely hell bent on expanding oil and gas production in the North Sea, despite the absolutely catastrophic impacts burning this oil would have on our planet.”She says ministers have failed to sufficiently drive up the home insulation and renewable energy that would cut both energy bills and carbon emissions: “Instead, they are making matters worse by handing out billions of pounds in tax breaks to [oil companies].”A critical issue is ensuring that workers currently in the fossil fuel industry can move to clean energy jobs, a so-called just transition, as seen in Germany and Spain, says MacDonald. She is from Scotland, the centre of the UK oil and gas industry.The climate justice campaigner Lauren MacDonald. Photograph: Linda Nylind/The Guardian“Those workers and unions are right to be asking the big questions,” she says. “I think people are ready for a transition that puts workers and communities before the profit-driven energy giants.”The opposition Labour party has a huge lead in opinion polls ahead of the general election and has pledged to end new oil and gas exploration. “Labour is talking a good talk, but we’ll be looking very keenly at how that will be implemented,” says MacDonald. “There will still be a huge role for the climate movement to play.”She sees no alternative to political action to halt global heating. “The UK political system is not exactly inspirational, but governments need to tackle the climate crisis, because we can’t trust the oil and gas companies. Who else is going to do it?”But, she says, “whatever happens at the election, climate is not an issue that’s going to be solved overnight. It is going to take every facet of society doing everything that we can to actually implement change.”skip past newsletter promotionThe planet's most important stories. Get all the week's environment news - the good, the bad and the essentialPrivacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.after newsletter promotionAlexia Leclercq, 24, USElection date: 5 NovemberAlexia Leclercq“To be quite honest, I don’t know what to do in the election,” says environmental activist Alexia Leclercq.“On the one hand, we know the Biden administration has had significantly better environmental policies, with real-life consequences on our communities,” she says. “For example, under the Trump administration, policy rollbacks had a huge impact on frontline communities trying to fight petrochemical industries that cause a lot of severe health issues, especially in the South.“But I think on the other hand, with the genocide going on in Palestine, a lot of folks that are in the climate movement don’t feel morally OK to vote for Biden. It’s definitely challenging.”Leclercq says no climate activists want another term for Trump, who withdrew the US from the global UN climate agreement, but she says Biden’s term has had flaws: “Biden campaigned on ending the lease of federal lands for oil drilling but his track record is having given out more permits than Trump.”She says the presidential election really matters for her home state of Texas, which is simultaneously the heart of the US oil and gas industry, severely affected by worsening heatwaves and floods, and also a major renewable energy state.“The environmental impacts are severe, especially on communities of colour, but the state government isn’t going to be progressive for the foreseeable future – the petrochemical industry has such a strong stronghold on our state,” she says. “So federal environmental policies are extremely important – it’s basically the only thing we have.”Leclercq says lobbying and corporate donations dominate the US political system: “We have a so-called democracy but the biggest influence on our government is industry. People are making billions of dollars from the status quo and keep intending to do so.”“We’re trying our best to build people power and put on pressure, and I think that’s all that we can do at the moment,” she says. But she sees some hopeful signs: “Everywhere I go, I see a growing concern for climate, including Republican-voting farm owners, people you don’t think stereotypically care about climate. They’re seeing the impacts of the climate crisis on their livelihood on their ranch.”Disha Ravi, 25, IndiaElection dates: 19 April to 1 JuneDisha Ravi. Photograph: Jyothy Karat/The GuardianWith 970 million eligible voters and an election season spanning months, India liked to style its elections as the world’s biggest exercise in democracy. But this year there was another complicating factor. The stifling heat.Politicians have collapsed on stage. News anchors have blacked out live on air. With turnout down across the country, politicians have called on officials to open polling stations at 6am so voters can avoid temperatures reaching, in some parts, 47C.“Despite all of this, I don’t think climate change has been an issue that the contesting political parties have been rallying about,” says Disha Ravi, a 25-year-old Fridays For Future activist from Bangalore.This year, most parties’ manifestoes at least mention climate breakdown. “So that is a huge change,” says Ravi. “But it’s not something that’s being spoken about. It’s not a voting issue as of yet.”The governing BJP party of prime minister Narendra Modi was the frontrunner, and appears, according to exit polls, to have won a commanding majority. They have “made a lot of promises”, says Ravi, including net zero by 2070 and a beefed-up clean air programme.But their record is less positive. New coal mines, deforestation projects and environmentally destructive infrastructure plans have fuelled a boom India has enjoyed under their rule – the benefits of which has overwhelmingly accrued to the ultra-wealthy. And despite big talk on the environment, their manifesto was light on concrete measures.“They have no mention of coal in the whole text,” says Ravi. India relies on coal for 45% of its power, according to the IEA.Other parties, including Congress, formerly India’s longtime party of government, made bolder pledges. “And they’ve also most importantly, addressed the fact that there have been landslides happening and there has been ice melting in the Himalayas,” says Ravi. “Congress importantly and CPI, they both mention that the deregulated environmental norms, especially the forest rights that have been deregulated by the BJP, are going to be undone.” But with only an outside chance of victory, such pledges are worthless.The BJP’s big idea, meanwhile, is “Life”. “L-I-F-E, which expands to lifestyle for environment,” is a plan to centre individual Indians’ personal responsibility for climate, says Ravi. “And I think that’s putting the onus on people whose per capita emission is so much, so incredibly marginal.”If the exit polls are correct, Modi will have won by a large margin which fills Ravi with despair.“I don’t think we can handle another year of living like this.”

