Happy Earth Day! Since its inception April 22, 1970, Earth Day has steadily become one of the most celebrated of environmental events, observed by an estimated one billion people. Here’s founder Earth Day Network‘s online bulletin board of people around the world working on environmental projects and a sustainable future. Click here to add your…
Some college kids got together and riffed on the Beverly Hillbillies theme, but set in Mayflower, Arkansas, the scene of a major Exxon oil pipeline spill. Information about the spill has been tightly controlled by Exxon. Enjoy the video, then be sure to submit your public comment to the State Dept before April 22nd! Background…
Two Detroit residents protesting City Council’s vote to approve a $3.3 million contract between the city and the law firm Jones Day were arrested Tuesday. They were part of a group opposed to the contract, which is between the Detroit, currently under the emergency financial management of Kevin Orr, appointed by Michigan Governor Rick Snyder to steer Detroit clear of bankruptcy, and his former law firm Jones Day, where, previous to being named Emergency Financial Manager, he was a partner.
Jones Day also represents Bank of America Merrill Lynch, which owns many of Detroit’s municipal bonds. Protesters decried the blatant conflicts of interest. Emergency Manager Orr has absolute power over contracts; the declaration of the state of emergency by Governor Snyder effectively leaves Detroit without democratically elected representation in the city.
It’s been a long slow slide financially for Detroit, between racist urban renewal policies of the past, the collapse of the car industry, and incompetent city governance, and although Detroit has more recently been the hub for a sustainable community renaissance.
Pennsylvania Station in New York City was the Northeast regional hub for the Pennsylvania Railroad, an iconic Beaux Arts style train terminal constructed in 1910. After World War II, in the wake of the modern, suburban, car-centric era, which emphasized road over rails, ridership fell. Meanwhile Manhattan real estate prices skyrocketed and the Pennsylvania Railroad,…
More than 40,000 people braved thirty degree weather Sunday to urge President Obama to halt progress on the Keystone XL Pipeline progress, and to get serious about confronting climate change. The rally was organized by 350.org, the Sierra Club, and more than 150 other environmental and social justice groups, including the First Nations of Canada.…
48 environmental and civil rights leaders were arrested Thursday in front of the White House after planned civil disobedience to protest the Keystone XL tar sand pipeline project being considered by the State Department, and to demand that President Obama get serious about addressing climate change. The sit-in was planned to kick off a weekend…
Anti-Fracking activists gathered on Wednesday in Philadelphia’s Love Park to protest Act 13, signed by Pennsylvania Governor Corbett last February 14th and largely seen as a big valentine by the Republican controlled General Assembly to the natural gas industry in the state. The fractivists wanted to send their own valentine to Corbett this year. Act…
The Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), the agency in charge of the Delaware River as it winds through four states, conveniently sidestepped taking responsibility for overseeing the cumulative effects of the many natural gas pipelines being built around or through the Delaware River watershed by saying, essentially, “that’s not our job.” It’s a tried-and-true political…
