Houston leads major U.S. cities in poverty, with 21.2% of residents—over 500,000 people—living below the federal threshold...
How Communities Are Giving New Life to Polluted Land

This article explores grassroots efforts to revitalize polluted lands across the U.S. by using innovative and community-driven remediation strategies. The Green Era Campus in Chicago, built on a former impound lot, exemplifies urban transformation. Its multi-million-dollar cleanup employed strategies like soil replacement and anaerobic digesters, creating a hub for food waste recycling and sustainable farming. Similarly, in Maine, the Mi’kmaq Nation collaborates on using hemp to address PFAS contamination on a former military base. While phytoremediation like this is cost-effective, it has limitations, especially with "forever chemicals" like PFAS. These initiatives highlight the intersection of environmental justice, community leadership, and innovative remediation, offering scalable solutions for reclaiming contaminated land for public benefit.
After 26 years at EPA, environmental justice pioneer Charles Lee retires and joins Howard University’s Environmental and Climate Justice Center, arguing that despite Trump...
Two decades after Hurricane Katrina, overlooked survivors are reclaiming their narratives through TikTok, challenging long-standing portrayals from 2005.
The Sierra Club fired Executive Director Ben Jealous after no-confidence votes, budget cuts, layoffs, and misconduct concerns. Union leaders welcomed his departure...
U.S. clean hydrogen projects are collapsing amid shortened tax credit deadlines, rising energy costs, and policy shifts, leaving most proposals ineligible and investors...
A coalition of nonprofits, tribes, and local governments filed a class-action lawsuit against the EPA, demanding reinstatement of a $3bn climate justice grant program halted...
The Trump administration’s move to revoke the EPA's authority to regulate greenhouse gases marks a major policy reversal, undermining decades of climate protections...
Ben Jealous was placed on leave by the Sierra Club amid widespread internal dissent over his leadership, with staff citing failed vision, contentious layoffs...
The UN's International Court of Justice declared climate change a human rights issue, advising that nations must act or risk reparations, influencing global litigation...
The Trump administration has targeted over 4,000 federal grants worth up to $8.2 billion for termination across 600+ U.S. colleges, disproportionately affecting public...
The USDA under the Trump administration has eliminated the term “socially disadvantaged” from its policies, ending race- and gender-based support programs for minority farmers...
President Trump's elimination of federal DEI programs has halted essential USDA funding to East Texas Black farmers, further endangering their livelihoods amid decades...
Residents in the Shiloh Community have fought for years to remedy excessive storm water runoff caused by an elevated highway. Now they’re suing.
Amid devastating Texas floods, FEMA’s delayed response raises concerns as President Trump pushes to dismantle the agency, shifting disaster management costs...
The Supreme Court let stand a $14.25 million penalty against ExxonMobil for over 16,000 Clean Air Act violations at its Baytown plant...