12-23-21
Less than a mile away from Drexel Elementary School is the biggest cancer-causing hotspot in the Chicago area. But it’s not located in the city. Instead, it’s in a nearby suburb, Cicero, Illinois.
Recently, the independent investigative journal, ProPublica, published “The Most Detailed Map of Cancer-Causing Industrial Air Pollution in the U.S.” Its interactive map lets you type in any address in the United States and see the nearest cancer hotspot. Surprisingly, in Chicago, the big cancer hotspot is caused by Kopper’s Inc., a global chemical and materials company in the western suburb of Cicero. The cancer risk? It’s 1 in 4,800. That’s more than double (2.1 times) the EPA’s acceptable risk. Kopper’s Inc. contributes nearly 97.5% of the estimated cancer risk in Cicero by emitting known carcinogens, such as polycyclic aromatic compounds, quinoline, naphthalene, and more. These chemicals have been found to cause lung cancer, which has the highest mortality rate in the United States. Click here to read more
12-20-21
It’s been more than three months since Hurricane Ida pummeled Louisiana and took many coastal communities along with it. While much of America, and Louisiana, have moved on, some communities remain in the dark, their people homeless, their homes destroyed.
In September, I joined a group of about 50 other Tulane students to volunteer in Terrebonne and LaFourche Parishes, about two hours south of Louisiana, to volunteer with the Pointe-Au-Chien Indian Tribe community. Besides a camping trip in Grand Isle, one of the southernmost points of Louisiana, I had never really stopped in the small communities along the way. My first time stepping foot in Pointe-Aux-Chênes, where the tribe lives, was to see how Ida devastated their homes. Most of the houses, set up on stilts sometimes 20 feet high, had been standing for over 40 years. Click here to read more
12-08-21
Sahil is a junior at Tulane University pursuing majors in Environmental Studies, Public Health, and Political Economy with minors in Urban Studies and Management.
Hurricane Ida caused catastrophic destruction as it ripped through Louisiana in August. Communities across Louisiana, particularly low-income communities and communities of color, were devastated by powerful winds and flooding. Millions of people lost power, thousands of homes were seriously damaged and at least 28 people died. The storm caused Tulane University to cancel in-person classes for four weeks and forced students to evacuate on short notice. Click here to read more
11-24-21
Often, the older generation chastises young children for constantly being stuck indoors. Dubbed “iPad kids,” the children of today are seldom depicted in an outdoor setting and instead, are seen glued to their electronics. But is a lack of nature truly affecting modern-day children and even adults?
The concept of “Nature Deficit Disorder” may help us explain the effects of isolation from nature on children and adults. Coined in 2005 by Richard Louv in his book, Last Child in the Woods, Louv argues that more time spent indoors is directly correlated to an increase in mental and physical ailments. While he argues that this mainly affects children, adults are not immune from the consequences of an increasingly indoor lifestyle. It is not a medical condition, but more a description of the consequences of human alienation from nature. Click here to read more
11-22-21
On August 25, Hurricane Ida, a Category 4 hurricane, whipped through Louisiana. Though Ida was the one of the strongest to hit the Gulf Coast, it was not just the storm that was responsible for the suffering Louisianans would incur in the coming weeks and months. The day after the storm, Louisiana’s leading utility company, Entergy,left 1 million homes without power across the state—including the entirety of New Orleans. Click here to read more
11-22-21
When I was small, I would spend hours roaming about the woods like a mouse. Or scurrying like a fox, hunting for small creatures just under thick leaf litter. Quickly, I learned to avoid the heavy-trod paths of hunters and, more imperatively, the loggers and trucks that would leave what seemed to be endless expanses of torn land where the sun quickly bleached any remnants of plant life. As people surrendered more and more of their land for clearing, my forested realms dwindled into islands. Click here to read more
Audrey Manguson and Isabel Wood
11-04-21
Without a doubt, the US is about to see a surge in wind energy. Even the Texas panhandle is dotted with turbines. And plans for new wind farms have sped through federal and state approval processes in half a dozen coastal states with ambitious renewable energy targets to hit. But just a few years ago, even wind energy advocates could not have predicted such a boom. How did we get here, and what obstacles might wind energy face now?
Heading into the critical Glasgow climate conference (COP26), the Biden Administration flaunted every small step it made toward climate change mitigation. John Kerry returned from his world tour of climate diplomacy to proclaim that the world is “behind” on its climate commitments. Click here to read more
07-30-21
I was just 12 years old in 2013 when I took my first official trip to the Everglades. I call it official because of the many times I had quickly skirted through the wetlands on a highway or seen the mangroves out my car window. My family and I had decided to buy tickets to take an airboat ride at Sawgrass Recreation Park. We clambered onto the airboat with ascending stadium seats and a giant fan in the back and waited to begin our tour of one of the most famous wetlands in the world. When the boat started up, I was overwhelmed by the cacophony of engines and shouts and the stinging of my hair whipping across my face. Eventually, I got used to the sound and began to enjoy the sights around me. Our boat was skimming across the shallow wetlands like a water strider (Gerridae) across the surface of a lake. The grass poked out and waved hi to us in the wind. I was relieved when we finally slowed to a stop and the boat quieted. Click here to read more
07-29-21
In August of 1955, LIFE magazine featured a short article called “Throwaway Living.” It was accompanied by a large, black and white photograph of an American family joyously hurling a symphony of Styrofoam, paper, and plastic plates, cups, straws, utensils, napkins, and serving trays into the air.
