Activists work to reduce pollution in Louisiana’s ‘Cancer Alley’

Photo courtesy of Jim Bowen via Flickr.
St. Gabriel, Louisiana houses multiple industrial facilities that put residents at high risk of cancer.

By Diksha Batra ’26

Staff Writer

From 2009 to 2016, there was a decrease in air pollution in the U.S., but “the annual carbon dioxide emission rate in the St. James parish [of Louisiana], where St. Gabriel is located, equaled that produced by approximately 113 countries” according to BlackPast. St. Gabriel, Louisiana, is home to what residents call “Cancer Alley,” due to the “plastic plants, oil refineries and petrochemical facilities” that make it one of the most toxic areas in the nation, BlackPast wrote. 

Despite the region’s reputation of high pollution rates, the plastic industry continues to grow. “Industrial expansion continues especially in areas with high percentages of poor and Black residents,” BlackPast reported. One example of this expansion was when the St. James Parish Council approved the “Sunshine Project,” which would build a large plastic plant in the area.  

According to the British Plastics Federation, there are four major steps in plastic production. First, the extraction of raw materials including “largely crude oil and natural gas, but also coal.” Second, the refining process “transforms crude oil into different petroleum products” which happens when “crude oil is heated in a furnace,” and then sent to a “distillation unit, where heavy crude oil separates.” The next step is polymerisation, a process “in the petroleum industry where light olefin gases (gasoline) such as ethylene, propylene, butylene (i.e., monomers) are converted into higher molecular weight hydrocarbons (polymers),” according to the British Plastics Foundation. The final step is compounding and processing, during which materials are melted and mixed together to form plastics. 

The process of making plastics creates byproducts that can pollute the atmosphere and soil, and can cause serious health problems like cancer, according to EcoEnclose. Phthalates, one of the materials needed for plastic, can affect “fertility, endocrine glands and birth defects.” In water, plastic waste can further break down into microplastics. According to EcoEnclose, “the biggest harm associated with microplastics is that they exist not only in the waterways but also the potable water and seafood we eat.” These harmful effects of plastic pollution are felt the most by those living near areas with high levels of plastic manufacturing activity. 

EcoEnclose named “Cancer Alley” as one of the areas most impacted by pollutants in the U.S., and cited environmental racism as a driving reason for that. Greenaction defines environmental racism as “the institutional rules, regulations, policies or government and/or corporate decisions that deliberately target certain communities for locally undesirable land uses and lax enforcement of zoning and environmental laws, resulting in communities being disproportionately exposed to toxic and hazardous waste based upon race.” In this part of Louisiana, the majority of the population is Black, and because of the 150 plants and refineries, the “residents are 50 times more likely to get cancer as a result of the polluted air compared to the average American,” according to Ecoenclose.  

To put an end to plastic pollution and its health consequences, many residents of “Cancer Alley'' have organized themselves to protest against the injustice. “RISE St. James, a grassroots organization founded in 2018, organized its first protest in response to the St. James Parish County Council approving the ‘Sunshine Project,’ which would build another large plastic plant in the area,” according to BlackPast. RISE St. James has been working to stop industries from increasing pollution levels in Louisiana, according to Inside Climate News. This group was founded by Sharon Lavigne, “a retired special education teacher and grandmother of 12,” She said that her work “was a calling from God,” because she found inspiration from the church where she was baptized. RISE St. James’ victories against the plastic industry include stopping Formosa Plastics from constructing a “$9.4 billion manufacturing complex on 2,400 acres in Welcome, Louisiana, less than two miles from Lavigne’s home,” according to Inside Climate News. Some of Lavigne’s other work includes organizing protests, serving as a plaintiff in lawsuits against the plastic industry and working with local governments as well as nationwide environmental groups. Even though Lavigne gives credit to attorneys and others who have been part of the alliance, she believes her cause gained the upper hand because she “put God first.” 

Many other people have been inspired by their religion to fight against the factories. An example is Florence Robinson, a biology professor who lived in the East Baton Rouge Parish, according to Inside Climate News. In 1999, she received an award for her role in shutting down a waste incineration plant, in what was called a “virtual one-woman war against toxic waste,” Inside Climate News reported. In a 2005 article, she told The Advocate that her belief in her actions stemmed from “the Judeo-Christian concept of helping others.” For many of the activists in “Cancer Alley,” faith is what inspired them to fight against the plastic industry.

