Climate impacts are here now, yet the very companies most responsible for our changing climate are doing little to prepare their coastal facilities for its impact. Big Oil operates large oil and gas storage terminals across New England. Perched on the edges of rivers, bays, and sounds, so tankers have easy access, these facilities often… Continue reading Calling Big Oil to Account
Henri must be a wake-up call for our community and for companies like Shell. We must confront the impacts of the climate crisis. Flooding and sea level rise are only going to get worse. Now is the time to prepare for these impacts and mitigate the potential damage, not after a neighborhood and iconic waterway are inundated with toxic chemicals.
Our region has seen hurricanes and tropical storms before, but, as we’ve just witnessed, it doesn’t have to be a storm of that magnitude to do significant damage. This year’s wet summer has shown that severe storms are becoming more common and intense, and they will only grow more frequent as the climate crisis deepens.
“The language of the proposed ballot question is ambiguous and will very likely confuse and mislead voters,” said Staci Rubin, Vice President, Environmental Justice, CLF. “This effort comes at exactly the wrong time. With the impacts of the climate crisis becoming clearer by the day, options should be on the table to reduce transportation fossil fuel use and prepare our communities for what’s to come.”
As communities across the country continue to recover from Hurricane Ida and its remnant rains, we look back at the last I-named storm to wreak havoc on our region: Tropical Storm Irene. Ten years ago, Tropical Storm Irene turned a late August weekend into a disaster of historic proportions. Communities from central New York to… Continue reading The Power of Water
“The waterfront really is — legally — supposed to be a resource for everyone’s enjoyment,” Moran told GBH News. “The last time around, [developers] really drove the conversation because they came to the table with, you know, pretty much a fully baked idea of what they wanted to do. That’s why we have a plan that’s focused on two individual parcels over a 42 acre-wide district,” she said. “I don’t want to see this redo be focused on responding to, or tweaking, the existing proposals. I think we really need to take a step back and take this opportunity to think outside the box — and think about what else is possible.”
“Mayor Janey made the right decision today,” said CLF President Bradley Campbell. “Boston’s developer-driven MHP process is fundamentally flawed, and the Downtown MHP would have resulted in less public access to one of the city’s greatest treasures – Boston Harbor. It’s time to reform the planning processes for all waterfront neighborhoods to elevate the public’s voice and right to access the water. We look forward to working with the city to achieve this goal.”
In late July, Governor Baker signed a law that establishes a new, permanent board to oversee the MBTA. This is a huge win for communities and riders who depend on the T to get where they need to go, and it has the potential to lead to much-needed changes within the transit system.
Massachusetts has taken a huge step forward in ensuring that communities have a say in what happens in their neighborhoods. It’s long past time we stop forcing low-income communities and communities of color to bear the burdens of polluting infrastructure. But that doesn’t mean we simply move the pollution elsewhere. Wood-burning power plants do not belong in anyone’s community.
When first built in 1976, New Hampshire’s Bethlehem Landfill was just a local dump – 400 x 400 feet in total. But thanks to large corporate waste companies with aggressive growth plans, the landfill has swelled in size. Today, it covers 50 acres and buries 175,000 tons of trash each year. The State of New… Continue reading Turning a Spotlight on New Hampshire’s Waste Crisis