The piece emphasized the luxury of this throwaway life for housewives who could now shortcut their kitchen cleaning routine. Use it, then toss it, and it takes care of itself! I imagine that after this photoshoot, the LIFEmagazine staff threw away the assortment of kitchen disposables without food ever touching them. This happy fifties family captures the reckless abandon with which companies have pushed a pervasive, plastic American culture. As a direct result we’ve plasticized our environment nearly to the point of no return. Click here to read more
07-20-21
On the morning of June 24th, I stood surrounded by my family in an Airbnb in Asheville, North Carolina. They had decided to escape the sweltering South Florida heat by driving up to the mountains. But they did not escape the news. My aunt gasped at her phone and read us the notification she had received while we had been sleeping: a condo building had collapsed in Surfside, Florida; hundreds were unaccounted for. My grandma recounted the number of times she had driven past the high-rise condos of Surfside, and we sat shocked at the tragedy that had occurred so close to home. Click here to read more
06-12-21
Everybody has heard the old cliché, “It’s the canary in a coal mine.” But how about the new and improved version? Be prepared to start using “Like a Veery in hurricane season.” Ornithologist Christopher Heckscher published a report in Nature after studying Veery (Catharus fuscescens) breeding in Delaware for nearly two decades. He found that Veery breeding seasons ended earlier in years with more severe hurricane seasons. His conclusion? These plain thrushes with a haunting song that Rachel Carson loved may be even better than computers at predicting the severity of a hurricane season. Click here to read more
04-16-21
Gen X, PFAs (Polyfluoroalkyl Substances), forever chemicals, these pollutants go by many names, but they all describe a chemical group of carcinogens widely abundant in the United States’ surface and now groundwater systems — the sources we rely on for our drinking water. PFAs are found in many consumer products and have been linked to adverse health effects including liver problems, increased risk of asthma, reduced response to vaccines, and kidney and testicular cancers. Click here to read more
04-15-21
Colleges and universities are massive hubs of education, research, and innovation. As more and more data on climate change is produced by faculty and students at the world’s leading universities, the college campus has been transformed into a sustainability mecca. Facilities upgrades in the form of recycling and composting operations, HVAC-system repairs, and renewable energy projects on college campuses continue to make national news. Click here to read more
Emily Irigoyen
04-15-21
As a fossil fuel divestment activist at Vanderbilt University, I come from a long generation of divestment advocates before me. For instance, fossil fuel divestiture has clear parallels to the anti-apartheid divestment movement of the 1980s, which, like fossil fuel divestiture, had “a well-defined, immediate objective” that targeted higher education institutions. Apartheid divestiture was an integral component of toppling the oppressive South African governmental regime and, other than fossil fuels, is the best-known divestment movement. Click here to read more
04-04-21
I walk in the evening before the Worm Moon, the full spring moon that draws earthworms from the soil to wriggle in the damp forest floor. Spring is here, pale moonbeams whisper to the forest floor dwellers.
The trees, too, have heard the news. Red buds blossom in magenta blushes of petal; wisteria winds itself around branches, sprinkling the forest in green and lavender mist.
It is not the leaf-rain of autumn, nor summer’s blanket humidity, nor winter’s endless, cold fog. It is the world budding — mists and wisps of life emerging. Click here to read more
03-11-21
Darkness creeps across the sky in swaths of indigo. As stars emerge from dark, I spot the blue glow of the constellation Orion and the flicker of Sirius, the brightest star. Wispy clouds float past the half-moon like a steady stream of gauze. The warm light of Mars appears, and the Big Dipper rises above rooftops. I peer up — watching, waiting. I am still, and in stillness I notice the Earth moving.
A thin V-shape traverses the sky, fading quickly into the clouds. Another follows, tracing a subtle path, barely illuminated. I squint my eyes; the shape looks like a large bird. Do birds migrate at night, I wonder. Later, I learn that they do. Birds migrate by the light of stars and the moon. Click here to read more
03-04-21
Debates on climate action often center around one question: Whose responsibility is it? More times than not, the burden of responsibility falls to the individual. You and I are expected to engage in sustainable practices such as taking shorter showers, buying local, and using reusable bags and water bottles. In theory, such efforts, as long as they are done by a majority of the population, can add up and make a significant dent in carbon emissions. Sustainable practices are also thought to “catch on” with family and friends, making the task of tackling climate change and its associated emissions within reach. Click here to read more
02-25-21
In September 2020, an art installation dubbed the ‘Climate Clock’ sat atop big-box stores like Nordstrom and Best Buy in New York City’s Union Square, counting down the years, days, hours, minutes, and seconds until an unavoidable climate catastrophe. Installed for Climate Week, the Clock showed how much time is left to curb greenhouse gas emissions enough to keep the Earth under a 1.5 degrees Celsius temperature increase. Click here to read more.
02-15-21
The wind whistled in my ears, rippling the sea lapping at the rocks below me. Under the wrinkled surface of the shallows, a green sea turtle swam languidly among the sea grasses. It was a small turtle, no larger than a dinner plate. I leaned against the railing of the sea wall, watching in rapture as the turtle ambled, in movements more peaceful and placid than the ocean, among the underwater meadows. I had walked along the sea wall almost every afternoon during my summer researching at the Duke Marine Lab, fixing my eyes on the water in hopes of spying some sign of a turtle: the flat, glossy back of a shell, a blip in the water’s wavy signature. Click here to read more.
02-05-21
I’m watching the sunset as water glistens from the hose onto the freshly sprouted kale, mustard greens, and cabbage heads. I wave to friends who have stopped by to chat and eye the greenhouse plants and see how the crops in the raised beds have grown. People often stop us on their way to class or jogging to ask about the garden and wonderful it is to see people gardening and working together outside. Long leaf pine needles lay scattered in the dirt amongst the crops and between the leaves and I brush them aside to weed. The sunflowers, flashing their yellow petals, dance in the light breeze as if to welcome me back. Click here to read more