Political action committees funded by technology companies, the state’s major utilities and other corporate interests have spent several million dollars more to pass a ballot measure that would greenlight major development projects with minimal environmental or public review than public interest and labor groups have spent opposing it. Developers and other corporate interests aim to…
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As a child in the 1950s and ’60s, Regina Martin became so used to the oil pumpjacks near her home that she assumed every child lived beside them. Everyone was made “sick to [their] tummy” by the sulfurous, rotten-egg smell that never seemed to leave, she thought. Only until she was grown did she begin to see a possible connection between growing up on top of the nation’s largest urban oil…
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Timothy Williams’ family has lived in the same community for over 150 years, but he is afraid that they are one big storm away from losing it all. Eight years ago, the Alabama Department of Transportation widened the highway that runs just a few yards from Williams’ home in Shiloh. Since then, every time it rains, water has flowed down the highway, flooding his land with enough force to…
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If you’re lucky, your family is still using great‑grandma’s red beans and rice, black‑eyed peas, and potato salad recipes. And if you’re extremely fortunate, those meals might still taste like home, even without her hands. But climate pollution has quietly made sure that the food on your plates is not the same food she was eating. Rising carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is stripping nutrients…
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In Memphis, Tennessee, questions about AI data centers are rising nearly as quickly as their price tags. Recent reporting shows that Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI now has properties in Memphis appraised at roughly $3.4 billion, a staggering valuation that will shape how much the company contributes in property taxes and how local officials frame its economic impact.
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In a pocket of Louisiana known as “Cancer Alley,” Black residents bear the generational toll of “plantation country” becoming “pollution country.” Seven times as many people are expected to be diagnosed with cancer than the national average in these disproportionately Black communities. Now, a federal district court has given those residents something they almost never get: a chance to…
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