With elections affecting half the world’s population this year, campaigners offer their view on the chances of real changeThis year elections are taking place across the globe, covering almost half of the population. It is also likely to be, yet again, the hottest year recorded as the climate crisis intensifies. The Guardian asked young climate activists around the world what they want from the elections and whether politics is working in the fight to halt global heating. Continue reading...

This year elections are taking place across the globe, covering almost half of the population. It is also likely to be, yet again, the hottest year recorded as the climate crisis intensifies. The Guardian asked young climate activists around the world what they want from the elections and whether politics is working in the fight to halt global heating.

Adélaïde Charlier, 23, Belgium

Election dates: 3 June to 9 June

Adélaïde Charlier. Photograph: Olivier Hoslet/EPA

“We’re scared, because we have worked really hard for the past five years as a movement to [focus attention on] the climate emergency,” says Adélaïde Charlier. The European Union elections are anticipated to see the parliament swing sharply towards rightwing parties that oppose climate action.

She says the EU’s green policies, some of which have already been blocked or weakened, are a scapegoat for the wider social change she sees as necessary to beat the climate crisis, but which are opposed by conservative groups. “We are questioning the norm and so I believe that this is a reaction to our vision, rather than to what [the policies] actually mean in our daily life.”

The EU is often cited as a world leader on climate action. “I really believe there are [EU] politicians who want to fight to be ambitious. But the reality is that we are failing on our 2030 emissions target and still have companies, such as TotalEnergies, who are creating huge fossil fuel projects across the world.”

Political inertia is seen as the biggest barrier to climate action and must be overcome, says Charlier, a political and social science graduate now at the College of Europe in Bruges. “Throughout my activism, I have seen politics not working to face the climate emergency. But the definition of politics is to organise ourselves as a society and I still believe that reinforcing democracy is the best way for us to solve this problem together.”

She says halting global heating is not a challenge of technology. “Climate change has to be solved through systemic change – we have to change everything. Can we do this on the political level? We simply have to.”

“We are trying to take the role of engaged citizens and right now we are really trying to mobilise young people to go and vote, while knowing that it isn’t enough. We will go and vote and actively hope for the best. But for the rest, we will fight for it. The climate movement started with the right to protest and we will continue to use it, because it’s in our DNA.”

Adriana Calderón, 21, Mexico

Election date: 2 June

In the Mexico election, the candidates’ campaign materials alone are a signal of how seriously they are taking the environment, says 21-year-old youth climate activist Adriana Calderón.

The country is littered with them, hanging from lampposts, bridges and telephone wires. One NGO estimates that, by the end of the election cycle, 25,000 tonnes of “electoral garbage” will have been discarded in Mexico City alone. All made of plastic. “We can know from there how it’s going to go,” Calderón tells the Guardian.

Mexico’s nearly 100 million voters go to the polls on 2 June, in mass elections with thousands of seats at play. Seats in local, regional and state governments and the country’s national congress are all up for grabs, as well as the presidency itself.

Adriana Calderón (right) embraces fellow climate activists during a protest at Cop28. Photograph: Peter Dejong/AP

In the lead to replace Andrés Manuel López Obrador is Claudia Sheinbaum, his anointed successor. Much of his popularity was built on social projects funded by oil and gas exploitation. Environmentalists expect more of the same from Sheinbaum – ironically a former Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) scientist.

