Moms Make News is a biweekly digest of Moms and EcoMadres media hits that inspire, educate, and drive action.
The American Lung Association released their annual “State of the Air” report last week, finding that nearly half of children across the U.S. live in communities with unhealthy levels of air pollution. Moms across the country expressed their concern over these findings and frustration with the federal government’s lack of action.
Tell Congress: Hold Zeldin Accountable for Corrupting EPA’s Mission
Nevada Field Organizer Mary Wagner’s (pictured) son is one of over 2 million asthmatic children living in areas that received a failing grade for at least one pollutant. “As a citizen, I just feel like [the government] has turned their backs on us,” Mary tells Inside Climate News. Liz Hurtado, Senior Manager for Field Engagement and Partnerships, echoes Mary’s disappointment, explaining to Inside Climate News that she shouldn’t have to check her air quality app before allowing her children to play outside.
In the Washington Informer, National Manager for Health Justice Almeta Cooper says that this pollution is not equally dispersed, as communities with Black, Latino, and under-resourced residents are disproportionately burdened. Liz notes in Forbes that Latino families are twice as likely to be hospitalized due to asthma and face higher rates of diabetes and heart diseases.
In other news
- In TheKeystone, Pennsylvania Field Organizer Vanessa Lynch expresses concern that environmental and health implications of data centers aren’t taken into consideration as these energy-guzzling, fossil fuel-powered facilities rapidly expand.
- The Associated Press highlights Georgia Field Organizer Kiya Stanford’s testimony at a recent EPA public hearing about the proposal to exempt “advanced recycling” plastic incinerators from Clean Air Act protections. Kiya says this proposal “feels like a move to prioritize polluters over people.”
- Inside Climate News reports that a so-called “advanced recycling” plastic-burning facility that has already violated four Ohio EPA regulations is seeking to open another location in Arizona. Ohio Field Organizer Amanda Rowoldt is concerned—she captured a video of billowing black smoke coming out of the Ohio facility that prompted the state EPA to investigate it last year.
- Amanda details the emotionally and physically nauseating feeling of watching that smoke pour of the Ohio facility in an op-ed published in La Prensa.
- EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin called the repeal of the Endangerment Finding, the legal underpinning of his agency’s ability to regulate climate pollution, a “day to celebrate vindication” in a speech to a room of climate deniers, while Moms and 160 other advocacy groups continue to call for his removal from office. Read more in reporting by Common Dreams.
Honorable mentions
Over the last few weeks, Moms earned mentions in Canary Media, Urban Milwaukee, and WUNC News.
Tell Congress: Hold Zeldin Accountable for Corrupting EPA’s Mission