West Virginia Black Bear

WEST VIRGINIA GREEN AMENDMENT

Environmental Values and Threats

Learn about the impacts of a changing climate on your state at the States At Risk website. This website focuses on the major impacts of extreme heat, drought, wildfires, coastal flooding and inland flooding for each U.S. state.

Climate policy across the United States is failing to address the problem — learn about the hurdles, efforts, and analysis of some pathways for moving forward: Climate Policy Conflict in the U.S. published in Climatic Change

Analysis of the Public Health Impacts of the Regional Greenhouse Gas
Initiative
. (An analysis considering air quality and associated health and other benefits).
by Act Global

Nurdles: the worst toxic waste you’ve probably never heard of. (Billions of these tiny plastic pellets are floating in the ocean, causing as much damage as oil spills, yet they are still not classified as hazardous.)
by The Guardian

17% of People Live Near Toxic Release Facilities – here’s how it breaks down by state.
by Stacker

Death from Fossil Fuel Emissions Higher than Previously Thought, Fossil Fuel Air Pollution Responsible for 8 Million People Worldwide in 2018.
by Harvard School of Engineering.

Inequitable Exposure to Air Pollution from Vehicles in New York State
by Union of Concerned Scientists

Tribal Communities At Risk: The Disproportionate Impacts of Oil & Gas Air Pollution On Tribal Air Quality
by: Clean Air Task Force

The Health Impacts Of Air Pollution From Oil & Gas Facilities On African American Communities.
by NAACP & Clean Air Task Force

The Value of a Clean and Healthy Delaware River
by Delaware Riverkeeper Network

Fracking by the Numbers The Damage to Our Water, Land and Climate from a Decade of Dirty Drilling
by: Environment America Research & Policy Center

New Mexico Oil & Gas Waste Report: The failure to safely manage oil and gas waste
by: Earthworks

Fracking’s Deadly Toll
by: Harvard Magazine

Healthy environments are a tremendous economic driver for communities and states. For example:

–> According to the Hawaii Tourism Authority, tourism is the single largest source of private capital for Hawaii’s economy.  On average, visitors to Hawaii spend over $48 million a day, generating nearly $18 billion a year.  These investments in Hawaii businesses and sites generate over $2 billion a year in state tax revenue. And of course, all of this investment and tourism supports good paying jobs throughout our Hawaiian Islands.

Our overuse of plastics is getting into babies:

–> Great concern as study finds microplastics in human placentas
by: Mongaby

–> Microplastics found in breast milk for the first time.
by Global Times

Pollution by Per and Polyfluoroalkly chemicals (PFAS, PFOS) is harming human health, and the viability of multiple farms:

–> Maine: Second Farm Shuttered due to Massive PFAS Contamination
by: Institute for Agriculture & Trade Policy

–> New Mexico: Groundwater Contamination Devastates A New Mexico Dairy and Public Health
by: NM Political Report