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What can you do with a degree in degrowth?

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Wednesday, June 12, 2024

Hey there, fam. Today’s spotlight story is a collaboration with The Green Fix, a Europe-focused climate newsletter managed by Cass Hebron. Cass and I have been following each other’s work for a while now, and we teamed up to bring you this story about the world’s first master’s program in degrowth. The spotlight In 2018, one of Spain’s top-ranked universities, which trains its graduates for careers in everything from neuroscience and biomedicine to government and economics, launched a first-of-its-kind master’s program in a more nascent and explicitly nontraditional field: a degree in degrowth. Degrowth is a movement that calls for intentionally scaling down overdeveloped economies, like those in the U.S. and Europe, focusing instead on citizens’ well-being, ecological sustainability, and providing for basic needs without extracting every last resource. The idea has been gaining momentum, particularly in Europe where it originated, and its proponents argue it offers the best path to a lifestyle that is compatible with addressing climate change — one that respects the planet’s limits and avoids unnecessary emissions by simply producing and consuming less. The master’s program and a separate online master’s in degrowth that was started in 2021 have now seen hundreds of graduates. But what does it mean to train people for a career in disrupting the whole idea of careers? And what happens when graduates of a program designed to reimagine the system have to find their place within that system? Big questions, but ever since we at Looking Forward and The Green Fix first learned about this unique degree program, we’ve been wanting to find out what it’s really like to study degrowth — and what happens afterward. A meetup of degrowth master’s students, from both the in-person and online programs, in June 2022 in Can Masdeu, an occupied social center in Barcelona. Jana Kenkel The university is called the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, or Autonomous University of Barcelona, which is a way of saying a university not controlled by the government. And the degree is technically in political ecology, degrowth, and environmental justice. In other words, studying sustainable alternatives to the modern economic system. One of the masterminds behind the program is Giorgos Kallis, a prominent researcher and advocate in the field of degrowth. Kallis, an academic with a warm and approachable air, describes his research as “un-disciplinary,” in the sense that it has spanned many topics, from droughts and water policies to ecological economics. It was his work on water management that led him to question the paradigm of continuous and necessary growth. He became a professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona in 2010 and, along with colleagues at the Research & Degrowth association, launched a summer school program in degrowth. “There were many people who would come for the summer school and they would say, ‘We wish there was also a full master’s,’” Kallis said. At the same time, there were plenty of researchers in the field who were eager to teach. Students at the master’s program in Barcelona take theoretical classes in degrowth, environmental justice, and alternative economics and governance structures, and also receive practical training in skills like group facilitation, how to run a social justice campaign, and how to set up a cooperative. All backgrounds are welcomed, but the program tends to attract radically minded students — “at least in terms of the need for transformation in order to confront climate change,” Kallis said. Around two-thirds of the students who attend the in-person program are from Europe. The online program, which is solely focused on theory, tends to reach a more diverse mix. Kallis and his colleagues also designed the in-person program specifically to prepare students for the job market. It offers career development with three main paths in mind: policy and advocacy work; work in the social and cooperative economy; and research. “I mean, we don’t mind someone working in the private sector and bringing these ideas wherever they want,” he said. But it tends not to attract the kind of person who’s interested in climbing the corporate ladder, so to speak. A class on group facilitation techniques in October 2022, with students from the in-person master’s program. Jana Kenkel France-based graduate Adélaide Cadioux had been jumping between jobs for years before enrolling in the Barcelona program. “I was feeling very dissatisfied with the way that companies were working. My values were seemingly constantly misaligning with people’s needs for profit.” She found the program by pure chance while searching on the university website, and described it as a moment of revelation. “I was like, ‘I need to quit my job and do that master’s.’” There, she said, “I found people who understand what it feels like to constantly feel like you don’t fit in and your values are not represented in whatever job you’re going for.” Many of the students there shared her desire to find an alternative to traditional capitalist ways of working. “There’s also a form of radical acceptance,” she said. “It’s normal that you feel like this. Let’s work together on something else.” Valerie Costa, a recent graduate from the U.S., was feeling burned out after working in the nonprofit and social good sectors for around two decades. “I wasn’t even really actively wanting to be a grad student,” she said, “but I was like, ‘Oh, wow. I could take a year and really think about everything I’ve been working on, but in a deeper way.’” Recent Belgian graduate Emilie de Bassompierre had already encountered the concept of degrowth in their previous studies and was looking for a way to put it into practice. “I had teachers who were very keen on studying critiques of capitalism,” they said. “My studies helped me gain an understanding of not only how that system came to be from a historical perspective, but also, if we want alternatives, what are the elements of the system that we have to think of dismantling?” Post-graduation, de Bassompierre is facing down the reality of balancing their values with their need to pay the rent — and how to make use of having the privilege of being able to prioritize their values for at least a while; a privilege many other students