You’ve heard a lot about Plastic Free July from us, and plastic pollution has also been in the news. Here’s my question – are you ready to make the move and switch away from all those wasteful single-use disposable products?
Good! Now let’s do it.
Learn more about our fight to protect Connecticut's waterways from PFAS contamination.
When the 2019 General Assembly session began in early January, we had high hopes that this would be a banner year for the environment and public health. We had spent the previous four months working with stakeholders from around the state to put together a plan to reduce single-use plastic pollution. We had a commitment from the Governor to fight the climate crisis by supporting mandatory and enforceable carbon emissions reductions across the three largest sectors of Rhode Island’s economy.
Donald Trump promised to "drain the swamp" - but instead, he's brought the swamp back to DC, appointing federal employees who greenlight oil and gas development, endangering America's public lands, waters, and wildlife. David Bernhardt, the Secretary of the Interior, is the quintessential swamp creature. He is a former oil and gas lobbyist with so many conflicts of interest that he carries a literal card listing them, because he can't remember them all. But he has to: for his past two years in government, he's been banned from conducting business with his former clients.
How did you feel when you heard the recent news about EPA caving to big polluters and scrapping the Clean Power Plan pollution rules launched during the Obama Administration? Most of the reporting focused on the horrible climate and air pollution impacts, but the harmful water impacts will be equally severe.
Imagine a world without plastic waste. For Plastic Free July, millions of people around the globe are working to make this vision a reality by stopping the use of single-use disposable plastics for one month.
Last year, over 5,000 basement backups were reported to 311 in Baltimore City. The number of basement backups has increased over the years with such a large number of people having to deal with the issue. Baltimore City’s Emergency Response Plan does not require the city to clean up after a basement backup, forcing many homeowners to spend thousands of dollars and expose themselves to an unhealthy environment.
Yesterday the city of Baltimore experienced a severe wet weather event that resulted in flood warnings throughout the DMV area, coupled with a water main break downtown. While the water main break is responsible for the day’s increase in train delays and a strong flow of murky brown water into the inner harbor near Howard and Pratt, an infrastructure failure may not be necessary for the same problem to occur in the near future.
Last week, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee held a hearing on the Land and Water Conservation Fund, and Clean Water Action's Baltimore team traveled to the hearing to stand up for public lands.