“She’s going to try to stay on the same track as her current party, which is keep relying on Pemex [Mexico’s state-owned petroleum company],” says Calderón. “They also want to explore lithium expansion with her through Pemex also, because lithium was nationalised in Mexico last year.”

As the Guardian speaks to Calderón, from her home in Morelos, just south of Mexico City, she is sweltering in the region’s third heatwave of the year. Much of the country is gripped by water shortages. Last year, the west coast, a popular holiday destination, was battered by Hurricane Otis, the first category five storm ever to hit the country.

Other candidates, such as the second-placed Xóchitl Gálvez, have spoken more extensively on the environment, referring to increasing private investment in the energy transition and reversing state exploitation of oil and gas.

A third candidate, Jorge Álvarez Máynez, has made more environmental promises but seems unlikely to win.

That leaves Mexico’s green voters stuck between a rock and a hard place. Calderón says. “I’m still debating with my friends about this and with my colleagues on the climate sphere, because, you know, it’s either going back to the old party which has some very bad things for the country or is it staying with the current government that is not helping climate at all?

Lauren MacDonald, 23, UK

Election date: 4 July

“We desperately need a change to a government that is actually ready to take urgent action to tackle the climate crisis,” says Lauren MacDonald, a campaigner with Uplift. “Currently, we have a [Conservative] government completely hell bent on expanding oil and gas production in the North Sea, despite the absolutely catastrophic impacts burning this oil would have on our planet.”

She says ministers have failed to sufficiently drive up the home insulation and renewable energy that would cut both energy bills and carbon emissions: “Instead, they are making matters worse by handing out billions of pounds in tax breaks to [oil companies].”

A critical issue is ensuring that workers currently in the fossil fuel industry can move to clean energy jobs, a so-called just transition, as seen in Germany and Spain, says MacDonald. She is from Scotland, the centre of the UK oil and gas industry.

The climate justice campaigner Lauren MacDonald. Photograph: Linda Nylind/The Guardian

“Those workers and unions are right to be asking the big questions,” she says. “I think people are ready for a transition that puts workers and communities before the profit-driven energy giants.”

The opposition Labour party has a huge lead in opinion polls ahead of the general election and has pledged to end new oil and gas exploration. “Labour is talking a good talk, but we’ll be looking very keenly at how that will be implemented,” says MacDonald. “There will still be a huge role for the climate movement to play.”

She sees no alternative to political action to halt global heating. “The UK political system is not exactly inspirational, but governments need to tackle the climate crisis, because we can’t trust the oil and gas companies. Who else is going to do it?”

But, she says, “whatever happens at the election, climate is not an issue that’s going to be solved overnight. It is going to take every facet of society doing everything that we can to actually implement change.”

skip past newsletter promotion

after newsletter promotion

Alexia Leclercq, 24, US

Election date: 5 November

Alexia Leclercq

“To be quite honest, I don’t know what to do in the election,” says environmental activist Alexia Leclercq.

“On the one hand, we know the Biden administration has had significantly better environmental policies, with real-life consequences on our communities,” she says. “For example, under the Trump administration, policy rollbacks had a huge impact on frontline communities trying to fight petrochemical industries that cause a lot of severe health issues, especially in the South.

“But I think on the other hand, with the genocide going on in Palestine, a lot of folks that are in the climate movement don’t feel morally OK to vote for Biden. It’s definitely challenging.”

Leclercq says no climate activists want another term for Trump, who withdrew the US from the global UN climate agreement, but she says Biden’s term has had flaws: “Biden campaigned on ending the lease of federal lands for oil drilling but his track record is having given out more permits than Trump.”

She says the presidential election really matters for her home state of Texas, which is simultaneously the heart of the US oil and gas industry, severely affected by worsening heatwaves and floods, and also a major renewable energy state.

“The environmental impacts are severe, especially on communities of colour, but the state government isn’t going to be progressive for the foreseeable future – the petrochemical industry has such a strong stronghold on our state,” she says. “So federal environmental policies are extremely important – it’s basically the only thing we have.”

Leclercq says lobbying and corporate donations dominate the US political system: “We have a so-called democracy but the biggest influence on our government is industry. People are making billions of dollars from the status quo and keep intending to do so.”

