Real sustainability prioritizes sovereignty, community resilience, and protection from authoritarianism.
Environmental Justice
YES! Media’s environmental justice coverage recognizes that people are not separate from the environment but are an integral part of it—and responsible for its care. Because Indigenous and frontline communities suffer the worst impacts of environmental injustice, we center their experiences and solutions in our coverage. We lift up the stories of people who are holding polluters accountable, passing life-sustaining legislation, enshrining the legal rights of nature, and decolonizing their relationship with the land. As such, we don’t aim to “save” the environment, but to move away from extractive models (and industries) that create inequitable and unlivable futures for all living things. Instead, we feature intersectional, holistic models that balance the needs and rights of all life—human and non-human—on this planet.
Apocalypse Chow: Don’t Let Corporations Define Vegetables
Because corporations hold sway over our food system and our lives, they make it harder to access healthy vegetables.
Clawing Back Public Protections of Our Land, Air, and Climate
The Center for Biological Diversity is suing DOGE in a first of its kind lawsuit to protect government-funded environmental work.
Immigrant Farmworkers Keep Each Other Safe from the Avian Flu
Every month, around 50 dairy farmworkers filter into a church basement in western New York after a grueling day of work. They order dinner from a local Mexican or Puerto
The Movement to Ban Plastic Production
Frontline communities continue to pay for plastics—from production to pollution. Now advocates are trying to reach consensus on a global plastics treaty before it’s too late.
Ending Malnutrition Takes More Than Just Food
In rural Argentina, Hacienda Camino offers parents a suite of skills and resources to help raise healthy children.
Lessons in Climate Adaptation From Florida’s Hurricane Recovery
When Hurricane Ian hit Florida in late September 2022, it took more than 100 lives, becoming the deadliest storm to hit the United States since Katrina in 2005. Hurricane Ian
Pushing Back Against Disaster Capitalism in Florida
A coalition of churches has achieved some successes in resisting and mitigating against rent gouging and displacement after Hurricane Ian.
Taking Back the Power (Literally)
Frontline communities from California to Puerto Rico lead the fight for energy democracy.
Landless Workers Fight for Fair Food
Brazil’s MST has organized the largest social movement in Latin America.
Community-Powered Solar in Puerto Rico
With climate-fueled hurricanes in their past and future, Puerto Ricans are taking back their power.
Justice at the Tap
For Jackson, Flint, and the Navajo Nation, clean water shouldn’t be a pipe dream.
Doulas Work on the Front Lines of the Climate Crisis
As trusted community figures, doulas are increasingly helping their clients stay safe during heat waves, hurricanes, and wildfires, all of which put pregnant people at higher risk.
A Taste of Home: How Ethnic Grocery Stores Create Community
Ethnic grocery stores have served as a cultural pillar of immigrant communities. Can they survive today’s economic challenges?
Decolonizing Regenerative Cattle Ranching
Native farmers want newcomers to know there’s nothing novel about caring for the land that grows our food.
Labor and Climate Form a More Perfect Union
Environmental and labor activists have found success collaborating at the local and state levels. Now they have their eyes on federal policy.
Combining Old and New: Aquaponics Opens the Door to Indigenous Food Security
Indigenous communities and partners are combining ancient knowledge with modern technology to revitalize food systems and self-determined economies in the face of ever-increasing climate pressures.
Where a Free Meal for Food-Insecure Families Is Just a Text Away
A tech startup has developed a way to bridge the nutrition gap for families, at least in the short term.
Individuals Are Not to Blame for the Climate Crisis
The fossil fuel industry uses greenwashing and woke-washing to shirk their own responsibility.
Justice at the Heart of Climate Activism
The modern environmental justice movement understands the health of the planet and well-being of people are connected.
Growing Food and Latino Culture in Tucson’s Barrio Centro
T-shirt entrepreneurs-turned-farmers are turning an abandoned elementary school into a community hub.
Cultivating Food Sovereignty Through Regenerative Ocean Farming
The first Native-owned and Native-led land trust is working to empower and equip young Natives to successfully farm kelp.
There Is Enough Food, Just Not Enough Food Access
Community fridge networks across the country are an important start—and symbol—in the work to make sure everyone has enough to eat.
The Unsung Caribbean Roots of the Vegan Food Movement
While eating a plant-based diet is often presented as a White, millennial fad that accompanies gentrification, Black people have a long and rich tradition of plant-based eating.
To End Fossil Fuels, End Settler Colonialism
Much environmental framing misses the point about capitalism and Indigenous sovereignty.
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