Hampshire College reaches carbon neutrality goals a decade earlier than expected

Photo courtesy of Sven Manguard via Wikimedia Commons.
Five College Consortium member Hampshire College has announced that carbon offset programs allowed the institution to reach carbon neutrality.

By Lily Benn ’24

Staff Writer

Hampshire College officially announced on Feb. 15 that the institution had reached full carbon neutrality. According to the College’s website, this goal was set for 2032, but was able to be achieved by 2022, as has been calculated for a full year. 

According to an article from the European Union News, carbon neutrality is defined as achieving net, or a total of, zero carbon emissions, usually by balancing the emissions of an individual, institution or community with the amount of carbon being recycled or removed from the atmosphere through Earth’s carbon sinks. The Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change promotes this idea, and suggests that achieving carbon neutrality by the mid-21st century is essential.

Hampshire College, located in Amherst, Massachusetts, and one of the five colleges included in the Five College Consortium, created its plan to achieve carbon neutrality as an institution in 2012, according to Sara Draper, the College’s sustainability manager. 

Part of Draper’s work with Hampshire College includes connecting students to the various sustainability programs that are on campus so that the projects can be a part of their educational experience. These include Hampshire’s many Living Buildings, their community farm and their campus and community solar fields. She works with an environmental committee that involves students and other staff, with the goal of working towards and maintaining this carbon neutrality achievement and other sustainability goals.

To calculate this goal of full carbon neutrality on and off campus, the College had set up an annual Greenhouse Gas Analysis. Draper reported that in the past few years, due to COVID-19 and previous financial instability, the College was unable to calculate their carbon emissions. “It was really like a check-in to see, we set the groundwork a long time ago, how are we now doing?” Draper said. 

She also explained that since carbon neutrality as well as some of Hampshire’s other climate and sustainability goals were originally set to be achieved by 2032, the result of this year’s Greenhouse Gas Analysis was surprising. According to the Hampshire College Carbon Neutrality Brief provided by the College in their announcement, in 2022, the College emitted 4,712.8 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents. Draper explained that these remaining emissions that the College could not limit in 2022 are entirely balanced by various carbon offset programs that the College participates in.

To balance the metric tons omitted by the College in various aspects, this year Hampshire purchased offsets from a refrigerant reclamation program, Draper explained. “You recycle a refrigerator, and at the end of its life it has this amount of refrigerant in it, that something needs to be done with,” Draper explained, “Otherwise it will escape into the atmosphere and contribute to the climate change issue.” Hampshire College is able to recapture and recycle these refrigerants, known as HFCs, or hydrofluorocarbons, and reuse them in new products, according to Draper. If this material is not recycled, it can be destroyed, she explained, but by purifying and recycling it, it can be put back into the industry and reused, eliminating the carbon emissions created when manufacturing new refrigerants. 

Draper explained that she believes this program has real impacts in reference to carbon emissions and climate change. “This is something where the market forces for certain kinds of refrigerants weren’t really there to make this cost-effective,” Draper said, “If we can incentivize it as this carbon offset project, it starts to make more financial sense.”

Draper believes that GHG analysis and carbon offset initiatives will continue to be an annual part of Hampshire’s priorities. “What are our values, what are the kinds of projects we want to support?” Draper asked, referring to keeping an annual offset budget and investment. “I would also really look forward to having conversations with our other Five College folks about potentially creating our own, local offset projects,” she said. 

As of 2023, Hampshire College is the only college of the Five College Consortium that has achieved carbon neutrality, according to the other colleges’ and university websites. It was one of the first colleges in the country to divest from fossil fuels in 2011, according to Hampshire’s carbon neutrality announcement. 

“For me, at the end of the day, is this part of having a positive impact on our world, on our peer institutions, on our local area?” Draper said in reflection. “And I think the answer to something like this is ‘yeah!’” Draper advised other sustainability departments and colleges such as Mount Holyoke that every institution is different and has different assets available to achieve their sustainability goals. Still, colleges can look at what their strengths are, and look at what is easiest for them to leverage in terms of reducing carbon emissions, Draper explained. 

Mount Holyoke College has not actively divested from fossil fuels, despite past pressure from organizations and student groups on campus, according to a Mount Holyoke News article from 2021. 

Draper expressed that she is excited to see other colleges moving in on carbon emission reduction and other sustainability programs as institutions, and is glad to feel this sense of momentum in a larger community, even as a smaller college such as Hampshire.