share. “It’s already been a few years that I’m aware that whatever I want to do, it’s not going to be something that brings me a lot of money,” de Bassompierre said. Following graduation, they are pursuing an internship in climate justice at a European nongovernmental organization. After that, they are considering a future in either advocacy or academia. But the most important thing, they said, is that they can pursue a life that makes them happy — and they don’t anticipate working full time forever. “Before, I was always looking at what I ‘should’ do or what was the ethical, moral thing to do. But that can lead you to burning out. I think it’s possible to deconstruct the idea that we have to define ourselves through our work,” de Bassompierre said. “I want to have free time for activism and independent projects.” Cadioux and Costa are also weighing how degrowth fits into their future plans. Cadioux is still searching for a job. “If something comes along the lines of what I want … I [would] find ways to amp up my activism or give back to the community, where it just feels like a sort of equal relationship between what you take from capitalism and what you give back to your community,” she said. For Costa, incorporating degrowth principles and advocacy into her work has been challenging in other ways. After graduating, she returned to the U.S., where the concept is still fairly novel. “I’m not gonna walk down the street with a degrowth flag,” she said. She added that, from a policy perspective, the U.S. lacks the kind of social safety net that is a prerequisite to effective and equitable degrowth. “I’m not going to campaign for austerity,” she said. “What I do want is more livable communities for people. I want people to be more connected with each other. I want better services and supports in place, better housing.” After completing the program, her activism has remained focused on resistance, with an element of community-building as well. She co-founded a Seattle-based network called Troublemakers that weaves those two things together. “For me, the degrowth program really illuminated the absolute critical importance of community and connection,” she said. While he believes that this specialized training in degrowth and political ecology is valuable, and was previously missing from the academic landscape, Giorgos Kallis also recognizes that studying degrowth may be something of a hard sell when job hunting. “Would the ministry contract someone who has studied how to degrow the economy, when no one wants to degrow it?” he said. Still, at least two alumni of the master’s program have gone on to be assistants to members of the European Parliament, Kallis noted. Others have organized an annual festival that brings together LGBTQ+ rights with elements of degrowth. And others are working as activists, teachers, nonprofit leaders, and more. Kallis believes that there is value in studying the principles of degrowth whether or not students go on to find their lifelong path in bringing it to fruition. “I want to think that increasingly there will be demand for out-of-the-box thinking,” he said. “And I also want to think that, degrowth or not degrowth, our students are getting good training in fundamental theories, models, ecological economics, political ecology. So even if they don’t work on degrowth per se — but they work on some other framework or transition or climate mitigation — they have the skills to be critical and good thinkers.” For Angela Huston, who, like many other graduates of the online program, is mid-career and less willing than some of the in-person students to spend several years just pondering how to change the system, this was exactly the point. Huston had been working in public services and international development in Italy for 10 years before doing the virtual master’s. She said she valued how the program forced her to question the cultural expectations to make money and be financially comfortable. “I was super-radical hardcore in my university days,” she said. “And then, I think over time, I started to conform more with the world. And that’s part of the reason I’ve gone back to degrowth. We need more of this radical thinking that’s not trying to align with and appease current systems.” Given the urgency of the climate crisis and how challenging it is to change the current economic system in the timeframe needed, Huston said she is open to working with for-profit companies, where she can influence their climate-transition strategies from inside and mitigate their climate impacts. Applications for the seventh cohort of the Barcelona program are now open. The program was restructured this year, based on feedback from students and faculty, to include things like a stronger focus on activism skills and more intersectional frameworks, such as feminism and decolonization. The coordinators of both the online and in-person degrees are currently focused on making them more accessible to people from different backgrounds, especially those from outside Europe and the U.S. They are also working to more actively steward the network of alumni, and are looking toward an alumni conference next year. And as for the graduates who are still trying to figure out what their degrowth studies mean for their path out in the current working world? “I don’t think that it’s because we studied degrowth that now we’re lost,” de Bassompierre said. “It’s more the opposite: figuring out how to work toward the world we want to see.” — Cass Hebron and Claire Elise Thompson More exposure Read: about the types of changes Gen Z students are demanding of business schools — including a greater focus on how to address climate change (Financial Times) Listen: to a podcast interview with degrowth scholar and UAB professor Jason Hickel (Upstream) Read: a Q&A with Kohei Saito, a Marxist scholar whose book on degrowth became a bestseller in Japan (Grist) Subscribe: to The Green Fix, a European climate newsletter and our publishing partner on today’s story A parting shot While Valerie Costa noted that she wouldn’t necessarily march down a street in the U.S. with a degrowth sign, that sight is much more commonplace in Europe. Here’s a photo from a Fridays for Future protest just last month in Munich ahead of the European elections. IMAGE CREDITS Vision: Grist Spotlight: Jana Kenkel Parting shot: picture alliance / Getty Images This story was originally published by Grist with the headline What can you do with a degree in degrowth? on Jun 12, 2024.

