News
Black Residents Want This Company Gone. Will Alabama’s Environmental Agency Approve a New Permit?
In the historic Africatown community, residents say an asphalt plant has turned life on Chin Street into a living hell for 25 years. When the state’s Department of Environmental Management held a hearing in February to consider a permit renewal, they saw an opportunity.
By Patrick Darrington
MOBILE, Ala.—Walter Moorer likes to say he lives at 411 “Death Row Street.” At least that is what he compares his living conditions to as he is bombarded with the stench, pollution, noise and dust that emanates from an asphalt plant owned by Hosea Weaver and Sons Inc.
Related Knowledge Center: Climate economics
State of Play
Climate change is now a driver of the world’s economy. The impact is profound:
- Catastrophic weather events — hurricanes, floods, droughts, high temperatures — are more frequent and more extreme. The cost can be measured in both the initial damage caused and the longer-term impact on the economy.
- Vulnerable communities are increasing climate-related investments, hardening infrastructure and taking other protective measures.
- Investment in carbon capture and storage technologies is increasingly rapidly.
- Governments are making investments and crafting regulations to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
On top of all of this is the cost of uncertainty. As the Fourth National Climate Assessment, released in 2018 by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, says, “The assumption that current and future climate conditions will resemble the recent past is no longer valid.”