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Trafficking of plastic waste is on the rise and criminal groups are profiting, report says

Americans like to think they are recycling their plastic takeout food containers, cutlery and flimsy grocery bags when they toss them into those green or blue bins. But, too often, that waste is shipped overseas, sometimes with the help of organized crime groups, where it litters cities, clogs waterways or is burned, filling the air with toxic chemicals.
report published Monday by the independent Swiss research group Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, whose members include current and former law-enforcement officials, sheds new light on how this waste winds up in poorer countries that had agreed not to accept it.
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Photo credit: Shashank Bengali/Los Angeles Times

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I Am An “Accidental Environmentalist”

By Briana Villaverde, Community Organizing Intern
According to the EPA, people of color are disproportionately affected by air pollutants and are exposed at a higher rate. I have lived this statistic, fought it firsthand, and have been propelled by it into the world of environmental advocacy. My hometown, Paramount, California, is in the nation’s most Latino congressional district (CA-40). For a small city of only 4.8 square miles, it contains an overwhelming amount of metal and heavy industrial activity. This is my story of becoming an “accidental environmentalist.”
In 2016, Paramount residents rallied to stop a medical waste facility from being built in the city. This culminated in a demonstration at the city’s annual Apples with Santa Clause distribution where adults and children held signs that read, “Dear Santa, We Want Clean Air.” At the time, I was the president of my high school’s Green Club, where we focused on more basic environmentalism such as recycling and planting trees. This instance was a huge turning point for me and my understanding of organizing/environmental advocacy and that it went beyond mainstream conservationist rhetoric.

Image credit: Paramount Community Coalition Against Toxics
In 2017, I officially joined the organizing efforts with other Paramount residents to hold metal forging companies accountable for their willful polluting. Due to the volume of metal forging companies in the city and their process for treating metal at a commercial scale, many residents were experiencing irritation in their nose, throats, and lungs, as well as smelling strong metallic odors throughout the day. Children near these sites also reported shortness of breath and irritability from the odor. Community leaders filed a class action lawsuit against 8 of the prominent polluting industries in our city, but they were met with great pushbacks from electeds, other community members, and governmental agencies. We had short-lived wins when the South Coast Quality Air Management District forced companies to temporarily shut down operations that emitted hexavalent chromium, but they quickly started back up again with more “monitoring.” What this really meant was that they would increase operations at night when particulate matter was low. Additionally, our council members’ revolving door with the city’s members of the chamber of commerce left community members and myself in a constant state of disbelief with how money flowed between the city officials and these polluting companies.

Image credit: Paramount Community Coalition Against Toxics
After graduating from high school, I pursued this passion academically, majoring in Environmental Science and Policy with a minor in Chicano Latino studies at the University of California Irvine. I have interned and volunteered with natural resource management agencies and climate justice advocacy groups with my story as a grounding experience. Initially, I had set out with the intention of fighting for my community’s right to clean air and a safe environment, because that’s what I thought being an environmentalist essentially entailed. However, this path from lived experience to becoming a full-fledged and dedicated organizer is a common one that people, like me, will continue to walk. With the emergence of powerful climate justice organizations like the Sunrise Movement, Uplift, and SustainUS, I meet more and more young people of color with similar stories like mine. Their communities are also suffering from adverse health effects brought on by environmental racism and lack of corporate accountability – which leaves us with one strong choice, to become strong environmentalists. After a lot of struggles I realized that there was a shift in what I considered the role of an environmentalist – it was the love I have for my community and our right to a livable future that made me an “accidental environmentalist.”
Cover photo credit: Long Beach Press Telegram

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CEED’s 4th Annual Environmental Summit: Maternal and Child Environmental Health and Justice

Wednesday, November 10th from 10am to 11:30 am
Session II: Making Change and Moving Mountains: When Mothers Discover Their Children’s Health is at Risk
This session provides a snapshot of the experiences of three women and the actions they took when they discovered their children and families were sickened by exposures; contaminated drinking water, polluted air, and land that was an unknown dumping ground for toxic waste. This group of unintended advocates explain how and why they became leaders in their communities and how they organized their neighbors for change. A pediatrician, environmental health researcher, and Mom, joins the panel as co-moderator.

