Issues

Moving Beyond Coal

Coal-generated power is one of the largest sources of global warming gasses in the United States. But it's not just emissions from coal-fired plants that pose a problem; coal creates cradle-to-grave environmental impacts—from mountaintop removal mining to toxic ash waste.

In Appalachia, whole communities and ecosystems are destroyed when coal is extracted by blowing up mountaintops and burying the streams below in rubble. Put through power plants, the coal then transforms into CO2, the most common contributor of global warming gasses, and many other pollutants such as mercury and arsenic.

Earthjustice is re-shaping this model through state and federal legal action. In 2007, we stopped five coal mines and have blunted the national expansion of coal-fired power generation. And there's more to come in 2008!

 Learn more about coal

Increasing Energy Conservation and Efficiency

One of the best ways to address global warming is by raising energy conservation and efficiency standards at the national level.

Solutions to global warming need to spur a green energy revolution by investing in energy-saving and renewable energy technologies that will create hundreds of thousands of green jobs in the U.S.

Earthjustice supports wind, solar, geothermal (in appropriate locations), and more efficient use of local energy.

We also fully back green design, weatherization, and building modernization to reduce the amount of energy needed across the economy.

And we practice what we preach: Earthjustice's Oakland, CA headquarters was awarded a Silver Leaf from the U.S. Green Building Council.

 Learn more about energy efficiency

Creating Enforceable Federal Limits on Greenhouse Gasses

Earthjustice works at the federal level to ensure that strong, enforceable rules regulate carbon emissions and other activities that contribute to global warming.

Because no national laws currently exist to regulate such emissions, Earthjustice played a major role in a suit to force the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate CO2 from motor vehicles—a case that went all the way to the Supreme Court. The high court's landmark decision directed the agency to get to work. We are now pushing EPA and other agencies to create the regulations needed to achieve an 80 percent reduction in greenhouse gases by 2050.

 Learn more about our national global warming work

Paving the Way for Renewable Energy

Earthjustice is achieving some of its greatest victories over the causes of global warming at the state and regional levels, where low standards and lax enforcement have allowed polluting industries to flourish. 

Our efforts are helping states:

• crack down on polluting energy sources
• increase efficiency standards
• create robust markets for green energy

 Learn more about our state global warming work

Protecting Species At Risk

Global warming is already wreaking havoc with nature.

Scientists tell us that global warming and its impacts on wildlife and habitat will become a leading cause of species extinction over the next several decades, and that hundreds of species such as polar bears and sea turtles—along with coral reefs and other native habitats—are already being threatened today.

 Learn more about global warming and wildlife

Defending Communities, Wildlife and Wilderness

The Arctic is warming at nearly twice the rate of the rest of the planet, according to the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment. And, according to this four-year scientific study, increasing greenhouse gasses are projected to make the Arctic warmer still.

Earthjustice is committed to defending affected arctic communities, wildlife, and habitat from the effects of global warming and from the damaging activities that cause global warming.

 Learn more about how global warming is affecting the Arctic