Decades after the Ogini 9 were executed for opposing Shell's operations, Nigeria continues to grapple with the environmental and political fall out of oil extraction. With Shell shutting down onshore activities in 2023, they leave behind poisoned water, various political and economic crises, and a country that is measurably worse off than when its oil industry began. Meanwhile, the government continues to target environmental activists.

 

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Last year, headlines all over the world proclaimed victory for the environment: finally, after more than a decade of promises, there would be no more drilling in Yasuní National Park, a large swath of the Ecuadorian Amazon. But as Macy Lipkin reports, all wasn't what it seemed.

 

 

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Check out the limited-run series Hazard NYC from The City, all about how climate change intersects with Superfund sites in New York City. Start with episode one here.

 

 

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Sociologist Dana R. Fisher draws on years of research in her new book, Saving Ourselves, to explore what makes climate protests effective, what a protest "working" even means, where the climate movement is likely to go next, and where it needs to go to achieve real climate action.

 

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Rhiana Gunn-Wright was one of the architects of the Green New Deal, and today works as the climate policy director for the Roosevelt Institute. In this episode we get into the nuances of the IRA, how to handle climate being a "culture war" issue, what's going on with anti-renewables, and what the climate movement loses when it turns its back on justice issues and particularly when it turns its back on the Black community.

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The United States' governments definition of "ecoterrorism" has long fueled backlash against environmental activists. Investigative reporter and Drilled senior editor Alleen Brown uncovers how the Department of Homeland Security warned Atlanta officials about the threat posed by "Defend the Atlanta Forest" for months before police raided the forest, ultimately killing one protestor, and charging dozens more with domestic terrorism and racketeering.

 

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Michel Forst became the United Nations' first Special Rapporteur on Environmental Defenders in 2022, monitoring the increasingly onerous laws and aggressive tactics being used against climate protestors. France reporter Anna Pujol-Massini talks to Forst about his position, his urgent warnings about climate activism in the United Kingdom, and what power he has to do something about the crackdown on climate protest.

 

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A decade after United Kingdom courts made history with the first "climate necessity" ruling in history, the UK government has passed new laws that not only restrict what protesters can do, but also how protesters are allowed to defend themselves in court. In some courtrooms, the climate necessity defense has been effectively outlawed. How did that happen, how did it happen so quickly, and what does it mean for the future of climate activism in the UK?

 

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While protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline at the Standing Rock Sioux Indian Reservation drew international attention, the southern end of the pipeline saw a quieter, but no less intense crackdown. Cops moonlighted as pipeline security while suppressing free speech and the right to protest. Reporter Karen Savage shares what happened at Bayou Bridge, and what lessons we can take away from the climate movement for anyone who values democracy.

 

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The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers closes the comment period on its draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Dakota Access Pipeline, a 1,172-mile pipeline that’s been pumping 500,000 barrels of oil per day since May 2017.

The pipeline runs from the Bakken oil fields in North Dakota to southern Illinois, crossing the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. Over the past six years, every court in the country has ruled that the Army Corps of Engineers did not study the pipeline’s environmental impact closely enough before approving the pipeline’s route. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe has maintained all along that the project poses a serious threat to its drinking water. From April 2016 to February 2017 thousands of water protectors from all over the country joined them in protests and direct actions. The resistance at Standing Rock is often cited by the fossil fuel industry, police, and politicians as the reason states need new anti-protest laws, while the backlash to that resistance is often cited by water protectors as the reason for PTSD, asthma, and in some cases lost eyes and limbs.

Now, the Army Corps of Engineers says that removing the pipeline would be too damaging to the Missouri River and its surrounding ecosystems. The removal actions it describes in its EIS are the same actions taken to install the pipeline in the first place. The Army Corps suggests that removing the pipeline would be more environmentally harmful than allowing the oil to continue pumping under one of Standing Rock's primary drinking water sources. Nonetheless, this report—seven years late—represents one of the few pathways left to stop the pipeline.

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe is advocating to seal the pipeline off, while some water protectors are advocating for the pipeline to be removed entirely. The public comment period closes Dec 13, 2023.

 

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