Hope Grosse, Co-Founder, Buxmont Coalition for Safe Water, National PFAS Contamination Coalition -Leadership Team 
Luella Kenny, Love Canal Homeowners Association, researcher and community organizer 
Melissa Miles, Executive Director, New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance  

Co-Moderators: Kerry Margaret Butch, Community Engagement Coordinator, Rutgers Center for Environmental Exposures and Disease; Maida Galvez, MD, MPH, Pediatrician and Professor, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Register here: https://rutgers.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_nHJNWiR_R0W8XpqxMO3tgw

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Millions consuming ‘invisible toxic cocktail’ of cancer-linked chemicals: study

Millions of Americans are unknowingly ingesting water that includes “an invisible toxic cocktail” of cancer-linked chemicals, a new survey of the nation’s tap water has found.
The Environmental Working Group’s (EWG) 2021 Tap Water Database, available to the public as of Wednesday, revealed contamination from toxins like arsenic, lead and “forever chemicals” – perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) – in the drinking water of tens of millions of households across all 50 states, as well as Washington, D.C.
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Photo credit: The Hill

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Radioactive material and pesticides among new contaminants found in US tap water

Analysis identifies 56 new chemicals in water supplies – including some linked to critical diseases.
Water utilities and regulators in the US have identified 56 new contaminants in drinking water over the past two years, a list that includes dangerous substances linked to a range of health problems such as cancer, reproductive disruption, liver disease and much more.
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Photo credit: PhotoAlto/Antoine Arraou/Getty Images

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SCOTUS accepts climate-change case on EPA authority to limit carbon emissions

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed to consider the extent of the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to limit carbon emissions under a provision of the Clean Air Act.
The Supreme Court will review a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The appeals court vacated a Trump administration rule relaxing restrictions on greenhouse gases in January.
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Photo credit: Shutterstock

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Decades of legal battles over pollution by industrial hog farms haven’t changed much for eastern NC residents burdened by environmental racism

Courts agree that the people who live near the industrial hog farms in Bladen, Duplin and Sampson counties continue to suffer environmental harms, but state and local laws make it increasingly difficult to get justice.
In the mid-1990s, Billy Kinlaw purchased land in a remote, mostly Black section of White Oak, a rural community of just 350 people in Bladen County.
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Photo credit: North Carolina Health News

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Update of the Blood Lead Reference Value — United States, 2021

What is already known about this topic?
No safe blood lead level (BLL) in children exists. Even low levels cause harm.
What is added by this report?
CDC updated the blood lead reference value (BLRV) to 3.5 μg/dL, which provides an opportunity for additional progress in addressing longstanding disparities in lead exposure and BLLs in children.
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Photo credit: CDC

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Massive Louisiana plastics plant faces 2+ year delay for tougher environmental review

A new, more stringent review of the environmental impacts of a massive proposed plastics plant along the Mississippi River in St. James Parish will likely take more than two years.
Environmental groups are cheering that scrutiny, arguing it could provide a more realistic assessment of the environmental damage the plant would do to an area they say already bears a heavy burden of pollution. But some local government and business leaders are trying to rally support for a project that could create about 1,200 permanent jobs and pour millions of dollars into the local economy.
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Photo credit: David J. Mitchell/The Advocate

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Backyard Talk

In COP26, Leaders Must Step Up to Fight Climate Change

By Jessica Klees, Communications Intern
Every year since 1995, delegations from many countries gather for the Conference of the Parties (COP). And now as world leaders from more than one hundred countries convene in Glasgow for COP26, it is more important than ever that nations work to heal our planet and combat climate change. U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson tweeted, “History will judge us on what we achieve over the next two weeks. We cannot let future generations down.” The eyes of the world turn to this group of people as we pray that they won’t abandon us, and our future.
The leaders who attended the G-20 summit over the weekend were accused by activists of not taking enough action. U.N. Secretary General António Guterres said he left the summit “with my hopes unfulfilled.” He also believes it will be “very difficult” to meet the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global temperature rises to 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial times. 
The nations of the world have a great deal to do if they want to combat the climate crisis. According to CNBC, “To have any chance of capping global heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, the aspirational goal of the 2015 Paris Agreement, the world needs to almost halve greenhouse gas emissions in the next 8 years and reach net-zero emissions by 2050.” The UN has also found that out of the 191 countries taking part in the Paris Agreement, only 113 have improved their pledges for carbon reduction.
During the course of the conference, India pledged to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2070. 100 countries each signed a pledge to end deforestation by 2030 and a pledge to cut methane emissions by at least 30% by 2030. However, environmentalists were concerned that China, the world’s largest carbon emitter, did not introduce any new climate targets during the conference. In fact, Chinese President Xi Xinping did not attend the conference, and instead sent a written message to delegates.
Our future rests on the actions of these leaders, but there is still hope. Boris Johnson says he feels “cautiously optimistic” about the work being done at the conference, but there is still a “very long way to go.” He said, “The clock on the doomsday device is still ticking but we have a bomb disposal team on site – they are starting to cut wires.”
Photo credit: Andy Buchanan/Getty Images