Barcelona offers the world's first master's program in degrowth. Graduates share their experiences bringing those values into the job market.

Illustration of snail wearing graduation cap

Hey there, fam. Today’s spotlight story is a collaboration with The Green Fix, a Europe-focused climate newsletter managed by Cass Hebron. Cass and I have been following each other’s work for a while now, and we teamed up to bring you this story about the world’s first master’s program in degrowth.

The spotlight

In 2018, one of Spain’s top-ranked universities, which trains its graduates for careers in everything from neuroscience and biomedicine to government and economics, launched a first-of-its-kind master’s program in a more nascent and explicitly nontraditional field: a degree in degrowth.

Degrowth is a movement that calls for intentionally scaling down overdeveloped economies, like those in the U.S. and Europe, focusing instead on citizens’ well-being, ecological sustainability, and providing for basic needs without extracting every last resource. The idea has been gaining momentum, particularly in Europe where it originated, and its proponents argue it offers the best path to a lifestyle that is compatible with addressing climate change — one that respects the planet’s limits and avoids unnecessary emissions by simply producing and consuming less.

The master’s program and a separate online master’s in degrowth that was started in 2021 have now seen hundreds of graduates. But what does it mean to train people for a career in disrupting the whole idea of careers? And what happens when graduates of a program designed to reimagine the system have to find their place within that system?

Big questions, but ever since we at Looking Forward and The Green Fix first learned about this unique degree program, we’ve been wanting to find out what it’s really like to study degrowth — and what happens afterward.

. . .

A smiling group of people sits on a large brick stage in an outdoor setting.

A meetup of degrowth master’s students, from both the in-person and online programs, in June 2022 in Can Masdeu, an occupied social center in Barcelona. Jana Kenkel

The university is called the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, or Autonomous University of Barcelona, which is a way of saying a university not controlled by the government. And the degree is technically in political ecology, degrowth, and environmental justice. In other words, studying sustainable alternatives to the modern economic system.

One of the masterminds behind the program is Giorgos Kallis, a prominent researcher and advocate in the field of degrowth. Kallis, an academic with a warm and approachable air, describes his research as “un-disciplinary,” in the sense that it has spanned many topics, from droughts and water policies to ecological economics. It was his work on water management that led him to question the paradigm of continuous and necessary growth.