Western states struggle to reach consensus on water rights

Lake Powell, pictured above, is among the reservoirs struggling under the pressure of the drought. Photo courtesy of NASA Earth Observatory via Flickr.

By Catelyn Fitzgerald ’23

Science and Environment Editor

Critically low water levels in the Colorado River did not appear overnight. In fact, the drought crisis in the Western U.S. has been unfolding since the turn of the century, a Washington Post article reported. According to the article, the drought “has been building for decades but has come to a head in recent years” as major reservoirs along the river have dwindled to dangerously low levels. The crisis is spurred on by a combination of climate change and the overallocation of water rights, The Los Angeles Times reported. In order to continue providing water to the 40 million people who depend on the Colorado River, Western states have been forced to cut their water usage and negotiate new water rights allocations, the Washington Post article said.

The Los Angeles Times recently published a series titled “Colorado River in Crisis” which follows the drought and investigates how it will impact the communities that rely on the river. According to a recent article from the series, scientists began expressing concerns in the 1990s over the ability of the river and its reservoirs to support Western states while withstanding climate change. By 2000, the Colorado River watershed had already entered a period of drought which has only worsened over the past two decades. 

The Colorado river supplies water to the seven states that border it, the Washington Post article explains. These states are further divided into the “Upper Basin” and “Lower Basin” regions. The “Upper Basin” states include Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. These states get their water by diverting the river thousands of times to redirect it towards different users, the article said. Arizona, California and Nevada comprise the “Lower Basin” states, which rely on large man-made reservoirs — such as Lake Powell and Lake Mead — for their water. Water levels in the two lakes currently stand at a parched one-quarter full, and the river is put under additional stress by “hotter and drier conditions” caused by climate change, the article said. These conditions also diminish the ability of snowmelt to replenish the reservoir, by causing increased evaporation rates and greater absorption of melting snow by soil and plants. The article explains that over the past two decades, water use has exceeded the natural flow of the river. The Los Angeles Times reported that chronic overuse of water resources caused the Colorado River Delta, a region in Mexico where the river flows into the ocean, to have “largely dried up decades ago.”

According to The Washington Post, regulations governing the use of the river’s resources date back to the signing of the 1922 Colorado River Compact, which defined water rights for each of the seven states along the river. Later, regulation written in 1944 granted a share of the river’s resources to Mexico. Water rights for the “Lower basin” states were redefined in the 1963 Supreme Court case Arizona v. California. The new allocations granted California 4.4 million gallons of water each year, the largest share of the seven states, while Arizona received 2.8 million gallons and Nevada 300,000 gallons. In 1968, the construction of canals that brought water from the river through Arizona, called the Central Arizona Project, was completed. In exchange for the increased water access provided by the project, Arizona accepted “junior water rights,” meaning that during drought periods California is entitled to “get its share of water before Arizona,” the article explained.

To remedy the drought before it reaches critical levels, federal managers are asking states to reduce their water consumption by 15 to 30 percent, the Los Angeles Times article reported. So far, six of the seven states have agreed on a proposal for new water allocations that would achieve these reduced usage levels. California remains the lone dissenter, instead electing to submit its own proposal, the article explained. The disagreement between California and the rest of the West hinges on the inclusion of evaporation in the calculation of water losses that would need to be made up for with cuts in water usage. Evaporation is especially significant in the areas of the river that California relies on, meaning that it would have to make larger cuts than the rest of the states.

The looming crisis also forces Western states to balance the water needs of their residents against those of the agricultural industry, an article from The Nature Conservancy explains. According to the article, water from the Colorado River is used to irrigate farmlands both inside and beyond the river basin, totaling an area the size of New Hampshire. Agriculture alone accounts for 80 percent of water usage from the river, the article said. To lessen the pressure of agriculture on the river and free up resources for other uses, The Nature Conservancy has helped farmers adopt creative methods for reducing water usage, from creating a “water bank” to growing crops that thrive in drier conditions. 

David Pierce, a climate scientist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, described the current water allocation system as “carefully calibrated to just break even in the absence of climate change,” to The Los Angeles Times. The article emphasized that to sustain their populations and industry, Western states will need to agree on a new system that will hold up against the years of drought to come.

Alarm raised in environmental community following oil project proposal

The Biden administration faced backlash after approving multiple new oil drilling sites in Alaska. Photo courtesy of Gillfoto via Wikimedia Commons.

