Cuyahoga River

A little eco-nostalgia

The Cuyahoga River's latest burn, and other revivals suggest a new cottage eco-industry.

Last Thursday, Ohio's Cuyahoga River staged a small re-enactment of its historic moment.


In June, 1969, the filthy industrial river caught fire and burned for 24 minutes. Lost in the spectacular headlines was the fact that historians count at least 12 similar Cuyahoga riparian fires dating back to the 19th Century. This year's blaze brought us to at least to lucky number 13. It started not by direct dumping from Akron's tire factories or Cleveland's mills and refineries, since they've mostly moved offshore, but from a tipped fuel tanker truck whose contents reached the river via storm sewers.

But let's give it some nostalgia value just the same. A diligent cleanup effort by government, activists, industry and others has really cleaned up the flammable river in recent decades. Last year, the Environmental Protection Agency even relaxed bans on consuming fish from the river. And then, another fire.

With the burning river as the centerpiece in our museum of environmental relics, let's look at five more deadly serious, contentious issues that won't go away.

Arctic National Wildlife Refuge 

Babies born in the year oil drilling was first proposed for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) are now seven years' short of eligibility for AARP.

Since 1977, the tussle over drilling in the ecologically sensitive Arctic coastal plain has sucked up countless hours of lawyers, lobbyists, legislators and more. The Trump Administration has pushed mightily to bring ANWR drilling back to life, in spite of reduced demand, tumbling oil prices and climate concerns.

Yucca Mountain nuke waste

A year after the ANWR scrum began, geologists began assessing the suitability of Yucca Mountain, a desert peak 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, as a national repository for nuclear waste. By 1987, Yucca was one of three lucky finalists, along with the Texas Panhandle and the High Desert of Washington State. But neither House Speaker Jim Wright (D-TX) nor House Majority Leader Tom Foley (D-WA) wanted to bring home the radioactive bacon, so Yucca Mountain reluctantly won the honors.

But years of more studies, assessments, lawsuits and delays slowed construction. The Obama Administration wrote Yucca out of its budgets. The site never opened, largely due to the political clout of the new Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid (D-NV). In 2018, Republicans passed legislation to renew the whole process. Meanwhile, spent nuclear fuel is corralled in "temporary" storage at nuke power plants and elsewhere.

Love Canal

In 1978, the working-class Love Canal neighborhood in Niagara Falls, NY, became a symbol of the worst excesses of toxic waste dumpers. By 1980, Congress passed the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act—better known as Superfund. Lauded for its good intentions, Superfund quickly became a legal sinkhole, with cleanups sometimes stretching out for decades.

Today, Love Canals are scattered from coast to coast, and new ones waiting to be discovered, or created. And the backlog of these toxic cleanups continues to grow.

Toxics and hogs in NC

In 1982, residents of majority-black Warren County, North Carolina, deployed some of the most effective tactics of the Civil Rights movement to thwart a proposal for a dump for carcinogenic polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Thus did the Civil Rights Movement beget the Environmental Justice Movement. Warren County was one of many big victories for the movement, but to this day, poisoned drinking water, smoky incinerators, and massive petrochemical plants tend to be found in inner cities and poor rural communities, and not in Beverly Hills.

About 100 miles away from Warren County, the 1980's and 1990's saw explosive growth in factory farming of hogs. Residents often made peace with the widespread stench and endemic pollution from sprawling hog waste lagoons. The Raleigh News & Observer won a 1996 Pulitzer for a multi-part exposé, "Boss Hog," which blew the roof off the raw political power and rampant pollution that marks an industry that's changed in precious few ways in the quarter century since. One change: The North Carolina hogs raised today are as much as 20 percent larger than hogs from the 1990's.

These are only a few points of environmental conflicts—decades old and persisting. There are scores more, without even mentioning the overarching threat of climate change, or the pandemic.

The info we provide here isn't always jolly or uplifting, but it's real.

Banner photo: Firefighters battle a fire on Ohio's Cuyahoga River in 1952. (Credit: Cleveland Press Collection at Cleveland State University Library)

a row of flags in front of a building.
Credit: Mmoka/Unsplash

World climate talks resume without U.S. as global negotiators assess new path forward

The United States skipped a major round of United Nations climate negotiations in Bonn, Germany this week, leaving other nations and U.S. civil society groups to navigate the talks without the world's largest fossil fuel producer at the table.

