May is National Bike Month. Celebrate with Island Press by entering to win a brand new electric bike! By Jen Hawse Close your eyes and picture a cyclist. What do you see? A skinny white dude decked out in spandex conspicuously leaning over his handlebars at a red light? Perhaps you envision a…

By Kyria Stephens In my hometown of Buffalo, New York, a deadly blizzard on Christmas weekend left more than 40 people dead. Across the country, torrential rainstorms in California claimed at least 20 lives. …

By Betsy Southerland The federal Clean Water Act was established by Congress in 1972 to ensure that the nation’s waters would be “fishable and swimmable.” Today, more than 50 years later, that goal is unachievable because of unregulated discharges of toxic PFAS chemicals into rivers, lakes and streams. These hazardous chemicals have contaminated…

By Linda Rudolph Climate change and fossil fuel pollution are two sides of the same health emergency. Air pollution from burning fossil fuels caused about 8 million deaths in 2018, nearly 1 in 5 deaths worldwide. …

By Joe Evans Many of us want to see clean energy, energy efficiency, climate resiliency and sustainability take root in communities of color and low-wealth communities. We could get there quickly if the Biden administration, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund invest as much in project readiness as…

By Laurie Mazur Dante Sawyer had a problem. As manager of the Village of Hazel Crest, a working-class suburb south of Chicago, Sawyer suspected that many homes in his village had lead service lines. Those lines could be leaching lead, a potent neurotoxin, into residents’ drinking water. …

By Laurie Mazur It takes money to make money, as the saying goes. The same is true of raising money. Successful fundraising requires resources that are in short supply for many small, community-based nonprofits. That means many groups could miss out on new federal funding that is targeted to front-line, historically marginalized communities. …

By Laurie Mazur For those who care about sustainability and equity, 2022 brought plenty of good news. Notably, the Biden Administration is rolling out its Justice40 initiative, which targets 40 percent of certain federal investments to disadvantaged communities. …

By Sandra Lubarsky On a road trip to Friesland in the north of Holland, my friend Ans pulled off the highway to admire the much beloved belted bovines grazing in a field. In this part of the country, the barns are as beautiful as the houses and the cows are prized as much…