By Sarah Grinnell ’26

Staff Writer

With ambitious pledges to cut U.S. emissions and prioritize climate policy, the election of President Joe Biden in 2020 seemed in line with the goals of many environmental activists, The New York Times said. However, many of these climate advocates are now expressing their ire over the major step the Biden Administration has recently taken towards greenlighting an $8 billion ConocoPhillips oil project on the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, a project which activists and Indigenous communities argue will accelerate climate change and environmental damage to the Alaskan landscape, The New York Times reported. 

According to The New York Times, in the wake of court appeals and challenges by a number of critics, the Bureau of Land Management has conducted an environmental analysis of the oil project, endorsing a scaled-back version of the original operation in order to reduce its ecological footprint. The Washington Post explains that this revised project, known as Willow, would reduce the five drilling sites to three so as to better protect wildlife. Despite these adjustments, Willow is still projected to produce roughly 600 million barrels of oil over the course of 30 years, The New York Times reported. 

Due to the effects of climate change, Alaska is warming “faster than anywhere else in the world,” Alaska program director for Defenders of Wildlife Nicole Whittington-Evans said in a CBC News article. According to an Earthjustice article, this is posing threats to Arctic ecosystems in the form of sea-level rise, sea-ice melt and permafrost thaw. Additionally, the article explains that the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, where the drilling would take place, provides essential wildlife habitat for species such as polar bears, migratory birds and caribou. Critics of Willow, such as Whittington-Evans, argue that its approval will only aid in exacerbating this ecological harm at the “great expense of wildlife and communities.”

Despite this pushback, the president of ConocoPhillips Alaska, Eric S. Isaacson told Smithsonian Magazine that “Willow will benefit local communities and enhance American energy security while producing oil in an environmentally and socially responsible manner.” Alaska’s senators agree with him. According to The New York Times, Republican senator Lisa Murkowski stressed that the project will create “thousands of good union jobs, and immense benefits that will be felt across Alaska and the nation” if it passes. In fact, Alaska’s oil and gas industry contributed $3.1 billion to state and local governments in 2019, helping to pay for services such as public safety and education, The Washington Post detailed. According to the article, this possibility of an economic upswing for Alaska is especially important, as Representative Mary Peltola emphasized Alaska’s recent economic struggles. 

According to the New York Times, while some Alaska Native groups, such as the Alaska Federation of Natives and Alaska Native Village Corporation Association, support Willow and its economic prospects, other nations in the areas nearest to the project remain concerned. For example, Rosemary Ahtuangaruak of the Iñupiat community told The New York Times that “the project encroaches on the habitat of the millions of migratory birds who use the area, as well as whales, polar bears and the more than 80,000 caribou that locals depend on for subsistence fishing and hunting.” If Willow is approved, she said, “her community would be surrounded by oil and gas projects.”

In a CBC News article, Siqiniq Maupin, executive director of Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living Arctic, highlighted the same concerns, that “Arctic Slope communities have suffered health issues and the loss of traditional practices and food sources because of oil extraction.”

Broader environmental groups in Alaska and nationwide have also chimed in. In a statement on their website, Earthjustice argues that “the Willow Project would permanently scar the largest undeveloped area in the United States and jeopardize the health and traditional practices of nearby Indigenous communities,” and points out that “over 30 years, the project would produce an estimated 590 million barrels of oil — enough to generate approximately 260 million tons of CO2 equivalent once consumed.”

“No other oil and gas project has greater potential to undermine the Biden administration’s climate goals,” Karlin Itchoak, Alaska regional director for The Wilderness Society, argued in a Wilderness Society article. According to The New York Times, Itchoak said, “if this project were to move forward, it would result in the production and burning of at least 30 years of oil at a time when the world needs climate solutions and a transition to clean energy.” 

According to The New York Times, a final decision by the Biden administration is expected to come within the next month, but the divided responses to the project reveal the complexity of the situation.Peltola addressed this conflict between economy and climate in The Washington Post: “[O]f course every person on Earth wants us to be shifting to renewables … But most people also recognize you cannot do that with a snap of the fingers.” However, as the various reactions show, if the project is approved, select Native communities and activists fear the U.S. will only move further away from that future of renewable energy production.

World Wetlands Day 2023 calls attention to global wetland loss

Wetland restoration was the theme of World Wetlands Day 2023, as nearly 90 percent of wetlands worldwide have been damaged by human activity. Photo by Emma Quirk ‘26.