He became a professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona in 2010 and, along with colleagues at the Research & Degrowth association, launched a summer school program in degrowth. “There were many people who would come for the summer school and they would say, ‘We wish there was also a full master’s,’” Kallis said. At the same time, there were plenty of researchers in the field who were eager to teach.

Students at the master’s program in Barcelona take theoretical classes in degrowth, environmental justice, and alternative economics and governance structures, and also receive practical training in skills like group facilitation, how to run a social justice campaign, and how to set up a cooperative. All backgrounds are welcomed, but the program tends to attract radically minded students — “at least in terms of the need for transformation in order to confront climate change,” Kallis said. Around two-thirds of the students who attend the in-person program are from Europe. The online program, which is solely focused on theory, tends to reach a more diverse mix.

Kallis and his colleagues also designed the in-person program specifically to prepare students for the job market. It offers career development with three main paths in mind: policy and advocacy work; work in the social and cooperative economy; and research.

“I mean, we don’t mind someone working in the private sector and bringing these ideas wherever they want,” he said. But it tends not to attract the kind of person who’s interested in climbing the corporate ladder, so to speak.

. . .

A small group of people sits in a grassy field in a circle, talking.

A class on group facilitation techniques in October 2022, with students from the in-person master’s program. Jana Kenkel

France-based graduate Adélaide Cadioux had been jumping between jobs for years before enrolling in the Barcelona program. “I was feeling very dissatisfied with the way that companies were working. My values were seemingly constantly misaligning with people’s needs for profit.” She found the program by pure chance while searching on the university website, and described it as a moment of revelation. “I was like, ‘I need to quit my job and do that master’s.’”

There, she said, “I found people who understand what it feels like to constantly feel like you don’t fit in and your values are not represented in whatever job you’re going for.” Many of the students there shared her desire to find an alternative to traditional capitalist ways of working. “There’s also a form of radical acceptance,” she said. “It’s normal that you feel like this. Let’s work together on something else.”

Valerie Costa, a recent graduate from the U.S., was feeling burned out after working in the nonprofit and social good sectors for around two decades. “I wasn’t even really actively wanting to be a grad student,” she said, “but I was like, ‘Oh, wow. I could take a year and really think about everything I’ve been working on, but in a deeper way.’”

Recent Belgian graduate Emilie de Bassompierre had already encountered the concept of degrowth in their previous studies and was looking for a way to put it into practice. “I had teachers who were very keen on studying critiques of capitalism,” they said. “My studies helped me gain an understanding of not only how that system came to be from a historical perspective, but also, if we want alternatives, what are the elements of the system that we have to think of dismantling?”

Post-graduation, de Bassompierre is facing down the reality of balancing their values with their need to pay the rent — and how to make use of having the privilege of being able to prioritize their values for at least a while; a privilege many other students share. “It’s already been a few years that I’m aware that whatever I want to do, it’s not going to be something that brings me a lot of money,” de Bassompierre said. Following graduation, they are pursuing an internship in climate justice at a European nongovernmental organization. After that, they are considering a future in either advocacy or academia. But the most important thing, they said, is that they can pursue a life that makes them happy — and they don’t anticipate working full time forever.

“Before, I was always looking at what I ‘should’ do or what was the ethical, moral thing to do. But that can lead you to burning out. I think it’s possible to deconstruct the idea that we have to define ourselves through our work,” de Bassompierre said. “I want to have free time for activism and independent projects.”

Cadioux and Costa are also weighing how degrowth fits into their future plans. Cadioux is still searching for a job. “If something comes along the lines of what I want … I [would] find ways to amp up my activism or give back to the community, where it just feels like a sort of equal relationship between what you take from capitalism and what you give back to your community,” she said.

For Costa, incorporating degrowth principles and advocacy into her work has been challenging in other ways. After graduating, she returned to the U.S., where the concept is still fairly novel. “I’m not gonna walk down the street with a degrowth flag,” she said. She added that, from a policy perspective, the U.S. lacks the kind of social safety net that is a prerequisite to effective and equitable degrowth. “I’m not going to campaign for austerity,” she said. “What I do want is more livable communities for people. I want people to be more connected with each other. I want better services and supports in place, better housing.”