“We’re trying our best to build people power and put on pressure, and I think that’s all that we can do at the moment,” she says. But she sees some hopeful signs: “Everywhere I go, I see a growing concern for climate, including Republican-voting farm owners, people you don’t think stereotypically care about climate. They’re seeing the impacts of the climate crisis on their livelihood on their ranch.”

Disha Ravi, 25, India

Election dates: 19 April to 1 June

Disha Ravi. Photograph: Jyothy Karat/The Guardian

With 970 million eligible voters and an election season spanning months, India liked to style its elections as the world’s biggest exercise in democracy. But this year there was another complicating factor. The stifling heat.

Politicians have collapsed on stage. News anchors have blacked out live on air. With turnout down across the country, politicians have called on officials to open polling stations at 6am so voters can avoid temperatures reaching, in some parts, 47C.

“Despite all of this, I don’t think climate change has been an issue that the contesting political parties have been rallying about,” says Disha Ravi, a 25-year-old Fridays For Future activist from Bangalore.

This year, most parties’ manifestoes at least mention climate breakdown. “So that is a huge change,” says Ravi. “But it’s not something that’s being spoken about. It’s not a voting issue as of yet.”

The governing BJP party of prime minister Narendra Modi was the frontrunner, and appears, according to exit polls, to have won a commanding majority. They have “made a lot of promises”, says Ravi, including net zero by 2070 and a beefed-up clean air programme.

But their record is less positive. New coal mines, deforestation projects and environmentally destructive infrastructure plans have fuelled a boom India has enjoyed under their rule – the benefits of which has overwhelmingly accrued to the ultra-wealthy. And despite big talk on the environment, their manifesto was light on concrete measures.

“They have no mention of coal in the whole text,” says Ravi. India relies on coal for 45% of its power, according to the IEA.

Other parties, including Congress, formerly India’s longtime party of government, made bolder pledges. “And they’ve also most importantly, addressed the fact that there have been landslides happening and there has been ice melting in the Himalayas,” says Ravi. “Congress importantly and CPI, they both mention that the deregulated environmental norms, especially the forest rights that have been deregulated by the BJP, are going to be undone.” But with only an outside chance of victory, such pledges are worthless.

The BJP’s big idea, meanwhile, is “Life”. “L-I-F-E, which expands to lifestyle for environment,” is a plan to centre individual Indians’ personal responsibility for climate, says Ravi. “And I think that’s putting the onus on people whose per capita emission is so much, so incredibly marginal.”

If the exit polls are correct, Modi will have won by a large margin which fills Ravi with despair.

“I don’t think we can handle another year of living like this.”

Read the full story here.
Photos courtesy of

Tribes Celebrate the End of the Largest Dam Removal Project in US History

The largest dam removal project in U.S. history has been completed near the California-Oregon border

