Environmental Victories

 I. Environmental Victories

A court ordered Trump's EPA to finalize a ban on the pesticide chlorpyrifos, which can harm the developing brains of children. The agency refused and so the legal battle will continue. 

The NRDC lawsuit blocked the Interior Department's climate-weakening plan to offer up 80 billion tons of coal for leasing on pubic lands in Montana and Wyoming.

A California court  rejected Monsanto's latest effort to remove glyphosate,used in its Roundup weed killer, from the state's public list of cancer-causing chemicals.

Carmakers who disregard climate-saving fuel economy standards will face stiff penalties, thanks to a NRDC-led court victory over Trump's Department of Transportation.

NRDC's courtroom victory blocked President Trump from reversing President Obama's ban on  offshore drilling across vast swaths of the U.S. Arctic and the Atlantic Ocean.

It's the law: California,the world's fifth-largest economy, guided by decades of  NRDC climate advocacy, committed to 100% carbon-free electricity by 2045.

II. Policing Costs

170% - Increase in  the cost of policing in the US from 1977 to 2017.

$7.4B - Value of equipment that has flowed from the Pentagon to police departments since 1997.

41% - Share of the Oakland, California general fund dedicated to police expenditures.

$220M - Amount paid by New York City taxpayers to settle legal issues involving the NYPD in fiscal year 2019. 

809K - Number of police officers and detectives in the US in 2018.

616K - Number of middle school teachers in the US in 2018.

5 cents - Amount that Chicago spends on its Department of Family and Support Services for every dollar earmarked for the police. (Source: The Nation, April 10/17, 2020.)

III. Nursing Homes - 

1.5M - Number of people in the US who are cared for in nursing homes.

54K - Minimum number of nursing home residents and employees who have died from Covid-19 in the US, as of June 30.

24 - Number of states in which the majority of Covid-19 deaths are linked to nursing homes.

$13 - Median hourly pay of a certified nursing assistant at a nursing home.

70% - Share of nursing homes in the US that are for-profit. (Source: The Nation, July 27/August 2020.)

ADDENDUMS: 

*In the past year, Human Rights Watch has tracked more than 1,000 public reports of torture, kidnapping, and murder of asylum seekers sent to Mexico. 

*According to the May/June issue of the "Sierra" magazine, dairy products account for less than 2% of greenhouse gas emissions, and agriculture as a whole accounts for about 9%. "In comparison, transportation, electricity generation, and industry account for about 80% of greenhouse  gases." "The real culprit is fossil fuels."

*"Still the pandemic may be causing as much trouble for the fossil fuel industry as our campaign hopes to with the demand for oil cratering. It's clear that these companies have no future. The divestment campaign that, over a decade, had enlisted $14 trillion in investments and portfolios, and the climate fight has a new head of steam" (Bill McKibben, "Force the  Spring," "Sierra," May/June 2020.)

*"Trump's reluctance to funding the Postal Service and vote by mail alternatives can be overcome if congressional Democrats play hardball in stimulus negotiations. Democracy advocates must tell House Democrats that funding for safe and fair elections cannot be compromised away." (Source: John Nichols, "Democracy Dies in Dysfunction," The Nation, June 1/8, 2020.)