After completing the program, her activism has remained focused on resistance, with an element of community-building as well. She co-founded a Seattle-based network called Troublemakers that weaves those two things together. “For me, the degrowth program really illuminated the absolute critical importance of community and connection,” she said.

. . .

While he believes that this specialized training in degrowth and political ecology is valuable, and was previously missing from the academic landscape, Giorgos Kallis also recognizes that studying degrowth may be something of a hard sell when job hunting. “Would the ministry contract someone who has studied how to degrow the economy, when no one wants to degrow it?” he said.

Still, at least two alumni of the master’s program have gone on to be assistants to members of the European Parliament, Kallis noted. Others have organized an annual festival that brings together LGBTQ+ rights with elements of degrowth. And others are working as activists, teachers, nonprofit leaders, and more.

Kallis believes that there is value in studying the principles of degrowth whether or not students go on to find their lifelong path in bringing it to fruition. “I want to think that increasingly there will be demand for out-of-the-box thinking,” he said. “And I also want to think that, degrowth or not degrowth, our students are getting good training in fundamental theories, models, ecological economics, political ecology. So even if they don’t work on degrowth per se — but they work on some other framework or transition or climate mitigation — they have the skills to be critical and good thinkers.”

For Angela Huston, who, like many other graduates of the online program, is mid-career and less willing than some of the in-person students to spend several years just pondering how to change the system, this was exactly the point.

Huston had been working in public services and international development in Italy for 10 years before doing the virtual master’s. She said she valued how the program forced her to question the cultural expectations to make money and be financially comfortable. “I was super-radical hardcore in my university days,” she said. “And then, I think over time, I started to conform more with the world. And that’s part of the reason I’ve gone back to degrowth. We need more of this radical thinking that’s not trying to align with and appease current systems.”

Given the urgency of the climate crisis and how challenging it is to change the current economic system in the timeframe needed, Huston said she is open to working with for-profit companies, where she can influence their climate-transition strategies from inside and mitigate their climate impacts.

. . .

Applications for the seventh cohort of the Barcelona program are now open. The program was restructured this year, based on feedback from students and faculty, to include things like a stronger focus on activism skills and more intersectional frameworks, such as feminism and decolonization.

The coordinators of both the online and in-person degrees are currently focused on making them more accessible to people from different backgrounds, especially those from outside Europe and the U.S. They are also working to more actively steward the network of alumni, and are looking toward an alumni conference next year.

And as for the graduates who are still trying to figure out what their degrowth studies mean for their path out in the current working world? “I don’t think that it’s because we studied degrowth that now we’re lost,” de Bassompierre said. “It’s more the opposite: figuring out how to work toward the world we want to see.”

— Cass Hebron and Claire Elise Thompson

More exposure

A parting shot

While Valerie Costa noted that she wouldn’t necessarily march down a street in the U.S. with a degrowth sign, that sight is much more commonplace in Europe. Here’s a photo from a Fridays for Future protest just last month in Munich ahead of the European elections.

A man holds up a sign reading DEGROWTH amidst a crowd of protesters.

IMAGE CREDITS

Vision: Grist

Spotlight: Jana Kenkel

Parting shot: picture alliance / Getty Images

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline What can you do with a degree in degrowth? on Jun 12, 2024.

Read the full story here.
Photos courtesy of

Lynx on the Loose in Scotland Highlight Debate Over Reintroducing Species Into the Wild

Scottish environmental activists want to reintroduce the lynx into the forests of the Highlands

