Earth Day Today we celebrate the 51st Earth Day. It is our second Earth Day in the COVID-19 pandemic, which gives this particular Earth Day a unique lens in terms of climate change and environmental resilience. As we look hopefully toward a post-pandemic world, many of the changes humans were forced to make as a result of COVID-19 made a visible impact on the environment— habits that many are encouraging people to continue ... Read More
Infrastructure and the Environment - APWA This week’s newsletter focuses on the intersection of environmental resilience and infrastructure. To do that, we want to highlight some work from the Minnesota chapter of the American Public Works Association, such as this presentation on their Environmental Stewardship Award 2020, which they awarded to Sustainable Eden Prairie. The effort works on “educat... Read More
April: environmentally-focused newsletters As promised, Growth & Justice’s April newsletters will have an emphasis on climate change and environmental resilience. We’re starting off with this opinion article by Marita Bujold in MinnPost titled “Toward a sustainable future defined by racial, economic and environmental justice.” Bujold discusses The Headwaters Community Food & Water Bill (HF 1332/SF 1580) in ... Read More
Atlanta shooting and intersections of racism and misogyny Last Tuesday, March 16, a white man shot and killed eight people in spa and massage businesses around Atlanta. The victims’ names were Soon Chung Park, Hyun Jung Grant, Suncha Kim, Yong Ae Yue, Delaina Ashley Yaun, Xiaojie Tan, Daoyou Feng, and Paul Andre Michels. Six of the eight victims were Asian women. The shooter, Robert Aaron Long, said he had a “sex... Read More
Natural Solutions for Climate The Nature Conservancy has released the 2021 Nature and Climate Solutions for Minnesota, which you can read here. As laid out in the executive summary, Minnesota is positioned to lead the Midwest (and the U.S.) in combating climate change, but we still aren’t reaching the right targets. The report asserts that natural climate solutions can step in to change this, offering “an estimated mitigat... Read More