Nichelle Nichols Star Trek

Peter Dykstra: 2022's distinguished deaths

Two "dismal scientists," a denier, a world-class spiller and a pioneering hellraiser headline the year’s passages.

Let's look back at people we lost in 2022 who left their mark on the planet (for better or worse).


Joe Hazelwood

Until one night in March 1989, Joe Hazelwood was at the pinnacle of his profession, bringing in the big bucks as a supertanker skipper.

After a night of what the captain later admitted was heavy drinking, he retired to his cabin, leaving a third mate to skipper the 986-foot Exxon Valdez out of port and on its way to an 11 million gallon disaster. Hazelwood died in July.

Hazel Henderson and Herman Daly

Economics is called the “dismal science,” and the environmental field often yields dismal news. This year we lost the only two economists brilliant enough to marry the dismal science to the dismal news and have it make sense.

Hazel Henderson died in May. She popularized the phrase “think globally, act locally,” and advocated redefining a strong economy as embracing good health and quality of life, and not just a healthy bank balance and stock portfolio.

Herman Daly developed the Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare (ISEW) with fellow economist John Cobb. It’s meant to challenge the standard of Gross Domestic Product, the rather coldhearted means of measuring wealth by dollars only. Health, happiness and ethics be damned. Daly died in October.

​Pat Michaels

climate change denier

Patrick Michaels speaking at the 2016 FreedomFest at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas, Nevada. Credit: Gage Skidmore/flickr

Pat Michaels is arguably the most ironic Nobel Peace Prize laureate ever. He shared the 2007 prize with Al Gore and 1,500 other scientists of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change despite his status as the go-to scientist for climate change deniers.

Garrulous and always available, Michaels bristled at the term “denier,” but he filled the role nicely for groups like the Western Fuels Association, a coal industry trade group. He died in July.

​Dave Foreman

Disillusioned by his job as a lobbyist for the Wilderness Society and inspired by novelist Edward Abbey’s The Monkey Wrench Gang, DaveForeman and Mike Roselle founded Earth First! in 1980. They were the consummate eco-hellraisers, rolling a huge plastic “crack” down the face of the Glen Canyon Dam. In later years, he founded The Rewilding Institute to advocate for turning developed land back to nature. Foreman died in September.

Mike Davis

October saw the passing of author Mike Davis, whose 1990 book Los Angeles, City of Quartztook L.A.’s growth from desert mission to megalopolis, and what it all means for the future.

Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira

In June, journalist Dom Phillips and Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira were murdered deep in the Amazon rainforest. Brazilian authorities arrested three men a month later.

Donald McEachin and Don Young

Senator Donald McEachin

Senator Donald McEachin (left). Credit: chesapeakeclimate/flickr

Two members of Congress who were respectively stalwarts for and against environmental regulation died in 2022.

A. Donald McEachin, (D-Va.) died in November shortly after winning his fourth term. An ardent environmentalist from the low-lying Hampton Roads area, McEachin scored 96% on the League of Conservation Voters scorecard in 2021.

Don Young, the gruff Alaskan, made 36% on LCV’s 2021 card. That’s positively angelic for a Republican. But he remained a fierce defender of the fossil fuel, mining and timber industries till his death in March.

Sheila O’Donnell

Sheila O’Donnell died in October after a long battle with cancer. As a hellraiser for various progressive causes, she became a licensed private investigator – a rarity in a field long dominated by men. “Dick-less Tracy,” as she was affectionately known by many colleagues, took on mostly pro bono cases for the anti-nuclear Clamshell Alliance, Greenpeace and the animal rights group PETA.

In 1995, she worked for Earth First! activists Judy Bari and Darrell Cherney, who were accused of blowing themselves up with a pipe bomb. The two eventually won a lawsuit against the Oakland, California, Police Department and the FBI.

O’Donnell also wrote “Common Sense Security,” a frequently-updated to-do list for activist groups who may be subject to surveillance or infiltration.

Gary Strieker 

My friend and CNN colleague Gary Strieker was a disenchanted banker in Nairobi whose epic mid-life epiphany found him learning how to shoot and edit video about the plundering of a beautiful continent. His work, and audience, went global on CNN for the better part of two decades.

Nichelle Nichols

The last, but not least, is the passing of a fictional character who won’t be born for another 200 years. Lt. Nyota Uhura, aka actress Nichelle Nichols, graced the bridge of the Starship Enterprise for the three-year run of the original Star Trek series. As the show ascended to cult status, Nichols became an evangelist and recruiter for science, space and NASA.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and at least five Space Shuttle astronauts credit Nichols with helping launch their careers. She died in July.