LONDON (AP) — Scottish environmental activists want to reintroduce the lynx into the forests of the Highlands. But not this way.At least two lynx, a medium-sized wildcat extinct in Scotland for hundreds of years, were spotted in the Highlands on Wednesday, raising concerns that a private breeder had illegally released the predators into the wild.Two cats were captured on Thursday, but authorities are continuing their search after two others were seen early Friday near Killiehuntly in the Cairngorms National Park. Wildlife authorities are setting traps in the area so they can humanely capture the lynx and take them to the Edinburgh Zoo, where the captured cats are already in quarantine, said David Field, chief executive of the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland.The hunt highlights a campaign by some activists to reintroduce lynx to help control the deer population and symbolize Scotland’s commitment to wildlife diversity. While no one knows who released the cats, wildlife experts speculate that it was either someone who took matters into their own hands because they were frustrated by the slow process of securing government approval for the project, or an opponent who wants to create problems that will block the reintroduction effort.“Scotland has a history of illicit guerrilla releases,” said Darragh Hare, a research fellow at the University of Oxford’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, citing releases of beavers and pine martins. But doing it right, in a way that everyone can have their say, is important.“If there’s going to be any lynx introduction into Scotland or elsewhere, the process of doing it the right way, even if it takes longer, is the most important thing,” he added.Lynx disappeared from Scotland between 500 and 1,300 years ago possibly because of hunting and loss of their woodland habitat.Efforts to reintroduce the cats to the wild have been underway since at least 2021 when a group calling itself Lynx to Scotland commissioned a study of public attitudes toward the proposal. The group is still working to secure government approval for a trial reintroduction in a defined area with a limited number of lynx.Lynx are “shy and elusive woodland hunters” that pose no threat to humans, the group says. They have been successfully reintroduced in other European countries, including Germany, France and Switzerland.Supporters of the reintroduction on Thursday issued a statement deploring the premature, illegal release of the cats.“The Lynx to Scotland Project is working to secure the return of lynx to the Scottish Highlands, but irresponsible and illegal releases such as this are entirely counterproductive,” said Peter Cairns, executive director of SCOTLAND: The Big Picture, a group of rewilding advocates that is part of the project.The issues surrounding the potential reintroduction of lynx were on display during a Scottish Parliament debate on the issue that took place in 2023.While advocates highlighted the benefits of reducing a deer population that is damaging Scotland’s forests, opponents focused on the potential threat to sheep and ground-nesting birds.“Lynx have been away from this country for 500 years, and now is just not the time to bring them back,” said Edward Mountain, a lawmaker from the opposition Conservative Party who represents the Highlands.Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Photos You Should See - Sept. 2024

Will Biden Pardon Steven Donziger, Who Faced Retaliation for Suing Chevron over Oil Spill in Amazon?

Massachusetts Congressmember Jim McGovern calls on President Biden to pardon environmental activist Steven Donziger, who has been targeted for years by oil and gas giant Chevron. Donziger sued Chevron on behalf of farmers and Indigenous peoples who suffered the adverse health effects of oil drilling in the Ecuadorian Amazon. “I visited Ecuador. I saw what Chevron did. It is disgusting” and “grotesque,” says McGovern. “Donziger stood up for these people who had no voice.” In return, Chevron has spent millions prosecuting him instead of holding itself to account, he adds, while a pardon from the president would show that the system can still “stand up to corporate greed and excesses.”

Massachusetts Congressmember Jim McGovern calls on President Biden to pardon environmental activist Steven Donziger, who has been targeted for years by oil and gas giant Chevron. Donziger sued Chevron on behalf of farmers and Indigenous peoples who suffered the adverse health effects of oil drilling in the Ecuadorian Amazon. “I visited Ecuador. I saw what Chevron did. It is disgusting” and “grotesque,” says McGovern. “Donziger stood up for these people who had no voice.” In return, Chevron has spent millions prosecuting him instead of holding itself to account, he adds, while a pardon from the president would show that the system can still “stand up to corporate greed and excesses.”

Exxon sues California AG, environmental groups for disparaging its recycling initiatives

ExxonMobil on Monday sued California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) and a group of environmental activist groups, alleging they colluded on a campaign of defamation against the oil giant’s plastic recycling initiative. The lawsuit, filed in the Eastern District of Texas, could signal a new legal strategy for the fossil fuel industry against environmentalists and...

