Asia's Climate Legal Playbook
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🍀 THE LATEST FROM THE XYLOM
Climate-Impacted Communities Across Asia Are Taking Their Fight To Court
Worsening climate impacts, corporate greenwashing, and slow government action have driven communities across Asia to the courts.
“That’s what I hope I can do, even though I’m just an ordinary person,” said Trixy Elle, a fish vendor in the Philippines and a litigant. “If one day my grandchildren ask me what I did for nature, at least I have an answer: I fought for your future.”
This story is copublished by Grist, a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to reporting on climate change. Read more here.
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Subscribe now🍑 A SOUTHERN FLAIR
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Prepared, not scared: Dedicated volunteers in Nashville relay calm, straight-talk info during storms (Travis Loller, The Associated Press)
“The millennials and Gen Z — and teaching college students, I know this all too well — their source of information is that handheld device,” says Kevin Trowbridge, who teaches strategic communication at Belmont University. “It’s not turning on a TV. And it’s not even looking at a traditional media outlet’s online presence. It’s finding sources that provide them quick information when they need it.”
KENTUCKY — Polio Made Mitch McConnell MAHA’s Enemy (Julia Metraux, Mother Jones)
Texas pediatrician and vaccine advocate Vincent Iannelli, who maintains a website tracking anti-vaccine propaganda, says voices like McConnell’s have been important in containing anti-vax sentiment. Trump, meanwhile, has questioned whether McConnell truly had polio—and various anti-vaxxers have done the same.
CUMBERLAND CITY, Tenn. — The nation’s biggest public utility just doubled down on coal, gas, and nuclear (Katie Myers, Grist)
“To hear that they just decided to continue burning coal indefinitely was kind of a slap in the face,” said katie Mummaw, a resident of Montgomery County, Tennessee and an organizer for the environmental nonprofit Appalachian Voices.
WYTHEVILLE, Va. — Almost $1 Billion Later, the US Still Can’t Make a Medical Glove (paywalled) (Anna Edney, Bloomberg)
Standing outside the factory, [Scott Maier, Blue Star’s chief executive officer] said he may need to sell the reactors and other equipment, likely to an NBR maker in China. “I don’t want to sell,” he said, “Seeing taxpayer dollars get sold off for bits and pieces, every bone in my body does not want to do that.”
🗺️ WHAT ELSE WE'RE READING
'Aramco is a supervillain': How the Saudis weaponized soccer (Sammy Roth, Climate Colored Goggles and The Contrarian)
“These oil states see football as a way to build their soft power, build international legitimacy,” said Peter Crisp, a campaigner with the European advocacy group Fossil Free Football.
BANGKOK — Activists escalate protests at Chinese Embassy in Bangkok over Myanmar mining runoff (DVB Staff)
Banners reading “Pollution has no borders, and responsibility shouldn’t either” were displayed alongside highly provocative placards reading “This is Thailand, not Tiananmen,” highlighting deep domestic concerns regarding transnational political pressure and environmental neglect.
HIV Is Alive on India and Nepal's Highways. Truck Drivers and Transgender Sex Workers Know It Best
(Yash Sadhak Shrivastava and Anita Bhetwal, NIMJN via Asian Dispatch)“It is not necessary that if we do a wrong deed, only then will the disease happen. An infection can also spread to a good person. The one who doesn’t do this deed, it spreads to them too. The one who does it, theirs spreads quickly. This thing doesn’t happen instantly. If someone violates something today, it shows after four to five years.”
SUKABUMI, Indonesia — The lucrative bird-singing contests that are pushing species to the brink (Sandy Ong, Knowable)
“The silent forest is really happening,” says Agung Nur Haq, who is in charge of conservation at the Wak Gatak Songbird Rescue and Rehabilitation Center near Pontianak, West Kalimantan.
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