Category Archives: Environment

Changing how electricity is generated is a crucial piece of solving the climate change puzzle. Current methods of electricity generation produce 40% of C02 emissions in the US, and on campus generation accounts for 68% of the UIUC carbon. In … Continue reading →

COAL. OUR JOURNEY TO MODERNITY started with it, the oldest of our industrial fuels. It feels like something we’ve left behind a long time ago— most of us have much more personal experience with the other fossil fuels like oil … Continue reading →

We have become a nation hopelessly addicted to dirty energy. Here in Urbana-Champaign at the University of Illinois we are no different. Despite recent talk of a possible wind turbine, our campus still has its own glaring link to dirty … Continue reading →

Recent closures of Autumn Glen and Gateway Studios brought a festering situation to Champaign-Urbana’s socio-economic surface. Former residents of these housing complexes, unexpectedly rendered homeless, learned of the dire circumstances which the existing homeless community has been facing. Champaign-Urbana lacks … Continue reading →

THE PROBLEM WITH THE SITE at 5th and Hill is clear: we need to get the site cleaned up. Until it is cleaned up, we have to let people know what that site is. We have young kids that live … Continue reading →

THE DOUGLASS PARK NEIGHBORHOOD is home to a toxic legacy. Beneath the vacant lot at 5th and Hill, the soil and groundwater have long been contaminated. Along with an abandoned pump house, this contamination is the last remaining sign that … Continue reading →

FOR PEOPLE LIVING IN THE DOUGLASS PARK neighborhood, the vacant lot at 5th and Hill has a distinctively toxic legacy. People with a connection to the neighborhood have long suspected that the site was a source of problems. As they … Continue reading →

TOXIC TOURS IN THE CHAMPAIGN community have placed a local focus on the site of the former coal to gas plant on the corner of 5th and Hill. Under this quiet grassy surface and beneath the white building with peeling … Continue reading →

Off-site Migration of the “Toxic Blob” To see the vacant lot at 5th and Hill streets today, you would never know that a coal-to-natural gas plant once stood on the site. You would never know that this plant once dumped … Continue reading →

Neighborhoods that are occupied by the poor and people of color face many challenges that remain hidden from public view. Lack of grocery stores in walking distance, the policing of Douglass Park, and the location of a former coal to … Continue reading →

 ,      or heard about the litany of problems associated with the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). Critics have usually noted some or all of the following in their lists of negative impacts: … Continue reading →

St. Louis is home to the giant agribusiness company, Monsanto, perhaps the most recognized name in the biotech industry. Far from being hostile to the biotech industry, the city and state governments ofMissouri seem eager to support it in every … Continue reading →

THE BIGGER PICTURE Community Supported Agriculture is a system in which consumers receive food directly from the farmers who produce it. But unlike a farmers market system, supporters of community agriculture actually share in part of the farmers’ risk. That … Continue reading →

“[O]n April 22, 1970, Earth Day was held, one of the most remarkable happenings in the history of democracy…” American Heritage Magazine, October 1993 Earth Day, April 22, 1970. A beautiful spring day. Twenty million Americans converge on a Wednesday, … Continue reading →

Since returning from Nicaragua I have closely followed the news from that region. The news has not been good. During the summer of 2000, I stayed with a family in Matagalpa who lived in a small wooden shack set in … Continue reading →