ExxonMobil on Monday sued California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) and a group of environmental activist groups, alleging they colluded on a campaign of defamation against the oil giant’s plastic recycling initiative. The lawsuit, filed in the Eastern District of Texas, could signal a new legal strategy for the fossil fuel industry against environmentalists and their allies in government. It argues Bonta defamed Exxon when he sued the company last September by alleging it engaged in a decades-long “campaign of deception” around the recyclability of single-use plastics. Bonta’s lawsuit accused Exxon of falsely promoting the idea that all plastics were recyclable. A report issued by the Center for Climate Integrity last February indicates only a small fraction of plastics can be meaningfully recycled in the sense of being turned into entirely new products. ExxonMobil claimed Bonta’s language in the lawsuit, as well as subsequent comments in interviews, hurt its business. “While posing under the banner of environmentalism, [the defendants] do damage to genuine recycling programs and to meaningful innovation,” the lawsuit states. The complaint also names four national and California-based environmental groups, the Sierra Club, San Francisco Baykeeper, Heal the Bay and the Surfrider Foundation, who sued the company at the same time as Bonta’s office. It accuses Bonta’s office of recruiting the organizations to file the suit. The lawsuit is another salvo in the company’s aggressive recent approach to critics after it sued activist investor group Arjuna Capital in 2024 over its plans to submit a proposal on Exxon greenhouse gas emissions. A Texas judge dismissed the lawsuit in June after Arjuna agreed not to submit the proposal. “This is another attempt from ExxonMobil to deflect attention from its own unlawful deception,” a spokesperson for Bonta’s office said in a statement to The Hill. “The Attorney General is proud to advance his lawsuit against ExxonMobil and looks forward to vigorously litigating this case in court.” The Hill has reached out to the other defendants for comment.

Texas shrimper's legal victory spurs $50 million revival of fishing community

A historic $50 million Clean Water Act settlement led by Diane Wilson is revitalizing the Texas Gulf Coast, funding a fishing cooperative, oyster farm and environmental restoration efforts.Dylan Baddour reports for Inside Climate News.In short:Diane Wilson’s 2019 settlement against Formosa Plastics has funded $50 million in projects, including a $20 million fishing cooperative and environmental programs.The Matagorda Bay Fishing Cooperative is forming sustainable oyster farms and plans to purchase local seafood operations to empower fishermen.The settlement also mandated Formosa to halt plastic pellet discharges, resulting in penalties contributing over $24 million to Wilson's trust fund.Key quote:“They cannot believe I would do this for the bay and the fishermen. It’s my home and I completely refuse to give it to that company to ruin.”— Diane Wilson, environmental advocate and shrimperWhy this matters:The settlement has created economic opportunities and strengthened environmental safeguards, potentially setting a precedent for communities impacted by industrial pollution. Restoring livelihoods while reducing plastic pollution showcases how citizen-led activism can challenge corporate power.

A historic $50 million Clean Water Act settlement led by Diane Wilson is revitalizing the Texas Gulf Coast, funding a fishing cooperative, oyster farm and environmental restoration efforts.Dylan Baddour reports for Inside Climate News.In short:Diane Wilson’s 2019 settlement against Formosa Plastics has funded $50 million in projects, including a $20 million fishing cooperative and environmental programs.The Matagorda Bay Fishing Cooperative is forming sustainable oyster farms and plans to purchase local seafood operations to empower fishermen.The settlement also mandated Formosa to halt plastic pellet discharges, resulting in penalties contributing over $24 million to Wilson's trust fund.Key quote:“They cannot believe I would do this for the bay and the fishermen. It’s my home and I completely refuse to give it to that company to ruin.”— Diane Wilson, environmental advocate and shrimperWhy this matters:The settlement has created economic opportunities and strengthened environmental safeguards, potentially setting a precedent for communities impacted by industrial pollution. Restoring livelihoods while reducing plastic pollution showcases how citizen-led activism can challenge corporate power.

Rare, teeny tiny snail could be at risk from huge lithium mine under construction just south of Oregon

Environmentalists and Native American activists are demanding that the U.S. Interior Department address what they say is new evidence that bolsters their concerns about Lithium Americas’ planned open pit mine at Thacker Pass.

