The Goodnewspaper The 2025 Environment Edition

THE FUTURE IS STILL IN OUR HANDS. We invite you to color in the front cover, based on your vision of a brighter climate future. As someone who has a lot of anxiety about a lot of things, I know that the fear surrounding climate change is some of the most visceral. I feel it in my body in a way that feels even more primal and acute than other things that trigger my nervous system. My skin sweats when it’s extraordinarily hot outside. My nose can smell smoke in the air during wildfire season. My stiff joints know it’s time for winter to come to a close already, darn it! But despite the immense discomfort these things bring me, I also know that they are my body’s way of…

Aptly-named, The Climate Museum brands itself as “a museum for everyone wondering: ‘What can I do about climate change?’” Founded in 2015, the nonprofit museum works to inspire action through arts and cultural programming, reaching over 100,000 people in the past decade. Following a number of pop-up locations and shows, it will now have a permanent three-story home in Manhattan, set to open in 2029. “This permanent, year-round space will make our signature, interactive arts and cultural programming more accessible to more people,” Miranda Massie, founder and director of The Climate Museum, said in a press release. “Ultimately, this means more climate dialogue and action — moving us closer to a safe and just future.” In the meantime, the museum’s free programming will continue in pop-ups and an interim location…

Starting in 2026, a new state law in Illinois will require every public high school to include instruction on climate change and the impacts and causes of climate change, one of five states with such mandates. The law was written by two area students, alongside state Rep. Janet Yang Rohr. “The legislation makes sure that people know that it’s happening, how it’s happened and, most importantly, what they can do to make a change,” Yang Rohr told NBC Chicago. The law’s journey began when Iris Shadis-Greengas, a senior at Naperville Central High School submitted a proposal to Yang Rohr as part of a capstone course. Then, her state representative decided to sponsor it. “I was really happy,” Shadis-Greengas told NBC. “A bill that was written by a high schooler, I…

Climate change is a threat for us all, but its impact disproportionately affects non-white populations. Racial inequalities stem from generations of injustice and colonization and continute to harm BIPOC communities today. Climate justice is a movement that seeks to rectify those inequities, with the goals of reducing unequal harms of climate change, producing equitable benefits from climate solutions, and including affected communities in decisionmaking processes. Unfortunately, most people who are concerned about climate change remain unfamiliar with climate justice goals. But there is hope in turning the tide. In a study by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, published in early 2025, only about onethird of Americans had heard about climate justice. But after reading a description of climate justice goals, many more Americans said they support climate justice…

GOOD Know what’s going on in your area! The National Center for Science Education tracks climate change education bills across the country. Check out its interactive map at ncse.ngo/catalyzing-action/action-news BETTER Donate to Climate Generation, a network of youth, educators, and activists making it easier for teachers to teach about climate change through training, toolkits, and policy. climategen.org BEST Let your state officials know you support climate change education by calling them or testifying in legislative committee hearings for a particular bill. Visit myreps.datamade.us to find your local representatives.…

In September of 2024, the city of Linhares, Brazil granted legal rights to the waves at the mouth of the Doce River, which runs into the country’s Atlantic coast, giving the area the “intrinsic right to existence, regeneration, and restoration,” according to Hakai Magazine. This means that the waves should continue to form naturally and the water must be clean. The move comes after the 2015 collapse of the Fundão dam, which resulted in gallons of waste from an iron mine being poured into the Doce River. The sludge built up at the mouth of the waterway, weakening its waves. Restoration only began in 2022 after a flood cleared the buildup. The law will require Linhares to protect the physical shape of the river, as well as the ecological cycles…