Must-read recap: The latest news affecting the planet and your health

For your Monday morning news reading, check out some of our recent stories:

Fighting upstream? Tribe battles Seattle over dams

Check out our latest story, published the morning, on a fight between a Washington state tribe and the city of Seattle over the “rights of nature” – with the tribe claiming that hydroelectric dams built decades ago are harming salmon populations.

Our article previews arguments that the Sauk-Suiattle Indian Tribe plans to present in a Tuesday hearing.

From the story: “The dams at issue, the tribe says, are threatening the viability of the salmon species and steelhead trout that spawn in the upper reaches of the Skagit River, a 150-mile waterway draining a watershed in the Cascade Mountains.

“The tribe alleges that Seattle violated tribal property rights granted in an 1855 treaty ‘by unilaterally constructing dams without official notice,’ along the waterway.”

“In its civil complaint, the tribe asks the court to declare that the fish in question possess “inherent rights to exist, flourish, regenerate, and evolve,” including rights to “pure water,” the right to a healthy climate system, and a natural environment free from human-caused global warming impacts. . . .” The salmon have lost spawning and rearing habitat due to the dams, the complaint alleges.”

Potential solutions for the plastics problem

“One word . . . plastics” is a memorable line from the movie The Graduate but it’s also an important word when discussing ways to improve our planet’s health.

Plastic production causes a host of growing environmental problems, driving up the use of fossil fuels for the manufacturing process and resulting in pollution of air, water, waste and other harms, such as wildlife getting injured or killed by discarded plastics.

The greenhouse gas emissions associated with producing plastic can be significant, and make it harder to fight the climate crisis. But what’s to be done about it?

Project Earth’s Tony Guo and Julian Picard try to answer that question in their latest guest column, arguing for a mix of incentives and mandates to drive down emissions.

They write, “While we have a long way to go, we’re making progress. We need to excite entrepreneurial spirits to develop new technologies, encourage manufacturers to adopt sustainable packaging solutions, and convince policymakers to enact further policies that support the green transition. Combined, we have a possible way out of our plastic problem.”

Formula failures blamed on a fragmented FDA

“America’s infant formula shortage has raised urgent questions about the safety of our food supply. Many Americans believe America has the safest food supply in the world. But the tragic failure to address contaminated infant formula as well as a hard hitting investigation about the failures at FDA’s food safety division has revealed dangerous holes in our food safety net.”

That’s the takeaway from a guest column by EWG’s Scott Faber, senior vice president for government affairs. He delves into Trump administration efforts to dismantle important food safety law reforms, and other setbacks that have fragmented the FDA.

The end result? A weakened agency that he says is not performing enough food production facility inspections or taking other key steps to protect the supply chain – and the baby formula situation is one just one example of a broader problem.

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