Blog • Climate Action & Environmental Protection

Blog

Protect forests and the future of musical instruments

As tens of thousands of people gathered last week for the opening of the National Association of Music Merchants’ annual trade show, I traveled to Anaheim, California to join musicians and other environmental groups to call on the industry to change the tune it’s singing in Washington by ending… Read More

Costa Concordia: Human tragedy & potential environmental disaster

The tragic capsizing of the Costa Concordia in Italian waters on January 13, which left at least 16 dead and many more unaccounted for, cast a spotlight on the safety and environmental practices of cruise ships around the world. As search and rescue attempts come to a close the… Read More

How undercutting financial regulators also harms California’s climate efforts

As someone who lives in California but works for a Washington-based advocacy organization, I often think about how decisions in DC impact life here in the Golden State. So late last year, when Congress froze funding for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the agency responsible for regulating the risky… Read More

The keys to stopping Keystone XL

If you’d have asked me in the fall of 2009, when Friends of the Earth was first contemplating going all in on a campaign to stop the Keystone XL pipeline, whether I thought we could force President Obama to reject TransCanada’s application for a permit, I would have said,… Read More

The writing is on the wall for Keystone XL

The writing is on the wall for rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline. But given recent oil industry efforts to make it appear otherwise, I thought it might be useful to provide a reminder that leading Obama administration officials and their allies are on the record: the rushed and arbitrary… Read More

Why we need strong shipping rules for the polar regions

The recent saga of a Russian fishing vessel that struck a submerged iceberg in the Antarctic Ocean illustrates the perils of polar shipping. Three ships originally tried to rescue the 32 crew members of the stranded vessel but were unsuccessful because of heavy sea ice. An icebreaker finally… Read More

More Keystone XL documents — and redactions — from the State Department

The State Department continues to stonewall on disclosing aspects of its internal conversations about the proposed Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline, more than a year after Friends of the Earth and several allies filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking documents related to the pipeline review. Read More

A days journey through South African coal country

Most of my work entails policy wonkery. Though important, especially in Washington, D.C., it often feels distant and far removed from the lives of ordinary people around the world and the lands they call home. Even most of the travel I do for work involves attending international conferences under the… Read More

Nanomaterials used freely in consumer products under FDAs watch

In 2006, Friends of the Earth released a groundbreaking report, “Nanomaterials, Sunscreens and Cosmetics: Small Ingredients, Big Risks.” Since then, we’ve released updated reports every year, sharing more and more about these alarming risks, which could affect consumers, workers, and the environment. Read More

Celebrating the New Year with a victory against corn ethanol

With the beginning of the New Year came the expiration of the biggest subsidy for corn ethanol, the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit. Friends of the Earth campaigned against the tax subsidy, nicknamed VEETC, a $6 billion-a-year handout to the oil and corn ethanol industries, for over three… Read More