By Yuyang Wang ’24

Staff Writer

On Feb. 2, people from all around the world joined to celebrate the twenty-seventh World Wetlands Day. According to the official World Wetlands Day website, the theme of this year’s festival was “wetlands restoration.” This site contains statements from officials representing various institutions, such as the Convention on Wetlands, The International Union for Conservation of Nature and The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification. 

World Wetlands Day was first celebrated in 1997, with the aim to increase people’s awareness of the importance of wetlands and encourage actions to protect them, notes the official website. Compared to other natural ecosystems such as forests and oceans, wetlands are often seen as less familiar and are unappreciated for their ecological value, an article from ClimateXChange said. As a result, World Wetlands Day plays an important role in making knowledge about wetlands more widespread as the ecosystems face extreme degradation, the official website said. 

According to the EPA, wetlands can be categorized as either inland or coastal, as well as seasonal or permanent. Wetlands have many different forms including rivers, marshes, bogs, mangroves, mudflats, ponds, swamps, lagoons, lakes and floodplains. The Nature Conservancy explains that as an ecosystem, wetlands provide habitats for animals such as black-crowned night heron, Hine’s emerald dragonfly and American mink, as well as plants including purple pitcher plant and eastern skunk cabbage. Species living in wetlands play key roles in the world’s water, nitrogen and sulfur cycles. Moreover, current scientific research shows that because of its carbon storage function, wetlands can help ameliorate climate change. 

Statistics from the World Wildlife Fund revealed that “[b]etween 300 million and 400 million people live close to and depend on wetlands.” For humans, wetlands can improve water quality, offer protection from floods and shoreline erosion and offer opportunities for recreation and aesthetic appreciation. However, human effects on wetlands have historically been destructive, the WWF article said. According to National Geographic, overfishing has caused the biodiversity of wetlands to drop dramatically. Additionally, with industry development, factories built near wetlands cause pollution and harm plant and animal species by dumping toxic wastewater into the wetland. 

Wetland conservation programs provide hope for restoring the health of wetlands around the world. For example, mangrove restoration programs have been created in seven biospheres of Latin America and the Caribbean led by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. These programs aim to recover mangrove forests by bringing together scientific experts with local communities while creating new economic and educational opportunities. This collaborative method is one of the most effective ways to restore mangrove forests, the UNESCO website reported. 

In addition to direct conservation actions, scientific literature on wetlands also plays an important role in raising people’s awareness. For instance, the book “Sippewissett, or, life on a salt marsh” by Tim Traver recalls the author’s personal experience at Sippewissett, a wetland located in the Northeast. In the book, Traver offers a detailed description of his connections with the wetlands, including his experience of witnessing their deterioration and recovery. 

Although there has been an increase in action surrounding wetlands, people’s awareness and sense of urgency remain insufficient. According to Dr. Musonda Mumba, Secretary General of the Convention on Wetlands, “to date, nearly 90 percent of the world’s wetlands have been degraded or lost. We are losing wetlands three times faster than forests.” Therefore, World Wetlands Day is an opportunity to encourage all relevant players to participate in the wetlands restoration process. “We are mobilizing an entire generation for wetland restoration,” Mumba said. 

Death of Atlanta protester sparks climate activism debate

Photo of Atlanta Police car, courtesy of jobsforfelonshub at Flickr.com.

By Sarah Grinnell ’26

Staff Writer

Content Warning: This article discusses police brutality and racialized violence.

On Jan. 21, 2023, peaceful protests on the streets of downtown Atlanta saw widespread demonstrations following the police killing of 26-year-old environmental activist Tortuguita earlier in the week, NPR reported. According to CBS News, in the wake of anti-police protests, vandalism, assaults on officers and a myriad of arrests, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp has officially issued a state of emergency.

The activist, whose pronouns were they/it, was a “forest defender” associated with the grassroots organization Defend the Atlanta Forest, CBS described. According to Fox5Atlanta, in September 2021 the forested land was leased out to the Atlanta Police Foundation to build a facility. Since then, this network has been fighting against the construction of a new $90 million public safety training facility for the Atlanta Police Department, which the activists dub “Cop City,” ABC News said.