The largest dam removal project in U.S. history was completed Wednesday, marking a major victory for tribes in the region who fought for decades to free hundreds of miles of the Klamath River near the California-Oregon border.Through protests, testimony and lawsuits, local tribes showcased the environmental devastation due to the four towering hydroelectric dams, especially to salmon, which are culturally and spiritually significant to tribes in the region.“Without that visioning and that advocacy and activism and the airplane miles that they racked up … to point out the damage that these dams were doing, not only to the environment, but to the social and cultural fabric of these tribal nations, there would be no dam removal,” said Mark Bransom, chief executive of the Klamath River Renewal Corporation, the nonprofit entity created to oversee the project.Power company PacifiCorp built the dams to generate electricity between 1918 and 1962. But the structures halted the natural flow of the waterway that was once known as the third-largest salmon-producing river on the West Coast, disrupting the lifecycle of the region’s salmon. At the same time, the dams only produced a fraction of PacifiCorp’s energy at full capacity — enough to power about 70,000 homes. They also didn’t provide irrigation, drinking water or flood control, according to Klamath River Renewal Corporation.Since breaching the dams, anadromous fish regained access to their habitat, water temperature decreased and its quality improved, explained Michael Belchik, senior water policy analyst for the Yurok Tribe.But tribal advocates and activists see their work as far from finished, with some already refocusing their efforts on revegetation and other restoration work on the Klamath River and the surrounding land.Here’s a look at just a few of the many tribal members at the center of this struggle for dam removal:When Karuk tribal member Molli Myers took her first major step into the fight for Klamath dam removal, she was six months pregnant, had a toddler in tow and was in a foreign country for the first time. It was 2004 and she had organized a group of about 25 tribal members to fly to Scotland for the annual general stockholders meeting for Scottish Power, PacifiCorp’s parent company at the time.For hours, they protested outside with signs, sang and played drums. They cooked fish on Calton Hill over a fire of scotch barrels and gave it out to locals as they explained why they were there.“I really felt an urgency because I was having babies,” said Myers, who was born and raised in the middle Klamath in a traditional fishing family. “And so for me I was internalizing the responsibility to take care of their future.”The initial trigger for her to act came two years before that when she saw some of the tens of thousands of salmon die in the river from a bacterial outbreak caused by low water and warm temperatures.“Looking back on it now I wonder where would we be if that hadn’t happened," said Myers, 41. "Looking back on it now I can say, ‘Was this our creator’s call to action?’”She spent the next two decades protesting and flooding state and federal meetings with tribal testimony, including waiting with other tribal members at the doors of a Berkshire Hathaway shareholder meeting at 4 a.m. in 2007 to ask Warren Buffett what he was going to do about the dams. PacifiCorp was at that point part of Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. conglomerate.Today, those same children with her in Scotland are 21 and 19, and with the dams gone Myers said she sees the hope they and her other three children have about the future.“They can do whatever needs to get done because they saw it happen, they lived it, so now there’s no impossible for them," she said.For Yurok elder Jacqueline Winter, her feelings on the newly free-flowing river are more complicated. The 89-year-old’s son, Troy Fletcher, was the tribe’s point person for dam removal for two decades, testifying in front of the U.S. Congress and presenting to state and federal regulatory committees. But his true power came through his ability to bring people with radically conflicting viewpoints — from farmers to commercial fishers to tribal members — together. Winter said that came from his belief that everyone living along the river are relatives and deserve to be heard. “We’re all family. None of us can be left hurting and all of us have to give a little,” she said was his message.But at 53, the former executive director for the Yurok Tribe died unexpectedly from a heart attack, nearly a decade before that vision of a free-flowing river would finally be realized. Winter said when she saw the dams breached last month, it felt like his spirit was there through those he touched and she could finally let him go.“His vision became reality and I think he never doubted it,” she said. “He never doubted it. And those who worked closely with him never doubted it.”Former Klamath Tribes Chairman Jeff Mitchell’s work since the 1970s for dam removal came out of the belief that the salmon are their relatives.“They were gifted to us by our creator and given to us to preserve and to protect and also to help give us life,” said Mitchell, chair of the tribe’s Culture and Heritage Committee. “As such, the creator also instructed us to make sure that we do everything in our power to protect those fish.”The Klamath River’s headwaters lie on the tribe’s homelands in Oregon, and members once depended on salmon for 25% of their food. But for more than a century their waters have not held any salmon, he said.Mitchell and other tribal members’ fight to bring them back has cycled through several forms. There were the years of protesting, even gathering carcasses of fish after the 2002 fish kill and leaving them on the doorsteps of federal office buildings. There were his days of walking the halls of the state Legislature in Salem, Oregon, meeting with lawmakers about the millions in funding needed to make dam removal happen. Today, he said he feels like they achieved the impossible, but there’s still more work to do.“I’m happy that the dams are gone and we have passage,” he said. “But now I’m thinking about what are those fish coming home to? And that’s really the focus now, is how do we get the parties to start taking restoration actions and making that the top priority in all of this?”Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Photos You Should See - Sept. 2024

Newsom and state court judge throw wet blanket on Inland Empire warehouse boom

A judge tosses San Bernardino County's approval of a warehouse complex and Gov. Gavin Newsom reins in warehouse development with a new law.

