Category: News

DOE Welcomes New Biden-Harris Appointees Tony G. Reames was most recently a professor of environment and sustainability at the University of Michigan, where he established the Urban Energy Justice Lab to conduct research and develop solutions on the production and persistence of racial, income, and geographic disparities in energy access, affordability, decision making, and participation. Reames served as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and worked…

Continue reading “Tony Reames, Senior Advisor, Office of Economic Impact and Diversity”

Over the last decade, the United States has experienced continued growth in residential rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) adoption. However, solar adoption disparities have been shown across household income, homeownership status, and more recently racial and ethnic demographics. A key component to ensuring a just clean energy transition is understanding the existing landscape to establish realistic goals. Motivated by studies on solar adoption disparities, this descriptive study aims to evaluate the…

Continue reading “New Article: Exploring Residential Rooftop Solar Potential in the United States by Race and Ethnicity”

By JPB Fellow Jennifer D. Roberts “Riot Sweeps Chicago” should sound and feel intuitively familiar. However, this headline covered the front pages of a newspaper over a hundred years ago. Named the “Red Summer of 1919”, a spate of violence and bloodshed occurred from April to November 1919 with riots, lynchings, and mobs across the country. Hundreds of African American lives were claimed and hundreds more were left maimed and homeless. The most violent…

Continue reading “Pandemics and protests: America has experienced racism like this before”

Electronics keep getting cheaper and becoming obsolete faster. And of the world’s estimated 53.6 million tons of electronic waste in 2020, only 17.4 percent is appropriately recycled. But even proper e-recycling has its dangers, exposing workers to toxic metals such as lead and cadmium, as well as toxic chemicals—all of it usually ground into a fine powder that’s easy to melt down for new gadgets, but also easy to inhale…

Continue reading “E-Recycling Is a New Industry with Old Inequities”

Closing the disparities in access to nature is imperative for health and social justice. “Go outside and play!” Countless parents have said this to their kids in the hopes of finding a few quiet moments. But it turns out to be scientifically sound advice, too. A raft of research shows that being outdoors rewards us. A dose of nature can boost creativity, elicit experiences of awe that increase altruism, and improve mental health outcomes. According…

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Vulnerabilities in workers performing electronics recycling (e‐recycling) in the informal sector worldwide have been well documented. However, the growing e‐recycling industry in the formal sector still brings many challenges to protect the health of workers and their environment. This commentary aims to draw attention to the overlooked vulnerabilities faced by the workers of the e‐recycling industry formal sector in high‐income countries and discuss the potential impact on health inequalities experienced…

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The US electronics recycling industry has introduced a novel mobile electronic waste (e-waste) shredding truck service to address increasing needs for secure data destruction of e-waste. These trucks can shred small electronics with data security concerns at remote locations for a wide variety of clients. Shredding jobs usually involve hand-feeding electronic waste (e-waste) for 4–10 h day−1, 1–5 days. Shredding of e-waste has been documented as a source of high…

Continue reading “New Article: Metals and Particulates Exposure from a Mobile E-Waste Shredding Truck: A Pilot Study”

As the world grapples with the devastation of the coronavirus, one thing is clear: The United States simply wasn’t prepared. Despite repeated warnings from infectious disease experts over the years, we lacked essential beds, equipment, and medication; public health advice was confusing, and our leadership offered no clear direction while sidelining credible health professionals and institutions. Infectious disease experts agree that it’s only a matter of time before the next pandemic hits,…

Continue reading “How Trees Can Help Us Fight a Pandemic”

Texas Standard interviewed JPB Fellow Lara Cushing, associate professor of environmental health sciences at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, who co-led a study published in Environmental Health Perspectives that found the risk of premature births is 50% higher for mothers near natural gas flaring in Texas’ Eagle Ford Shale oil and gas region. In the mid 2010s, the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas was among the most productive…

Continue reading “Risk Of Preterm Births Significantly Greater Near Natural Gas Flaring Sites, Study Finds”