On the Defend the Atlanta Forest website, members of the movement describe their motivation as being driven by the fact that “climate change and police violence are two of the most pressing issues affecting our society today, and they will only worsen if this facility is built.” According to CBS, the project requires the clearing of sizable portions of the surrounding Weelaunee Forest — which the activists emphasize is an ecosystem of “wetlands that filter rainwater and prevent flooding” and a rare “breeding ground for many amphibians in the region.” Additionally, the project would result in the expansion of law enforcement, another major concern of the activists. According to ABC, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms asserted that the facility will “help boost morale, retention and recruitment of our public safety personnel,” ensuring that officers “are receiving 21st-century training, rooted in respect and regard for the communities they serve.” However, the activists argue the training facility “would not help the city’s crime problem and further hurt relations between police and communities of color,” Fox5Atlanta reported. 

Atlanta local and Mount Holyoke student Molly Malloy ’26 is no stranger to the notoriety of the Atlanta Police Department, they explained in an interview with Mount Holyoke News. According to Malloy, the deadly altercation between Tortuguita and the state trooper “sadly isn’t surprising.” They went on to explain that “policing in Atlanta has historically been racist, frightening and threatening, and this has been evidenced even further by recent tragedies like the murder of Rayshard Brooks at the hands of the Atlanta Police Department.” Brooks was a 27-year-old man who was shot and killed by the Atlanta police in a Wendy’s parking lot in June of 2020, as reported by 11Alive Atlanta. “This training environment would be a slap in the face to [people from Atlanta]who have made their stance clear that defunding the police and reducing the police force is what the people want,” Malloy said.

According to NPR, resistance to the training center by the forest defenders has been going on for over a year now, taking shape in camping out on platforms built in the surrounding tree cover, as well as staking out the construction site of the facility. In December 2022, five activists were arrested with charges of “domestic terrorism,” and convicted of crimes including carjacking, destruction of property, arson and physical altercations with police officers, ABC detailed. 

These demonstrations culminated in a deadly apex on Wednesday’s raid when Tortuguita allegedly injured a police officer and was subsequently killed by other police officers nearby, Fox5Atlanta reported. Currently, there is no available first-hand account or body cam footage of the event, leaving the exact sequence of events largely unverified. According to NPR, the public response to this tragic turn has sparked anti-police demonstrations, with masked activists on Saturday initially gathering peacefully to remember Tortuguita, but soon throwing rocks and fireworks at buildings linked to the Atlanta Police Foundation, shattering windows and lighting a police cruiser on fire. Three businesses sustained damage in the protests, ABC News said.

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp was quoted in an ABC article saying “those who break the law with no regard for those harmed by their actions will face justice, and I am grateful for these arrests.” However, according to ABC News, the protesters say “what is taking place is a classic example of tyrannical government overreach” and they believe “the public [had] a right to defend its interests.” As Malloy said, “as long as Georgia has a governor like Brian Kemp, the government will always be hostile against progressive agendas.” In Malloy’s view, this leaves activists with few options to demand change in a way that is seen as responsible.

Mount Holyoke Associate Professor of Environmental Studies Olivia Aguilar has provided some of her thoughts on the role of climate activism and whether or not there can be a ‘wrong’ way to go about it. “I think arguing about a binary of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ forms of activism about very complicated issues can be tricky and potentially misleading,” Aguilar said. While Aguilar emphasized that “climate activism takes many forms,” she also brought up the fact that “there is a lot of activism that doesn’t receive as much attention” and went on to say that “protests, strikes, corporate disruption, sit-ins, lawsuits and civil disobedience” — the tactics used in Atlanta — are some of the more dramatic tactics that activists use. 

Malloy took a similar viewpoint, positing that climate activism is often “a cry for help towards an issue that feels utterly hopeless on an individual level.” In facing such desperate global situations as the climate crisis, Malloy points out that “people are forced to watch and grow fearful and angry as their futures are decided by … governments and corporations that never put the best interests of humanity first.” Therefore, they say that “extreme methods of climate activism are seen to some as the only option because the media will only take notice of fiascos that will garner attention and views.” Thus, Malloy suggests “if the ‘wrong’ way to some is the only option left and might lead to change, it’ll have to be the new ‘right’ way.”

When describing a future where the measures the forest defenders had to take to be heard are no longer necessary, Aguilar stressed that “environmental activism has been going on for centuries, but it is often politicians and influential corporations that impede progress on environmental action.” Aguilar believes that “environmental action has to affect policies and the pocketbooks of big Oil and Gas to be effective.” In her opinion, the best that citizens can do “is to work hard at having a government that is not hostile or unresponsive to our agendas” by taking their grievances to the ballot box. If this can be achieved, then Aguilar believes “questions about violence,” which enshroud the tragic cases of activists like Tortuguita, “won’t be necessary.”

