Yessenia Funes

EartherEnvironmental Justice

This Environmentalist Went to Prison for a Crime She Says She Didn’t Commit—and It Transformed Her Activism

Siwatu-Salama Ra was in her third trimester when she spent her first night in prison. She sat inside the walls of the Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility in Ypsilanti, Michigan, some 40 miles southwest of Detroit, for 258 days. Ra is co-director of the East Michigan Environmental Action Council, a local environmental organizing group in … Continued

EartherEnvironmental Justice

The Trump Administration’s Hyped Plan to Reduce Childhood Lead Exposure Includes No Actual Plans

The Environmental Protection Agency has finally released its long-anticipated childhood lead action plan—and it’s underwhelming, to say the least. Former Administrator Scott Pruitt pledged to eradicate the toxic metal while leading the agency, but it looks like the EPA is falling short on that promise. The agency published its Federal Action Plan to Reduce Childhood … Continued

EartherEnvironmental Justice

Banksy’s Latest Mural Targets Air Pollution in Town Choking on Soot

Banksy’s back. The illest street artist of them all hit Wales with a surprise Wednesday—a new mural on air pollution that does not hold back. He took to Port Talbot, a small town near the Swansea Bay that is most known for its steel plant, one of the largest in the world. Naturally, the mural … Continued

EartherEnvironmental Justice

New Census Data Shows Exactly How Many People Left Puerto Rico After Hurricane Maria

When Hurricane Maria tore through Puerto Rico in September 2017, it left mass devastation in its wake. Many Puerto Ricans flocked to the mainland in wake of the storm, to places like New York and Florida. Now we have the numbers to show just how big this exodus actually was. From July 2017 to July … Continued

EartherEnvironmental Policy

European Union Nations Unanimously Agree to Ban Single-Use Plastics By 2021

The European Union (EU) is playing no games with its waste. All 28 countries within the union agreed Wednesday to phase out single-use items like plastic straws and cutlery, as well as polystyrene drink and food containers, by 2021. The 10 items covered in the ban make up 70 percent of Europe’s marine litter, per … Continued

EartherClimate Change

Knowing the Carbon Footprint of Your Food May Convince You to Eat Less Meat, Study Suggests

I’m one of those people who can’t let go of meat altogether, but I try to eat less because of its carbon footprint. A new study hints that more people would do the same if they realized how bad their food was for the planet. The study, published in Nature Climate Change Monday, consisted of … Continued

EartherEnvironmental Justice

First-Ever Oil Drilling Project in US Arctic Waters Just Got Slammed With a Lawsuit

Environmental groups have come for the first oil and gas project in federal Arctic waters. The Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, Defenders of Wildlife, and Pacific Environment filed a lawsuit Monday with the help of Earthjustice alleging that the Liberty Project, an oil project President Donald Trump approved in October in … Continued

EartherEnvironmental Justice

Two California Inmates Suffered Severe Burns Fighting the Camp Fire. Why Were They There at All?

The Camp Fire shined a national spotlight on California’s ever-worsening wildfire situation last month when it burned the entire town of Paradise to a crisp and claimed 85 lives. Now, it’s drawing increased attention to the state’s controversial conservation camp program, which sends people incarcerated for low-level offenses to battle blazes on the front lines. … Continued

EartherConservation

The Great Barrier Reef’s Secret Climate Change Weapon Is This Switzerland-Sized Meadow of Seagrass

Tourists frequently flock to Lizard Island, off the northeastern coast of Australia, to marvel the Great Barrier Reef. Among the dugongs, sea turtles, and jewel-toned corals, though, there’s another organism that doesn’t get nearly as much credit as it deserves: seagrass. In fact, a team of Australian scientists has discovered that seagrasses of the Great … Continued

EartherEnvironmental Justice

Meet the Activists Who Walked Over 900 Miles to the UN Climate Talks

Joanna Sustento lost her parents, oldest brother, sister-in-law, and 3-year-old nephew to Super Typhoon Haiyan in 2013. More than 6,000 others died, too. That storm was her first real taste of what climate change would look like for her people in the Philippines. Since then, she’s become an active voice in seeking justice for communities … Continued