RENO — Opponents of the nation’s largest lithium mine under construction want U.S. officials to investigate whether the Nevada project already has caused a drop in groundwater levels that could lead to extinction of a tiny snail being considered for endangered species protection.Environmentalists and Native American activists are demanding that the U.S. Interior Department address what they say is new evidence that bolsters their concerns about Lithium Americas’ planned open pit mine at Thacker Pass. The footprint of mine operations will span about 9 square miles.The fate of the snail takes center stage after a federal judge and an appeals court dismissed a previous attempt by Native American tribes to get federal agencies to recognize the sacred nature of the area. The tribes argued that the mine would infringe on lands where U.S. troops massacred dozens of their ancestors in 1865.Now, Western Watersheds Project and the group known as People of Red Mountain argue in a notice of intent to sue that the government and Canada-based Lithium Americas are failing to live up to promises to adequately monitor groundwater impacts.They say it’s alarming that an analysis of groundwater data from a nearby well that was conducted by Payton Gardner, an assistant professor of hydrogeology at the University of Montana, shows a drop in the water table of nearly 5 feet since 2018. Nevada regulators say they have no information so far that would confirm declining levels but have vowed to monitor the situation during the mine’s lifespan.No water, no snailNot much bigger than a grain of rice, the Kings River pyrg has managed to survive in 13 isolated springs within the basin surrounding the mine site. It’s the only place in the world where the snail lives.In some cases, the tiny creatures require only a few centimeters of water. But the margin for survival becomes more narrow if the groundwater system that feeds the springs begins to drop, said Paul Ruprecht, Nevada Director for Western Watersheds Project.“Even slight disruptions to its habitat could cause springs to run dry, driving it to extinction,” he said.Western Watersheds Project and the other opponents say the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is violating the Endangered Species Act by failing to rule in a timely fashion on a 2022 petition to list the snail as threatened or endangered. The allegations outlined in the opponents’ notice follow requests for federal biologists to investigate whether groundwater drawdowns are being caused by exploratory drilling and other activities and whether there have been impacts to the springs.Without protection, Ruprecht fears the snail “will become another casualty of the lithium boom.”The Fish and Wildlife Service is conducting a review of the snail’s status, but the agency declined to comment on the requests for an investigation into the groundwater concerns.Poised to lead in lithium productionEfforts to mine gold and other minerals in Nevada and other parts of the West over the decades have spurred plenty of legal skirmishes over potential threats to wildlife and water supplies. Lithium is no exception, as demand for the metal critical to making batteries for electric vehicles is expected to continue to climb exponentially over the next decade.President Joe Biden made increased production of electric vehicles central to his energy agenda, and the U.S. Energy Department last year agreed to loan Lithium Americas more than $2 billion to help finance construction at Thacker Pass. On Dec. 23, Lithium Americas announced it had concluded a joint venture with General Motors Holdings LLC to develop and operate the mine.The mine about 30 miles south of the Oregon-Nevada border is the biggest in the works and closest to fruition in the U.S., followed by Ioneer’s Rhyolite Ridge project near the California line halfway between Reno and Las Vegas.And the Bureau of Land Management announced in late December that it was seeking comments on another proposed project in northeastern Nevada. Surge Battery Metals USA wants to explore for lithium in Elko County.Monitoring groundwaterRuprecht said reports filed by Lithium Americas’ environmental consultant with state regulators show the company no longer has permission to access private lands where several monitoring wells are located. That makes it harder to tell if flows have been impacted by past drilling, he said.Nevada regulators say they approved changes in 2024 to the monitoring plan to account for the loss of access to wells on private land.Prior data showed groundwater levels had remained stable from the 1960s to 2018. Construction started at the site in 2023.The Bureau of Land Management’s approval of the mine acknowledged some reduction in groundwater levels were possible but not for decades, and most likely would occur only if state regulators granted the company permission to dig below the water table.Lithium Americas spokesman Tim Crowley said it appears the mine’s opponents are “working to re-spin issues that have previously been addressed and resolved in court.” He pointed to 10 years of data collection by the company indicating the snail would not be affected by the project.-- The Associated Press

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