In summary A judge tosses San Bernardino County’s approval of a warehouse complex and Gov. Gavin Newsom reins in warehouse development with a new law. It’s been a rough couple weeks for warehouse developers in the Inland Empire. Two weeks ago a San Bernardino Superior Court overturned the county’s approval of a massive warehouse complex on more than 2 million acres in the community of Bloomington. Then on Sunday Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill that reins in warehouse development statewide by tightening building standards and restricting diesel truck routes in neighborhoods.  The new law is likely to have a big impact in the Inland Empire, which already includes 4,000 warehouses that sprawl over nearly 40 square miles. Those facilities bring jobs, but also air pollution, noise and traffic. Environmental activists applauded the court case reversing the Bloomington warehouse approval. Developers of the Bloomington warehouse complex proposed building three new distribution centers, including a cavernous facility of more than a million square feet. Their plan involved buying and demolishing more than 100 homes. A coalition of nonprofits sued San Bernardino County and the developer in 2022, saying officials missed the mark on environmental standards. On Sept. 17 Superior Court Judge Donald Alvarez agreed. He overturned the project approval and its environmental impact report, ruling that it failed to offer reasonable alternatives or properly analyze impacts on air quality, noise, energy and greenhouse gas emissions. “We are very happy that the judge has looked at all the evidence and agreed” the environmental review was inadequate, said Alondra Mateo, a community organizer with the San Bernardino-based People’s Collective for Environmental Justice, which sued to stop the project. The demolition of homes that carved away a swath of the community goes beyond typical development concerns, Mateo said: “It’s not just an environmental impact; it’s a cultural impact, it’s a mental health impact.”  Then on Sunday Newsom approved the warehouse law authored by Inland Empire Democratic Assemblymembers Eloise Gómez Reyes and Juan Carillo. The law passed in the final hours of the legislative session in August, provoking criticism from all sides. While advocates for the logistics industry panned the law as a job-killer, community groups say its public health protections aren’t strict enough. Paul Granillo, president and CEO of the Inland Empire Economic Partnership, described the law as bad policy “created in a smoke-filled room without experts.” He predicted it will hurt jobs in  the Inland Empire and other parts of Southern California. Environmental groups weren’t any happier. The law requires warehouse loading docks be set back 300 to 500 feet from to sensitive sites, including homes, schools and playgrounds. That’s not enough of a buffer to protect nearby residents, Mateo said, arguing that the ideal distance should be about one kilometer, which is more than 3,280 feet. Reyes has said the law offers a starting point that local governments can expand on to protect public health. Mateo maintained it gives developers an out, enabling them to comply with the letter of the law by meeting minimum limits. Lawmakers acknowledged the law will require amendments. The critics are ready to go. Industry groups say they’ll press for more flexible rules, while environmental groups want stricter ones. “If anything we’re going to push even harder,” Mateo said.

Who Are the 2024 MacArthur ‘Genius Grant’ Fellows?

The John D

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation announced Tuesday its 2024 class of fellows, often known as recipients of the “genius grant."The 22 fellows will each receive a grant of $800,000 over five years to spend however they want. They were selected from nominations in a yearslong process that solicits input from their communities and peers. Fellows do not apply and are never officially informed that they’ve been nominated unless they are selected for the award.The interdisciplinary award seeks to “enable” people with a track record and the potential to produce additional extraordinary work, said Marlies Carruth, director of the MacArthur Fellows Program.Loka Ashwood, 39, Lexington, Kentucky, a sociologist at the University of Kentucky who studies how environmental issues, corporations and state policy intersect to harm rural communities and reduce their trust in democracy.Ruha Benjamin, 46, Princeton, New Jersey, a transdisciplinary scholar and writer at Princeton University who studies how new technologies and medical research often reinforce social and racial inequality and bias.Justin Vivian Bond, 61, New York, an artist and performer who, in their long career as cabaret singer, has stood up for civil rights, offered solace and humor to members of the gay community and inspired other transgender artists.Jericho Brown, 48, Atlanta, a poet at Emory University whose lyrical work explores contemporary culture in part through vulnerable self-reflection and experimentation in form.Tony Cokes, 68, Providence, Rhode Island, a media artist at Brown University whose video works often use text and fragments from contemporary culture to communicate social critique, including of police violence and torture.Nicola Dell, 42, New York, a computer and information scientist at Cornell Tech, who has studied how technology can be used for intimate partner abuse and has developed tools and programs to help survivors of such abuse. Johnny Gandelsman, 46, New Paltz, New York, a violinist and producer who has revisited classical works using different styles and techniques while also elevating the work of contemporary composers. Sterlin Harjo, 44, Tulsa, Oklahoma, a filmmaker whose work, including the television series “Reservation Dogs” that he co-created, is grounded in the daily lives of Native American communities.Juan Felipe Herrera, 75, Fresno, California, a poet, educator and writer dedicated to expressing the shared experiences of the Mexican-American community through often bilingual work that crosses genres and draws on both contemporary events and the cultures of pre-colonial societies. Ling Ma, 41, Chicago, a fiction writer whose often surreal or speculative stories build from and shed light on contemporary experiences of alienation, immigration and materialism. Jennifer L. Morgan, 58, New York, a historian at New York University whose work focuses on enslaved African women, revealing how the wealth of slaveowners and the growth of the economy was built on their exploitation and reproductive labor. Martha Muñoz, 39, New Haven, Connecticut, an evolutionary biologist at Yale University whose research investigates what factors drive the rates and patterns of evolution. Shaikaja Paik, 50, Cincinnati, a historian of modern India at the University of Cincinnati whose work explores caste discrimination and its intersection with gender and sexuality in the lives of Dalit women. Joseph Parker, 44, Pasadena, California, an evolutionary biologist studying rove beetles at the California Institute of Technology and the evolutionary origins of their symbiotic relationship with other species. Ebony G. Patterson, 43, Kingston, Jamaica and Chicago, a multimedia artist who has created intricate, layered, immersive works using a wide range of materials to explore social histories, sometimes juxtaposing vibrant landscapes with objects of mourning. Shamel Pitts, 39, Brooklyn, New York, a dancer and choreographer whose collaborative work with the artist group TRIBE, which he founded, imagines futures free from oppression, especially for members of the African diaspora. Wendy Red Star, 43, Portland, Oregon, a visual artist who draws on archival material to challenge colonial narratives and center the perspective of Native Americans. Jason Reynolds, 40, Washington, D.C., a children's and young adult writer, whose genre-crossing books often reflect the experiences of Black children and who encouraged children to tell their own stories as a former National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature.Dorothy Roberts, 68, Philadelphia, a legal scholar and public policy researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, who researches the racial inequities in child welfare systems and health systems that have denied agency to especially Black women over their bodies. Keivan G. Stassun, 52, Nashville, Tennessee, a science educator and astronomer at Vanderbilt University who has championed the recruitment of science students from diverse backgrounds, including neurodiverse students, in addition to his research on star evolution. Benjamin Van Mooy, 52, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, an oceanographer at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution who studies plankton and the critical role they play in sustaining marine life.Alice Wong, 50 San Francisco, a writer, editor and disability justice activist who founded the Disability Visibility Project in 2014, among other campaigns, to bring attention to the experiences of disabled people and the discrimination and obstacles they face. Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Photos You Should See - Sept. 2024

