We Now Have a Universal Right to a Healthy and Sustainable Environment
The UN declaration is more than moral posturing. Resolutions like this one have led to effective treaties and national laws.
Water
Would You Drink Beer Made From Wastewater?
Repurposing water (with treatment, of course) is a safe way to help communities build water resilience in the face of growth and climate change.
How Salt Marshes Prevented Development but Forever Changed Wetlands in the South Bay
Near San Francisco, an ambitious wetlands restoration project is attempting to balance a return to the ecological past with the realities of a changing future.
A Growing Movement to Reclaim Water Rights for Indigenous People
Native tribes are reliant on their local water sources, which have been continuously exploited and contaminated by the U.S. government and non-Native people. Indigenous groups are finding new ways to demand justice.
What if Legal Personhood Included Plants, Rivers, and the Planet?
A new podcast explores the rights of nature movement and its potential to shift Western legal doctrine around environmental protection.
Community Efforts to Clean Up Contaminated Water in One California Town
“Lawmakers need to figure out better ways to balance the interests of industry with protecting people’s health.”
The Rights of Rivers
Indigenous communities and conservationists around the world are challenging the long-held view of water as a human commodity. Can the same approach work in the United States’ arid Southwest?
Cultivating Food Sovereignty Through Regenerative Ocean Farming
The first Native-owned and Native-led land trust is working to empower and equip young Natives to successfully farm kelp.
The Colorado River Runs Again
“It’s not only about wildlife, or birds and trees. It’s also about the people.”
Energy, Housing, Food, Water: What’s a Fair Share?
What equitable resource distribution looks like.
How Replanted Seagrass Is Restoring the Ocean
Two decades in to the world’s largest seagrass restoration project, Virginia's coastal waters are once again vibrant and healthy ecosystems.
In California’s Drier Future, What’s the Best Investment for Securing Water?
Experts agree that cities need diverse water supplies, but desalination plants remain controversial.
Mississippi Failed its Residents During a Crisis, So They Helped Themselves
When a winter storm knocked out water service to tens of thousands of Mississippi residents, it was Black families that were hit hardest—and who organized their own relief efforts.
Reclaimed Water Could Be the Solution to Farming in a Drier Future
A California farm is making sure wastewater no longer goes to waste.
In “The Whale Child,” Environmental Lessons from the Deep
A new children’s book centers Native culture and our relationship with Earth.
How to Save the Sea: Lessons from an Italian Fishing Community
How one small stretch of coastline went from a hotbed of drug smuggling to a model of ecological restoration.
What Kelp Forests Can Do for the Climate
Cultivating algae empowers coastal communities while storing CO2 deep underwater.
For Americans Without Water Access, Coronavirus Adds Another Layer of Struggle
As Californians shelter at home amid the COVID-19 outbreak, an estimated 1 million of them lack access to clean drinking water, one of the most fundamental resources for maintaining health and hygiene.
Environmental Activists of Color
Young Black people, Indigenous people, and people of color at the center of environmental justice movements are often overlooked. This was evident in 2019 during Swedish teen climate activist Greta
When Environmentalists and the Fishing Industry Team Up, Ocean Habitats Win
An inspiring collaboration on the Pacific Coast blew fishery conservation goals out of the water.
Can’t Let the Taps Run Dry: Managing Water in an Unpredictable Climate
From southern Nevada to New York City, the climate crisis is causing ongoing water problems. The Water Utility Climate Alliance is working hard to ensure cities are prepared.
Why Detroit Could Be the Engine for the Green New Deal
The city exhibits all of the problems the framework is meant to heal.
Could Rights of Nature Laws Help Save Endangered Orcas?
In the face of the climate crisis imperiling endangered species, some activists and governments are turning to a radical, rights-based approach to protect nature.
What We Waste When We Flush the Toilet
Composting toilets keep waste out of the water cycle. But have you heard about the phosphorus cycle?
This Humble Mollusk Can Save Shorelines From Rising Seas
As entire islands disappear in Chesapeake Bay, the oyster is enlisted as a first line of climate defense.
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