Brown Grove, Virginia Needs Help: About 90 miles from Fairfax, the community of Brown Grove, VA is under threat from expanded industrial activity. This community was established over 150 years ago by formerly enslaved men and women who united to form a community that has struggled to remain intact in the face of big business. Over the last 50 years several industrial businesses entered the area including a concrete manufacturing facility, a large landfill, and a municipal airport – all built with little input from the local community. There is a proposed 1.1 million square foot Wegman’s distribution center that will surround the Brown Grove community and negatively impact human and environmental health in this community. You can help this threatened community by signing this petition and reading and sharing this fantastic article about the history of Brown Grove and corporate intrusion.  

Canada’s Single Use Plastic Ban: We’ve shared multiple stories about Canada’s single use plastic ban set to go into effect next year. Now, the all too familiar US based plastic industry, including the American Chemistry Council (ACC) and the Plastics Industry Association (PIA), is working to make sure the single use ban never takes hold in Canada. The plastics industry has claimed that the proposed Canadian legislation would violate stipulations in the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). This strategy of threatening foreign countries with trade disputes was the same strategy chosen by the US plastic industry in their attempt to force Kenya to accept foreign plastic waste. The goal of these companies is to make sure plastic products continue to pollute the environment. The ACC was the driving force that stopped the complete passage of the expanded polystyrene food and beverage service container ban. Read about the latest attempts by the US plastics industry to stop important plastic waste reduction legislation here.

Fossil Fuel Industry Scam: Climate change is real and its impacts are already being felt around the world. Unfortunately, the oil industry has a solution – not for climate change, but how they can keep extracting fossil fuels. Oil companies are beginning to partner with Arctic Foundations, whose main products are thermosiphons, large tubes that pull heat out of the ground to stop permafrost from melting. Why do oil companies need thermosiphons? Due to continued melting permafrost in the Arctic, the oil extraction rigs will collapse. Having to install thermosiphons doesn’t bother fossil fuel extraction companies. Thawing permafrost makes it easier to transport liquified natural gas being made available due to melting sea ice. Thermosiphons are a small price for these companies to pay to continue bolstering corporate profits at the expense of human and environmental health. Read the story about the fossil fuel industry’s latest efforts to continue exacerbating climate change here. 

New Reef Discovery: We wanted to share some good news with everyone today. Last week researchers discovered a 1,600ft tall reef detached from the Great Barrier Reef. The researchers used an underwater robot called SuBastian to create a detailed map of the previously unidentified reef. This is an encouraging discovery because over the last 30 years about half of the Great Barrier Reef’s coral population has been lost. Read more about SuBastian and this important discovery here!

(Underwater map of the recently discovered reef. Image credit Schmidt Ocean Institute, retrieved from referenced article)