Activism Archives - Inside Climate News

Q&A: Catherine Coleman Flowers Talks COP28, Rural Alabama, and the Path Toward a ‘Just Transition’

By Lee Hedgepeth — Thu, 14 Dec 2023 17:00:00 +0000

From the Deep South to Dubai and back, Flowers has brought rural issues to the global stage.

By Lee Hedgepeth

Catherine Coleman Flowers brings Alabama’s Black Belt with her everywhere she goes. She can’t help it.

US Climate Activists at COP28 Slam Their Home Country for Hypocrisy

By Bob Berwyn — Mon, 11 Dec 2023 10:00:00 +0000

They say Biden’s policies, including record-level oil and gas development, will lead to continued degradation of Indigenous lands and water and keep other countries hooked on fossil fuels.

By Bob Berwyn

Claims by some U.S. lawmakers at COP28 that President Biden’s policies provide global leadership on climate rang hollow with leading American climate activists at the annual conference who faulted the administration for supporting unbridled oil and gas development and for pushing carbon capture as an illusory solution for reducing emissions.

Scientists to COP28: ‘We’re Clearly in The Danger Zone’

By Bob Berwyn — Fri, 08 Dec 2023 21:00:00 +0000

As this year’s climate talks head into their final days, a new report also highlights positive social tipping points that can drive “the odds in our favor.”

By Bob Berwyn

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates—As negotiators at COP28 debate which verbs in the final documents would indicate the correct level of urgency, scientists at the global talks delivered a simple, dire message: Act now, or trigger climate tipping points with serious risks to the lives and livelihoods of billions of people.

With $25 Million and Community Collaboration, Baltimore Is Becoming a Living Climate Lab

By Aman Azhar — Thu, 07 Dec 2023 10:00:00 +0000

A Johns Hopkins climate scientist named Ben Zaitchik came to the city to study the heat island effect. Now, with millions in federal funding, he’s putting neighborhood concerns at the heart of the five-year project on urban heat, flooding, air pollution and decarbonization.

By Aman Azhar

Harm City: Fifth in a series about environmental justice and climate adaptation in Baltimore’s neighborhoods.

An Inevitable Showdown With the Fossil Fuel Industry Is Brewing at COP28

By Bob Berwyn — Tue, 05 Dec 2023 16:53:00 +0000

Oil, gas and coal companies sent a record number of lobbyists to the talks in Dubai, and their alignment with extreme right-wing leaders could scuttle global consensus on climate.

By Bob Berwyn

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates—The growing momentum at COP28 for a fossil fuel phaseout has not gone unnoticed by the fossil fuel industry, which has sent a record number of representatives and lobbyists to this year’s climate summit.

Older Voters Are Second Only to Young People in Share of ‘Climate Voters,’ New Study Shows

By Marianne Lavelle — Tue, 05 Dec 2023 09:30:00 +0000

A report from the Environmental Voter Project says “gray is the new green," as voters who prioritize climate are numerous enough to swing elections in key states.

By Marianne Lavelle

On the front line of the drive for U.S. political action on climate, the youth movement has had a largely unsung partner—one with more experience, greater resources and often, ample time to devote to the cause.

Spanning Two Worlds, Judith Kimerling Explores Ecuador’s Rainforest and the Rule of Law That Might Save Those Who Live There

By Katie Surma — Mon, 04 Dec 2023 10:00:00 +0000

Three decades on, she is representing a teenage girl before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. In what might have been a case study for her law students back in New York, the court will soon rule on the rights of “uncontacted” peoples for the first time.

By Katie Surma

The Education of Judith Kimerling: An American lawyer’s epic struggle to stop expanding oil operations harming Indigenous peoples in Ecuador’s Amazon. Part two.

More Than 100 Countries at COP28 Call For Fossil Fuel Phaseout

By Bob Berwyn — Mon, 04 Dec 2023 09:30:00 +0000

Climate activists and countries hard hit by climate disasters seek to break the fossil fuel industry’s stranglehold on global climate talks.

By Bob Berwyn

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates—Under a blanket of petro-smog, more than half the 198 countries in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change called for a fossil fuel phaseout on the second day of COP28, marking a turning point after 27 years of climate negotiations.

Judith Kimerling’s 1991 ‘Amazon Crude’ Exposed the Devastation of Oil Exploration in Ecuador. If Only She Could Make it Stop

By Katie Surma — Sun, 03 Dec 2023 10:00:00 +0000

After her start as a young lawyer working on the Love Canal case, Kimerling refused to take part in class-action litigation that consumed decades and victimized Ecuador’s Indigenous peoples. Now, her day in court has finally come on one group’s behalf.

By Katie Surma

The Education of Judith Kimerling: An American lawyer’s epic struggle to stop expanding oil operations harming Indigenous peoples in Ecuador’s Amazon. Part one.

Indigenous Leaders Urge COP28 Negotiators to Focus on Preventing Loss and Damage and Drastically Reducing Emissions

By Liza Gross — Sat, 02 Dec 2023 17:11:01 +0000

Climate change imperils Indigenous ecosystems, food security, knowledge bases and ways of life, leaders say, making rapid action to reduce emissions a “matter of life and death.”

By Liza Gross

As world leaders gather in Dubai for the 28th United Nations climate talks, Indigenous representatives from seven socio-cultural regions are calling for a moratorium on “false solutions” that ignore the roots of the climate crisis and urging a drastic reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.