Bob Berwyn reports for Inside Climate News.

Keep reading...Show less
Smoke billows from an industrial chimney at sunset near several homes.

Judge rules EPA overstepped in cutting pollution grants

A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from canceling $600 million in environmental justice grants aimed at helping underserved communities reduce pollution.

Rachel Frazin reports forThe Hill.

In short:

  • The grants stem from the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which set aside $3 billion for environmental justice programs.
  • The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under President Biden had planned to distribute the $600 million through regional groups, which would fund local efforts, before the Trump EPA terminated the grants earlier this year.
  • Judge Adam Abelson ruled the EPA's cancellation exceeded its authority “precisely because they are ‘environmental justice’ programs."

Key quote:
The move included a “lack of any reasoned decision-making, or reasoned explanation.”

— Judge Adam Abelson, U.S. District Court

Why this matters:
Underserved communities often face the greatest environmental health risks and climate impacts. These grants were designed to help local groups respond to long-standing environmental harms and health risks, and canceling them would have cut off vital support just as cleanup efforts were beginning to gain traction. The Trump administration has also attempted to cancel a similar $20 billion program that would fund climate-friendly projects.

coffee mug near open folder with tax withholding paper.

Senate Republicans move to cut clean energy tax credits despite bipartisan benefits

Congressional Republicans are advancing a tax plan that would slash incentives for clean energy and electric vehicles, drawing criticism from advocates and some GOP members whose districts benefit from green investments.

Alexa St. John reports for The Associated Press.

Keep reading...Show less
A stream running through green forested hills.

Brazil moves to auction vast oil blocks despite climate and Indigenous concerns

Brazil is set to auction off oil and gas exploration rights in a massive offshore and Amazon region sale, prompting backlash from Indigenous groups and environmental advocates just months before it hosts the Cop30 climate summit.

Constance Malleret reports for The Guardian.

Keep reading...Show less
An image showing a downpour with a caution sign.

New research links stalled jet stream to rising summer weather extremes

The number of extreme summer weather events driven by trapped atmospheric waves has tripled since 1950 due to climate change, new research shows.

Seth Borenstein reports for The Associated Press.

Keep reading...Show less
Farm machinery helping harvest turnips.

How agribusiness lobbying boosts corporate control over food and climate policy

Industrial agriculture companies spent hundreds of millions lobbying Congress ahead of the stalled farm bill debate, further distancing everyday Americans from decisions shaping the nation’s food systems and climate future.

Brian Calvert reports for Civil Eats.

Keep reading...Show less
Steel mill under a cloudy sky.
Credit: Michi/Pixabay

Steelmaker retreats from clean energy plans as hydrogen costs and politics shift

Cleveland-Cliffs is scaling back plans to build the nation's first green steel plant in Ohio, pivoting away from hydrogen and back to fossil fuels as federal incentives face repeal and political winds change in Washington.

Alexander C. Kaufman reports for Canary Media.

Keep reading...Show less
From our Newsroom
Multiple Houston-area oil and gas facilities that have violated pollution laws are seeking permit renewals

Multiple Houston-area oil and gas facilities that have violated pollution laws are seeking permit renewals

One facility has emitted cancer-causing chemicals into waterways at levels up to 520% higher than legal limits.

Regulators are underestimating health impacts from air pollution: Study

Regulators are underestimating health impacts from air pollution: Study

"The reality is, we are not exposed to one chemical at a time.”

Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro speaks with the state flag and American flag behind him.

Two years into his term, has Gov. Shapiro kept his promises to regulate Pennsylvania’s fracking industry?

A new report assesses the administration’s progress and makes new recommendations

silhouette of people holding hands by a lake at sunset

An open letter from EPA staff to the American public

“We cannot stand by and allow this to happen. We need to hold this administration accountable.”

wildfire retardants being sprayed by plane

New evidence links heavy metal pollution with wildfire retardants

“The chemical black box” that blankets wildfire-impacted areas is increasingly under scrutiny.

Stay informed: sign up for The Daily Climate newsletter
Top news on climate impacts, solutions, politics, drivers. Delivered to your inbox week days.