Sacred Water, New Mine: Michigan Tribe Battles Corp.
Head in any direction on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and you will reach gushing rivers, placid ponds and lakes “ both Great and small. An abundant resource, this water has nourished a small Native American community for hundreds of years. So 10 years ago, when an international mining company arrived near the shores of Lake Superior to burrow a mile… Read More
No Beba El Agua: Don’t Drink the Water
Jessica Sanchez sits on the edge of her seat in her mother’s kitchen, hands resting on her bulging belly. Eight months pregnant, she’s excited about the imminent birth of her son. But she’s scared too. A few feet away, her mother, Bertha Dias, scrubs potatoes with water she bought from a vending machine. She won’t use the tap water because … Read More
UN Calls for New Way to Measure Sustainable Wealth
It makes little sense to talk about growth if it’s not sustainable. That’s why the United Nations called for a new index at the Rio+20 Summit that seeks to change the way prosperity is measured.… Read More
Stress + Pollution = Health Risks for Low-Income Kids
When doctors told Wanda Ford her 2-year-old son had lead poisoning, she never suspected that the back yard in her low-income neighborhood was the likely culprit. Ford knew that exposure to the heavy metal could be dangerous. So when she and her husband moved into the Lower Lincoln Street neighborhood, Ford, then pregnant, took steps to make sure … Read More
Teen’s Call: ‘We, the Next Generation, Demand Change’
Brittany Trilford is a 17-year-old New Zealander. She recently won the Date With History competition to address world leaders at the Rio+20 Earth Summit. The following is the transcript from that address Wednesday. Or simply watch the video. Tena Koutou from New Zealand. My name is Brittany Trilford. I am seventeen years old, a child. Today … Read More
‘We are Richmond:’ A Diverse Community Fights Pollution
“Sa Bai Dee, begins the small, white-haired man in the lime-green T-shirt, speaking in his native dialect, Khmu. “Good evening, Madame Mayor and members of the city council, translates the younger man in a matching green shirt, “I am Lipo Chanasack. I live here in Richmond. Through his translator, Chanasack urges the seven members of… Read More
Low-Income Area Copes with Oil Refineries, Toxic Waste
From the house where he was born, Henry Clark can stand in his back yard and see plumes pouring out of one of the biggest oil refineries in the United States. As a child, he was fascinated by the factory on the hill, all lit up at night like the hellish twin of a fairy tale city. In the morning, he'd go out to play and find the leaves on the trees … Read More
Rio+20’s Search for Green Solutions Laden by Divisions
Twenty years after trying and failing to halt humanity's destruction of our planet, the governments of the world will gather again in Rio this month for a "once-in-a-generation" Earth Summit that will open with great fanfare but low expectations of success. With a new United Nations study warning that the deterioration of the environment is accele… Read More