Peter Dykstra is our weekend editor and columnist and can be reached at pdykstra@ehn.org or @pdykstra.

His views do not necessarily represent those of Environmental Health News, The Daily Climate, or publisher Environmental Health Sciences.

Fracking billionaire aims to rewrite Constitution to advance far-right agenda

Fracking billionaire aims to rewrite Constitution to advance far-right agenda

Tim Dunn, a Texas pastor and fracking billionaire, is funding efforts to rewrite the U.S. Constitution to promote climate denial and conservative Christian values, surpassing the goals of Project 2025.

Geoff Dembicki reports for DeSmog.

Keep reading...Show less
Senator Whitehouse & climate change

Senator Whitehouse puts climate change on budget committee’s agenda

For more than a decade, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse gave daily warnings about the mounting threat of climate change. Now he has a powerful new perch.
Biodiversity in protected areas is shrinking faster than in unprotected regions

Biodiversity in protected areas is shrinking faster than in unprotected regions

A new study shows biodiversity is declining more rapidly within key protected areas than outside them, challenging the effectiveness of global conservation targets discussed at the UN's Cop16 summit in Colombia.

Phoebe Weston reports for The Guardian.

Keep reading...Show less
polar bear

Polar bears are increasingly exposed to diseases due to warming Arctic

As the Arctic warms rapidly, polar bears are encountering new pathogens, posing health risks to these animals and potentially altering the ecosystem.

Kasha Patel reports for The Washington Post.

Keep reading...Show less
Java stingaree declared extinct
Credit: Richard Ling/Flickr

Java stingaree declared extinct after 160 years out of sight

The Java stingaree has become the first marine fish declared extinct due to human activity, raising concerns about the future of vulnerable species in our oceans.

Chris Baraniuk reports for the BBC.

Keep reading...Show less
Cuba's slow solar energy expansion contributes to widespread blackouts

Cuba's slow solar energy expansion contributes to widespread blackouts

Cuba’s recent large-scale blackouts highlight the country’s failure to expand its solar power infrastructure, despite its commitments under the Paris Agreement and ongoing energy shortages.

Alexa St. John, Ingrid Lobet, and Andrea Rodriguez report for The Associated Press.

Keep reading...Show less
electric usage meter

Electricity bills expected to rise as renewable energy projects face delays

Residents of the Chesapeake Bay area may see electricity bills jump by as much as 24% due to delays in incorporating renewable energy sources into the regional power grid.

Ad Crable reports for Bay Journal.

Keep reading...Show less
home with storm shutters on windows

Americans share how they are retrofitting their homes to adapt to extreme weather

Facing increasingly severe weather, Americans are modifying their homes to cope with heat, wildfires and hurricanes, but many worry that personal efforts alone won’t solve the crisis.

Jem Bartholomew reports for The Guardian.

Keep reading...Show less
From our Newsroom
U.S. Steel Pennsylvania pollution

Coal-based steelmaking in Pennsylvania causes up to 92 premature deaths and $1.4 billion in health costs every year: Report

Just three facilities near Pittsburgh cost the state $16 million in lost economic activity annually, according to a new report.

COP16 UN biodiversity

Pollution is one of the top drivers of biodiversity loss. Why is no one talking about it at COP16?

“Chemicals are really at the center of this triple planetary crisis of pollution, biodiversity and climate change.”

COP16 UN biodiversity

La contaminación es una de las principales amenazas de la biodiversidad. ¿Por qué nadie habla de ella en la COP16?

“Las sustancias químicas están realmente en el centro de esta triple crisis planetaria de contaminación, biodiversidad y cambio climático”.

clean energy transition

Op-ed: Labor and environmental groups can both win in the clean energy transition. Here’s how.

Groups are choosing to repair broken lines of communication and visualize the transition for its true potential to mitigate climate change – the common enemy.

environmental defenders

‘Living under this constant threat’: Environmental defenders face a mounting mental health crisis

Environmental activists are struggling with paranoia, panic attacks, and depression. Now, a growing network of mental health shelters in South America hopes to fill a void in care.

fracking opposition

Opposing fracking cost one Colombian activist her mental health. She’s fighting to win it back.

"At some point, they will kill you and kill all of us," environmental leader Yuvelis Natalia Morales Blanco was told.

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