Mexico's Sheinbaum Takes Office, Making History as First Woman President

By David Alire GarciaMEXICO CITY (Reuters) - When Claudia Sheinbaum takes her oath of office on Tuesday, formally becoming Mexico's first woman...

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - When Claudia Sheinbaum takes her oath of office on Tuesday, formally becoming Mexico's first woman president, she will adopt a new government logo that nods to the aspirations of young girls."A young Mexican woman will be the emblem of Mexico's government," Sheinbaum wrote a day earlier in a post on social media, unveiling the logo showing a young woman in profile hoisting a Mexican flag, her hair pulled back into a ponytail not unlike the incoming president's signature look.Sheinbaum has embraced her historic feat in one of Latin America's more socially conservative countries, which until now has been ruled by a series of 65 men since winning its independence from Spain two centuries ago.The former mayor of the sprawling Mexican capital, Sheinbaum has been bolstered by the popularity of outgoing leftist President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, her political benefactor going back nearly a quarter century.But as the former climate scientist steps out of her predecessor's shadow to lead the world's largest Spanish-speaking nation, Sheinbaum will also face doubts and opposition from critics alarmed by the outgoing president's 11th-hour reform drive.Enacted last month, the reforms included a judicial overhaul that will over the next three years replace all of the country's judges with new jurists elected by popular vote."Our hard-won democracy will be transformed, for all practical purposes, into a one-party autocracy," wrote former President Ernesto Zedillo in a Sunday guest essay for Britain's Economist Magazine.Critics of Lopez Obrador and Sheinbaum fear their ruling Morena party has too much power, and that democratic checks on executive power will be undermined.The judicial overhaul's implementation will fall to Sheinbaum, who will also face a widening government budget deficit that could crimp popular welfare spending and costly crime-fighting initiatives at a time when the economy is only expected to grow modestly.The 62-year-old Sheinbaum promised continuity on the campaign trail, and now faces the balancing act of advancing Lopez Obrador's state-centric economic polices, especially over natural resources such as oil and minerals, while also making progress on issues seen as his weak points like the environment and security.She also makes history as the first president of Jewish heritage in the overwhelmingly Roman Catholic country.Sheinbaum's inauguration caps an unlikely four-decade climb that has taken the daughter of activist academics to the presidential palace.Six years ago, she made history as Mexico City's first elected woman mayor. Until she stepped down last year to run for president, Sheinbaum was known as a data-driven manager, winning plaudits for reducing the megacity's homicide rate by half, by boosting security spending on an expanded police force with higher salaries.She has pledged to replicate the strategy across Mexico, where drug cartels exert widespread influence.Sheinbaum has also promised to continue generous social spending on old-age pensions and youth scholarships, even though the government's 2024 fiscal deficit is estimated at nearly 6% of gross domestic product.While she has expressed interest growing renewable energy projects, she has also said she will ensure the dominance of Mexico's state-owned oil and power companies while opposing any privatizations.In 1995, Sheinbaum earned her doctorate in energy engineering from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, and then pursued an academic career, including a stint on the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which later shared a Nobel Peace Prize with former U.S. Vice President Al Gore.She launched her political career in 2000, when Lopez Obrador, then-Mexico City's newly elected mayor, tapped her to be his environmental chief, tasked with improving the smoggy capital's air quality, highways and public transport.Sheinbaum served as the chief spokesperson for Lopez Obrador's first campaign for president in 2006, which he narrowly lost.In 2015, she was elected to run Mexico City's largest borough, Tlalpan, and became the capital's mayor three years later. That was the same year that Lopez Obrador's third bid for the presidency ended in his own triumph, winning by a margin of more than 17 million votes.Last June, Sheinbaum bested her mentor's margin of victory, polling more than 19 million votes ahead of her closest competitor, who was also a woman.(Reporting by David Alire Garcia; Editing by Christopher Cushing)Copyright 2024 Thomson Reuters.