Gretha Thunberg arrested during protest of a German coal mine

Greta Thunberg. Image courtesy of the Wikimedia Commons (Stefan Muller).

By Diksha Batra ’26

Staff Writer

Over the last month, Greta Thunberg has been arrested twice for protesting the expansion of a coal mine in the German village of Lützerath, according to CNN. Most recently, she was arrested on Tuesday, Jan. 17. A spokesperson for the German police told CNN that “Thunberg had been the main speaker at the rally on Saturday and had ‘surprisingly’ returned to protest on Sunday when she was detained the first time and then again on Tuesday.”

Greta Thunberg is a 20-year-old environmental activist from Stockholm, Sweden. After learning about the issue of climate change in 2011 at age eight, “Thunberg successfully urged her parents to change their lifestyle to lower the family’s carbon footprint, such as adopting veganism and ending plane travel,” according to an article from Iowa State University. Thunberg started her career in late 2018 when she “demonstrated outside the Swedish parliament and began giving speeches to protest inaction against climate change,” the article said. Thunberg inspired students worldwide to protest in their communities, leading to the development of “a school climate strike movement called Fridays for Future,” which went on to include multi-city protests in which more than one million students participated. 

According to Context news, Thunberg’s work led to her being nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019. In the same year, she was named “one of the world’s most influential people by Time magazine.” According to Context, Thunberg responded with a tweet that read “Now I am speaking to the whole world.” 

Her work has awarded her with many honors, including titles and money. However, Thunberg donates all money she wins from prizes to different organizations. According to Context news, Thunberg donated “a $100,000 award she received to UNICEF to buy soap, masks and gloves to protect children from the coronavirus pandemic” in April 2020. In July 2020, she donated the $1 million in prize money from the Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity to charity. Additionally, she has donated about $120,000 to the WHO foundation to support the vaccine-sharing plan, Context reported.  

Her work towards fighting for environmentalist causes has continued, most recently with her protest of the Lützerath coal mine. According to CBS news, Thunberg was first detained by the German police on Jan. 13, 2023. CBS reported that “Thunberg was near the German village of Lützerath, where an energy company is seeking to demolish the remains of what they say is an abandoned town to make way for the mine’s expansion.” Video recorded by Reuters shows police officers picking Thunberg up and carrying her by her arms and legs away from the sit-in.  

According to CNN, many activists have been in Lützerath for more than two years, “occupying the homes abandoned by former residents after they were evicted, most by 2017, to make way for the lignite coal mine.” Lützerath has been the center of attention for climate activists because of “its position on the edge of the opencast lignite coal mine, Garzweiler II.” This has faced criticism from climate groups, because “lignite is the most polluting type of coal, which itself is the most polluting fossil fuel” according to CNN. Because of the expansion of the mines, many surrounding villages have been destroyed. 

CNN reported that due to the success of Germany’s Green Party in the 2021 federal elections, “some had hoped the expansion would be canceled,” but the expansion continued its course. In October 2022, the government came to an agreement with RWE, the power company behind the mine, that “saved several villages,” but Lützerath was not protected by the deal. In addition, RWE agreed to phase-out coal energy production starting in 2030.

The deal with RWE became a cause for dissatisfaction with the Green Party. The Party, which supported the deal, stated that the mine expansion was necessary to relieve the current energy crisis in Germany, and denied that expansion of the mine would lead to higher emissions. In an interview with CNN, a recent Green Party supporter commented that “it’s such an absurd and catastrophic scenario that Germany, the country where everyone else thinks we have green [policies], is destroying a village to burn coal in the middle of the climate crisis.” 

While protesting, Thunberg “was one of several who ‘rushed towards the ledge,’ presumably referring to the brink of mine” according to CBS. The police stopped Thunberg and other protesters, carrying them “out of the immediate danger area to establish their identity,” a police spokesperson told Reuters. In the video recorded by Reuters, Thunberg can be seen laughing while still being held by police. CBS reported that Thunberg confirmed the detainment the next day. She wrote on Twitter, “Yesterday I was part of a group that peacefully protested the expansion of a coal mine in Germany. We were kettled by police and then detained but were let go later that evening. Climate protection is not a crime.”