EartherEnvironmental Justice

Appeals Court Literally Quotes Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax While Dealing Major Blow to Gas Pipeline

A panel of three appeals court judges just shot down a major Atlantic coast natural gas project that was set to tear through two national forests—again. The Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline needs to stay out of the George Washington and Monongahela National Forests in West … Continued

EartherConservation

Behold the Amazing Sea Life Argentina’s New Marine Reserves Will Protect

Brightly-colored sea anemones. Green-eyed shrimp. Blue starfish. All these creatures can be found in the waters of Argentina’s two newly designated marine protected areas, which together span 25 million acres. The Argentine Senate approved a law to establish the Yaganes and Namuncurá-Banco Burdwood II marine protected areas in the southern Argentine Sea on Wednesday, according … Continued

EartherEnvironmental Policy

New Study Could Make It Harder for Trump’s EPA to Ignore the Dangers of Greenhouse Gases

Greenhouse gases won’t just be the ruin of our planet; they’ll be the ruin of us. A study published Thursday reinforces just how endangered humans are due to climate change and the greenhouse gases driving the problem. The Environmental Protection Agency formalized the threat of greenhouse gases to humans through its so-called endangerment finding in … Continued

EartherEnvironmental Justice

Top Michigan Health Official on Trial for Flint Water Crisis Upgraded to Fancy New Job

The case of water contamination in Flint, Michigan, is a textbook example of government failure. So much so that the state’s attorney general office launched a criminal investigation against 15 state and local officials in 2016. The trials began this summer, but the charges—including involuntary manslaughter—apparently aren’t enough for the Michigan Department of Health and … Continued

EartherConservation

This Simple Video Game Shows You How to Sort Your Trash

How many of us are guilty of throwing compostable chopsticks in the garbage? Or food-soiled aluminum containers in the recycling? A team of researchers from the University of British Columbia has figured out just the way to help us get it right: a video game. Sort It Out is a very simple online game that … Continued

EartherEnvironmental Policy

A Big Fight Over Waters in the U.S. Is Heating Up

The Environmental Protection Agency and Army Corps of Engineers published the proposed text on Tuesday for how they want to define the “waters of the United States,” or WOTUS. This means changing the definition former President Barack Obama put forth when he expanded the WOTUS rule in 2015 to help protect more waters under the … Continued

EartherEnvironmental Justice

More Than a Dozen Tribal Nations Join Forces to Oppose Drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

Bernadette Demientieff needed just two months to pull together a coalition of tribal members and congressional representatives that support protecting the Arctic National Wildfire Refuge (ANWR). As executive director of the Gwich’in Steering Committee, Demientieff has been working tirelessly to build opposition to the Trump administration’s plan to extract fossil fuels from the refuge. On … Continued

EartherEnvironmental Justice

The Most Widely Shared Study of the Year Revealed Hurricane Maria’s Shocking Death Toll

2018 was a year of many scientific discoveries. But the one that the internet cited the most was about Hurricane Maria and the human toll it took on Puerto Rico, according to the Altmetric Top 100, which tracks the top 100 published research articles the media, social media, and policy documents discuss. The Puerto Rican … Continued

EartherConservation

These Photos Show All the Dazzling Colors Living Corals Can Be

It’s official: 2019 is the year of living coral. Or, well, the color anyway. Turns out, though, that corals come in a variety of colors. The vibrant orangey-pink the Pantone Color Institute decided to call “living coral”—which I am currently wearing on my nails, on my back, and sometimes around my neck—is a beautiful ode … Continued

EartherConservation

Adorable Newborn Asian Elephant Is Helping Save Her Species

There’s a new joke at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium in Ohio: Who’s your daddy? It’s a genuine question for the female baby Asian elephant born early Thursday morning as a result of artificial insemination. In March 2017, the calf’s mom, Phoebe, was inseminated with two male elephants’ sperm, which is standard procedure. But the team … Continued