To Save the Sea review – Brent Spar oil rig resounds with song in a Greenpeace musical

Tron, GlasgowNearly 30 years on, environmental activists’ occupation of the North Sea fuel store gets an ambitious, heartfelt musical treatmentThis time last year, Just Stop Oil protestors interrupted a performance of Les Misérables. They reasoned a musical about rebellion was the right place to protest about the impending climate catastrophe. To Save the Sea is also a musical about resistance, but there is no cause for a skirmish. It makes the environmental point brilliantly enough on its own.Written and directed by Isla Cowan and Andy McGregor for Sleeping Warrior, it is a through-composed tribute to the Greenpeace occupation of the Brent Spar oil store in 1995. In today’s pessimistic age, the action stands as a beacon of climate activism; for all its precariousness and near defeat, it made a difference. Continue reading...

This time last year, Just Stop Oil protestors interrupted a performance of Les Misérables. They reasoned a musical about rebellion was the right place to protest about the impending climate catastrophe. To Save the Sea is also a musical about resistance, but there is no cause for a skirmish. It makes the environmental point brilliantly enough on its own.Written and directed by Isla Cowan and Andy McGregor for Sleeping Warrior, it is a through-composed tribute to the Greenpeace occupation of the Brent Spar oil store in 1995. In today’s pessimistic age, the action stands as a beacon of climate activism; for all its precariousness and near defeat, it made a difference.After Brent Spar had fulfilled its purpose, Shell had intended to dump its toxic remnants in the North Sea. Prime minister John Major was on side. The German chancellor, Helmut Kohl, was not. The Greenpeace occupation captured the imagination of consumers. Shell had the muscle to dispense with the protesters but not the resources to deal with a boycott. The people won out.To Save the Sea. Photograph: Mihaela BodlovicSpotting the potential of this David-and-Goliath conflict, complete with its high-seas drama, Cowan and McGregor field an eight-strong company in a show that bulges with ambition. Where the activists belt out strident musical-theatre anthems with titles such as One Foot in Front of Another and Bring It On, their opponents trade in comic show tunes, the better to send up their roles as villains of the piece. The songs are clear and catchy, giving not only emotional heft to the activists’ commitment but also a sense of jeopardy – not to mention the sting of satire.It would be great to see the show taken up a scale: it calls out for a live band. But as it stands, it is a galvanising ensemble piece. Staged on a rugged gantry designed by Claire Halleran and dramatically lit by Simon Wilkinson, it has heart, humour and political nous.

Suggested Viewing

Join us to forge
a sustainable future

Our team is always growing.
Become a partner, volunteer, sponsor, or intern today.
Let us know how you would like to get involved!

CONTACT US

sign up for our mailing list to stay informed on the latest films and environmental headlines.

Subscribers receive a free day pass for streaming Cinema Verde.
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.